Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 12:1:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Help me Jehovah for there is no faithful person;
the faithful are missing among the people.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“O LORD! Help us.
Not a single good person remains.
Not a single trustworthy person remains.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“LORD, help me,
for there-is-no-one left/remaining who (is) godly and trustworthy.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“Oh God! Request you help! There are no longer any good people, and straight good people, one can look for them, but they cannot be found.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“Lord help me, because people who obeyed God be lost,
people who are faithful in the middle of them died.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Ee BWANA, utuokoe,
hakuna ambaye anakuogopa,
hakuna mtegemewa yeyote katika watu.” (Source: Nyakyusa 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 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.
The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “save” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-sukui (お救い), combining “save” (sukui) with the respectful prefix o-. In these cases, kudasaru (くださる) is also attached, a respectful form of a benefactive, emphasizing the respectful notion. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Help translates the Hebrew verb “to save,” which is used some forty-seven times in Psalms; it means to rescue, save, deliver from illness, physical peril, enemies, or death–anything that threatens the well-being or life of the one who prays. It is the verb from which the noun “savior” is formed, as is the proper name Joshua (which in its Greek form becomes Jesus). In translation it is frequently necessary to make explicit the condition from which one is being saved or rescued. In the present context “evil” or “evil people” is implied.
Since the psalm expresses the feeling of a group, Good News Translation, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have added “us” (the Septuagint has “me”).
In exaggerated language the psalmist says that “the godly have come to an end (same verb as in 7.9), and the faithful have vanished.” For godly see comments at 4.3.
The faithful translates an adjective formed from a verb meaning to be firm, true, constant; here the word may be taken either as “faithful people” (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) or as an abstract, “faithfulness, loyalty” (so New English Bible, New American Bible). The personal form seems more likely, since it is parallel with the godly in line a. New Jerusalem Bible translates the two “the faithful … the loyal”; Bible en français courant “the loyal … the trustworthy people.” It is often unnatural to speak elliptically of people by a quality which characterizes them, as in the faithful. One may say, however, “people who remain loyal to you” or “people who follow you faithfully.”
The verb in the Hebrew text translated have vanished is a form that is otherwise unknown; most scholars correct it to a verb found elsewhere (see 77.8, where the other verb “come to an end” is also used as a parallel).1 Hebrew Old Testament Text Project is of the opinion that the verb may be translated either “they are diminished” (that is, there are fewer of them; so the Septuagint) or “they have disappeared” (that is, there are no more left).
For the sons of men see comment at 11.4, where Revised Standard Version translates the same Hebrew expression as “the children of men.” The expression among the sons of men is not explicitly rendered in Good News Translation. In other languages it may be necessary to complete the idea of disappearing; for example, “they are no longer seen by men’s eyes,” or actively, “people no longer see them.”
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 .
The following are presentations by the Psalms: Layer by Layer project, run by Scriptura . The first is an overview, the second an introduction into the poetry, and the third an introduction into the exegesis of Psalm 12.
John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 12 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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