Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Translation WAS: Re: VERBS

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bearpecs AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Translation WAS: Re: VERBS
  • Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:54:27 EDT


In a message dated 7/28/2005 10:21:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:

At the very least it is wrong to say that any unclear or unnatural
translation "must not be avoided", which seems to be a suggestion that
clarity and naturalness in translation are invalid as criteria and must
not be taken into account in translation.


I can't speak for Newmark, but I think that while naturalness is a valid
criterion, it is not as much a priority as conveying as much as possible of
the
sense of the original. The same goes for clarity, if by clarity you mean
that it is easily understood by reading it through once.
A good example is the Fox translation, which has been criticized for being
unnatural English, but I think it does an excellent job at conveying the
original, and that is more important to me than the naturalness of his
English.
(I personally happen to like how he uses English.)

I wonder if people here think that modern Jewish translations tend to be
more literal than modern Christian translations. I suspect that Jewish
translators, whether consciously or not, consider that one role of the
translation is
to lead the reader back to the Hebrew. Culturally, I think we tend to
believe that *really* understanding Jewish texts means understanding them in
Hebrew, and a translation is just a waystation on the road to the real thing.


Hayyim Obadyah
, MPA
New York, New York 10027





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page