cardinal directions

The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” (Source: Don Slager) Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post).

In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff.)

“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).

In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.

Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”

See also cardinal directions / left and right.

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 19:12

But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground: Disaster struck the vine. The Hebrew verb rendered plucked up means to pull a plant up by the roots (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version). Fury is another word for “anger” (Contemporary English Version, New Century Version, Revised English Bible; see the comments on 5.13). Although many translations fail to do so, it is best to make it explicit that the vine, not just the strong branch, was pulled out by the roots. Then it was cast down to the ground, that is, thrown violently on the ground. For those languages that do not have passive verbs, it will be necessary to use an impersonal construction for these two lines or to make it explicit that God was the one who was angry at the vine, pulled it out of the ground, and threw it down, as in “But God became angry at the vine and pulled it up by its roots and threw it down.” Good News Translation provides an impersonal model, saying “But angry hands pulled it up by the roots and threw it to the ground.”

The east wind dried it up; its fruit was stripped off, its strong stem was withered; the fire consumed it: For the east wind, see 17.10. According to Revised Standard Version, the hot desert wind from the east dried … up the vine and, as a result, its fruit was stripped off (that is, its fruit fell off) and its strong stem was withered (that is, its strong branch also dried up). Finally, fire consumed it, that is, fire burned up the strong branch. Other translations understand the Hebrew of these lines in a different way. For some the east wind dried up the vine’s fruit and its branches were broken off. Then the branches dried out and were burned (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible). This understanding is better than the one in Revised Standard Version, but the best way to understand the Hebrew is as follows: “The hot east wind dried up its fruit. Its fruit broke off and dried up. But as for its strong branch, fire destroyed it.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .