Following is a translation of the songs of Moses and Miriam from Exodus 15 into dance and a song presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style (mvét oyeng) by the group Nkuwalong as part of a project by Bethany and Andrew Case. (Note that you can activate English, French and Spanish subtitles.)
cover herself with veil
In a Fang oral adaptation the Hebrew that is translated in English as “(Tamar) put on a veil” is translated in a culturally specific way: “Staring eyes, staring eyes, have you seen for me an antelope pass by here?” (Mis mebomo á mis mebomo, ye oyen me okpom aa lot ova?)
Case / Case (2019) explain: “Later when Tamar covers her face with her veil in order to seduce Judah, the narrator described her covering by saying that only her eyes were showing, and then inserts a refrain from a well-known Fang story in which an animal was buried until only his eyes showed and asked whoever came along if they had seen an antelope. The refrain is often used to signify two staring eyes.”
wash your feet
In a Fang oral adaptation the Hebrew that is translated in English as “wash your feet” is translated in a culturally specific way by Lot offering warm water for bathing.
Case / Case (2019) explain: “In Fang culture, as a sign of good hospitality, a host would bring guests warm water to bathe with. Therefore, in Genesis 19:2 the translator specified that Lot offered the two messengers warm water for bathing.”
seven
In a Fang oral adaptation the Hebrew that is translated in English as “the barren has borne seven” is translated in a culturally specific way with “The barren woman has become the mother of nine.”
Case / Case (2019) explain: “Much like the number 7 in Israelite culture, the number 9 signifies completion and perfection to the Fang. For example, in 1 Samuel 2:5 Hannah says: ‘The barren has borne seven.’ [The oral interpreter] Acacio, understanding the poetic, symbolic context, said, ‘The barren woman has become the mother of nine.'”
See also seven times.
stealthy
In a Fang oral adaptation the Hebrew that is translated in English as “stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak” is translated in a culturally specific way.
Case / Case (2019) explain: “In order to communicate the stealth of David’s actions, [the oral interpreter] Acacio added a colorful image of the sneakiest animal of the jungle doing the sneakiest of actions: David snuck up behind Saul ‘like a chameleon drawing a hunting bow to shoot an arrow.'”
gate
In a Fang oral adaptation the Hebrew that is translated in English as “gate” or “meeting place at the town gate” or similar is translated in a culturally specific way.
Case / Case (2019) explain: “The gate of a walled town in Old Testament times functioned as the place for business transactions, where the town’s leaders presided, and where visitors might find a host. The Fang traditionally have a similar gathering place at the entrance to each village: a simple roofed enclosure called an abáá. Here the men eat, talk, and make decisions, and here visitors wait for a welcome upon entering the village. Thus, in texts where the town gate functions in a similar way, the translator rendered this as the abáá, conjuring similar associations in the minds of Fang listeners as the town gate would have done for original listeners. Thus, Boaz discussed Ruth’s fate with the unnamed kinsman at the abáá of Bethlehem.”
Ruth 1 in oral adaptation in Fang
Following is a back-translation of Ruth 1 from a song presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style (mvét oyeng) as part of a project by Bethany and Andrew Case. (For more information about this, see Case / Case 2019)
Verse 1 – It happened that, in the time of the chiefs, they were governing Israel, and hunger came there to the regions of those lands.
2 – It came about that a man of the town that they call Bethlehem, the clans of the lands of Ephrata, they called him Elimelek.
Then he moved from there, he moved, saying, “I will try to go and live in the regions of the lands of Moab.”
When he went there, he went with [his] wife, [his] wife Naomi, and his two sons, his grown sons.
One was named Mahlon, and the other was Kilion.
All those were people of Ephrata.
After they arrived in Moab there, then they lived there, living.
3 – It came about that Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and Naomi was left a widow. (Click or tap here to see the rest.
4/5 – Left like that, [with] only just one thing her two sons, when they were left, then these two sons also married two girls, young Moabite women.
One of them was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth.
