During the translation of one of the miracles of feeding or crowds with fish and bread into Yami, Graham Ogden tells this story:
“A small population on tiny Orchid Island, off the S-E coast of Taiwan, depended to a large extent on fishing as a source of food. When translating the story of the Five Loaves and Two Fish the translator asked a question that took me by surprise. He asked what kind of fish they were. I said they were just fish! But he said, I have to know what kind of fish they were because we have no word ‘fish.’ How come? I asked. He said we have no general word, because every fish has a name. So I suggested he choose a common type. He then said, But was it a fish that only men can eat or only women? Do you mean that there are cultural restrictions on who can eat which kind of fish? Yes, he said. Is there not one kind of fish that everyone can eat, given the circumstances? Oh yes, he said, there is one kind. Then that’s the name to use, I said. He was satisfied with that answer.”
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Un hombre sordo que no hablaba bien, las personas lo ayudaron (y lo dijeron que) vieniera con ellos. Fueron y dijeron a Jesús: “Él es sordo, por favor, ponle la mano y sanalo.”
Jesús vio a todas las personas y dijo a los discípulos: “Todas las personas ya han estado junto con nosotros por tres días, ellos no tienen comida, se ha acabado.
Sus casas, donde viven, están lejos, y si nos despedimos de ellos, se irán caminando y se caerán por ser mareados de hambre, siento dolor por los pobrecitos.”
Los discípulos dijeron: “Aqui es desierto, no hay comida, ¿Cómo y dónde vamos a encontrar pan para repartir?”
Jesús dijo: “¿Cuánto pan hay?” Los discípulos: “Hay siete panes.”
Jesús dijo a las personas: “Por favor, sientense.” Jesús tomó pan, dio gracias a Dios, rompió el pan y lo puso en una canasta, rompía y lo ponía hasta que se llenó la canasta, y la dio a los discípulos. Ellos la tomaron y lo repartían.
Había unos peces pequeños, muy poquito, y Jesús los bendijo y había un montón. Les dio la canasta (a los discípulos): “Uds repartanlos.” Los discípulos tomaron la canasta y los repartían.
Todas las personas, eran más o menos 4000, estaban comiendo hasta que se llenaron y los discípulos pusieron los peces y el pan que sobró en canastas. Cuando se llenó una canasta la pusieron aparte, tomaron otra canasta y la llenaron y fueron siete canastas de sobras.
Jesús se despidió de ellos y Jesús y los discípulos fueron y entraron un barco y el barco fue navigando.
Jesus looked around at all the people and said to the disciples: “All these people have been with us for three days and they have no food, it’s all gone.
“The houses in which they live are far away and if we say goodbye to them they will go walking and they will fall over being dizzy from hunger, I feel sorry for these poor people.”
The disciples said: “It’s desert here, there is no food. How and where are we going to find bread to hand out?”
Jesus said: “How much bread is there?” The disciples: “There are seven loaves.”
Jesus said to the people: “Please, sit down.” Jesus took bread and gave thanks to God, then he broke the bread and put it in a basket, he kept breaking and putting it there until it was full, then he gave the basket to the disciples and they took it and handed it out.
There were some small fishes, a few, and Jesus blessed them and there was a heap. He gave the basket (to the disciples): “You hand them out.” The disciples took the basket and handed them out.
All the people, there were more or less 4000, ate until they were full and the disciples put the fishes and the bread that were left over in baskets. When a basket was full, they would put it aside and take another one and fill it, and there were seven baskets of leftovers.
Jesus said goodbye and Jesus and the disciples went and got into a boat and the boat left.
Many people had gathered to listen to Jesus. Jesus was teaching the people. But the people did not have any food with them. Jesus said to his disciples:
— I feel sorry for these people! They have been here with me for three days, but they have no food. If I let the people go hungry, some will become weak on the long journey.
The disciples began to say:
— It’s a desert here! Where are we going to get so much bread to feed such a crowd? We won’t be able to.
Jesus said:
— Maybe some of you have some bread. Look and see if you can find some. The disciples looked and found seven loaves.
