Interpreting (oral translation) in the Ancient World

Meturgemanim (from Aramaic rəgám – “to speak loudly”) – interpreters and translators in the Ancient Middle East, who translated from different languages into Aramaic (lingua franca in the period between 8 cent. BC and 7 cent. AD) and vice versa. Aramaic was the official language of the Achemenidian Empire (539 – 331 BC).

Деякі зразки перекладу

МТ: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ

Спочатку створив Бог небо і землю

ТО: בְקַדמִין בְרָא יוי יָת שְמַיָא וְיָת אַרעָא

Спочатку створив Господь небо і землю

ТНеоф: מלקדמין בחכמה ברא דייי שכלל ית שמיא וית ארעא

Спочатку мудрістю Син Господа завершив небо і землю

ТПсЙ: מן אוולא ברא אלקים ית שמייא וית ארעא

Спочатку створив Бог небо і землю

МТ: כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַּד-לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְׂרָה עַל-שִׁכְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ אֵל גִּבּוֹר אֲבִי-עַד שַׂר-שָׁלוֹם

Бо Дитя народилося нам, і влада буде на плечах Його; і назвуть Йому ім’я: Дивний, Порадник, Бог Могутній, Отець Вічний, Князь Миру.

(Іс. 6:9)

Таргум Йонатана Бен-Уззіеля:

אְמַר נְבִיָא לְבֵית דָוִיד אְרֵי רָבֵי אִתיְלֵיד לַנָא בַר אִתיְהֵיב לַנָא וְקַבֵיל אוֱרָיתָא עְלוֱהִי לְמִיטְרַה וְאִתקְרִי שְׁמֵיה מִן קְדָם מַפלִיא עֵיצָא אְלָהָא

גִיבָרָא קַייָם עָלְמַיָא מְשִׁיחָא דִשׁלָמָא יִסגֵי עְלַנָא בְיוֱמוֱהִי׃

Сказав пророк до дому Давидового: «Бо юнак народився нам, син даний нам. І він прийняв на себе забов’язання виконувати Тору. І назвуть Йому ім’я перед Господом: Чудотворець, Порадник, Бог Могутній, Сущій споконвіку, Мессія, у дні якого примножиться нам мир».

 

In the Hellenistic period (IV – I cent. BC) started a booming process of translation from other languages into Greek.

In 283 year BC the Hellenistic king of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus ordered to translate the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) from Hebrew into Greek for the Alexandrian Library.

It was a challenging task for the ancient translators because

• the source language (SL) belonged to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asia family of languages, but the target language (TL) – to the Indo-European family;

• the biblical text contained different literary forms: prose, poetry, juridical and prophetical texts;

• there were many special cultic terms in the Old Testament which had not any counterparts in Greek;

• the messengers and their audiences lived some centuries before the translators.

The problems of grammar and syntax which had been set before the ancient translators:

• Hebrew verbs do not have the grammatical category of tense.

• Hebrew syntax is paratactic.

• Some grammatical forms may have several meaning (for example, nouns in plural).

• Archaisms in vocabulary (including borrowings from Ugaritic, Akkadian and Aramaic), grammar and syntax

• Greek verbs have the complicated tense system.

• Greek syntax is hypotactic.

• Clear, well-developed and consecutive derivation system.

• Translation of the archaisms demanded from the translator encyclopedic erudition and great insight.

 

In that case the literal translation was impossible: the translators had to resolve the problem of equivalence (formal or dynamic?). Moreover, there was a big difference between the Hebrew and the Greek literary traditions.

• Hebrew narrative is laconic and based on the associative approach.

• Hebrew poetry is based on the syntactic parallelism of two clauses-lines in apposition.

• Greek narrative is based on the detailed description of events and characters.

• Greek poetry is quantitative (hexameter).

 

Alexandrian translators not only coped with this complicated task, but laid foundations for the multi-aspect translation techniques in the following ages.

 

The ancient translator tried to be careful in the translation:

• They rendered each Hebrew lexeme with a corresponding Greek word consequently (אלהים = ο θεος [the God], יהוה = ο κυριος [the Lord], ברא = ποιεω [to create], יצר = πλασσω [to form], משכן = σκηνη [the tabernacle]);

• They attempted to imitate the Hebrew syntax where it was possible (the paratactic syntax, the word order VSO, the syntactic parallelism in poetry);

• They created new words (neologisms) in the cases when they couldn’t find a Greek equivalent for a Hebrew word (for example, the cultic term ιλαστεριον for כפרת [an atonement cover]);

• They used the hypotactic syntactic construction for the infinitive construction in Hebrew and asyndetic relative clauses.

In the similar manners the most famous translations of the Bible were made in the period between II and IX centuries

• Syrian translation of the Old Testament (II cent.)

• Latin translation of St. Jerome (IV-V cent.)

• Gothic translation of Wulfila (VIII cent.)

• Coptic translation (I-IV cent.)

• Armenian (V cent.)

• Georgian (V cent.)

• Slavic (IX cent.)

 

Translations from Greek into Latin: Cicero (106-43 BC) and Horace (65-8 BC)

• The outstanding statesman, orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43 ВС) translated into Latin the speeches of the most eloquent Greek orators Demosthenes (385? - 322 ВС) and Aeschines (389 - 314 ВС). Cicero’s approach was based on the principles of «sense-to-sense» translation.

Cicero's principles of «sense-for-sense translation» were first accepted and employed by Horace, who translated works from Greek into Latin. Horace used Cicero's princi­ples in his own, often unpredictable way: he changed the com­position and content of ST; moreover, he introduced some ideas of his own, thus making the translated works unlike the originals (similar to ancient translations of the Epos of Gilgamesh).