BIBLE TRANSLATORS HAVE DIFFICULTIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 12

BIBLE TRANSLATORS HAVE DIFFICULTIES.

NO NATIVE WORDS FOR "LOVE" OR "COMFORTER

The. Scriptures have been translated into 618 languages by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and New Zealand missionaries in the foreign field are taking an increasing share in this work. Miss Clara Waterston, who is at present residing in Auckland, was the principal translator of the New Testament in the Malu dialect of Mwala, an island of the Solomon group. Writing of her experiences in mastering the language and of the difficulties of trans lation, she says:— “In Malu there is no adequate word for ‘love/ The word we have chosen means •to hold dear,’ *to reckon as precious.’ It could be used, not only of a human being, but of any treasured possession. There is another word, i ‘ thathamia/ which means ‘ want; desire.’ The seat of the emotions is supposed to be in the throat, so that the , word chosen means ‘my throat holds : it precious.’ I ‘“The Comforter * was a difficult ( word to translate. A member of a I large and powerful tribe is wealthy, so I that their word for ‘rich’ is ‘inamaruku’ 1 (having living relations). The word for . ‘poor’ is ‘inamae’ ('relations dead). One ' village teacher came with the suggestion that he had found a word that might possibly do. Sometimes a woman or child would lose a powerful protector by death. A kinsman in a distant village would hear of it, and leaving his own home, would go and spend some months with the bereaved one, to make him ‘have a living relation.’ What better name could we have for the One who said ‘I will not leave : you orphans, I will come unto you’ ? He [ is the One who makes us have a living relation to stand by, help and protect us. “.‘Swear’ and ‘oath’, presented great difficulties. A heathen oath was often such an unclean thing, that the Christians could not bear to have the word for it used when the One to swear was God Himself. Finally we coined the word ‘othia’ for ‘swear,’ and ‘othila’ for ‘oath.’ “Snow is unknown. However, many natives have seen pictures of snow-cov-ered mountains. The missionaries and traders often show them weekly illustrated papers. We have therefore translated the word as ‘sino.’ ‘Saviour’ has been translated ‘Thufaa’ (Coverer). It was the native word used for the guardian spirit who was supposed to hover around a man, aiding and protecting. We have used a capital and tried to ennoble the word. ‘Spirit’ presented great difficulty, and finally had to be kept as in English. Their word ‘ano’edo’ means a ‘ghost,’ and is always used for the ghost of someone who was once alive, but has died. A powerful ‘ano’edo,’ the ghost of a warrior, was called an ‘akalo.’ An intelligent teacher said to me ‘ Ano’edo is the right word to use for the Holy Spirit, for Christ died, and this is His Ghost.’ When I explained the distinct persons of the Godhead, he said we must have a . different word. While a man is alive his spirit is called ‘mano’ (breath), but as soon as he dies it leaves the body and is called ‘ano’ (ghost).” Miss Waterston writes: “One of the translator's sweetest rewards is the new light thrown upon the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit as one ponders a verse over and over, and tries to understand the meaning of each word. One of the greatest difficulties is to make the translation uniform, in the use of the same Malu word to translate the same expression as it recurs in different places.” Miss Waterston lived at Malu for about twelve years. For part of the time she was quite alone among the people, and so had less temptation to speak English. She has recently spent three years in the Tawarafa district, one year at Star Harbour, and two on the Island of Santa Anna. In conjunction with Mr Norman Dech, Miss Waterston has translated the Gospel of St Mark into the Tawarafa dialect, the speech understood around Star Harbour, in the southern part of San Cristoval, and in the neighbouring islands of Santa Anna and Santa Catalina This 192 S printed by the Bible Soc iety in