happiness / joy

The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated in English as “joy” or “happiness” is translated in the Hausa Common Language Ajami Bible idiomatically as farin ciki or “white stomach.” In some cases, such as in Genesis 29:11, it is also added for emphatic purposes.

Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Seat of the Mind / Seat of Emotions, rejoiced greatly / celebrated, the Mossi translation of “righteous”, and joy.

joy

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated with “joy” or “gladness” in English is translated with various associations of “sweetness” or taste: Bambara has “the spirit is made sweet,” Kpelle translates as “sweet heart,” and Tzeltal as “the good taste of one’s heart,” Uduk uses the phrase “good to the stomach,” Baoulé “a song in the stomach,” Mískito “the liver is wide open” (“happily letting the pleasures flooding in upon it”) (source: Nida 1952), Mairasi says “good liver” (source: Enggavoter 2004), Noongar has koort-kwabba-djil or “heart very good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), and Chicahuaxtla Triqui “refreshed heart” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).

See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling,” happiness / joy, and exceeding joy.

addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Psalm 51:8 - 51:9

Fill me: Revised Standard Version and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy follow the Syriac; the great majority of translations and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (“B” decision) follow the Hebrew text, “Make me hear.” New Jerusalem Bible makes the line more intelligible by translating “Let me hear tidings of joy and gladness,” and Bible en français courant does even better: “Tell me that you forgive me, and I will be filled with joy.” In some languages it is not possible to speak of joy and gladness having sounds. Therefore if one is following Good News Translation, it may be necessary to say, for example, “Let me feel joy and gladness.”

In verse 8b it is difficult to say whether the bones which thou hast broken refers to physical illness (see comments on 6.2) or to emotional distress, as Good News Translation has taken it; in either case, God is responsible for the psalmist’s condition, and only he can cure it.

Verse 9 is another prayer for forgiveness. First the psalmist asks God to “hide his face” from his sins, and then to blot out (as in verse 1b) his iniquities (same word as in verse 2a). The first request suggests that the psalmist wants God to quit noticing his sins (see 10.11 and discussion) and not pronounce him guilty of iniquity (see 32.2 and comments).

The expression Hide thy face from my sins, if translated literally in some languages, will mean that the psalmist is asking God to be ashamed of his sins. Even the Good News Translation rendering, “Close your eyes,” will in some languages mean that the psalmist wants to sin and does not want God to notice what he is doing. Therefore, in order to avoid these wrong meanings, it will sometimes be necessary to say “take away my sins” or “forgive the evil things I do.”

Verse 9 (also verses 11-12), like verse 2, is chiastic, which is structurally relevant, as this verse falls at the approximate center of the psalm. The psalmist has again employed chiasmus as a poetic device in his petition to God to remove all his sin (see comments on verse 2).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .