How direct can a direct translation be? - Christo van der Merwe
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HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies
ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422
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Author:
Christo H.J. van der Merwe1
Affiliation:
1Department of Ancient
Studies, Stellenbosch
University, South Africa
Corresponding author:
Christo van der Merwe,
CVDM@sun.ac.za
Dates:
Received: 29 Oct. 2015
Accepted: 16 Jan. 2016
Published: 08 July 2016
How to cite this article:
Van der Merwe Christo H.J.,
2016, How direct can a
direct translation be? Some
perspectives from the
realities of a new type of
church Bible, HTS Teologiese
Studies/Theological Studies
72(3), a3233. http://dx.doi.
org/10.4102/hts.v72i3.3233
Copyright:
2016. The Authors.
Licensee: AOSIS. This work
is licensed under the
Creative Commons
Attribution License.
Introduction1
Die Bybel. n Direkte vertaling (The Bible: a direct translation) is a new type of church Bible in
the making that represents after nearly five years of research and negotiations a scholarly
response to specific needs of more conservative churches that use the Bible in Afrikaans in South
Africa and Namibia. The story of this project is described in Van der Merwe (2012).2 The skopos
of this Bible is that it is a direct translation. In Van der Merwe (2014) it is illustrated that a direct
translation of the Bible is not new jargon for a word-for-word translation of the Bible. It is an
attempt to interpretively resemble in good idiomatic Afrikaans all the communicative clues of
the source text in the contexts construed for the source text audience. This foreignising translation
tries to let the Bible speak idiomatic Afrikaans in the time of the Bible. However, whenever the
language structure and the conceptual world behind the language and culture of the source text
could not be adequately understood and/or represented in the translation, or may be
misunderstood by modern readers, additional information is provided in the paratext
(e.g. introductions to the biblical books, maps, illustrations, footnotes and a glossary). Appiah
(1993) calls this a thick translation.
The model attempts to fully embrace the new horizons that have been opened in recent times by
developments in both Translation Studies and Cognitive Linguistics. However, the notion direct
translation is a theoretical construct that operates with notions like authoritative source texts
and interpretive resemblance (or directional equivalence in the words of Pym 2010) that do not
resonate well with most current Translation Studies scholars.3 Although it is indeed impossible to
1.The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa toward this research is hereby acknowledged.
Opinions expressed in this publication and the conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed
to the NRF.
2.See also Van der Merwe & Basson (2003), Van der Merwe & Van Rensburg (2007) and http://www.bybeldirektevertaling.co.za/
3.Cf. e.g. Bassnett (2014).
The skopos of this new type of church Bible is: How would the source texts of the Bible have
sounded in Afrikaans in the context envisaged for its hypothesised first audience(s)? Fully
acknowledging the complexities of language as a dynamic and complex system embedded in
the culture and conceptual world of its speakers, as well as the wide range of frames that are
involved in the process of Bible translation as a difficult form of secondary communication,
this article addresses two of the challenges of this ambitious project. In the first section the
incongruence between the world of the Old Testament and speakers of Afrikaans is treated.
Examples are provided of instances where both the nature of difficult secondary intercultural
communication as well as the subjective theories of the host audience constrains the directness
of the translation. In the second section, some of the challenges of distinguishing between the
formal and functional features of Biblical Hebrew are dealt with. The article concludes that,
although the notion communicative clue provides a useful heuristic device to act as point of
departure for negotiations on the construal of the meaning of the text in the source language
and host language respectively, the notion has to be supplemented by insights from the fields
of cultural anthropology, cognitive linguistics and linguistic typology. A better understanding
of how meaning works (e.g. how linguistic expressions act as windows into the conceptual
worlds of speakers, how the meaning of expressions may shift and develop, as well as processes
of grammaticalisation) provides members of a translation team with some criteria to make
informed decisions when they negotiate how the meaning of specific Biblical Hebrew
constructions are to be construed directly in Afrikaans.
How direct can a direct translation be? Some
perspectives from the realities of a new type of
church Bible
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fully interpretively resemble all the communicative clues of
a source text in a direct translation, it is reasonable to argue
that this neither renders the ideal invalid, nor makes it
obsolete to explore strategies to come closer to the ideal (as
expressed by the commissioners, the churches).
In the typical world of Bible translation, the authoritative role
of the source language texts is not negotiable. According to
Nord (2001), in commissioned translations, a translator has a
multiple loyalty, on the one hand, towards the author(s) of
the source text, and on the other hand, the commissioner of
the project. In the case of this project that represents a novel
effort as far as the use of the notion direct translation is
concerned, it could be regarded as the professional duty of
the translators4 to subject to scholarly scrutiny their proposed
strategies to address the needs of their commissioner(s) on a
continuing basis. The purpose of this paper is to make a
contribution in this regard. It is hypothesised that a description
of some of the typical examples of the challenges that need to
be faced, the strategies that had been followed and the
compromises that have appeared to be unavoidable, will
contribute not only to more realistic expectations concerning
what can and what cannot be accomplished when trying to
make a direct translation of the Bible; it will also profile the
nature and extent of the information, knowledge and skills
that are required and reveal some of the weaknesses and
strengths of the strategies that have been opted for. These
insights could be valuable for refinement of the translation
model, as well as the training of Bible translation teams.
The article commences with a summary of the basic
assumptions that undergird most of the strategies employed
and translation solutions proposed. In the main section of the
article I focus on what I regard as two of the major challenges
of a direct translation, viz. the incongruence of the cultural
frames of the source and host languages and that of
distinguishing between the formal and functional features of
the source text. Although only a few examples of these two
challenges are treated, some tentative practical and theoretical
conclusions are drawn from the practice of pursuing the lofty,
but practically impossible, ideal that has been negotiated
with the churches.
Basic assumptions
Not all the assumptions that are listed here have been
explicitly described and/or documented in the run-up to this
project, but most of them can be inferred from the parameters
considered and the strategies that have been followed during
the planning and implementation processes.5 While the first
two assumptions listed here could be regarded as
foundational, the second two are operational. For this reason
the implementation of the latter assumptions had been
influenced and informed by some of the challenges that arose
in the course of the project.
4.The author of this article is part of the editorial committee of the Old Testament of
this project. However, the views expressed (and interpretations made) in this paper
are that of the researcher and not that of the Biblical Society of South Africa or that
of the editorial committee of the project.
5.Cf. Van der Merwe (2012 and 2014).
Firstly, an interactional model of communication is assumed.6
In other words, a model of communication is used that
acknowledges that the use of language in translation (as a
form of communication) entails much more than the exchange
of codes. The codes that are used in a source text are not only
embedded in the conceptual worlds of those source language
cultures, but are typically interpreted by readers in terms of
their own conceptual worlds.
Secondly, Bible translation is an extremely complex form of
secondary communication.7 It involves at least the socio-
cultural, organisational and speech situation frames of the
source text and source language communities as well as
those of the translator(s) and host language communities
which are removed remotely from them in space and time.8
As far as the source language is concerned, the long and
complicated transmission of the source text has led to many
uncertainties concerning the source text that has to be
translated.9 The limited corpus of Biblical Hebrew texts that
are available also sometimes makes an adequate grammatical
and lexical description of the various text types and
diachronic phases of BH difficult.10 Even more complex is the
identity and world of the source language communities
whose conceptual worlds we try to reconstruct.
The host language audience and by implication the
commissioners of this translation are primarily the members
of more conservative churches who are used to the 1933/1953
word-for-word translation of the Bible in Afrikaans. Their
basis for comparison (which will include English conservative
translations), their views of what the Bible is for them and
their expectations will need to be taken into account in the
way in which translation problems are resolved. For this
reason an explicit translation brief was negotiated
beforehand with the commissioners of this project.11 However,
room had to be left for the fact that not all the expectations of
all the intended readers of this translation would necessarily
be captured by the translation brief. Furthermore, not all the
implications of a direct translation have necessarily been
contemplated by both the translators as well as the churches
in this pioneering project.
Thirdly, paratexts could be used to broaden the conceptual
world of the readers, point out instances where the reading
and/or interpretation of the source is problematic or could be
misunderstood by readers. It has to be expected that the
question of how much information had to be provided,
where and in what format could be one of the major
challenges of this project.
6.For more details about the interactional model, cf. Schiffrin (1994:397405).
7.See Gutt (2000) in this regards.
8.See Wendland (2008) and Wilt and Wendland (2008).
9.See Tov (2001) and Khan (2013).
10.See Rezetko & Young (2014) and Miller-Naud & Zevit (2012).
11.See Van der Merwe (2012) for more detail concerning the research that informed
the negotiation process and details of the translation brief and skopus of the
project. See also http://www.nuwekerkbybel.co.za.Page 3 of 11 Original Research
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An important implication of the first three assumptions is
that the responsibility for making the most justifiable choices
for the perceived host audience rests heavily on the shoulders
of the editorial committees. They have a deciding role in,
(1) the construal of the meaning of the source texts in the
contexts of the hypothesised first audience; (2) the
negotiation of how a perceived Afrikaans audience would
have spoken Afrikaans in the context of the hypothesised
first audience and (3) the decisions of when and how the
conceptual world of the host audience need to be enriched by
paratextual means. In this process, each of the committees
had to both probe into and evaluate on a continued basis
their own knowledge bases, preferences and points of view.
For this purpose, despite its shortcomings, the notion of
communicative clue turned out to be useful.
Fourthly, Gutts notion (2000) of communicative clue could
be used as a heuristic device. According to Gutt (2000:1326)
the communicative clues from the source text are keys in the
complex process of Bible translation. Communicative clues
are, in the words of Hatim (2013:112), features built into the
text for the purpose of guiding the audience to the intended
interpretation. They are textual features which vary in degree
of subtlety and which are perceived to be particularly
significant for the intended meaning.
In Van der Merwe (2014) it has been pointed out that some
aspects of the communicative clues that Gutt distinguishes
can be called into question. The main reason in this regard is
that Gutts theoretical model, Relevance Theory, is a theory of
pragmatics. It focuses on how language is used, but does
not provide much insight into how the meaning(s) of
linguistic expressions emerge, change, may develop and are
systematically related.
