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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, a god, or a person or persons to be honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-ikō (ご威光), a combination of “majesty” (ikō) and the honorific prefix go-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 and French subtitles.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 15:7:
Kupsabiny: “You threw down in your mighty power those people who opposed/fought you. Your anger/wrath burns and consumes them as fire consumes (the) sticks.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “In the greatness of your power you overthrew all those who rose against you. You sent forth your anger and it consumed them as fire consumes straw.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “In your (sing.) power, you (sing.) destroyed the ones who oppose you (sing.). You (sing.) caused- them -to-experience your (sing.) anger that destroyed them as-if they were-burned-up straw/stubble.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “You are sitting very high and so you surpassed the people who made a fight against you and then threw them so that they went down low. You were angry like a fire blazing, and so you cooked your enemies until they were finished like dry weeds.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “They who reject you, you chased them away out with greatness your. Anger your, it went burned them as fire burns grass dry.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “You have gloriously defeated your enemies. Because you were angry with them, you have destroyed them like a fire burns up straw.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 verbs 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, yabu-rare-ru (破られる) or “defeat/destroy” and shukufukus-are-ru (祝福される) or “bless” are used.
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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, hasse-rare-ru (発せられる) or “give forth” is used.
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
Verses 7-11 are the second part of the song, which is addressed to Yahweh and speaks of his power in more general terms. In the greatness of thy majesty is literally “In the abundance of your height [or, loftiness].” Various terms may be used here, but Good News Translation is easier to understand: “In majestic triumph.” It is possible, though, to express this sentence as “You gloriously defeated your enemies and destroyed them,” or even “You have gained great honor by defeating your enemies and destroying them.” (See the comment on “triumphed gloriously” at verse 1.) Thou overthrowest thy adversaries uses a verb meaning to break down or destroy. Adversaries is derived from a verb that means to stand up or rise. Here the participle means “those who rise against you” (Durham). Other ways to express thy adversaries are “your enemies,” “those who hate you,” or “those who oppose you.”
Thou sendest forth thy fury uses the verb “to let go,” the same word used in the demand to “let my people go.” It means to release or give free play to something. Here it is Yahweh’s fury, or “anger” (Good News Translation), which comes from the word “to burn or become hot.” (See 4.14 and 32.19.) It is therefore related to what follows, it consumes them like stubble, referring back to the adversaries in the first line. So New International Version has “You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.” Consumes is the word “to eat,” but here it gives the picture of fire that “devours” the stubble (Jerusalem Bible). (See the comment on stubble at 5.12.) Good News Translation has “your anger blazes out and burns them up like straw,” and Contemporary English Version has “Your fiery anger wiped them out, as though they were straw.” If it is impossible in a receptor language for the translator to talk about “fiery anger,” it may be possible to use similes and say, for example, “You get very angry just like a hot fire, and you burn up your enemies as if they were straw.”
Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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