cardinal directions

The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” (Source: Don Slager) Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).

In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )

“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).

In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since 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)

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 cardinal directions / left and right.

vanity

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “vanity,” “emptiness,” “breath,” or similar in English is translated in Mandarin Chinese as xūkōng (虚空) or “hollow,” “empty.” This is a term that is loaned from Buddhist terminology where it is used for Akasha (Sanskrit: आकाश). (Source: Zetzsche)

Translation commentary on Job 15:2

Verse 2, like the opening verse in each of Eliphaz’s speeches, begins with a rhetorical question: Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge…? This is the equivalent of a strong negative statement: “A wise man should not answer with….” In 12.3 and 13.2 Job claimed that he was not inferior in wisdom to his friends. In 8.2 Bildad referred to Job’s words as being “a great wind.” Now Eliphaz picks up the same thought. It is clear from the next line that wise man refers to Job and not to Eliphaz. Answer refers to Job’s reply to his friends and means anything that Job may say. Windy knowledge translates “knowledge (characterized by) wind.” The sense of this expression is made clear only in the next line, and fill himself with the east wind. This line translates the Hebrew “and fill his belly with the east.” The reference to “the east” is to the scorching wind that blows from the east across the desert. In this sense Job is filling himself with “hot air,” which in English describes his knowledge in the first line. In English windy knowledge can be expressed by Eliphaz calling Job a “bag of hot air,” that is, someone whose talk has no substance.

Good News Translation renders both lines of verse 2 “Empty words, Job! Empty words!” This rendering departs considerably from the form of the Hebrew, and although it does give an effective rendering of the sense, it is too direct to serve as a translation model in many languages. Most modern translations stay closer to the Hebrew form and translate windy knowledge as knowledge that has no true substance; for example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “He who is wise does not reply with empty words, nor does he swell himself up with reasons that are mere wind.” Bible en français courant has “Does a wise man like you feed himself on wind, does he also make replies that have no substance?” If the rhetorical question form is retained, it will often be necessary to add a negative reply. This line may also be expressed as a negative statement; for example, “A wise man should not talk with meaningless words” or “A wise man like you, Job, should not make speeches with words that are like hot air.” Alternatively we can translate, for example, “Job, a wise man should not talk with words that have no meaning.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .