Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 30:10:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“Hear Jehovah and have mercy on me;
Jehovah be my help.’” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“O LORD, Listen to my request.
Have mercy on me.
Help me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“LORD, listen to me and have-mercy-(on-me).
Help me!’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru:
“O God! Request you listen and have mercy on me. O God! Request you help me!” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
Laarim:
“LORD, listen to me and have mercy on me.
LORD, you be my Savior.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Ee BWANA, usikie, uje na huruma kwangu.
Ee BWANA, unisaidie.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“Yahweh, listen to me, and be merciful to me! Yahweh, help me!’” (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 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, kīte (聞いて) or “listen” 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).”
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 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, awarende (あわれんで) or “have mercy/compassion” 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. )
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 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, natte (なって) or “become” 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. )
The psalmist pleads with Yahweh, arguing that his death will be of no value to Yahweh, since in Sheol the dead do not praise him (see 6.5 for the same idea).
In verse 8 the Hebrew text changes from the second person of address in line a to the third person in line b; Good News Translation maintains the second person in both lines.
I made supplication: the verb in line b means to ask for mercy, favor, help. New International Version has “I made my appeal,” New Jerusalem Bible “I cry for mercy,” and New English Bible “I plead for mercy.”
Verses 9-10 are the psalmist’s prayer for help. It may be helpful to introduce them with the words “I said” or “I prayed.”
The rhetorical questions in verse 9 all call for a negative answer. It should be noted that the Hebrew text in verse 9 says “What gain is there in my death (literally ‘in my blood’), in my going down to the Pit?” which Good News Translation has interpreted as profit to Yahweh (also Kirkpatrick, Weiser, Taylor, Cohen, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Some, however, see it as a question of the psalmist’s own gain; he is saying he would profit nothing by dying, for in Sheol he cannot praise God and proclaim his faithfulness (see Anderson). But this would be a strange argument, and the former view is more probable. Death is Yahweh’s doing, and the psalmist argues that his death would bring no profit to Yahweh.
Good News Translation‘s “from my death” will in some languages be translated “if I die.” The Pit is Sheol (as in 16.10).
In verse 9c dead people are spoken of as the dust. Sheol, the world of the dead, was pictured as a place of darkness and dust (see 22.15, 29; 88.10-12; 115.17 for descriptions of Sheol). The question the psalmist asks God, Will the dust praise thee? is most appropriate as a rhetorical question and in many languages will require a reply, “No!” In some languages it will be necessary to make clear that it is the dead in the dust who are referred to, or simply “dead people” as in Good News Translation.
The Hebrew word translated faithfulness in some contexts means “truth” (see 15.2); so New English Bible has “proclaim thy truth.” Most, however, take it here to mean “faithfulness, steadfastness, loyalty” (Good News Translation “unfailing goodness”). Thy faithfulness is often expressed by a verb phrase; for example, “people can always trust in you.”
The plea in verse 10 uses the same verb be gracious used in 4.1c; here Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “have compassion on me”; New International Version “be merciful to me,” New Jerusalem Bible “take pity on me.”
As in 10.14d, helper in line b is equivalent to “savior.” It means not simply to assist, to lend a hand, but to rescue, to save, from a desperate situation.
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 30 from the 1946 edition is in tetrameter and the rhyme schemes are -i and -u (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
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