worry

The Greek and Hebrew that are translated as “worry” or “anxious” in English are translated in Navajo (Dinė) as “my mind is killing me.” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 24)

Nida (1952, p. 124) also gives other examples:

“The Piro in Peru use almost the same idiom when they say that a worried man is ‘one who is hard chased.’ The worried person is like a pursued animal in the forest trying to elude the hunter. The impenetrable jungle of the future, the failing strength, and the exhaustion of doubt all press hard upon the soul. And one’s heart seems to fail and even disappear. This is the very phrase employed by the Tzeltal Indians in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico. They describe ‘worry’ by the words ‘their hearts are gone.'”

See also anxious / worried about many things and worries/cares of the world/this age.

Translation commentary on Sirach 42:9

A daughter keeps her father secretly wakeful, and worry over her robs him of sleep: This means that the daughter does not know that the father lies awake at night worrying about her. The word secretly is expressed by Good News Translation with the clause “Although he will not let … know it,” but Contemporary English Version‘s translation of these two lines is simpler: “I know that secretly you fathers worry about your daughters and lose sleep, while questions trouble your minds.”

When she is young, lest she do not marry, or if married, lest she be hated: Good News Translation offers a good approach to these lines, but we may revise the model slightly by saying “If she is young, he worries that she might not get married [or, find a husband]. If she is already married, he worries about whether her husband will love her or not.”

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.