Re-animating orality: the design for a new translation of the Bible into Sesotho

[摘要] English: The Sesotho community has proved an avid religious (Christian) audience for more than acentury. Two Sesotho translations of the Bible, the Old Translation of 1909 and the NewTranslation of 1989, are used by Sesotho-speaking people. The former seems to be complexand difficult to its users (both those who can and those who cannot read the written text) dueto the following reasons: (i) its adherence to a word-for-word philosophy of translation(reflecting the Biblical Hebrew structure in Sesotho in terms of lexical items for the Lord,such as Jehova (1909) which is Hebrew instead of Morena (1989), and (ii) features ofcolonial interference during the translation of the Bible (e.g. the use of the Afrikaansloanword teronkong instead of the indigenous Sesotho word tjhankaneng for 'prison'). Theprimary concern of the later version is meaning and readability, but it was not well acceptedby much of its prospective readership. Others would say the translation was much easier toread, and therefore had lost its authenticity. Both translations lean heavily on the reader'sability to understand a written text. They constitute a very serious problem in a religiouscommunity made up of members not able to read the written text. This was proven by apreliminary study of illiteracy which was undertaken by the researcher in Bloemfontein'sSesotho-speaking congregations in 2007. The study indicated that 11% of the churchmembers cannot read or write; this figure would presumably be higher in the ruralcommunities. One must also take notice of the fact that in the remaining 89% of religiouscommunities there are Bible readers who still find it difficult to master the content of theBible due to the complexity of the vocabulary and language structure of the text when readaloud. This means a Bible translation adapted to the needs of the specific target audience isneeded.The problem that was investigated for this thesis was: How can the Bible be translated tofulfill the demands of the Sesotho audience who are unable to read the written text? SinceAfricans implicitly understand the principles underpinning the oral literature so clearly, andalso because orality is the core element of African traditional religion, it is therefore alsoimportant to have it incorporated in the Scripture through translation of the Bible and inpreaching. As a result, a translation project based on the principles of orality (showing theparticipatory mode of communication) was designed (cf. Chapter 5) to fulfill the needs of the Sesotho community within the oral culture. The type of translation was a culture-specificadaptation of Ong's (1982:37-56) features of orality (cf. Chapter 4). These features areadditive rather than subordinative, aggregative rather than analytic, redundant or copious,conservative or traditionalist, close to the human life-world, agonistically toned, andhomeostatic or situational rather than abstract.The framework within which the proposed oral translation was based is Nord's functionalistapproach to translation (cf. Chapter 3). The notion that is highly accentuated in the model, isthat it is not the source text that is given first preference, but the target text for theprospective audience. Concomitant to the translation, are the main vehicles namely,translation strategies at both the macro level (i.e. the overall translation strategy - for the sakeof the study, adaptation was the overall translation strategy) and micro level (word, phrase,and sentences). The preliminary portions that were translated were also compared with boththe 1909 and 1989, and it was found that it has a place in the hearts of the Sesotho readers.The aim of the oral translation to be produced is not to replace the already existingtranslations of both 1909 and 1989, but it is to complement them.(617 words).

[发布机构] University of the Free State