The Greek that is translated as “he put mud on my eyes” in English (leaving it open at what point in the past this was in reference to) in translated in Marubo as “(earlier today) he put mud on my eyes.”

The translation facilitator explains:

“Marubo has a ‘graded’ or ‘metrical’ tense system, where different verbal suffixes are used depending on when the event occurs relative to a certain reference point (usually the moment of utterance).

“So, for instance, if one wants to communicate that their relative went to the city, they could use several different forms:

• Today’s past (the going occurred sometime earlier today)
• Past 1 (yesterday to a few weeks ago)
• Past 2 (a few weeks ago to years ago)
• Past 3 (many many, years ago/childhood)
• Past 4 (pre-birth events)

“For this passage the marker for today’s past was used.”