Or as, when a bird flies through the air, no evidence of its passage is found: Again, this is a statement in Good News Translation, which has “A bird flies through the air, but leaves no sign that it has been there.”

The light air, lashed by the beat of its pinions and pierced by the force of its rushing flight, is traversed by the movement of its wings: In its own way, Revised Standard Version is a fine translation of these lines. The words lashed, pinions, pierced, rushing, and traversed are high-level terms that would not be used in normal prose unless the author was striving for effect, as is true here. For instance, pinions, a very rare word for “wings,” translates a Greek word that is likewise used rarely. Compare New English Bible “but with the stroke of her pinions she lashes the insubstantial breeze and parts it with the whirr and the rush of her beating wings, and so she passes through it” and New Jerusalem Bible “it whips the light air with the stroke of its pinions, tears it apart in its whirring rush, drives its way onward with sweeping wing.” Good News Translation of course is simpler, and it expresses the meaning quite well, but without any particularly striking use of language. Good translators will know how high a level of language they can afford to use; but in any case, all translators should make some effort to convey an impression of a bird in flight, using its muscle power to split the thin air with beating wings. An alternative model is “It speeds along, beating its wings to force a way through the thin [or, light] air.”

And afterward no sign of its coming is found there: There, of course, refers to the air. Just as the ship leaves no track in the water, the bird leaves no track in the air. This line for the most part repeats what has been said in the second line of the verse (no evidence of its passage is found), but it is needed here. Translators may want to consider phrasing this in such a way so as to echo the last line of verse 10 and verse 12 in translation. The lines are not identical in Greek, but repetition of the same phrase, if possible, might help the reader follow the logic of the passage. For instance, looking back at our suggestions for verse 10, translators might say here:

• A bird flies through the air, but leaves no sign that it has been there. It beats its wings against the thin [or, light] air and slices its way through as it soars on its way, leaving nothing to show it was ever there.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.