darkness

In Gbaya, the notion of deep darkness is emphasized in the referenced verses with kpɔ̧ɔ̧-kpɔ̧ɔ̧, an ideophone that refers to something very black, dark black like the darkness of night the movement or motion of shaking.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also darkness and darkness.

complete verse (Job 3:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 3:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Let that day turn to complete darkness,
    let God not be concerned about it,
    and let it not get any light at all.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “May that day be dark,
    may the God of heaven not care for it,
    may light not shine [on] that day.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Wish that day became dark and the sun no longer shined-upon-(it). Wish the God who is in heaven had- not -remembered-(it).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I wish that the day when I was born would have been covered in darkness.
    I wish that God who is in heaven would have forgotten about that day,
    and that the sun would not have shone on it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 3:4

Verses 4-9 show examples of hyperbole, that is, exaggerated language which is aimed to capture the reader’s attention through overstatement. Verse 4 calls upon day, God, and light to act against the day of Job’s birth. The first is positive and the next two are negative. Because verse 4 has three lines (as do verses 5-6), some scholars prefer to drop the first line. However, three-line parallelism is not uncommon, and there is no justification for omitting one line. The poetic rise of intensity is seen in the replacement of the impersonal operator in line a to God in line b. If light in line c refers to God, the movement in that line is to a metaphor. This point is not certain.

Let that day be darkness is almost the reversal of Genesis 1.3. Darkness symbolizes mystery, awesomeness, and evil in such passages as 12.25; Exodus 20.21; 2 Samuel 22.29; Psalm 82.5; Isaiah 5.20; Matthew 6.23. Good News Translation (so also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) makes God the agent of the action, since God is mentioned in the second line. That day refers to the time of Job’s birth picked up from verse 3a. In translation it may be necessary to make clear that that day refers to Job’s birth; for example, “May the day I was born be covered with darkness” or “May the day I was born be dark as night.”

May God above not seek it: God, which translates the Hebrew ʾEloah, is asked to refrain from “seeking” it. The Hebrew verb may refer to seeking an oracle from God (1 Sam 9.9). In ancient Babylonia at the New Year’s rites, each day of the calendar year was summoned by a priest (see Traduction œcuménique de la Bible note). Here Job calls on God to refrain from doing this, which means therefore “to ignore, pay no attention,” or as in Good News Translation, “never again remember.” In translation we may often say, for example, “May God who is above (in the heavens) forget that day” or “May God above never think of the day I was born.”

Nor light shine upon it: Job wants the day cursed by being without light, which is the negative counterpart of the first line. The Hebrew word for light found here is not the usual word. Some take it to mean “dawn” (New English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). In some languages light is not said to shine. Accordingly we must adjust to something like “may that day not dawn,” “may the sun not shine on it,” or “may that day have no light.”

The three lines may be rendered, for example,
Let the day I was born be dark;
may God himself not even remember it,
and may the sun never shine on it.

In languages in which the “let” command in line a requires an agent, the translator may follow the Good News Translation model.

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 .