Using the Right Bible Translation?

2016

Technical translation significantly differs from literary translation in terms of various lexical and morphological categories. This particularly refers to the technical terminology that is characteristic for a particular professional field and its standardized meaning. One of the main tasks in the translation process is to discover the meaning of words in contextwhether they have acquired a new meaning or whether they have been used with a metaphorical or specialized meaning, etc. Based on the theoretical framework provided by Newmark, Vinay and Darbelnet, the research in this paper focuses on the use of various literal and free translation procedures and how they affect or change the meaning when it is recreated in the target text, i.e. in the translation. For that purpose, the analysis is performed on a contemporary corpus, with specific examples demonstrating which translation procedures provide semantic equivalence with the original.

Journal of Arts and Human Sciences. University of Bahri, 2018

This paper explores the concept of literal translation and its relevance to the field of translation studies. It studies the ongoing debate about literal versus free translation and tries to prove that this debate is still alive in today's theorization on translation. The paper briefly discusses the origin of the debate on literal translation from antiquity to our days and proves that literal translation is far from being abandoned as a method of translation and still represents an important concept in translation studies. The ongoing debate about literal versus free translation stems from the inclination of some translation theorists toward a translation method that is target language-oriented while other scholars represent the view that the target text should mirror the original text. These two views keep popping up from time to time in the academic debates under new terms, but they virtually refer to the same old issue; literal versus free translation. The paper touches on the main theories that still dominate the field of translation studies and can be traced back to the dichotomy of literal versus free translation. These dominant theories are explained and in contrast to literal and free translation showing the patterns of convergence and divergence. Finally, this study explores the concept of literal translation in translation studies in a bid to demonstrate that it is still dominating the modern theories of translation studies.

Serie Monografica De Ciencia Das Religioes Coleccao Pensar a Religiao, 2013

For most of the last half of the twentieth century the tendency was to think of Bible translations in terms of a binary opposition between literal or idiomatic, or, in other words, dynamic equivalence versus formal equivalence. Further academic discussion and, especially, the development of the whole academic field of translation studies has led to the problematizing of such a simple dichotomy and to much broader analyses of translation work and products including sociological, cultural, economic, rhetorical and ideological factors. In this essay we will first give an overview of developments in contemporary approaches to Bible translation around the world in the past few decades and then consider some recent translations of the Bible into the Portuguese language and how they relate to some of the themes and issues discussed in the first part of this essay.

In the new official translation of the current edition of the Roman Missal, without the National Propers for Ireland, there are 210,873 words, according to my computer. In the Latin from which it was translated, there are 187,747 words. The English has about 10% more words. The translation is an awesome task, not made easier by the fact that it is from a dead language to a language which is living and changing. The genius of gifted translation is that the gifts of expression of the second language can become a new revelation of meaning springing from the original language. The task is all the more challenging because of the aim to convey not just the meanings of words and sentences, but also a sense of the allusions to Scripture and to the traditions of Christianity. We need to find words to express a sense of the mystery and awe which are so much an integral element of the mystery of a loving God revealed in the Word made flesh. Finally, we need words which, as Liturgiam Authenticam (the official Vatican guide to liturgical translation) states, will be " evident and comprehensible even to the faithful who lack any special intellectual formation, the translations should be characterized by a kind of language which is easily understandable, yet which at the same time preserves these texts' dignity, beauty, and doctrinal precision. " (Paragraph 25) No translation is ever perfect. The current translation, dating from 1973, did a remarkable job in a relatively short time for the English-speaking church in many parts of the world. It aimed to express meaning without strict word for word equivalenc;, but it also lost some of the richness of the Latin text. I have been asking myself: is this new translation more successful? It does restore some of the lost richness. Yet, sadly, in my view this is not the translation we need. Liturgiam Authenticam insists that " the original text , insofar as possible, must be translated integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses. " (20) It also insists on maintaining the syntax of Latin " as completely as possible in a manner appropriate to the vernacular language. " (57) A doctrinaire rigidity in applying these principles causes major pastoral problems.

Bible Study Magazine, 2021

Functional translations are a diverse lot, but they tend to share a cluster of traits. First, they aim for a high degree of clarity. The reader shouldn’t struggle to understand the text; its “meaning is readily apparent to the contemporary reader,” allowing “the message to come through with immediacy” (NLT). Second, functional translations are idiomatic, using “words and forms that are widely accepted by people who use English” (GNT). Thus, word choice, word combinations, syntax, and flow of text should sound natural rather than foreign, stilted, or awkward. Third, a functional translation judges faithfulness in terms of accurately conveying the meaning of the text, rather than literally translating individual words. The NCV, for example, claims to “accurately communicate[] the messages found in the original languages."

Mere Orthodoxy, 2020

The task of translators is constrained by their commitment to the text itself—its meaning, of course, but also its form and background assumptions—as well as their respect for the recipient audience. (https://mereorthodoxy.com/bible-translation/)

Life-transforming Translations - Teaching Naturalness, 2015

Early in their training, many Translators are told that they should produce translations of the Scriptures that are "clear, accurate, and natural." Translators can be taught to produce clear and natural-sounding translations, if we help them to be aware of the discourse features of their language that are different from their source text, and then teach them to apply that knowledge in their translation. The term "discourse structure" refers to how a text is worded so that the audience can tell which things are more important and which things are less important. Discourse structure involves communicating the theme or main idea of a text, reporting quotations, marking the peak, marking paragraph boundaries, the use of connecting words and phrases between sentences, and the rate at which new information is introduced, etc. Each language has its own natural discourse structure.

2011

This paper was delivered at a conference of the Michigan District in Monroe, Michigan on January 16, 2011. Minor editing has been done.

Acta Theologica, 2004

An overview of recent developments of the discipline which deals with the activity of translation, as well as the implications for Bible translation, is presented. Starting off with a discussion of the disciplinary nature of translation studies, an overview of some developments emphasising the source text, the process of translation, the reception of the translated text, and the cultural-social bound character of translation, is offered. Since the early eighties there has been a tendency within translation studies to move away from the normative and prescriptive approaches to translation and to adopt a descriptive approach towards the study of translated literature. Descriptive translation theorists attempt to account not only for textual strategies in the translated text, but also for the way in which the translation functions in the target cultural system. The implications that these recent theoretical developments have for Bible translation practice and criticism of Bible translations are arrived at in the last instance.

International Journal of Frontier Missiology, 2011

2021

wrote perhaps the most complex, most interesting essay on the process of translation under the title The Task of the Translator in 1923. This very complex work of literary and translation theory has been analysed and referred to by several literary scholars in the past almost 100 years, the Belgian-American literary scholar Paul de Man among them. The present research article makes an attempt to present a comparative analysis based on close reading of the texts between Benjamin's original essay and Paul de Man's commentary, figuring out the possible (and necessary) contradictions and ambiguities of the text, trying to find the answer to the question whether or not translation, at least in the successful sense of the word, exist at all. Deconstructionist way of reading literary and theoretical texts may give multiple answers to the questions about translation, and demonstrate the possibility and impossibility of translation at the same time. WALTER BENJAMIN: The task of the literary translator (Scanning the primary text) Right at the beginning of his well-known and paradigmatic essay, Walter Benjamin rejects the notion of the ideal recipient, as if he were to consider poetry as existing for its own sake rather than being addressed to the reader in particularhe calls it pure language (ReineSprache). According to his thesis, the translator must go beyond conveying the message of the literary work. A translation that only conveys the message of the work is not a good translation. Linguistic expressions are in some respects untranslatable, some works are essentially translatable, while others do not yield to the intention of translation. A translated text is a text that has a life of its own in relation to the original work, since it was written later than the original text. The translation owes its very existence to the glory of the original work, i.e. its exceptional aesthetic value, since the original work is a text that has been found worthy of being lifted out of its own linguistic and cultural environment and transplanted into a foreign culture by means of translation.

Meta: Journal des traducteurs, 2012