pregnant

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that are translated as “(become) pregnant” in English is rendered as “got belly” (Sranan Tongo and Kituba) as “having two bodies” (Indonesian), as “be-of-womb” (Sinhala), as “heavy” (Balinese), and as “in-a-fortunate-state” (Batak Toba). (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)

In Kafa it is translated as “having two lives” (source: Loren Bliese), in Southern Birifor as tara pʊɔ or “having stomach,” in Kamba as “be-heavy” (source for this and above: Andy Warren-Rothlin), in the Swabian 2007 translation by Rudolf Paul as kommt en andere Omständ, lit. “be in different circumstances,” and in Newari as “have in the womb” (source: Newari Back Translation).

In Mairasi it is translated as “have a soul [ghost].” (Source: Enggavoter, 2004)

complete verse (Jeremiah 20:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 20:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “because he should have killed me before I was born
    (and/so) I would die in the stomach of my mother.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For he did not kill me when I was still in the womb of my mother. Wish the womb of my mother would have been my place-of-burial, or wish she became-pregnant with-me until whenever.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I want that to happen to him because he did not kill me before I was born.
    I wish that I had died in my mother’s womb,
    and that my mother’s body would have been like my grave.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 20:17

And her womb for ever great is not translated by Good News Translation. Great in this context means she is still large with the pregnancy. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “and she would have remained pregnant forever.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .