Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> It is much better to put the
> explantory reading in the text, and if necessary add a footnote giving a
> more literal rendering.
>

A dangerous path, indeed. Honestly, it should be called exegesis, not
translation. Why keep literal rendering from the readers? At the minimum, an
honest translator must state his preference at the beginning--something
which I have yet to see--as to the method. Does he choose statistically most
common translation? Or, perhaps, a translation justified by the context? Or,
by the historical perspective? Or, by his exegesis needs? How improbable
translation he could adopt? Say, if the translation chosen is attested for
only 10% of the word' entries, does that warrant a footnote of caution? I
always found it a bit odd: manuals for electric kettles contain all kinds of
superfluous precautions, but a manual for supposedly the salvation
translated very vaguely.

Vadim Cherny