I said I would post about translation work, and I have been so busy with the new work routine that I haven't got round to it yet. Marc and I are both finding it rewarding to at last get our teeth into the work which we came here to do. Yes, language and culture learning is essential, and ours has been an enriching time, but it can be very frustrating and the rewards are not instant or constant! We are also aware that although we aren't doing it full-time any more, we still have a lot of room for improvement. So on Wednesday mornings we are still reserving 2 hours for language work (plus time spent in the village hearing it around us).
Marc is getting on with preparation for Dry Season Bible School in March (a month of Bible teaching), and also some sessions to train the church youth leaders.
And I'm working with the translation team at last! During September that meant just Pastor Samuel and me, and we soon got into a good routine. He is working on a rough translation of Isaiah, working from 3 different French translations, and together we are revising Exodus. So while I'm reading ahead in Exodus, or in the afternoons when I'm not at work, he's been getting on with Isaiah, and then some of the time we've started to read through Exodus together. My task is to look at what the Hebrew says – and while I have learnt some Hebrew I have to admit I am well-aided by software which gives me a grammatical breakdown and thesaurus notes on the Hebrew – and to compare it with the Monkolé. Then we go through with me saying, “Is there any way we could say it more like this in Monkolé?” and either he says, no it isn't possible, or else we manage to find an alternative which is closer to the Hebrew while still sounding like Monkolé. It's a pity we don't have anyone who has good enough Hebrew and Monkolé to go straight from the Hebrew to the Monkolé, but we don't, so we have to work this way.
A big answer to prayer is that we have a new member of the translation team who started this month. His name is Philémon, he's about 27 years old, and he's a farmer. He is one of our church elders and sings in the church choir (he writes songs too). He's active in the church youth group and also serves on the national church youth committee.
Philémon started work last week, and it seems to be going well so far, though I'm not sure it's easy to sit at a desk all day and think hard when you're used to being out in the fields doing very physical work. He is going to re-take his BEPC (primary school certificate) this year, and from next week will have evening classes every weekday night and Saturday mornings too. So he'll have a lot on his plate!
I wasn't feeling entirely confident about Philémon starting work, and needing supervision, when I've only been working with the team for the last month. It didn't help that the pastor had to take the first two days of the week off, so I had to get Philémon started myself, and as I only work on translation in the mornings, he was on his own for his first two afternoons. I left him plenty of work to be getting on with, but still!
As a linguist, it is very interesting to see the kind of questions we run into when translating the Bible into Monkolé. For example, the Monkolé people believe that there is one God who created the earth, but they would pray to local spirits rather than God. So the idea of idols, as presented in the Bible, isn't hard for them to grasp. The idea, however, that there are “other gods” as also mentioned in the Bible, even if they are “false gods” is very difficult. Sometimes it's possible to translate it as “idols”, but sometimes that just doesn't work.
Another difficulty stemming from this, is the fact that the Bible often speaks of God as “the God of Israel” or “your God”. If it isn't possible to have other gods, this seems strange – and in fact isn't grammatically possible. I was trying to think of a parallel in English, and the closest I can come up with is the air. The air is everywhere, and we can't talk about “my air” (except perhaps in a very figurative sense). You couldn't talk about people having “another air”, either (though you might say that the air is very different in Benin compared to Europe – that's where my parallel breaks down!).
I'm sure that as time goes on I'll be able to share other interesting examples of translation challenges!
I have noticed my spoken Monkolé improving simply because I'm having to use it in a situation where I'm not thinking so much about the words as about the overall meaning. It is hard work and sometimes very frustrating, but I haven't had to resort to French too often. My Hebrew reading is improving too, having been rather rusty when I got back to it, but again, using it regularly is polishing it up nicely!
I am thankful for the team we have. It is early days yet, but I think we are going to work well together and find that our strengths complement each other. I am also grateful that Grace, my predecessor, uses email and has been able to answer many of my questions about Monkolé grammar and such matters.
Marc is getting on with preparation for Dry Season Bible School in March (a month of Bible teaching), and also some sessions to train the church youth leaders.
And I'm working with the translation team at last! During September that meant just Pastor Samuel and me, and we soon got into a good routine. He is working on a rough translation of Isaiah, working from 3 different French translations, and together we are revising Exodus. So while I'm reading ahead in Exodus, or in the afternoons when I'm not at work, he's been getting on with Isaiah, and then some of the time we've started to read through Exodus together. My task is to look at what the Hebrew says – and while I have learnt some Hebrew I have to admit I am well-aided by software which gives me a grammatical breakdown and thesaurus notes on the Hebrew – and to compare it with the Monkolé. Then we go through with me saying, “Is there any way we could say it more like this in Monkolé?” and either he says, no it isn't possible, or else we manage to find an alternative which is closer to the Hebrew while still sounding like Monkolé. It's a pity we don't have anyone who has good enough Hebrew and Monkolé to go straight from the Hebrew to the Monkolé, but we don't, so we have to work this way.
A big answer to prayer is that we have a new member of the translation team who started this month. His name is Philémon, he's about 27 years old, and he's a farmer. He is one of our church elders and sings in the church choir (he writes songs too). He's active in the church youth group and also serves on the national church youth committee.
Philémon started work last week, and it seems to be going well so far, though I'm not sure it's easy to sit at a desk all day and think hard when you're used to being out in the fields doing very physical work. He is going to re-take his BEPC (primary school certificate) this year, and from next week will have evening classes every weekday night and Saturday mornings too. So he'll have a lot on his plate!
I wasn't feeling entirely confident about Philémon starting work, and needing supervision, when I've only been working with the team for the last month. It didn't help that the pastor had to take the first two days of the week off, so I had to get Philémon started myself, and as I only work on translation in the mornings, he was on his own for his first two afternoons. I left him plenty of work to be getting on with, but still!
As a linguist, it is very interesting to see the kind of questions we run into when translating the Bible into Monkolé. For example, the Monkolé people believe that there is one God who created the earth, but they would pray to local spirits rather than God. So the idea of idols, as presented in the Bible, isn't hard for them to grasp. The idea, however, that there are “other gods” as also mentioned in the Bible, even if they are “false gods” is very difficult. Sometimes it's possible to translate it as “idols”, but sometimes that just doesn't work.
Another difficulty stemming from this, is the fact that the Bible often speaks of God as “the God of Israel” or “your God”. If it isn't possible to have other gods, this seems strange – and in fact isn't grammatically possible. I was trying to think of a parallel in English, and the closest I can come up with is the air. The air is everywhere, and we can't talk about “my air” (except perhaps in a very figurative sense). You couldn't talk about people having “another air”, either (though you might say that the air is very different in Benin compared to Europe – that's where my parallel breaks down!).
I'm sure that as time goes on I'll be able to share other interesting examples of translation challenges!
I have noticed my spoken Monkolé improving simply because I'm having to use it in a situation where I'm not thinking so much about the words as about the overall meaning. It is hard work and sometimes very frustrating, but I haven't had to resort to French too often. My Hebrew reading is improving too, having been rather rusty when I got back to it, but again, using it regularly is polishing it up nicely!
I am thankful for the team we have. It is early days yet, but I think we are going to work well together and find that our strengths complement each other. I am also grateful that Grace, my predecessor, uses email and has been able to answer many of my questions about Monkolé grammar and such matters.
1 comment:
Great to get this news, Hilary, as we are celebrating Bible Sunday this coming Sunday and I'm leading!
We'll give you and your work a good plug :-)
SHALOM to all!
Tony
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