And I looked, and behold, the eagle rose upon his talons: For And I looked, and behold, see the comments on 2Esdras 11.2. Talons is a technical English term for the “claws” of a bird of prey, such as an eagle. Good News Bible renders this first half of the verse as “Then I saw the eagle stand up on its claws.” Contemporary English Version makes the picture clearer by translating “The eagle landed, and I watched it stand on its claws.”

And uttered a cry to his wings, saying may be rendered “and I heard it say to its wings” (Contemporary English Version).

The picture here is hard to imagine, and translators should not try to make it sound like something that would be recognizable. This is imaginative literature, and in the following verses words will be used to create fantastic pictures. An eagle standing up and telling its own wings to wake up and to sleep is a strange one, but there will be stranger pictures before we are finished. Here a literal translation will often be the translator’s only option.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.