Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 104:10:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“He makes the springs to bring forth water going to the valleys;
those waters move between the mountains.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“You provide streams of water in the hills and valleys.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“You (sing.) made- the springs -flow in the place-where- water -flows,
and the water flowed in the middle-part/place of the mountains.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“God gives the springs of rivers to flow to go to the valleys,
and the rivers flow in the middle of mountains.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Unatokeza chemchemi zinakwenda katika mabonde,
maji yake yanapita katikati ya milima.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“You make/ cause springs to pour water into ravines;
their water flows down between the mountains.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or modern English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking.” (Source Philip Noss)
In the most recent Manchu translation of 1835 (a revision of an earlier edition from 1822), God is never addressed with a pronoun but with “father” (ama /ᠠᠮᠠ) instead. Chengcheng Liu (in this post on the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology blog ) explains: “In Manchu tradition, as in Chinese etiquette, second-person pronouns could be considered disrespectful when speaking to superiors or spiritual beings. Manchu Shamanist prayers avoided si [‘you’] and sini [‘your’] for this very reason. To use them for God would be, in Lipovzoff’s [one of the two translators] words, ‘the most uncouth and indecent way to speak to the Almighty — as if He were a servant or slave.’ There was also a grammatical problem. In Manchu, si and sini could refer to both singular and plural subjects. For a faith that insisted on the singularity of God, this was potentially confusing. By contrast, repeating ama removed any ambiguity.”
Good News Translation (also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem) ends this strophe with verse 12; Revised Standard Version, McCullough, and Toombs end it with verse 13.
Yahweh provides water for the animals. In verse 10a the word translated the valleys is understood by New Jerusalem Bible to mean “in torrents” (Weiser “in streams”). New English Bible has “gullies” and New Jerusalem Bible “ravines.” It may mean either the course taken by the water as it rushes down, or else the water itself (Dahood has “springs and torrents”). Good News Translation in verse 10 supplies “rivers” as the subject, for a more natural sequence; this may not be necessary in some languages. Or else, “their water” (referring back to “springs” of the preceding verse) may be more satisfactory.
In verse 11a every beast of the field means all the wild animals. In languages in which the donkey is not known, the translator has the following choices: (a) borrow the term from a major language; (b) use a generic term with some kind of qualifier; (c) substitute a local animal. If the animal is unfamiliar, it is usually recommended that an illustration be provided somewhere in the publication, particularly near the first occurrence of the word. The importance of providing such an illustration is due to the repeated references to this animal.
The pastoral picture of peace and plenty includes the birds (literally “the birds of the heavens”) building their nests and singing in the nearby trees. Notice that Revised Standard VersionBy them in verse 12a could be taken to mean “By the wild asses”; it should be clear to the reader that it means “By the streams.” It is important in the process of editing a translation to read the text aloud. Readers sometimes fail to observe punctuation, and they run lines together, so that Good News Translation‘s “… donkeys quench their thirst” may be read together with the following line, “In the trees near by.” If this is a common problem, this kind of misreading can be avoided in the present case by switching verse 12a and 12b.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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