Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ecclesiastes 1:6:
Kupsabiny: “The wind blows to the North and turns towards the South. It sways/turns itself like that going to where it began.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “The wind blows towards the south, then turns towards the north. It is always wandering around in its own circles.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The wind blows to the south and then to the north; it only goes-around-and-around and keeps-on-returning.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “The wind blows south, and then it turns around to start blowing towards the north. It goes around and around in circles.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
This verse is interesting because it does not follow the standard practice in Hebrew of putting the subject after the verb. Instead of this it puts the subject wind at the end of the verse. This is done purely for literary effect.
The wind blows to the south: the word blows in Hebrew is the same as the participle “going” in verse 4. The Hebrew does this to link the two verses together as examples of constant motion in nature. We can preserve this same feature in translation if it will help remind the reader of the theme being followed. Otherwise we use the word most natural to describe the movement of wind.
The wind blows toward the south, so it comes out of the north. The two compass directions complement those of the previous verse. This choice is made deliberately to preserve the balance between the two examples given.
And goes round to the north: just as the sun had to dash back during the night to be ready to rise next morning, so the wind circles back to the north so that it can continue to blow. Round and round makes even stronger the illustration of constant circular movement. Four times in this verse the same verb “going round in circles” is used, and so this thought should be emphasized. Many languages will have terms that graphically describe the swirling wind. Others will need to use an adverb or adverbial phrase to get this effect. “It turns here and there” or “it turns again and again” are two possibilities.
There are many languages where there are no terms for “north” or “south.” East and west can be related to the sun, but the other compass points have to be related to something else. Of course Hebrew itself often uses “right” to point south, and “left” to mean “north”: the speaker faced the direction from which the sun rose, and gave directions from there. Translators can use any natural equivalent.
And on its circuits the wind returns: the term circuits speaks of a circular movement, continuing the theme of the poem. A “circuit” is a track or course that finishes at the same point where it begins, and with the verb returns, it here describes the ceaseless movement around the course. New English Bible uses a verbal phrase here: the wind “goes full circle.” We can also render it “it circles round and round.”
This verse consists of one rather long sentence in Hebrew, and it is packed with verbs. The translator may prefer to use shorter sentences such as “The wind blows south. It blows north. It blows round and round and comes back to where it started.”
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Après la description des cycles des générations et le mouvement du soleil, le poète passe au thème du vent. Comme dans les versets précédents, c’est le premier vers qui montre un équilibre rythmique parfait, litt. « allant vers le sud et tournant vers le nord ». En hébreu, le sujet de ce vers, le vent, apparaît seulement plus tard dans le verset. Les traducteurs devraient décider s’il convient de maintenir cet ordre ou plutôt d’annoncer le sujet dès le début de la phrase.
Ce verset se distingue par ses effets sonores remarquables qui sont non seulement l’équilibre des phrases, mais aussi l’assonance et l’allitération. Comme en Ecc 1.4 les voyelles a et o sont très fréquentes et se répètent. Mais à la fin du verset s’ajoute à ceci une autre paire de sons : a… u… a , dans le troisième et dernier vers. Mais le procédé le plus frappant est l’allitération, la répétition des consonnes qui évoquent le son du vent, notamment les consonnes fricatives h, s, š, ç, f, w :
hôlék ʾèl dârôm we sô vé v ʾèl çâ fôn
sô vé v sô vé v
hôlék h â-roûa ḥ
we-ʿal se vî vôtâw
šâ v hâ-roûa ḥ
Le vent va vers le midi et tourne vers le nord est litt. « allant vers le sud et tournant vers le nord ». Ce vers contient deux participes verbaux, et les traducteurs devraient utiliser des formes verbales qui conviennent si possible. Plusieurs versions en français utilisent le mot « souffler » qui évoque aussi le son du vent.
midi… nord : il faudrait utiliser des expressions idiomatiques pour cette paire de mots sud-nord. Dans certaines langues on fait référence à la position du soleil et dans d’autres on parle de droite et gauche. Lorsque la langue cible a des expressions trop compliquées, longues ou non-poétiques, on pourrait utiliser une paire de mots plus générale, par exemple, « ici et là », « en haut et en bas », etc. Comme déjà noté, le mot vent n’apparaît pas dans le texte hébreu, mais dans beaucoup de langues, il faudrait le rendre explicite.
le vent tourne, tourne et s’en va est litt. « tournant tournant allant le vent », encore une fois avec deux participes verbaux répétitifs : סוֹבֵב סֹבֵב sôvév sôvév. Le verbe סוֹבֵב sôvév, rendu par tourne veut dire « circuler ». Les traducteurs devraient décider si la répétition est appropriée dans leur langue. Ici le sujet de la phrase le vent se trouve à la fin du vers, mais plusieurs versions le mettent au début de la phrase. En poésie l’ordre des mots peut varier, et les traducteurs devraient adopter un style qui est acceptable dans leur langue, tout en restant poétique.
s’en va rend le même verbe הלך hlk, « aller », « marcher », qui apparaît dans le premier vers de ce verset et en Ecc 1.4.
et le vent reprend ses tours est litt. « et sur ses alentours revenant le vent ». Certaines versions interprètent la conjonction וְ we comme une séquentielle, « puis », mais dans beaucoup de langues, un mot comme et suffira. Comme dans la phrase précédente, en hébreu le sujet le vent se trouve en fin de phrase, ce qui est très poétique, mais certaines langues préféreront suivre l’ordre normal, et le vent reprend…. Certaines versions remplacent le vent par un pronom ici. Voir Bible en français courant et Parole de Vie.
reprend ses tours : le sens de cette expression fait l’objet de débat. Le verbe clé שׁוב šoûv apparaît ici avec le sens de « retourner ». Certains pensent que, comme le soleil en Ecc 1.5, le vent retourne d’où il est venu, mais les traductions sont assez divergentes : « Et il reprend les mêmes tours » (La Bible du Semeur), « il reprend sa première direction » (Bible en français courant), « il recommence à tourner ». En hébreu le nom סָבִיב sâviv, « tour », est au pluriel comme dans la Traduction œcuménique de la Bible et Nouvelle Français courant.
Source: Zogbo, Lynell. L’Ecclésiaste – Manuel de traduction – Commentaire linguistique et exégétique de la Bible. Alliance biblique universelle, 2021.
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