Nevertheless, cognitive semantics, which is compatible with
many of Gutts pioneering ideas, has opened new horizons
on how the meaning of linguistic expressions work in
language as a dynamic and complex system.12 Although
aspects of this relatively recent paradigm that treats
language as a window into the conceptual world of its users
are still debated and many of its principles have not yet
been applied widely in the description of the source
languages of the Bible, a basic awareness of new insights of
how meaning works and develops in language is
demonstrating its value as this project advances. From the
challenges described in the next section it will be clear that,
although the notion of communicative clue is a useful
heuristic device, the task of identifying and interpretively
resembling covert communicative clues arising from the
semantic representation of the expressions (Gutt 2000:136)
could be very complex. This will be the topic of the
subsequent section. Also, fully understanding the function
of overt communicative clues is not unproblematic, in
particular distinguishing between expressions that encode a
semantic value and those that are merely conventionalised
formal features of the source text. Some examples in this
12.See Evans (2009) and Geeraerts (2010:182287).
regard are treated in the section on the formal and functional
features of the source language.
Challenges and proposed solutions
This section focuses on the challenges and proposed solutions
to interpretively resemble the source text in idiomatic
Afrikaans as if it was spoken in the time of the Bible.
However, this translation is not prepared for an academic
audience, and any proposed translation solution (and where
relevant, also its paratext) cannot ignore subjective theories13
(e.g. what other translations its projected readers are used to,
how they view Scripture, etc.). How this parameter influenced
the translation solutions proposed will also be indicated
below.14
Incongruent cultural frames
It may be argued that proper names, geographical entities
and artifacts which typically have unique referents, should
be fairly straightforward. In a sense, this is indeed the case.
However, the situation is also not always without its
challenges.
Proper names like Jerusalem and Samaria do not pose a
problem because both scholars and readers agree that their
spellings are already entrenched in Germanic languages like
Afrikaans and English. What did require some consideration
is how proper names in general should be treated. Should
they be translated or transcribed? If they are transcribed,
which system of transcription should be used? In terms of the
skopos of a direct translation, they should be transcribed,
and where relevant provided with a translation in a footnote.
However, it was asked whether new spellings would indeed
contribute to the type of translation that the churches
requested in a translation that is already foreignising in
nature. Would technically correct transcriptions not rather
merely represent a scholarly zeal for consistency a zeal that
may even alienate some prospective readers? It was therefore
decided that the spellings of proper names that readers have
become used to in the 1983 translation of the Bible should be
followed as far as possible. In cases where it could be argued
that the understanding of the meaning of a place is relevant
for the communication involved, a translation is provided in a
footnote, e.g. in 1 Samuel 7:12, it is indicated that Eben-Haeser
means klip van die hulp [stone of the help/assistance].15
More problematic has been the translation of the names of
God. While God for elhm ( ) is widely accepted, some
prospective readers proposed that the real name of YHWH
( ), namely Yahweh, should be used. Although it is
technically speaking a more justifiable choice, it was argued
13.For the notion subjective theories of readers, cf. Nord (2001).
14.The translations that are finalised by the editorial committee of the project, are
submitted to a team of readers appointed by the churches who commissioned the
translation. The translations are also posted on the website of the BSSA for any
reader to comment on the proposed translation. The translations of the BDV that
are used in this article are therefore provisional.
15.In the headings of some psalms, musical terms, of which the meaning is uncertain,
have been transcribed. In a footnote a possible interpretation is given and/or it is
indicated that the meaning of the term is uncertain, e.g. Psalms 39:1, 42:1; 45:1.Page 4 of 11 Original Research
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that, given the conservative nature of many of the prospective
readers, it would be prudent not to try to change the name of
the Lord for conservative Christians. Here (in small caps)
was opted for. A section in a glossary is planned where the
various translation options used for the names of God are
explained. Particularly challenging in this regard were, l-
adday ( ) and YHWH t ( ).16 The latter has
been translated in the KJV Lord of Hosts and in some more
recent translations as The Lord Almighty. This practice was
introduced by the Old Greek translation of 200 BCE and also
adopted in the 1983 Afrikaans translation and some other
modern English translations (e.g. NIV and the GNB). Since it
was argued that the attribute Almighty has too great a
theological load and could lead to wrong (and sometimes)
dangerous inferences by readers, it was decided that the
equivalent of Almighty should be avoided. On the basis of a
small research project,17 a proposal to use the term die
Heerser oor Alle Magte [the Ruler of All Powers], was
accepted. How this option will be accepted by the projected
readers is an open question.
If one shifts to the referents of geographical spaces, one is
confronted with the fact that the way in which cultures
perceive and divide their environment differ. The labels they
assign to the mental representations of their geographical
environment differ and could easily be misunderstood and
assigned inadequate or misleading translation equivalents.
If one considers the translation equivalent of the Hebrew
geographical term fl )), it is apparent that translators
of modern English translations have not been very certain
how to render this expression that refers exclusively to the
low lying hill country west of the central Judean mountain
range. Some translate it as the lowland (ESV, NET, NJB, and
NRSV), the western foothills (NIV and CEB), the foothills
to the west (CEV), heuvelland (NBV), while others render it
as the shephelah (NJPS and REB). Since this term is
culturally specific, and refers only to the foothills to the west
of the Judean mountain range, a direct translation will have
to follow the NJPS and REB and use the term the shephelah
with a footnote and/or glossary item to explain what the
referent of the term is.18
Another apparently straightforward geographical lexical
item for which the referents conceptualisations in various
contexts are often not certain, is the Hebrew lexeme naal
( ). The lexeme naal occurs, according to a concordance
search in Logos, about 137x in 119 verses of the Bible. In the
NRSV, it is translated 66x as wadi, 19x as valley, 15x as
stream and 12x as torrent. In the NIV it is translated 34x as
valley, 19x as stream, 16x as ravine, 14x as gorge, 14x
as river and 7x as wadi (only in the phrase the wadi of
16.See also Van der Toorn, Becking and Van der Horst (1999).
