Tag: idiom

Bible Translations and Mistranslations

Translation Challenge: Joseph, Pharaoh, and the Servants’ Heads

The Joseph narrative is brilliantly written in a way that few translations capture. One example comes when Joseph, having been thrown in jail, is asked to interpret the dreams of two of Pharaohs’ servants — the butler and the baker — who have also been imprisoned. First comes the butler, and Joseph has good news…
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January 13, 2011 8

Amos’s Clean White Teeth

Amos 4:6 is back, first in a comment and then in a post at Aberration Blog. The Hebrew text reads: v’gam ani natati lachem nikyon shinayim b’chol areichem v’choser lechem b’chol m’komoteichem v’lo shavtm aday n’um adonai. That is, ” ‘I [Adonai] have given [or will give] you a purity/cleanness of teeth in all your…
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October 26, 2009 7

On Idioms and Metaphors

In More than Cool Reason, George Lakoff writes: Metaphors are so commonplace we often fail to notice them. Take the way we ordinarily talk about death. The euphemism “He passed away” is not an arbitrary one. When someone dies, we don’t say “He drank a glass of milk” or “He had an idea” or “He…
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October 26, 2009 5

Translation Challenge: Psalm 17:8

The text of Psalm 17:8 brilliantly combines two Hebrew expressions, pairing both their meaning and their underlying semantic basis: shomreini k’ishun bat-ayin//b’tzel k’nafecha tastireini, that is, “guard-me like-a-dark-spot of daughter-of-eye//in-the-shadow of your-wings hide-me.” The first expression is “keep me like the pupil of your eye,” almost universally rendered, “keep me like the apple of your…
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October 16, 2009 5

Sometimes Bible Translation is a Piece of Cake

Can I use “Bible translation is a piece of cake” to mean that Bible translation is sweet (like cake), but only part of a larger, complete object? English speakers know that the answer is “no.” The reason it doesn’t work is that “a piece of cake” is an idiom in English, and its meaning doesn’t…
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October 14, 2009 1

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives

Recent posts from my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives:

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