The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.
Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed.
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 106:5:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“that I should celebrate with the wealth of your chosen people,
that I should have the joy of your people
and be together with your inheritance in praising you.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“And may I rejoice, seeing it become good for the people you have chosen.
May I also be able to rejoice in the joy of your nation.
May I also be able to participate in the glory of your people.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“so-that I can- also -experience the prosperity of your (sing.) chosen nation
and so-that I can- also -participate-in/share their joy
and I can-join in their praising you (sing.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“so that we (I with them) would share the wealth with your people who were chosen,
and we (I with them) would share the happiness of your people,
and we (I with them) with your children when we praise you.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“ili niione fahari ya wateule wako,
nifurahi furaha ya kabila lako,
na kukusifu pamoja na watu wako.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Allow me to see it when your people become prosperous again
and when all the people of your nation, Israel, are happy;
allow me to be happy with them!
I want to praise you along with all those others who belong to you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The psalmist prays to live to see and share in the deliverance of his people, when Yahweh will take them out of exile to their own land (see verse 47). Instead of the Masoretic text me twice in verse 4, two Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint have the plural “us” (which Bible en français courant prefers). The Masoretic text should be followed here. In verse 4a the verb “show favor” is defined as “deliver” in line b; and in line b the verb translated by Revised Standard Versionhelp has the sense of “look in on” (see comments on “care for” in 8.4). The sense of line b is that the psalmist wants to be among the people when Yahweh saves them.
In verse 5a Good News Translation “your people” translates thy chosen ones, and “those who belong to you” in line c translates “your inheritance” (see 28.9). That I may glory translates the same form of the verb halal used in 105.3a. But it is desirable to translate line c in a clearer and more understandable manner than Good News Translation has done–at least to make clear that the verb “share” is implicit before “in the glad pride.” Or, joining verses 4 and 5, it may be better to translate as follows:
• 4 Remember me, LORD, when you help your people;
when you save them, also save me,
5 so that I may see your people prosper again,
and I may be happy together with them,
and share the pride of those who belong to you.
In some languages Remember me will carry the force of “recall who I am,” which presupposes that the person to be remembered has become forgotten. In such cases it may be better to say “Do not forget me….”
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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