[B-Greek] Translation Considerations checklist: Suggestions?
Mark Hoffman
markgvh at gmail.com
Tue May 4 11:17:22 EDT 2010
Thanks, Iver. I should probably first include my initial response to Carl
that I didn't include on the list:
>>>>> (start to Carl)
I appreciate the experience you bring to this matter. I especially
appreciated the one conclusion you stated: "IF there is a value to the sort
of exercise you propose, it lies in the lesson to be learned by the student
about how utterly hopeless the task of translation really is." Actually, one
purpose of my exercise was precisely to show how difficult (if not hopeless)
translation is! I am also hoping that getting to this level of engagement
with the text will help open the text to them in ways they had not
previously experienced. By making them work in groups, they are also
discovering that their individual readings need to be challenged and that a
consensus reading requires another layer of cooperation and shared
interpretation. Like you, I try to help my students see that translation is
one of the first steps of interpretation. I also like the idea of trying to
paraphrase a text in the source language as a way of exhibiting
understanding the text.
My primary challenge, however, is that my "Advanced Greek" class is for
students who really have only had an introductory year's worth of Greek.
Given the seminary curriculum that keeps stuffing more stuff in, one of the
casualties has been a diminishing of the Greek to a 2-week summer intensive
plus a fall semester. With this little time in the Greek, they simply cannot
get to the point of much fluency in Greek. Hence, I am trying to use all
sorts of helps--Bible software in particular--to move more quickly from the
basics of grammar to the significance of that grammar. As you noted,
translation is more of an "art," but a skilled artist requires lots of time
and practice. Since they do not have the time, I have had to resort to more
mechanical approaches, and that is why I started to compose the list of
questions to ask about translation. Hopefully, it does start moving them in
the direction of thinking like a translator.
>>>>> (end to Carl)
You raise excellent points, Iver, and perhaps I should indicate more clearly
what I have been asking my students to do this semester. (The course web
site is here: http://www.gettysburgseminary.org/mhoffman/advgreekS10) We
have spent a considerable amount of time working on the differences between
a 'formal' and a 'dynamic/communicative' translation approach. We worked
through the whole book, *Translating the New Testament: Text, Translation,
Theology* by Stanley Porter and Mark Boda (2009 - It was helpful to a
degree, but I probably won't use it again, since so little directly applied
to translation.) Students were also asked to follow a blog for the semester
such as
- Better Bibles Blog <http://betterbibles.com/>
- ΕΝ ΕΦΕΣΩ <http://evepheso.wordpress.com/>
- Rico Blog <http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/>
- NT Discourse <http://www.ntdiscourse.org/>
We worked verse by verse all semester through the rich man and Lazarus text,
so that we have a very clear understanding of what is going on in the text.
Now, near the end of the semester, I divided the class into 2 groups. One is
assigned to do a formal translation, the other a dynamic one. Next week the
2 groups are to critique each other's translations. My pedagogical goal is
that they will be able to discern the strengths and weaknesses of each
approach in the discussion.
In addition, we did all our initial work on Google Wave, and I invited some
students from a seminary in Hong Kong to join our discussion. They also are
going to review our translations, not only from an
English-as-a-second-language position, but also from their Asian (ie,
non-western) perspective.
Perhaps now my list of considerations makes a bit more sense, since I was
trying to provide guidelines for both the formal and dynamic group to
consider. I'm also trying to navigate between the extremes of the experience
you described with the translation of Mark.
I'm also trying to get them to think about the aesthetics of translation.
(The Gignac essay in the *Translating the NT* book was helpful here.) Your
translation suggestion with the "sunny side of the street" is clever. My
students came up with Lazarus "dying for scraps" at the start and later the
rich man complaining, "I'm dying here..."
So, I'm trying to make the best compromises with the limited time I have
with the students. If nothing else, they have certainly realized that
translating the Greek is not simply a matter of parsing and translating
words. Thanks again!
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