The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 26:8:
Kupsabiny: “Five of your people shall defeat hundred enemies and hundreds of your people shall defeat what amounts to ten thousand enemies finishing them with swords.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Five of you will be able to defeat 100 [men], and 100 [of you] [will be able to defeat] 10,000 [men]. Your enemies will die by your sword.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “5 of you (plur.) will-be-able-to-defeat 100 and 100 of you (plur.) will-be-able-to-defeat 10,000.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Five of you will pursue 100 of them, and 100 of you will pursue 1,000 of them and kill them with your swords.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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 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).
This verse continues the picture of military victory begun in the previous verse. The contrast between the number of victors and the number of defeated enemies may be heightened by translating “It will only take five of you to defeat a hundred of the enemy, and only a hundred of you will be triumphant over a thousand enemies in battle.” Here the word chase means “be victorious over” (as in verse 7a), and the words fall before you by the sword again indicate “be defeated in battle” (see verse 7b).
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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