The Greek and Hebrew that is usually translated with “with all (one’s) heart” in English is translated in Newari as “from (one’s) inmost heart” (source: Newari Back Translation)
complete verse (Jeremiah 29:13)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 29:13:
- Kupsabiny: “You will seek me and you will find me. And if you seek me with one stomach,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Hiligaynon: “If you will-take-refuge in me whole- heartedly, I will-help you.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- English: “If you earnestly desire for me to bless you, you will experience me blessing you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)
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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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
See also pronoun for “God”.
formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)
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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Translation commentary on Jeremiah 29:13
Because of the repetition in verse 13 (You will … find me) and verse 14 (“I will be found by you”), Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch place the two verses together (see verse 14). However, one minor problem with this is that in so doing they do not take into account the type of parallelism discussed in the Introduction, in which the second part of the parallelism adds to or extends the first part. Here the second expression does add something to the first. In verse 13 the LORD tells the people that if they turn to him, they will find him. In fact, he goes on to say, if they look for him wholeheartedly, he will himself take action and make it possible for them to find him (verse 14). Most translators prefer this interpretation, and have something such as “You will look for me, and you will find me. When you look for me wholeheartedly, 14 [then] I will let you find me.”
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 .
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