One afternoon I hiked ten minutes to our neighbors to ask if I could buy some goat manure. We wanted to plant a small garden plot and some fertilizer would be a help. When I arrived, I noticed his wife who only speaks Tarahumara sitting outside, but the man was nowhere around. I said the usual...
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In the translation world, it is well-known that certain genres of text are more difficult to translate than others. Some of the easier text genres for translation are narrative (telling about an event) and descriptive (giving details about someone or something). A far more difficult text genre...
Translators are not authors, free to write whatever they want in the way they want. They must translate the existing text with integrity.
With form and meaning in constant tension, what helps translators stay faithful to the form of the original text? These four points correspond to the...
We expect that a surgeon would spend years in training and apprenticeships before he ever attempts his first surgery. Likewise, a lawyer would spend years in law school before he ever represents a case in the courthouse. Should a missionary go to the field without training? Should a translator...
The whole point of Bible translation is that the Word of God be read or heard by those who did not have this access before. Unfortunately, many Bible translations have been completed after years of hard work and the Bibles are not read by their intended audience. Obviously, no Bible translation...
Translators navigate a constant tension between form and meaning. English Bibles, for example, may keep the word order of the original writing in one passage (maintaining more of the form), but in other passages change words around so it is easier to understand (clarifying the meaning). Is there...
"In the early years, it's easy to keep going; it's easy to think, Next year will be the year. But when the next year passes without seeing the fruit we hoped for. . ."
At Camp Week, E. Wagoner shared lessons learned—or that certainly have sunk in deeper—since first being sent to...
"People of God, it's your responsibility, God is saying, to lift up My name to the nations—to all the people of the earth—and when you make a mess of it, I lose fame, God says. Have you ever wondered why God did that? He put his own glory at the stake of us frail, failing humans; He did it over...
(The Importance of Using Familiar Language)
At All-Nations, one of our translation values is accessibility: translating into familiar, present-day language. This goes beyond the obvious choice to translate into the Mixtec language for Mixtec-speaking...