17.How the names of God will be translated, in addition to a range of other
agreements on the translation of flora and fauna, the names of minerals, some key
words, etcetra, have been provisionally agreed upon and recorded at the outset
of the project (as part of the translation brief).
18.Many translations do acknowledge the uniqueness of this terms referent
(e.g. CEB, NIV, ISV and Elberfelder).
Egypt). The translation value of the lexical item depends on
which dimension, that is conceptual representation, of its
semantic potential is profiled in each context of its use. It is
possible that the difference in the translation equivalences
referred to above reflects the translators expert knowledge,
or lack thereof, of the geography of Palestine. The reality that
the features of a specific naal changed over three millennia
is, of course, also a parameter to be taken into consideration.
According to Snijders (1998:335340), a naal prototypically
refers to a valley cut by a stream, often quite deep. The water,
which runs down the mountains with great force during the
rainy season ... carves a channel in the soil ... a naal is a stream
that flows only after rain, but then with great force and volume.
To determine its translation value, we used the above-
mentioned definition as point of departure, but had to consider
the contextual frames, as well as collocations of each of its uses.
So far we have made the following distinctions (which are also
found in most BH lexical resources, for example Brown, Driver
and Briggs [1907] and Koehler and Baumgartner [1999]):
- Spruit (most English translations render here stream) 1
(BDV) Hy het hulle gevat en hulle deur die spruit laat gaan en daarna ook wat aan hom behoort, laat deurtrek (NRSV) He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had (Gn. 32:23). In these cases a footnote would be not necessary for speakers of Afrikaans since spruit refers to what is prototypically referred to be means of naal. 2. Dal (dale)19 2
(BDV) Toe hulle die Eskoldal bereik19 When they reached the Eshcol dale (Nm. 13:32). We avoided an equivalent like valley since it may invoke a conceptual representation of a luscious green flat area between two mountains for many modern Afrikaans readers. The translation of dal [dale] could be regarded as neutral enough in this regard and may even render a footnote to explain the detail of the Hebrew equivalent superfluous. 3. Rivierwilger [river willow]20 3
(BDV) die takke van welig groeiende bome en rivierwilgers branches of leafy trees, and river willows (Lv 23:40).20 19.Cf. also Genesis 26:17; Numbers 21:12 and Deuteronomy 2:37. 20.Cf. also Leviticus 11:9.Page 5 of 11 Original Research http://www.hts.org.za Open Access It could be argued that in #3 the concrete conceptual representation of naal is downplayed and only its metonymic association with something that contains water is profiled. No footnote would be needed to fully understand the utterances in which it is used. These two cases (#2 and #3) can, in terms of our cognitive semantic model, be regarded as non-prototypical, but plausible context-induced modulations of the typical conceptual representation of naal. Many other challenges for a direct translation can be attributed to the difference in the geographical space and physical environment of the source language and host language audiences, e.g. distinguishing between a mountain and a hill when the source language construction har ( ) can refer to both, or when the source language uses the notion of going up or going down and the host audience does not have a mental representation of the geography of Siro- Palestine, etc. As far as human-made things are concerned, a useful resource in Paratext often provided us the information needed to broaden the conceptual world of our host audience, e.g. the notion cistern br ( ), a pit dug out in rock used for storing water, in contrast to a well br ( ), a deep construction, often walled with stone, at the bottom of which was a pool of water (Pritz 2009:158159). This referential information is needed to understand the use of br ( ) in #4. In these cases we translated br often as an opgaarput [storage pit].21 4
(BDV) Kom ons maak hom nou dood en gooi hom in een van hierdie opgaarputte. (NIV) Come now, lets kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns (Gn 37:20).21 In a number of instances, it is evident that these cisterns were also used as places where people were imprisoned (#5).22 5
(BDV) Dit het teen middernag gebeur. Die Here het alle eersgeborenes in Egipteland getref, van die eersgeborene van die farao wat op die troon gesit het tot die eersgeborene van die krygsgevangene in die ondergrondse kelder, ook al die eersgeborenes van die vee. It happened at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock (Ex 12:29).22 21.Also Genesis 37:20, 22, 24 28, 29; Exodus 21:33, 34; Deuteronomy 6:11; 1 Samuel 13:6; 19:22; 2 Kings 10:14; 18:31; 1 Chronicles 11:17, 18; 2 Chronicles 26:10; Nehemia 9:25; Ecclesiates 12:6; Isaiah 36:16; Jeremiah 2:13; 41:7 and 41:9. 22.Also Genesis 40:15; 41:14; Exodus 12:29; Jeremiah 2:13; 38:6, 7, 9,10 ,11, 13. From #6, it appears as if one may deduce that these ondergrondse kelder or kerkers [dungeons] typically retained their function as constructions that collect water. 6
(BDV) ... sal Ek jou gevangenes uit n waterlose opgaarput vrylaat ... I will set free your prisoners from a waterless pit (Zch 9:11).23 This association of wetness and mud with br, is found also in #7.2324 7
(BDV) Hy het my opgetrek uit die
dreunende put, uit die modderige slik.
(NIV) He lifted me out of the slimy pit,24
out of the mud and mire (Ps 40:3).
In this latter case, br is now used to refer to the underworld
although not always (Ps. 88:7, Pr. 28:17; Is. 14:19; Lm. 3:55;
Ezk. 32:23) but typically in the collocation die wat afdaal in
die put [those who go down into the pit ( )] (Ps. 28:1;
30:4; 88:5; Pr 1:12; Is 14:19; 38:18; Ezk. 26:20; 31:14,16;
32:18,24,25,29,30).
Only the negative connotation of br is profiled in its non-
prototypical use in #8. Its role to refer to a construction to
collect water, a place to keep prisoners or the underworld, is
certainly downplayed here.
8
(BDV) Wie n put grawe en dit uithol, val in die gat wat hy gemaak het (ESV) He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made (Ps 7:16). To these few relatively simple realia from the ancient world, one can add all the social conventions, as well as religious conventions and rituals that governed the life of the people of the biblical world. If one reads in Genesis 20:3 that Abraham , the English translations range from he sojourned in Gerar (ESV); for a while he stayed in Gerar (NIV); he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar (NET); residing in Gerar as an alien (NRSV); he settled as an immigrant in and Gerar (CEB). Although it is obvious that Abraham stayed only for a short while in Gerar, the social conventions (e.g. of politeness) that govern the relationship between the sojourner and the local people, and in particular the chief or king of the area, are oblivious for the modern reader. Without additional information that supplements the use of the translation that is opted for, the notion immigrant; alien; outsider; temporary resident could easily be misunderstood. In South Africa, for example, it may be understood contextually as the Zimbabweans who take the jobs of the local people, etc. We opted for as vreemdeling vertoef [sojourned] with a footnote for vreemdeling: Dit is n persoon wat om politieke of ekonomiese redes sy eie land verlaat het en tydelik in n 23.Also Jeremiah 38:6. 24.The interpretation of the Hebrew equivalent of slimy is uncertain. Page 6 of 11 Original Research http://www.hts.org.za Open Access ander land woon. Vreemdelinge wat tydelike verblyf by die Israeliete gekry het, het beskerming geniet van die koning. [It is a person who, because of political or economic reasons, leaves his own land and resides temporarily in another land. Sojourners who got temporary residence from the Israelites enjoyed protection from the king.]. One may ask: Is this too much or too little additional information for the host audience? Is this footnote not misleading? For example, was the protection referred to not a general convention in the Ancient Near East? Furthermore, did the meaning of the term and the scripts and frames associated with it not change over time?25 According to Kellerman (1977:446), in the priestly code, for example, a ger is largely regarded as a proselyte living among Israelites. The lexemes for cistern and sojourner exemplify how it is possible to reconstruct the prototypical mental representation of these lexemes in the Biblical world and to bring the conceptual world of modern readers through footnotes in line with that of the source text users. However, when one has to translate all the uses of the lexemes in the Bible, one is confronted with the reality that the concepts associated with these lexemes often change. However, our cognitive semantic model helps one to understand the processes of meaning extension involved and to postulate appropriate direct translation equivalents with a degree of confidence. For example, in the case of both these lexemes, the extension came about through a cross-linguistically attested phenomenon called context-induced modulation. Through its frequent use for a different purpose, the term for cistern also became the term for dungeon or prison. Although one has to be careful of semantic overloading, it is today widely acknowledged that lexemes may retain some associations of their earlier senses in new meanings and contexts of use. Consider how the referential realities of wetness and muddiness are retained when br refers to places of imprisonment and later even the realm of the underworld. However, in Psalm 7:16 although admittedly a rare poetic use most of these senses are downplayed; only some negative associations of a hole to cause somebody harm are retained. Here, one must keep in mind that poetic language often has an expressive function through defamiliarisation, that is only some associations of the mental representation of a lexeme may be profiled for a specific expressive purpose. Similar challenges as those referred to in the above paragraph need to be addressed when linguistic expressions referring to other social conventions (e.g. the social stratification, the social functions and relationships among equals and un- equals, sociolinguistics norms), other human-made artifacts, cultic terminology (e.g. rituals surrounding the offerings and cultic assemblies, the different types of offerings), conceptions of God, the cosmos and self, and the law codes need to be translated and supplemented with the relevant encyclopedic information. This represents one of the major challenges of a direct translation, viz. to find and establish the appropriate 25.For a short but insightful overview of frame semantics and its implication for a cognitive translatology, cf. Martin (2013:8185). quality and quantity of the encyclopedic information that should be used to supplement translation choices concerning the cultural world of the Biblical Hebrew speakers in a particular text x at a hypothesised point y in history. At this stage of the project, the paratexts of the translation are, for all practical purposes, determined by the perceptions of the editorial committee concerning the assumed needs of the construed host audience(s).26 The challenge often deepens when theologically loaded abstract expressions have to be translated directly. A good example is the Hebrew lexeme ese ( ). The NRSV translates the lexeme typically with steadfast love, but also often with love, loving kindness, kindness, loyalty, faithfulness, mercy and good deeds. We opted so far typically for troue liefde which is close to the steadfast love of the NRSV. However, the question is, can a specific scholarly justified range of apparently clear translation equivalents broaden the conceptual world of modern readers sufficiently to appreciate its semantic potential and uses? In order that they, on the one hand, do not semantically overload the term in some contexts, but, on the other hand, also do not fail to grasp the theological connotations it conveyed for the speakers in other speech frames, I hypothesise that a glossary item would be needed with the following type of information: The expression occurs 245x in the Hebrew Bible, of which 127 instances are in the Psalms. Although it has a predominantly theological use (i.e. 75% of its occurrences), its roots are most probably secular. In particular, it