cardinal directions

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)
  • Mono (DRC): “of-hole-sun” (west)
  • Belanda Bor: “place morning” and “place evening”
  • Shambala: “side sink sun” (south)
  • 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)
  • Bari: “Morning Star” / “Venus” (east)
  • Chopi: “sky” (north) (source for this and six above: Angelika Mietzner and Helma Pasch in Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 4, 3/2007 )

Geographical Landmarks

  • Kele: “down-river” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • 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)
  • Lamba: “to the Aushi country” (north) / kumausi and “to the Lenje country” (south) / kumalenje (source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
  • 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.”

See also people of the East and three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.

complete verse (Ezekiel 40:40)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:40:

  • Kupsabiny: “There were two tables outside the veranda near those things one climbs on there at the gate of the North. There were also two tables at the other side.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “There were still two tables more at each side of the stair which going-up to the way in the north.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Along the outside wall of the entry room, on each side of the steps at the opening to the entryway on the north side, were two tables.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 40:39 - 40:40

And in the vestibule of the gate were two tables on either side … And on the outside of the vestibule at the entrance of the north gate were two tables; and on the other side of the vestibule of the gate were two tables: Here Ezekiel refers to eight tables. There were four tables in the vestibule of the gate, that is, in the porch of the north gatehouse. Two tables on either side means there were two tables on the left and two tables on the right as Ezekiel entered the porch through the doorway from the outer courtyard. On the outside of the vestibule at the entrance … were two tables; and on the other side of the vestibule … were two tables means that outside the porch in the outer courtyard, there were two tables on either side of the doorway. Ezekiel does not say what these tables were made of. It is most likely that they were made of wood.

In verse 40 the first occurrence of the word vestibule is not in the Hebrew text (see Revised Standard Version footnote). Those translations that read vestibule or “porch” (New Century Version) have changed the Hebrew slightly to get that meaning. The Hebrew actually reads “to the one going up” or “as one goes up,” which reflects the way Ezekiel approached the gateway. The vestibule at the entrance of the north gate may be rendered “as one goes up to the entrance of the north gate” or “as I went up to the entrance of the north gate.” Some translations understand the Hebrew here to refer to the “steps” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version) or “stairs” (New Living Translation, Moffatt) that were mentioned in verse 37 and led from the outer courtyard up to the north gatehouse; for example, New International Version says “near the steps at the entrance to the north gateway.” This is an acceptable model.

In these verses Ezekiel focuses again on the north gate, even though, as we have suggested, all the inner gates were the same. Unless it is awkward in their language to do so, translators will probably find it easier to do the same. It may be necessary in some languages to include a phrase to make this clear, for example, “as I was looking at the north gateway.”

On which the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering were to be slaughtered is the purpose of the eight tables. They were the places where the priests prepared the animals that they were about to sacrifice to God on the altar. In verses 42-43 Ezekiel describes four stone tables, which were probably the tables on which the animals were actually killed (see the comments on those verses). What happened on the eight tables in verses 40-41 was still part of the slaughtering process, but since the actual killing of the animals took place on the stone tables, it is better to refer to what the priests did on these tables as “preparing” the sacrifices. Were to be slaughtered is a passive verb that in some languages will need to be active with an agent, as in “the tables where they [or, the priests] prepared the animals that they were sacrificing to God.”

Ezekiel mentions three types of sacrifice: burnt offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. For burnt offering, see verse 38. A sin offering was a sacrifice to cleanse people from unintentional sins, so that God would forgive them (see Lev 4.1–5.13). Translators may say “offering people made to God so he would forgive them for their sins.” A guilt offering was similar to a sin offering, but it involved an element of restitution, or repaying the debt a person had incurred (see Lev 5.14–6.7; 7.1-10). Guilt refers to a feeling or sense of responsibility or regret for having done something wrong. There are cultures where it is not known or where the concept of shame is more common. In these cultures translators may render guilt offering as “offering to show that people were sorry for what they had done.” Other possible renderings are “offering for the repayment of sins” and “offering to pay a penalty for sins.”

A model for the last half of verse 39 is:

• On these [tables] the priests prepared the animals that the people gave to God to be completely burnt on the altar, and those that they gave so that God would forgive their sins and take away their guilt [or, shame].

In those cultures where sacrifices are unknown, it may not be necessary to distinguish between these different types of offering. If so, translators may say simply “On these tables the priests prepared animal meat that the people were giving to God to honor him” or “On these tables the animals that were about to be sacrificed to God were made ready for the sacrifice.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .