forget

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated as “forget” in English is translated in Noongar as dwangka-anbangbat, lit. “ear-lose.” (Source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018).

See also remember and forget (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Sirach 11:25

In the day of prosperity, adversity is forgotten, and in the day of adversity, prosperity is not remembered: Here the author sums up the thought of verses 23-24 in a little meditation about how people are always wrapped up in their present concerns. In both parts of the verse, In the day of means “In time of” or “When” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation offers a good translation for the whole verse; so does Contemporary English Version:

• When people are well off,
they never mention
how needy they once were,
and when they have trouble,
the good times are forgotten.

Another possible rendering is:

• In prosperous times, people forget about hard times. In hard times, they forget about prosperity.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.