saddened eyes

In Gbaya, the notion of saddened eyes is emphasized with ɓurɛ, an ideophone that describes eyes clouded with tears from grief.

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 5:17)

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 5:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Lamentations 5:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “Our stomachs have died (lost all hope) because of these matters
    and our eyes have grown dim” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Because of this our hearts have become weak.
    our eyes have become weak.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Because of this our feeling hurt and our sight grow-dim.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “We are tired and discouraged ,
    and we cannot see well because our eyes are full of tears.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Lamentations 5:17

The first half of verse 17 begins in Hebrew with “Because of this,” and the second half begins with “because of these.” Here again interpreters differ in regard to whether this and these things point back to verse 16 or forward to verse 18. In favor of linking back to verse 16, it is difficult to see how these things can refer ahead to the single condition of the destruction of the Temple, unless these refers to both “Mount Zion lies desolate” and “jackals prowl.” However, the vast majority of modern translations link verse 17 with verse 18, since this agrees with the outlook of the poet expressed elsewhere, that the greatest disaster of all is the destruction of the Temple. The link forward is made in a variety of ways.

The Handbook encourages translators to link verse 17 to verse 18, but the manner in which they do this may be quite different from that in Revised Standard Version and others. For example, it may be necessary to state the conditions without any forward reference: (17) “Our hearts have become sick and our eyes have grown dim,” (18) “because Mount Zion lies desolate and jackals prowl over it.”

Sick translates the same word as in 1.13, which Revised Standard Version translates as “faint” and Good News Translation “in constant pain.” The thought expressed by heart … sick is a feeling of being hopeless, discouraged, defeated. The expression heart has become sick, with the sense of hopelessness, may sometimes be rendered by means of other metaphors; for example, “our livers have vanished,” “our breath is gone,” or “our insides have no strength.”

Grown dim translates a verb which generally means to become dark and is applied to the eyes in such passages as Psalm 69.23; the idea is that the vision is partially lost or blurred. Good News Translation says “We … can hardly see through our tears,” and Bible en français courant “… our eyes are veiled with tears.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Lamentations 5:17

5:17a Because of this, our hearts are faint;

Because of all this we’re tired and weary.
-or-
So our bodies feel ill and we feel ill deep inside us. (Easy English Bible)

5:17b because of these, our eyes grow dim—

We can’t see through the tears. (MSG)
-or-
Our eyes are very tired and we cannot hope for good things any longer. (MSG)

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