Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

B-Hebrewers,

First, thanks to Maurice for the links to the other reviews. They
were most interesting. Here's a tiny quote from Judith Shulevitz's
review:-

>The art of the translator, like the art of the narrator, lies in knowing
>when to paraphrase and when not to.

Harold wrote:-

>HH: Thanks for the review. I received this book as a Christmas
>present and am still reading the introduction. Robert Alter basically
>accepts the JEDP hypothesis, which substantially diminishes my trust
>in him.

Can you explain more what you think are the consequences of an
acceptance of the JEDP hypothesis (or its multitude of variants)
when translating the Torah into English for the general public?


>He also takes a big swipe at translations that try to do
>something with words like YD, rendering the idea rather than the
>literal "hand." While there is something to be said for stylistic
>authenticity that may be preserved through literal translation, I
>personally was not impressed with Alter's handling of the issue. He
>makes it seem that modern translations do the reader a great
>disservice by giving functional translations rather than a literal
>"hand" every time YD appears.
[cut for brevity]

The big problem any translator faces is that a single translation
is limited in what it can do with an text. It appears to me that
a lot of new translations are striving for originality and novelty.
Alter is out on one end of of the translation spectrum. While that
poses problems which should never be minimized, it is also very
welcome. If you understand the British Parlimentary system of
government, Alter seems to be ``Her Majesty's loyal opposition''.
While members of this list understand very well the problems with
translating YD, the general public don't. So it is good that Alter's
translation and his criticisms of modern translations are reaching
at least some of the general public.

When discussing these issues with people one of my favourite passages
is Gen 47:9:-

KJV : And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my
pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days
of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of
the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

If you look at the way various translations have handled the ``few
and evil'' you can get opposite meanings in English. To us it is easy
to see how each translation arrived at its English rendering, but its
very confusing to those who can't read Hebrew.

Bill Rea, IT Services, Canterbury  University \_
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