Translation challenges

Bible translation is a challenging task. It’s not just a case of finding the right words to translate the words in the original.

I asked one of the LLMs (Large language model), to translate Genesis 3:1-6 for me to see what it came up with. It had access to our Kovol lexicon and grammatical notes. It came up with this for Genesis 3:1 (translated back into English):

“The wild Satan python was big big bad. This python God will make, that all the wild animals skin was big bad. Python here to the woman I will speak he said “Did God say which garden trees all i will not count them?” he said.”
Genesis 3:1 LLM version

It’s quite impressive  that this technology can almost produce a comprehensible translation with the limited data I gave it in the Kovol language. It raises the question of whether investing a chunk of time in training the model more carefully could one day result in  usable output as a starting point for translation. I don’t think I’m properly equipped to try that, and if I was, I’m not sure whether in the end it would be worth it.

Translation isn’t just a case of finding the right words to substitute for the original ones. It’s about finding a comprehensible, natural and accurate way to convey all the meaning of the original. Below is my own translation (back- translated into English) of Genesis 3:1

They were, and the snake was. The snake’s knowledge was very big. Yawey God made all the animals. He made, and the snake (habitually) beat their knowledge. Knowledge of speaking lies was very big. He spoke to the woman “is it true?” he said. “That God said ‘do not eat from all the tree fruit’?” he said.
Genesis 3:1 back to English

One of the big challenges in this verse was the word “crafty”. The word is rich in meaning and connotations in English and most English Bible translations use it. Kovol has no direct vocabulary equivalent. I tried to use two different ideas to get it across. 1. that his knowledge was big and 2. that he had knowledge of speaking deceitfully.

What do you think? Does that capture it? The jury is out on that still. A translation consultant will pore over my back-translation later and he will mark it up showing areas he thinks I have missed meaning and times I have added meaning without warrant. I find it a little easier to spot places where I’ve missed something, but knowing when I’ve added something is a lot harder.

The first words, “they were and the snake was” is a case in point. The English renders it, “Now the serpent”. My commentaries tell me the now renders a waw-consecutive, which is fancy scholar talk for something in Hebrew that indicates a continuation of the story. So I’m looking for the natural Kovol way to continue a story, and for Kovol that will mean back-referencing by repeating the last verb. Hence the to be verb being repeated. It seems to me that I have good grounds for how I translated that…. but do I? It’s so easy to second guess myself. I’m really glad that a translation consultant is going to take a look and be a safety net for me!

The hardest part of Genesis 3 though was 3:15.

I will do like this” he said. “You” he said. “(The) woman” he said. “You(pl.) will argue/fight become and be” he said. “Your blood (clan)” he said. “(The) woman’s blood” he said. “They will argue/fight become and be” he said. “Afterwards” he said. “A child of the woman will tread on (the) snake’s head” he said “His heel you will bite” he said. He said like that to the snake.
Gen 3:15 Kovol back to English

There’s a whole knot of exegetical and Kovol language puzzles to work on here. Is the seed of the woman plural or singular? Scholars suggest both options. There’s a bit of ambiguity in the Hebrew that can come across in the English. Seed or offspring can be singular or plural and so that works.

The problem I had was that attempting to mimic that ambiguity resulted in lower comprehension. When I asked who is doing the stepping on the head of the serpent I received a whole range of answers. I noticed my helpers falling back on their own cultural understanding. “We all step on the serpent’s head. We’re blind and don’t know, but we will know and then we will step on the serpent’s head (and live problem-free lives)” The part in brackets is the subtext I’m pretty sure is under their words.

Who was doing the snake crushing was a total guess from my helpers… but Genesis doesn’t make it clear. So does that mean it’s a good translation? A common interpretation, and one we will teach is that this is referring to Christ coming. It’s not simply a verse about why people dislike snakes. I found juggling the participants and tenses very challenging. Kovol nouns don’t carry singular or plural. The word child is used for both, and then context, particularly the verb makes clear if singular or plural is meant. To add to the problems “teme undum” can mean 1. a female child, 2. sister or 3. child of the woman. Wanting to hit the third meaning with my language helpers, the only way I could get them to say their descendents in any given example sentence had to include the “afterwards” time word.

It’s really encouraging to see it (slowly) progressing though. The translation really helps with the lesson writing. A lot of vocabulary gets straightened out in the process of translation, making translating the lessons quicker. Each time I finish a portion with my translation helpers I get to read it to people who haven’t heard it before as a comprehension check. It’s incredibly satisfying when I read paragraphs and they just work. I ask them to repeat what I just read and basically the same thing comes back. I then ask questions about details in the paragraphs and people correctly answer them all. It feels great to read something that communicates after years of bumbling through language learning. People really like hearing it too.

Have I captured all the meaning? I think so, but I’m counting on a translation consultant confirming or challenging that.

Challenges aside, progress is being made. I’ve finished Genesis 1,2 and 3; the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4; portions of the flood story in 6-9 and the tower of Babel story in Genesis 11. In total 150 or so verses in the last 2 months out of the 1146 needed for the first teaching. It’s such a long slog!