refers to the reciprocal goodwill and loyalty which members of the same extended family were to show towards one another in order to survive in the harsh environment in which they lived. It was an attitude that was not primarily concerned with affection, but with deeds of kindness and loyalty. Outside the realm of the family (between friends, allies, a ruler and his subjects), its reciprocal nature was often sealed with an oath or formal agreement (or covenant) between the individual parties. When used as an attitude of God towards humans, the reciprocal nature of the loving kindness is typically downplayed. It is part of Gods nature to manifest it in abundance; it is often described as the ground of His conduct towards His people and it has an enduring quality to it. From its use in some contexts, it appears that, in time, it has acquired a moral character. Humans need to show one another loving kindness since this is the right thing to do and, after all, they receive it in abundance from God.27 Formal and functional features of the source language It is beyond the scope of this article to elaborate on all the formal features of Biblical Hebrew as a Semitic language, for example that it is a VO language, that it has almost no case markings, its verbal system is, morphologically speaking, relatively simple, etc. I will concentrate on only a few issues in this regard. 26.Feinauer investigates the use of glossaries in literary texts and points out that very little is said about the use of glossaries in theories of translation (2015:5). It is reasonable to infer that this observation applies also to the use of paratext in general. 27.Cf. Zobel (1988:4464).Page 7 of 11 Original Research http://www.hts.org.za Open Access It is, for example, well-known that Biblical Hebrew is a paratactic language, and it accordingly abounds with the use of the equivalent of and, viz. waw which occurs more than 50 000 times in the Hebrew Bible. Consider the following example from Genesis 24:15. 9
Rebekah came out ... (and) with her water jar upon her shoulder (Gn 24.15). It would not be idiomatic Afrikaans to render the waw with en [and]. In such a case, the translation equivalent met [with] will be a perfectly natural direct translation of waw. When we consider how prepositions are sometimes used in this ancient language, the situation becomes more of a challenge. Studies in the field of grammaticalisation have shown that prepositions often originate from body parts (cf. the English preposition back).28 Furthermore, most uses of prepositions can be traced back to their primary spatial proto scenes (cf. the English preposition in and how its path of development can be traced from space he lives in the country to time he came in the morning).29 However, prepositions often tend to lose their semantic value and become grammatical markers (i.e. they function like case markers that indicate the grammatical role of a constituent).30 In the course of our project, we have been challenged by the preposition min ( ) in Genesis 11:2 (#11).31 The prototypical function of the preposition min is movement in space of an entity x away from a landmark y (detachment from a point in space like in #10). 10 Abraham went up from Egypt (Gn 13:1). If one considers #11 however, we find conflicting translations, even among the more conservative translations. 11
(ESV) And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there (NIV) As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there (Gn 11:2). A small research project to establish if and how this preposition shifted actually reversed its meaning, led to the conclusion that this is indeed the case. Examples like #12 and #13 are regarded as evidence that the preposition sometimes completely loses its semantic 28.Cf. Kraska-Szlenk (2014). 29.See also Tyler and Evans (2003) and Lyle (2013). 30.See Hardy (2014). 31.Wenham (1998:233) remarks on this verse: G, Vg take asfrom the East, but many modern commentators cite 13:11 in support of translating it eastward. The former translation is more natural, but clearly the issue depends on where the people are supposed to have come from before arriving in Babylon: in the East leaves the issue undecided.
Cf. also Sarna (1989:81) and Westermann (1994:533). value detachment from a spatial position, or gains from its context the value of orientation towards a lexically specified direction.32 12 His fame spread far. (2 Chr. 26:15) 13 Lot then journeyed eastward (Gn. 13:11).32 Since, in the case of #13, readers of the Afrikaans Bible will encounter both translations, we include, like the NIV and CEB, a footnote that the expression miqqedem ( ) is also translated as uit die ooste [from the east]. A maxim of cognitive linguistics is that the meaning we construct in and through the language is not a separate and independent module of the mind, but it reflects our overall experience as human beings, and this notion is sometimes formulated by saying that meaning is experientially grounded rooted in experience (Geeraerts 2006:5). Although cultures differ in how they cut up and name their bodies and the entire world around them (Riemer 2010:390392), there is evidence of common patterns in how the body is used as a source for other concepts in other words, how meanings are extended (Kraska-Szlenk 2014:16). These processes of meaning extension accord with the growing body of knowledge of figurative language, which, according to Dancygier and Sweetser (2014:1), is part of the basic fabric of linguistic structure. Since a cognitive semantic perspective of how meaning works underpins our notion of a direct translation, I will consider now some examples of how we approached the body part, yd ( ), which is typically translated hand. Although it will again confirm the complexity of the challenges of the skopos of this translation, it will also demonstrate that our perspective of how meaning works does provide some guidance for finding translation solutions that interpretively resemble the source text in a more justifiable way than others. If one considers how this body part is used, the following picture emerges33: It could be used as a body part to carry out an everyday function #14, it could be used in a cultural specific symbolic act, i.e. the taking of a pledge (#15), and it could be used in the figurative senses in which the functional aspects associated with the literal body part are profiled (#1618). From the examples below, it is evident that a particular functional aspect of the body part may lead to expressions in Biblical Hebrew for which it is possible to find direct equivalents (#14), or equivalents with similar body-part-related conceptualisations (#1518) in Germanic languages such as Afrikaans and English. However, there are also cases where it is difficult (#19) or nearly impossible (#20) to find body-part-related equivalents. In other words, the equivalent of hand in the source language has to give 32.Exodus 14.19; Isaiah 17.13; 22.3; 57.9 33.Some of the examples are from Wagner (2014:10).Page 8 of 11 Original Research http://www.hts.org.za Open Access way to power in order to be regarded34as good idiomatic English or Afrikaans. While it could be argued that, in the case of #19, a note should have been used to explain that yd may refer to the paw, and by implication claw, of an animal, a note in #20 would not enrich the conceptualisation of the image that is used there. Apart from collocations like #20, where it could be argued that yd acquired the sense of power, linguistic typological evidence led us not to over-translate instances like those we found in #2126. 34.The following note is supplied in the DBV: Hierdie simboliese handeling het die eed bekragtig [The symbolic action validated the oath]. 19
