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 Job 18:20

They of the west are appalled at his day: some translators have understood this line (and the next line) as referring to time, because the Hebrew says “Those after him and those before him.” King James Version translates “They that come after … as they that went before.” Gordis suggests “later generations … earlier generations.” However, the author is speaking about the fate of the wicked person, and people who lived before him in time could not know of his fate, nor could future generations know, since the wicked man is cut off without any future. A better interpretation is that Bildad is speaking about the wicked man’s contemporaries. Bildad and Job’s space orientation would come from facing the rising sun. The east would then be “before,” and the west would be the direction which was “behind” or “after.” He therefore divides people into two directions, those in the east and those in the west. Good News Translation “from east to west” is more idiomatic for English than Revised Standard Version. Appalled translates a word meaning “stupefied.” It is used in Jeremiah 4.9, where Good News Translation translates it “shocked.” His day refers to the day of the ruin or death of the wicked person, his fate, the time when he receives his just reward. For him it is a day of doom and destruction.

And horror seizes them of the east: there is no intended difference in the reactions of the people in the east from those in the west. The two lines have essentially the same meaning, and together they cover all people everywhere. In some languages it is necessary to express verse 20 differently; for example, “Everyone who lives where the sun goes down and those who live where the sun rises will be shocked to learn what a bad end he suffered” or “All the people upriver and those downriver will be amazed at his ruin and death.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .