Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 104:14:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“He makes grass to sprout for the cattle to eat,
and plants, for a person to cultivate.
to bring food from the earth:” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“You cause grass to grow for the herds,
and plants for people,
and then they can harvest food for themselves.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“You (sing.) make- the grass -grow for the animals/livestock,
and the plants for the people
so-that they have food from the harvest–” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“He allows the grass to grow for cows,
and food for people to eat,
he allows them to cultivate for food on soil,” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Unaotesha majani ya kula mifugo,
na ambavyo watu wanapanda.
Basi kwa njia hiyo mtu atakikuta chakula chake katika udongo,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“You make/cause grass to grow for the cattle to eat,
and you make/ cause plants to grow for people.
In that way animals and people get their food from what grows in the soil.” (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.”
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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kao (御顔) or “face (of God)” in the referenced verses.
Revised Standard Version joins verse 13 to the preceding strophe, as seen in the paragraphing; most translations, like Good News Translation, join it to what follows.
Yahweh provides food for animals and human beings by sending rain from the sky (literally “his upper chambers,” as in verse 3), which waters the ground so that the soil brings forth abundant crops. Verse 13b is not very clear; the Hebrew seems to say “the earth is satisfied (or, filled) from the fruit (or, result) of your deeds.” This seems to mean that, as a result of what Yahweh does, the earth is completely filled with good things, or else the earth is completely satisfied. There are various conjectures; many believe the phrase the fruit of thy work refers specifically to the rain itself (Briggs, Oesterley, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy); Kirkpatrick has “fruit produced by God’s manifold operations” (also Cohen); New English Bible has “the earth is enriched by thy provisions”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “with the streams of heaven you satisfy the earth.”
Verses 14-15 list the crops of the fields and how they benefit humankind. Verse 14b in Hebrew seems to be “and plants (or, vegetation) for the service of man,” which Revised Standard Version takes to mean and plants for man to cultivate. Good News Translation has “plants for man to use,” that is, with reference to the items listed in verse 15, the basic foods needed to sustain him (so Anderson, “plants for the sustenance of man”). New American Bible has “and vegetation for men’s use.” New English Bible has “for those who toil for man” (a reference to work animals), which involves assigning other vowels to the Hebrew consonants (see also Revised Standard Version footnote). Perhaps the best way to translate is to imitate Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy: “You make the grass grow for the cattle, and the plants that people cultivate.” So line c can follow: “In this way they can get their food from the earth.”
Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation employ ellipsis in verse 14b. In some languages it will be necessary to say in 14b, for example, “you cause plants to grow for people….”
Verse 15 lists the basic crops which are cultivated; they include grapevines (wine), olive trees (oil), and wheat or barley (bread). The wine makes a person happy, and the olive oil makes a person’s face shine (verse 15a-b). The latter may be meant quite literally (so Cohen, Briggs, Toombs), since olive oil was applied to the face and the head to cleanse the skin and restore the scalp. Good News Translation takes it in a figurative sense, “to make him cheerful” (see comments at 92.10). Dahood takes it to mean “glowing health.” Perhaps it is best to take it literally; so Bible en français courant “a good appearance,” and New Jerusalem Bible “to make their faces glow” (see also New International Version). The last item is bread (or better, perhaps, “food”; so Dahood), which sustains a person’s strength (see the same verb in 41.3a; 94.18b; so New English Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). New Jerusalem Bible has “that sustains man’s life.”
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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