(NRSV) Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog! (BDV) Red tog my lewe van die swaard, my enigste lewe uit die mag van die hond (Ps. 22:21). 20
(ESV) Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Pr. 18:21).35 21
(ESV) When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. (NIV) Now Abiathar son of Ahimelek had brought the ephod down with him when he fled to David at Keilah. (BDV) Toe Abjatar, seun van Agimelek, na Dawid in Kela gevlug het, het hy afgegaan met die efod by hom (1 Sm. 23:6). 22
(NRSV) Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here. (BDV) En nou, wat het u beskikbaar? Vyf brode? Gee dit vir my; of wat u ook al het (1 Sm. 21:4). 23
(ESV) And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze (2 Sm. 8:10). 24
(ESV) And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you. (1 Sm. 16:2).36 25
(ESV) The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me (1 Sm. 28:17). 26
(ESV) He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers. (NRSV) He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by messengers. (BDV) Hy neem toe twee osse, kap hulle op en stuur dit met boodskappers deur die hele gebied van Israel met die woorde: (1 Sm. 11:7). However,35there is a very fine line between an over- and under-translation. In the case of #27 it could be argued that an apparent grammaticalised body part rather requires a different body part in the Afrikaans.3637 35.Cf. also 2 Sameul 8:3. 36.Cf. 1 Samuel 9:8. 37.Most English translations do not opt for the other body part mouth. Cf. the ESV in #27, also the NKJV, NASB, NRSV and NIV. 14 The lazy person buries his hand in the dish (Pr. 26:15). 15 2
3
(NRSV) 2Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, Put your hand under my thigh 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, (BDV) Eendag s Abraham vir die oudste dienaar in sy huis, die een wat beheer gehad het oor al sy besittings: Plaas tog jou hand onder my heup, 3 sodat ek jou by die Here, die God van die hemel en die aarde, n eed kan laat sweer (Gn 24:23).34 16
(ESV) Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand (Ps. 73:23). 17
(ESV) Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. (NRSV) See, I have handed over to you King Sihon the Amorite of Heshbon, and his land. (NJPS) See, I give into your power Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land (Dt. 2:24). 18
(NRSV) ...so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake. (BDV) sodat die Here jou God jou kan sen in alles wat jy aanpak (Dt. 14:29).Page 9 of 11 Original Research http://www.hts.org.za Open Access 27
(BDV) Praat met die Israeliete en s, Julle moet vir julleself die asielstede daarstel wat Ek vir julle deur by monde van Moses aangewys het.38 [Speak to the Israelites and say, You must set up for yourself the refuge cities which I pointed out to you by mouth of Moses. (ESV) Say to the people of Israel, Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, (Jos. 20:2).39 38In39cognitive linguistic circles it is widely acknowledged that linguistic communication typically does not involve only the exchange of the propositional content concerning objects, situations and events in the world. A crucial aspect of communication process is what Langacker (2008:7378) calls the viewing arrangement between speakers and hearers of their conceptualisations of the world. In a direct translation an attempt is made to retain those viewing arrangements, e.g. the level of specificity, the figure-ground alignment and the subjective perspectives of speakers and authors.40 We will touch here only on the notion of level of specificity. An important feature concerning the treatment of proper names in a direct translation is the way in which they are presented, and in particular, apparently unnecessarily repeated in some contexts, for example, YHWH t ( ), Ruth, the Moabite (in the book of Ruth)41, David, the king, etc. In some instances, experts in Afrikaans literature and language objected that this type of redundant over- specification does not represent good idiomatic Afrikaans. In most of these cases, however, a consensus has been reached that these instances of over-specification were significant communicative clues, for example YHWH t ( ), is typically present in contexts where Gods feature as a warrior who fights on behalf of the cause of His people is profiled.42 The overuse of this way of referring to God in Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, at a time when His people were, politically and military, speaking completely insignificant, without doubt was used to encourage and convince some readers who were confronted with the realities of their dire situation just after the exile.43 It has to be acknowledged that very few translations of Haggai do not maintain their equivalent of the repetitive use of YHWH t ( ). This is, however, not the case of referring to David as David, the king in the context where 38.The NBV also reads by monde van. 39.Cf. also Exodus 9:35 and Numbers 27:23. 40.For an investigation of some the implications of these viewing arrangements for the translation of a secular poem, cf. Tabakowska (2013:229250). 41.Ruth 1:22; 2:2, 21; 4:5 and 10. Most scholars have no doubt that this way of representing of Ruths acts as a significant communicative clue in the book of Ruth, cf. Bush (1998:24); LaCocque (2004:58). 42.Cf. Van der Woude (1997:1042). 43.The expression occurs 240x in the Hebrew Bible. Van der Woude (1997:1041) remarks: The concentration of the divine designation shortly after the exile is remarkable (Hag., Zech., Mal.) in particular if one considers it occurs only once in late OT literature. the referent David is already discourse active as David and as the king; cf. #28 in the context of 2 Samuel 16:15: 28
(NRSV) When King David came to Bahurim
(NJB) As David was reaching Bahurim
(CEV) David was near the town of Bahurim
In Runge (2007) it was established that these types of
overspecialisation typically have a rhetorical function that
could not be ignored. In the case of #28, the text gets an ironic
ring when David is portrayed as King David when he is
abandoning his royal city in order to flee from his own son.
