The now commonly-used English idiom “apple of one’s eye” (meaning to be a cherished person) was first coined in 1382 in the English translation by John Wycliffe (in the spelling apple of his iye) (source: Crystal 2010, p. 289). For other idioms in English that were coined by Bible translation, see here.
In Russian, the phrase хранить/беречъ как зеницу ока (khranit’/berech’ kak zenitsu oka) or “to keep/ guard as an apple of the eye” is also very widely-used with a whole range of meanings, much beyond just a cherished person. The wording of the quote originated in the Russian Synodal Bible (publ. 1876). (Source: Reznikov 2020, p. 5)
In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) it is translated with the idiom ngati mwanadiso which means “pupil of the eye” — a poetic expression which signifies something that is very delicate and valuable just as the eye pupil. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 17:8:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Keep me like the pupil of an eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“Keep protecting us like the pupil of [Your] eye.
Keep us hidden in the shadow of Your wings.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“Take-care of me like a man takes-care of his eyes,
and protect me like a bird protects her newly-hatched-chicks under her wings.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“Request that you protect me just like you protect your own eyes. And allow me to be under your wings” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“Take care of me as you take care of your eyes.
You hide me in shadow of your wings.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Unilinde kama jichoni mwako,
unifiche katika kivuli cha mabawa yako,” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Protect me as people carefully protect their own eyes;
protect me like birds protect their babies under their wings.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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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-te (御翼) or “wings (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.
Here, kakumatte (かくまって) or “hide” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
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 and Revised Standard Version differ on the division of the strophes; most translations agree with Revised Standard Version, but New American Bible divides as does Good News Translation. It may be better to follow Revised Standard Version.
The first line of verse 8 is literally “Guard me as the pupil, the daughter of the eye”; “pupil” in Hebrew is literally “little man” (as reflected in one’s eye) and apple is an English figure for the Hebrew figure “daughter” (see the same figure in Deut 32.10; Pro 7.2). In Hebrew, as in English and many other languages, the apple of the eye is especially precious and must be carefully protected. Apple of the eye is frequently expressed as “the child of the eye,” “the daughter of the eye,” or “the fruit of the eye.”
The next figure, the shadow of thy wings, is a vivid way of speaking about security (also in 36.7; 57.1; 61.4; 63.7; 91.4). The figure may come from the animal world or from the winged creatures called “cherubim” whose wings stretched over the Covenant Box, symbolizing Yahweh’s presence with his people (Exo 25.18-20).
In some languages it may be necessary to switch from hide me to “protect me”; for example, “Protect me in the shade of your wings.” Where it is necessary to give a fuller expression to make the figurative meaning clear, one can often combine the figure with a simile; for example, “Protect me like a bird protects its young under its wings.”
From the wicked is literally “from the face of the wicked,” which may mean “from the fury of the wicked” (see Anderson). The verb translated despoil is a strong one; it means to completely destroy, devastate (in 91.6a it is used for “plague, pestilence”).
Deadly enemies (An American Translation, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New English Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy) translates a phrase “my enemies in nefesh.” Some take nefesh here in the sense of greed (Briggs, Anderson), “my enemies, who in their greed” (New American Bible “my ravenous enemies”). Others take it to refer to the psalmist himself, as in “my enemies … try to kill me” (see comments on “of me” in 3.2). My deadly enemies may require recasting, particularly in languages where “my enemies” is expressed as “people who fight against me” or “people who hate me.” Here one may say, for example, “people who fight me and want to kill me.”
The verb translated surround has the sense of “close in on” (see also 22.16; 48.12).
In verse 10 They close their hearts to pity (Good News Translation “they have no pity”) translates the Hebrew “They have shut tight their fat.” It is generally agreed that this means lack of compassion (see New Jerusalem Bible “engrossed in themselves”); some, however, see it as a figure of rebellion against God (see Isa 6.10, where “a fat heart” stands for stubbornness, unwillingness to obey God). Any reference to obesity should be avoided in translation (see Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “they are stuffed with fat”; Dahood “clogged with their blubber”).
Arrogantly translates a word meaning pride (also in 10.2) and is sometimes expressed figuratively as “having a swollen heart.”
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 .
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 17 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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