The Hebrew that is translated as “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” or similar in English is translated in Waama as “Embrace me, touch your lips to mine.”
Siromatohou François Boco Tchoropa (in Anthropology Allspice 5.4, 2023) explains: “When translating this verse, translators need to think carefully about the target audience, so as not to offend them with the words they choose. One must translate according to the meaning but also take into account people’s realities.
“The first challenge is that there is no word for ‘kiss’ in Waama. You have to describe the action to express the idea: Baa o nɔɔkpanya n denya yini o yà mɔkiri (‘You touch your lips to mine, you suck them’). But expressing yourself in this way could be taken very badly by many Waaba people. It should be noted that talking about love among the Waaba is taboo. Declarations of love and gestures between husband and wife are hidden. The intimate parts of the body have coded names and are not referred to by their real names. We conducted a lot of research to translate this verse so as not to offend readers. We anthropological research to achieve this.
Finally, we translated it as follows: Wuke mmi o baasire o nɔɔkpanya n denya yini (‘Embrace me, touch your lips to mine’). We decided to keep the meaning in a way that allows the Waaba to understand without being offended. Then we put in a footnote explaining what it meant in Hebrew.”
See also kiss and put his arms around him and kissed him.
For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” into Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glorify (God’s name), glorify (reveal God’s or Jesus’ glory to people), glory (honor, raise, approval).)
“For the first group, the ‘glory, greatness, uniqueness of God or Jesus,’ we used a term meaning ‘greatness, bigness.’ In some contexts it seemed better to replace the simple noun by ‘the fact that God is great.’ So, ‘we saw his glory’ in John 1:14 is rendered as ‘we saw what his greatness is like.’
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
See also glorify God and glory (of God) (Japanese honorifics).
For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” into Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glorify (God’s name), glory (honor, raise, approval), glory (of God or Jesus).)
“One group relates to the Greek verb that means ‘to show, make known or reveal God’s glory to people.’ The word ‘glory’ here retains the same sense described in the first group. (See glory (of God or Jesus))
“[Here] we used the expressions ‘show (the Father’s) greatness,’ ’cause the people to recognize that God is great,” “make his greatness obvious, apparent.’
“John 14:13, for example, ‘that the Father may be glorified,’ is rendered as ‘so that I can show the people the greatness of my Father.’ On one occasion (John 17:10 ‘I am glorified in them’), we used ‘because of them people saw my greatness.’
- John 14:13 ‘Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified.’
- John 17:1 ‘Father, … glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee.’
“Other occurrences: John 11:4, 12:23, 13:31-32 (5), 15:8, 17:4-5 (2), 17:10.”
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
See also glorify God.
For the translation of the Greek in John 12:28 that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” into Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glory (honor, raise, approval), glorify (reveal God’s glory to people), glory (of God).)
For the term that is translated into English as “glorify your name” “we translated by ‘make God’s name big.’ Names in Waama are more than just labels. They represent the essence of the person. Thus, making somebody’s name big means acknowledging his importance.”
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
See also glorify God
For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” into Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also glory (honor, raise, approval), glorify (God’s name), glorify (reveal God’s glory to people), glory (of God).)
In the group that is translated into English as “being raised to glory,” “we used two similar terms. John 7:39 we rendered as ‘Jesus had not yet gone up to a high place.’ John 12:16 became “When Jesus returned to his Father and his greatness became obvious, they remembered…”
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
For the translation of the Greek that is translated into English as “glory” or “glorify” in Waama, five categories were found that were all translated differently. (See also raised to glory, glorify (God’s name), glorify (reveal God’s glory to people), glory (of God).)
For the occurrences where “‘glory’ can be replaced by ‘honor,’ ‘raise,’ or ‘approval,’ something that one can give to men or to God or receive from them. Thus in this context glory does not refer to the greatness and honorability itself but rather to the recognition or acknowledgement of such honorability. The honorability is already there (or is at least purported to be). In Waama we always had to express the idea by verbs like ‘praise,’ ‘appreciate’ (if man does it as opposed to God), and the expression “make somebody’s name big.”)
(Source: Kathrin Brückner in Notes on Translation 2/1988, p. 41-46).
See also glorify God.
The Greek that is translated in English as “brotherly love” (also: “mutual love” and others) is translated in Waama as “love each other as children of the same mother.” Like many languages, Waama has no generic term for “brother” and sister, just “older brother” or “younger brother.” At first, “love each other as children of the same father” seemed to fit but since the Waama live in a polygamous society, brothers of the same father with different mothers often don’t get along unlike maternal siblings. (Source: Kathrin Pope in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 54)
In the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) it is translated with geschwisterliche Liebe or “love between siblings.”
In Romans 12:10 the Protestant Mandarin Chinese Union Version and the Catholic Sigao version translate this with a historical Chinese idiom: huíxīn zhuǎnyì (相親相愛 / 相亲相爱) or “close and loving.” (Source: Toshikazu S. Foley in Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies, 2011, p. 45ff.)
See also love for one another / beloved and lovely.
The Hebrew that is translated as “mourning clothes” or similar in English is translated in Waama as kuu karooti niina, lit. “death-sit clothes.” In the first draft the French mort habit was translated literally as kuun niina or “death clothes,” which turned out to be the clothes that are worn by the dead person in the casket. (Source: Siromatohou François Boco Tchoropa in Anthropology Allspice 5.4, 2023)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about mourning clothes (source: Bible Lands 2012)
See also sackcloth.
