scorching heat

In Gbaya, the notion of scorching heat is emphasized in Lamentations 5:10 with fatiti, an ideophone that describes intense heat.

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

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Lam 5:10)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun.

complete verse (Lamentations 5:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 5:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “Hunger has affected us
    until fire/fever is burning us and we become ill.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Due to the burning of hunger,
    our skin has become as hot as a stove.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “We are-having-fever from too extreme hunger, and our bodies are hot as an oven.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Our skin has become hot like an oven,
    and we have a very high fever because we are extremely hungry.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:10

In this verse the meaning of the expression translated hot as an oven is not certain. AB and New English Bible say something like “black as an oven,” in which the Hebrew word rendered hot by Revised Standard Version is associated with one of the words meaning “darkness” in Job 3.5. Another possibility is “shriveled,” favored by the Septuagint and Syriac. The Handbook recommends that translators follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

The burning heat of famine is taken by most translators to mean fever brought on by hunger. New English Bible, however, takes it as a figurative expression and translates more generally “the ravages of starvation.” The word translated burning heat occurs also in Psalm 11.6 (“scorching”); 119.53 (“hot indignation”). In order to make this verse clear, in some languages it may be necessary to restructure it. For example, “Hunger causes us to burn with fever, and our skin has become hot like an oven.” Bible en français courant says “Hunger gnaws on us so much that our skin burns as if we were inside an oven.” These, as well as Good News Translation, are suitable translation models.

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