And it came about that after ten years passed, ten years, then these two sons of hers also died there, beginning with Malon and Kilion.
Then Naomi was left only all alone [lit. point and point: a bird’s beak from which its worm has fallen] with nothing.
6 – Then it came about that Naomi, living in Moab [unclear].
There she found out that Yahweh had had compassion on her town’s/people’s pain, the famine had ended, ending.
7 – Then Naomi said there that, “right now, I’m going back to Judah.”
When she was returning, then she went together with her two daughter-in-laws.
They left the place where they were and at that time they went.
8 – When they were walking on the road, then she said to them, “Oh my daughters-in-law, go back to your houses, to the houses of your mothers, please go back.”
9 – “I ask Yahweh that he treat you well at all times just like you also treated me and my sons.”
“I continually repeatedly again and again ask that Yahweh give you a place that is just and solid/secure, that he give you homes and also give you new husbands.”
Then Naomi kissed them on the cheeks, a goodbye kiss.
10 – Then the girls wept and they said “We will not go back, oh Naomi, we will go with you to your land.”
11 – Then Naomi insisted again, and said to them, “O my daughters, please go back.”
“Do you really wish to return with me, to go and do what?”
I can no longer again have other children for them to again marry you, please go back to your homes.
12 – I am too old, I cannot again go into marriage.
Even if I did also go into it, and bear two sons this night, oh my daughters, would you begin to wait again for these sons, for them to be your husbands?
13 – In this time you are without husbands, and for how long?
No no, oh my daughters, my evil is too great, and surpasses yours [lit. my evil it exaggerates with bigness to pass this with yours].
The hand of Yahweh has struck me, striking.”
14 – Then they opened their mouths (wept), they were crying.
After they finished crying, then Orpha afterward went to kiss [her] mother-in-law, kissing goodbye.
Then Ruth, she insisted to her that she would not go.
15 – Then Naomi said to her, “Look, the other has gone to her people.
Go youuuu too with her to the place where your gods are, go with her.”
Ñeŋǃ
16 – Then Ruth answered her, “Don’t you ask me that I separate from you.
Don’t you ask me that I separate from you.”
Because the place where you go, to it also I will go.
The place where you’re going to live, there also I am going to live.
Your people this also will be my people.
Your god this too will be my god.
17 – The place where you will die, in this also I will die, I tell you truly (lit. truth and truth).
I say that may Yahweh strike me, may he punish me severely (lit. [punish me with real punishment]) if I separate from you except only that death do it.”
18 – Then it happened that, when Naomi saw that Ruth insisted [with] real insistence [firmness], she didn’t insist anymore, then she said, “Let’s go”.
They began to walk, they’re going, they’re going.
19 – When it happened that they have already entered Bethlehem, that they have already arrived.
Then there in the town people began going and looking, [saying], “wow, but who is this?
Who is this?
Is it not Naomi who’s coming over there?
Yes, wow, it is Naomi.
Aáaáaáa
Aaáǃ
20 – After Naomi knew that she was the one they were talking about, then she said, “Don’t call me again Naomi.
Naomi means I have a glad heart, I am well.
And now that I’m here, please call me Mara because God Almighty has given me bitter and bitter, bitter and bitter, this has filled my body.
21 – When I left here to go, I left here [with] my hands full.
When I was returning now, I was coming [with] my hands now emptied, because thus Yahweh has wanted it, so why do you again call me Naomi?
When Yahweh, he who is all-powerful has lowered me to the ground, this kind of punishment that I have here.”
22 – In that way, Naomi returned to Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth, she who is a young Moabite woman.
In that way, they arrived in Bethlehem, finding that the time of harvesting food had arrived.
Genesis 38 in oral adaptation in Fang
Following is a back-translation of Genesis 38 from a song presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style (mvét oyeng) as part of a project by Bethany and Andrew Case. (For more information about this, see Case / Case 2019)
Vim
Eeeeǃ Oh wow, the storiesǃ
Stories are beginnings like fish traps, Ndong Nkum [the narrator’s stage name], I don’t know.