Conclusion
In this presentation, the question How direct can a direct
translation be? served to prompt the aim of this study, that
is to illustrate that this skopos is indeed an ambitious
attempt to address the specific needs for churches in
Southern Africa that want a clearly understandable, source-
text-oriented Afrikaans translation. Its own theoretical
foundation acknowledges the complexity of language as a
dynamic and complex system and the subsequent
impossibility to meet all the expectations of the communal
commissioner. We have to concur with Pym (2010:41) that,
as a type of directional equivalent translation, it represents a
shared illusion. Nevertheless, it represents the most cost-
effective strategy for the purposes of this specific instance of
cross-cultural communication; this is because its cognitive
linguistic points of departure open up a promising range of
new horizons for the translation of the Bible (and for that
matter any ancient text) at a time when knowledge is
exploding and book technology is giving way to hypertext
technology.44
From the examples and processes we discussed, the following
became apparent:
The notion communicative clue has been a useful
heuristic device. However, the construal of many
communicative clues requires insight into how the
meaning of linguistic expressions works. A specific
linguistic expression typically may acquire different
senses. In the case of an ancient language, to establish
with a degree of confidence which sense is involved and
when, can sometimes be a daunting task, in particular if
the available lexica merely provide a taxonomy of
translation equivalents. In recent times, cognitive
semantics has shed some light on how these senses
develop across languages, for example from specific to
generic (e.g. br and naal). In the case of prepositions, a
specific spatial sense may even get lost and the preposition
may acquire a generic grammatical function (e.g. min).
Body parts are often prominent in figurative extensions.
Although they typically retain aspects of their functional
dimension of use, they too are prone to acquire new
lexical senses (typical via their functional dimension of
use) or become semantically schematic (e.g. yd).
44.Cf. Van der Merwe (2006)Page 10 of 11 Original Research
http://www.hts.org.za Open Access
The viewing arrangements as communicative clues
of specific speakers and authors, and conventions of
source and host language communities, are crucial
parameters to consider if a translation strives to be
direct, (e.g. in the case of the over-specification of
referents).
Because many communicative clues cannot be
interpretively resembled by means of a translation
equivalent in Afrikaans, the conceptual world of the
modern readers needs to be enriched by means of a
paratext. When and how the conceptual world of specific
modern readers needs to be broadened is not always
certain and therefore requires more research. However,
the value and role of the paratext for developing a greater
appreciation of the otherness of the ancient text as well as
a better understanding thereof cannot be disputed (e.g.
the shephelah).
The notion of communicative clue could often be used
as point of departure in the negotiation process between
the source and host language members of the translation
team. The negotiation process benefitted much by the
following three considerations: Firstly, the role of the
host language experts of the team is acknowledged as
pivotal in all stages of the project; in other words, the
host language members of the team are not merely
editors to polish the style of the translation. Secondly,
all members of the team are aware that some of their
construals of how the communicative clues should be
interpretively resembled are tentative and need to be
more fully researched. Thirdly, translations or
conventions that conservative Bible readers are used to,
may sometimes override scholarly, more justifiable
translation options (e.g. the spelling of names and the
names of God).
At a time when donors call for the acceleration of the pace of
Bible translations, the challenges of a direct translation again
reveal how much we need to know, how little we really know,
and how much there is still to find out. This opens new
horizons, and of course, challenges, for Bible translation
scholars, for example, (1) it encourages them to be more
realistic when spelling out to churches the implications of
their expectations to have Bible translations that are as close
to the source text as possible; (2) it contributes to a greater
appreciation of the urgent need for wide-ranging research
projects on the conceptual world of the Bible; (3) it exposes
the need for the effective and user-friendly integration
of this new knowledge with existing information in the
electronic resources that are used by translation teams45 and
(4) it contributes to a greater appreciation of the need for
effective training courses for Bible translation teams in how
meaning works.
45.In recent years some fascinating information also from the fields of anthropology
and iconography has shed new light on the use of some aspects of the figurative
language and meaning of the Biblical Hebrew source text (Staubli & Schroer 2014).
New light has also been shed on the interpretation of many other overt
communicative clues, that is discourse particles (Miller-Naud & Van der Merwe
2011), on the interpretation of word order in Biblical Hebrew (Van der Merwe and
Wendland 2010), as well as the interpretation of the Hebrew verbal system
(Andrason 2011). However, few of these insights have yet found their way into
current translations.
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
The author declares that he has no financial or personal
relationships which may have inappropriately influenced
him in writing this article.
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