Re: HELP: Translating the Babel Text

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Jan van Steenbergen
<ijzeren_jan@Y...> wrote:
 --- Jeffrey Henning skrzypszy:

>> I rather translate "Let's gather stones and wood" etc. because
>> this method belongs more tightly to the concept of building a
>> house and is more commonly known? That would seem logical to me.
>>
>>I agree - I think that's the right approach. It is certainly one of
>>the guiding principles of translation relays.
>>>I, on the other hand, have my doubts. The Babel text is a piece of
>>>history (or mythology, if you like) taking place on a more or less
>>>established moment in our world's history, on a fixed place.
>>>usually, a translator does not transplant the stuff he's working
>>>on into a completely different time and place. In other words,
>>>gathering stones and wood instead of clay and mortar is the same
>>>to me as writing: "And Moses climbed the Empire State Building,
>>>and yelled to the crowd: ..." Even if certain objects or concepts
>>>are alien to your (con)culture, your language may very well have a
>>>word for it.
>>>Jan
I agree with Jan.  We're not talking about deeply held religious
principles here (unless someone wants to translate "Romans"), but an
attempt to explain one culture's artifacts to another.  Explaining
snow and ice to Samoans, at one time, may have been difficult but
there are circumlocutions.

The whole purpose of that line in the story was to explain to the
Hebrew culture what the Mesopotamian culture used for building.  In
their mountains the Hebrews used stone/mortar while on the
Mesopotamian plain they used brick/asphalt.  If at all possible, if
the culture does know what stone/bricks/asphalt/mortar are, then
those words should be used.  We're not trying to tell the reader how
to build a tower, but how that particular culture built a tower.

Charlie

	
	
		
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