10The queen, when she heard the discussion of the king and his lords, came into the banquet hall. The queen said, “O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts terrify you or your face grow pale.
The Hebrew and Aramaic that is translated in English as “long live” or “live forever” and the Greek that is translated as “Hail” in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese as wànsuì (万岁 / 萬歲) or “(may you live) 10,000 years” which was used to hail Chinese emperors and, more recently, the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (Máo Zhǔxí Wànsuì [毛主席万岁] or “May Chairman Mao live for ten thousand years!”).
Likewise it is also used in these verses in other East Asian languages, including Japanese with ban zai (ばんざい / 万歳), Korean with man se (만세), Vietnamese with vạn tuế or muôn tuổi, or Mongolian with mandtugai (мандтугай). (Note that Mongolian does not use that term for the New Testament renderings.) (Source: Zetzsche)
For more information on this phrase, see 10,000 years .
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Daniel 5:10:
Kupsabiny: “When the mother of the king heard the king and his nobles/leaders shouting, (she) came to the hall where the feast was held and said, ‘Be firm, oh king! Do not be so frightened that your face turns pale.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Hearing the voices of the king and [his] officials crying out, the Queen Mother came to the banquet hall and spoke like this, "Oh great King, may you have a long life! Don’t be afraid. Don’t let your face be so pale!” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Now, when- the queen -heard their noise, she approached them and said, ‘May you (sing.) live long, Beloved King! You (sing.) do- not -be-afraid or worried/alarmed,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But when the mother of the king (OR, of the previous king) heard the king and his officials talking loudly about what had happened, she entered the room where they were having the feast. She said to Belshazzar, ‘Your majesty/O King, I hope you will live for a long time! But do not be pale and afraid about this.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iki-rare-ru (生きられる) or “live” is used.
Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation make a paragraph break here because a new subject is introduced. Some versions place a section heading at this point, since this is the beginning of the section where Daniel interprets the writing on the wall. But other versions, like Good News Translation, place this title before verse 13 below.
The queen: the text clearly implies that this person was not originally a member of the banquet group. She came into the banqueting hall later. It is very likely that the term used here refers to the “queen-mother” (the mother of the king) rather than to the queen herself. The queen mother occupied a very influential position in Babylonia as well as in Israel and Judah at the time. Moffatt, An American Translation, Good News Translation, and Bible en français courant all translate “queen mother.” In many languages it may be necessary to say something like “the mother of the king.” The second reference to this woman may be represented by the pronoun “she” if the reference is clear; but in languages where there is no distinction between masculine and feminine, this may cause confusion. In this case, some languages will accept “that woman.”
Because of the words …: a literal rendering of this phrase might give the impression in some languages that the king and his noblemen had sent a message to the queen mother. But the meaning is rather that the sound of the commotion caused by the events was so loud that she came into the banquet hall to find out what was the matter. Having learned the details of the problem she then went on to try to calm her son.
The banqueting hall: or “the place where people were eating the feast.”
O king, live for ever!: see 2.4.
Thoughts alarm … color change: see verses 6 and 9.
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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