Jesus asked all the people to sit down on the ground. He took the bread in his hands and began to pray to God by saying, “Thank you, God!” Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And the disciples went to distribute the bread to the people. There were also a few fish.
Jesus took the fish, looked up to heaven, said the prayer, “Thank you, God” and gave the disciples to distribute the fish to all the people.
There were about four thousand people in all who ate and had enough to eat.
Jesus said to the disciples:
— Gather the leftover pieces of food into baskets.
The disciples went to gather the leftovers, and there were seven baskets full of leftovers. When the people had eaten, Jesus let the people go, and he and his disciples got on a boat and sailed to the region of Dalmanutha.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Собралось множество людей, чтобы послушать Иисуса. Иисус учил народ. Но у людей не было с собой еды. Иисус сказал своим ученикам:
— Мне жаль этих людей! Они уже со мной тут три дня, но у них нет еды. Если я отпущу народ голодным, кто-то ослабеет в дальней дороге.
Ученики стали говорить:
— Тут пустыня! Где мы возьмем столько хлеба, чтобы накормить такую толпу? Мы не сможем.
Иисус сказал:
— Может быть, у кого-то из вас есть хлеб. Посмотрите, поищите. Ученики поискали и нашли семь хлебов.
Иисус попросил весь народ сесть на землю. Он взял хлеб в руки и стал молиться Богу со словами «Благодарю тебя, Боже!» Затем он разломил хлеба и дал ученикам, чтобы они раздали народу. И ученики пошли раздавать народу хлеб. Также было еще несколько рыб.
Иисус взял рыбу, посмотрел на небо, произнес молитву «Благодарю тебя, Боже…» и дал ученикам, чтобы те раздали рыбу все людям.
Всего людей, которые ели и наелись досыта, было около четырех тысяч.
Иисус сказал ученикам:
— Соберите оставшиеся куски еды в корзины.
Ученики пошли собирать остатки еды, и остатков набралось полных семь корзин. Когда народ наелся, Иисус отпустил людей, а сам с учениками сел на лодку и поплыл область Далманута.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 8:7:
Uma: “They also had several small fish. He also prayed for that and ordered his disciples to distribute it to the crowd.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “There were also a few (lit. if how many pieces) fishes. After Isa had given-thanks to God, he also told/commanded the fishes to be given to the people.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There were also there a few small fish. And when he had given thanks for this, he commanded that they give these to the people.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “There were also a few small dried-fish. Jesus thanked again, and had-(them) -distributed also.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “There were also a few units of little-fish which they had. Jesus again gave thanks to God, and then he had his disciples hand them out also.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
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 usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, iw-are-ru (言われる) or “say” is used.
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
auta ‘them’ is omitted by Textus Receptus, but included by all modern editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
ichthudia (only here in Mark) ‘little fish’: as in the parallel incident in 6.38 these are to be thought of as prepared fish, not fresh.
eulogēsas auta ‘blessing them,’ i.e. ‘invoking God’s blessing upon them’; ‘thanking God for them’: here only in Mark with a direct object (cf. the discussion of the verb in 6.41). Probably (cf. Taylor) the phrase means ‘thanking God for them’: it is highly doubtful that the evangelist meant to draw any distinction between eulogeō in this verse, concerning the fish, and eucharisteō ‘give thanks’ in the previous verse, concerning the loaves.
eipen kai tauta paratithenai ‘he told (them) to place these also before (the crowd).’
paratithēmi (cf. previous verse) ‘place before.’
Translation:
Some languages carefully distinguish between fish when they are alive and swimming about, or just recently caught, and those which are being sold in the market place or prepared as food (cf. Spanish pez vs. pescado). The latter meaning is, of course, intended in this verse.
For bless see 6.41.
If the receptor language requires an object of the verb ‘commanded,’ one may insert ‘disciples.’ Often, however, this context does not require the customary verb for ‘command,’ as this may be too strong. Hence, one may render the passage as ‘told his disciples to…,’ ‘ordered his disciples to…,’ or ‘said to his disciples, Distribute also the fish to the people.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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