The little chimpanzee who is distracted says, “I’m going to the village now, I don’t see anything, and the stories have already started.”
We have something strange right hereǃ [common expression of surprise]
Verse 1 – …that Judah says that he is leaving the village of him and his brothers, Judah is going.
When Judah had gone, and had separated from his brothers, he went to live with a man there named Eraa, a man of the family of Adulan.
2 – He went to meet a young Canaanite woman there named Súa.
And he married her there, he married.
3 – After he married her, they had sexual relations and bamǃ beginning to have children, a son, so they named him Er.
4 – Night after night, bamǃ they had relations again, and again she had a son, and they named him Onan.
5 – A small time later, they had relations again, bamǃ and for the last time again she had a another son, and they named him Selah.
Selah was Judah’s last child. He was born during that time when Judah was living in Kezib.
6 – And so it happened that afterward Judah married his firstborn, who was named Er, to a woman, a beautiful young woman whose name was Tamar.
7 – And so it happened that Er did evil things, his evil way no longer agreed with Yavé’s will.
So Yavé killed him, kill.
8 – After Er died, Judah called Onan [and said] to him, “Oh, Onan…” Your brother has died, take the widow his wife, you and she will carry on the family as we have been doing.
Onan accepted.
9 – Then it happened there that when Onan accepted, instead of continuing as these things normally are, it began to be that when he and she were going to lie together, he began to spill his sperm in the bed.
In doing this, Onan did it on purpose, spilling his sperm on the bed.
Onan said that if he and Tamar had children with the widow of his brother, the children would not be his, and for this jealousy he did this, this thing.
10 – Therefore Yavé was offended there saying, “Akyeǃ How this man is so jealousǃ (or what great jealousyǃ)” That’s when Yavé also killed Onan.
The person who does evil does his own evil.
The person who does good does his own good.
“The person who is bad,” is the one that said it, for that reason you’ve seen what happened to Onan and his brother.
Because everything that one does, that thing he will return with it.
11 – Then it came about that Judah called his daughter-in-law and said, “Oh daughter-in-law, while the person who is named Selah is still small and hasn’t yet become an adult, go for the time being to the village of your parents.”
Then because of that Tamar went back, she went to live in the village of her parents.
She was there, and there she was waiting, and while she lived there, she lived there, during her time there she dressed in widow clothes.
Brothers-in-law, greetings, aaǃ
Judah didn’t say it just to say it, to his daughter-in-law for her to go live in her village,
12 – after his first son died, the second also died, and Judah began to think that if the third married Tamar he would die.
That’s why he planned it like that, saying to Tamar that she should go live in the village of her parents.
Tamar was already living with her parents while we discuss and talk.
Then it came about that, day after day, Tamar was counting the days. Judah didn’t know that Tamar was calculating the years. That “the person that I left there can now be of the age of a person who could be my husband.” Then she saw the time passing.
13 – And it came about that, when Tamar heard the news that her father-in-law was going to cut his animals to remove their skins to sell them, sheep skins.
After she heard it, then Tamar said, “I have seen your hookǃ”
The day of reckoning has arrived, the marriage of the daughter-in-law with the father-in-law.
It happened that Tamar, her two husbands died when Judah said “may this person not finish killing all my sons, and may she go live in her village.”
When Judah stayed there, he stayed and his wife also died.
And it came about that Judah was a widower for a long time, and he had already taken off his widower clothes. Then Tamar heard that her father-in-law was going to cut animals.
When she heard that he was going to cut animals, on the road to Timnat, there was his flock.
14 – Then she went out and she said, “now I myself am going to wait for this man, I have seen his hook.” That’s why she went to be in the crossroads of Enaim, the road that goes to Timnat.
Then the girl completely changed her clothes well, chen chen chen.
After she had completely changed, chen chen chen, she covered her face up to the eyes, just “staring eyes staring eyes, have you seen for me an antelope passing here?” so she was sitting there with her face covered, and it’s there that her father-in-law met her.
