What is heavier than lead? And what is its name except “Fool”?: Heaviness is spoken of here as a bad thing, a load to be carried. If there is anything heavier, any load more burdensome, it is a fool. Ben Sira has cast his lesson here in the form of a riddle, a common form for teaching among the ancient wise men. In English we do not speak of a person who is hard to tolerate as being heavy, so Good News Translation rewords the verse, making the point of the comparison clear in doing so. This rewording works in English, but it may not be the best model. It may be better to say “Tolerating a foolish person is like trying to carry [a lump of] lead around.” Lead is a very heavy metal. In cultures that do not have lead translators may say “Tolerating a foolish person is like carrying a very heavy piece of metal around.”

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.