sorrow

The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated in English as “painful” or “sorrow” is translated in Huba as “cut the insides.” David Frank explains: “Huba has just one expression that covers both ‘angry’ and ‘sad.’ They don’t make a distinction in their language. I suppose you could say that the term they use means more generically, ‘strong emotional reaction’ (source: David Frank in this blog post ). Similarly, in Bariai it is “the interior is severed/cut” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

In Noongar it is translated as koort-warra or “heart bad.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)

In Enlhet it is translated as “going aside of the innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )

See also grieving / sorrowful.

Translation commentary on Sirach 30:21

This is a good place for a paragraph break.

Do not give yourself over to sorrow, and do not afflict yourself deliberately: The author is not speaking of sorrow that has an obvious cause, such as a death in the family. He is talking of chronic unhappiness, an inability to enjoy life. Good News Translation uses a medical term, “depression.” The two lines of this verse mean essentially the same thing. Good News Translation reverses the lines and rewords them slightly in order to keep the elements of both lines without sounding repetitious. However, it is also possible to keep the two clauses without being repetitious by saying:

• Don’t be sad all the time or look for reasons to be upset.

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.