15 – “Hello pretty girl,” she said, “Hello.”
16 – He said, “Can you and I be like husband and wife?”
She said, “If you and I were like husband and wife, what will you do for me?”
17 – He said, “Well, then I will send you one of the goats of the animals that I have there.”
She said, “And when you send me that goat, will you first give me a guarantee, a guarantee that I will keep so that when you send me that goat, then I will return to you these guarantees?”
18 – He said, “Yes.”
Then he took the guarantees and gave them to her.
Then he took the ring and gave it to her, the ring that was like a seal to him with the cord that was with that ring, and the staff that he had in his hand.
He said, “Here are these things.”
Then Judah and his daughter-in-law lay like husband and wife, lovers.
After that it turned out that Tamar became pregnant.
20 – Then Judah left to where he was going and when Tamar was left alone, bawawawa, she ran to her house, she changed her clothes from her body and dressed herself again in the widow clothes like she had always been.
And she was [there].
Day after day.
Then Judah sent [someone] to go and give the goat.
When they went to give the goat to Tamar, they didn’t find Tamar, the girl was no longer there.
21 – They said, “She was sitting in the field (space between the towns).
There the pretty girl that always sat in the space between villages at the crossroads of Timnat there, where is she?”
They said, “There is none of that kind of thing in this town.”
The people of that town responded to him.
22 – Then he returned with the goat and said to his friend, “the person that we talked about isn’t there.”
Yeeǃ
And it happened that, that person is not there.
I’ve already asked the people of the town about the girl that they say lies with men there, where is she?
The people of the village say that there is none of that kind of woman there.
23 – They don’t see her, and he said, “Well, may she keep those things.”
But then we should know that I’ve sent the goat.
You did not find her, right?
24 – Day after day, three months passed, three months of the white men.
They said, “Eee, Tamar is pregnantǃ”
Then the news [lit. voice] ran there, kpewewewew and came to Judah.
̊”Judah, have you heard it?”
“What?”
“Your daughter-in-law is pregnant.”
She is taking advantage of the men there.
Judah became very angry, “Kyee, what is this thing happening like this?”
“How can it be? this girl has gone to do shameful things”
He said, “Take her, takeǃ Take herǃ You will burn herǃ
In the flame of fire, tup tup tup.”
25 – They said, “yes,” then they grabbed Tamar.
They said, “They’re going to burn her in the fire.”
Tamar said, “Waitǃ I have some thing here.
Look, here I have the ring and the cord that goes with that ring, and I also have the staff.
I say that you will go to ask my father-in-law Judah for me, saying ‘the person who got me pregnant, he is the owner of the things that I have here in my hands, the things that I have here.
The person who got me pregnant is the owner of the things.’
Go ask him if he recognizes these things.”
And they took these things and said to Judah, “Aaa, look at the staff, behold the staff, here is the ring, and the cord that goes with the ring also.”
Your daughter-in-law Tamar says that, “Do you recognize these things?
The person who got her pregnant, he is the owner of these things.”
26 – Judah said, “Whatǃ I acted badly, and Tamar, she acted rightly.
Because I did that, I promised her that my son Selah would marry her.
The time that he should marry her has passed, and I didn’t send for her so that Sela would go to be her husband, that’s why my daughter-in-law has done this, this thing.
Therefore, my deed has been bad, and the deed of my daughter-in-law has come out good.”
In the end, Tamar was pregnant.
27 – After she got pregnant (lit. The getting that she got pregnant), when it came to be that she was coming to give birth, she had twins, they were twins that were in her womb.
One of them, the one that came out first, put his hand out.
28 – The person who attended the woman tied a cord on his hand, tie-tie, and said, “You came out first.”
29 – She was still standing there, saying, “You came out first” [when] suddenly the second one, bwimǃ he came out instead.
Then it happened that, after the first baby came out, the one with the hand came out again last.
Then they said to the firstborn there, since you were the one who opened the way, therefore they called him by the name Perez.
30 – The other that came after, they said, “Well then, your name is now Serah.”