[B-Greek] grammar, style, and how to translate them

Refe Tuma refetuma at gmail.com
Fri May 20 13:48:49 EDT 2011


It's an artform, I think, to be able to detect and define the personality
and literary style of a given writer and to faithfully and accurately
reproduce it in a new language. It goes beyond simply understanding which
category that genitive might belong to or what type of clause you might be
looking at in that verse. It takes real skill and creativity.

It's easy to approach translation by turning grammar and syntax into a
fool-proof system of categories and rules (which is, in my opinion, what
Wallace has tried to do in Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics) and to lose
sight of the voice behind the text in the process. That is why I believe
there should be more individual translations out there. Committees - by
nature of the democratic process - seem better suited for the systematic,
categorical approach, while individuals are often capable of more nuance.

Refe
www.greekingout.com


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Ted & Robin Shoemaker" <shoes6 at juno.com>
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 13:18:55 GMT
> Subject: [B-Greek] grammar, style, and how to translate them
>
> My son had an interesting question the other day.
>
> The grammar of the Bible is not uniform.  Neither are its writing styles.
>  I don't know about Hebrew or Aramaic, but for Greek:
> Mark is the nonstandard grammar of the uneducated "rough-and-ready" working
> class;
> Luke's writing is polished and beautiful;
> John shows semitic influence;
> etc.
>
> So --
>
> Is there any way of bringing those subtleties into the translated
> languages, or are they forever locked in the original languages only?  As
> things stand, the entire Bible is "smoothed out" into a consistent English
> style, more dependent on the translator's bent than those of the original
> writers.  In other words, it's de-flavorized.
>
> Consider as illustration some non-biblical documents written originally in
> English: Huckleberry Finn, and Romeo and Juliet, for two examples.  The
> peculiar grammar used in Huckleberry Finn adds color to the book.  Imagine
> re-writing Romeo and Juliet in Huck Finn's dialect; and vice versa.  (If
> English is not your first language, and you don't know what I'm talking
> about, please ask off-list.)
>
> So grammar and style do make a difference.
>
> And for those of us to whom every word of the Bible is important, it makes
> a big difference.
>
> I answered my son by saying that it would be hard to translate "bad
> grammar" into English without taking on an unintended English dialect, i.e.
> imitating a particular English-speaking subculture.  Neither he nor I were
> satisfied with my answer.
>
> Obviously, parts of this question are beyond the boundaries of b-Greek.  If
> you wish to discuss those parts of the topic, please do so off-list.  But on
> this list, we can, I hope, have a good discussion about styles and grammar,
> and especially about how to deal with them.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Ted Shoemaker
>
> Success is easy only if you're a weeds farmer.


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