Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 77:4:
Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
“You held my eyelids that I do not sleep
and I was very troubled to speak.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Newari:
“You didn’t even let me go to sleep.
My heart was broken, I couldn’t even speak.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon:
“He causes- me not -to-sleep;
I do- not -know what to-say, because I am-troubled.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Laarim:
“You stopped my eyes from sleep,
I was in trouble much until I did not talk.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
“Ulininyiima usingizi usiku wote,
niliteseka, nilishindwa hata kusema.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
English:
“All during the night he prevents me from sleeping;
I am very worried, with the result that I do not know what to say.” (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.”
In verse 4a the psalmist blames God for his sleeplessness; he cannot sleep because he is so upset and discouraged by God’s failure to answer his prayers. The Hebrew text has the second person form of address to God (Revised Standard VersionThou); Good News Translation uses the third person for consistency with the preceding verses. But the second person is more direct and vivid and should be retained, if possible. If it is kept, something like “You, LORD…” or “You, O God…” may be helpful.
I am so troubled is often rendered idiomatically as “I see pain” or “I smell suffering.” I cannot speak: “I don’t know what to say.”
Since his present experience provides him with no comfort, the psalmist decides to consider Israel’s past history (verse 5).
In verse 5b remember translates the verb which in the Masoretic text appears as the first word of verse 6; it seems better to take it with verse 5b, parallel with consider in verse 5a (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New English Bible, New American Bible). But some translations take it with verse 6, leaving the one verb I consider in verse 5a to govern both lines of verse 5, and translate the word in verse 6a in the Masoretic text by “my song”; so An American Translation “By night I remember my song” (also Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I remember when I used to sing at night.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “my song” as “their jibes at me,” which is rather improbable, since no enemies taunting the psalmist are referred to.
It will be noticed that in line adays is stepped up in line b to years. This follows the same pattern as number parallelism where, for example, “once” in line a will be increased to “twice” in line b. The sense of verse 5 is “I think of days gone by and even remember years of long ago” or “Not only do I remember the days of the past, but I even recall the years long ago.” In languages in which one does not remember the years, but rather the events of the years, it may be necessary to say, for example, “I remember the things that happened many years ago.”
In verse 6 Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow the Septuagint, Syriac, and VulgateI commune (with my heart); New English Bible changes the vowels of the Hebrew word to arrive at the meaning “all night long I was in deep distress.”
It is possible that the Masoretic text “I remember my song in the night with my heart” can be translated as An American Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy do; but the ancient versions, followed by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and Bible en français courant, make more sense (so Briggs, Oesterley, Weiser, Anderson). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project is substantially in favor of Revised Standard Version. Dahood has “through the night I play the lyre, with my heart I commune.”
In verse 6b I meditate translates the same verb used in verse 3b. Good News Translation “I ask myself” translates “my spirit inquires”; there is no need, as Revised Standard Versionsearch my spirit does, to prefer the versions here over the Masoretic text.
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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