Lost in Translation

One of my nerdiest hobbies includes studying Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the study of the theory of (and the practice of) interpretation. I spend a lot of time (some would say too much) comparing different translations of texts and different interpretations of literature in order to form my own opinion. Some call it obsessive... I just consider it being thorough.

The other evening I was speaking with a friend of mine who is Christian. We were discussing the Lord's Prayer-- I was sharing anecdotes and details that I found amusing. For example: Did you know that in most Asian-language translations of the Lord's Prayer, they ask for God to "Give us today our daily rice"? Regardless, we were not discussing Asian languages.

We were discussing Aramaic, Jesus' first language and the one he spoke most fluently. Aramaic is a Semitic language, meaning it is related to ancient Hebrew and helped give birth to modern-day Arabic. Semitic languages have a great habit of being butchered by Western civilizations for numerous reasons; sometimes to spin the information the way the Church wanted and sometimes simply due to terrible scholarship. Either way, a lot of meaning has been lost. My friend just so happens to be a linguistics student who specializes in Semitic languages. Needless to say, I lucked out.

He wrote and recited the Lord's Prayer for me in Aramaic. It is as follows.

D'bwaschmâja Nethkâdasch schmach
Têtê malkuthach.
Nehwê tzevjânach aikâna d'bwaschmâja af b'arha.
Hawvlân lachma d'sûnkanân jaomâna.
Waschboklân chaubên wachtahên aikâna
daf chnân schwoken l'chaijabên.
Wela tachlân l'nesjuna
ela patzân min bischa.
Metol dilachie malkutha wahaila wateschbuchta l'ahlâm almîn.
Amên.

When I first looked at the phonology of the words and the way the consonants and vowels played off of each other, it honestly looked like a bit of a mess. I said right out loud, "Who would ever design a language this way?" To which my friend wisely responded "We don't design language. Language designs us."

We discussed this for some time, as I recited the German version for him, then translated it literally. He was shocked.

"That's far too close to the Westernized version. It's not close to the original at all."

I asked him to elaborate, which is when he recited the most beautiful English prayer I have ever heard.

Oh You, from whom the breath of life comes,
who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration.
May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest.
Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
Let Your will come true - in all the universe
just as on earth.
Give us wisdom for our daily need,
detach the fetters of faults that bind us, like we let go the guilt of others
Let us not be lost in superficial things,
but let us be freed from that what keeps us off from our true purpose.
From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act,
 And the song that beautifies all and renews itself from age to age.
May this be sealed in trust, faith and truth.

I smiled to myself as I muttered, "That almost sounds like a Buddhist mantra or meditation wheel prayer." The first thing that I noticed (and immediately loved) about it was the second line. "[God] fills all realms of sound, light, and vibration". I interpret this to mean that God can be experienced first-hand, audibly, visibly and palpably. This paints a very different portrait that if any word close to the English "Heaven" were used. Heaven implies somewhere completely separate from the realm of Earth, but in the original Aramaic, God is well within our realm of perception.

Another thing I loved was that it references the holiness of the self. Many denominations of many faiths paint the Human as faulty, less-than, fallen from grace. This prayer, however, speaks of the holiness of the individual. That's right: when Jesus first spoke the Lord's Prayer, he referenced that there is holiness inside every human, a little bit of God in each of us-- a Divine Spark.

When Jesus spoke the words "Let us not be lost in superficial things", I doubt he really meant what is now "let us not be led into temptation". Really, to be lost in superficial things means what? It means to realize what truly matters. It means to avoid desire for things you don't need. It means to remember that you could always have less.

My favorite phrase in the Aramaic is the closing. In English, it's well-known: "For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory." In Aramaic, it is incredibly different. Instead of the kingdom that God owns, he gives something to us: will that is all-purposeful. Instead of omnipotence, he gives vigor and life. Instead of his own glory, he shares something more glorious with us: A song. A song that makes everything beautiful. Indeed, Jesus saw beauty in music-- within and without.

Jesus in a very Buddha-like pose.

 When he finished writing it out for me, he circled a few phrases and explained a few Hermeneutical issues (words that are near-impossible to translate or have other quirks worth notice) to me.

• • The phrase "Breath of Life" is very common in almost all Semitic languages as describing the way God breathes life into clay or dust.
    
  •  In line 5, the word "Universe" can be literally translated as "All that vibrates".
  • In the line after that, the word for "Earth" is more accurate as "That which is material and dense".
  •  The word "wisdom" in line 7 could also mean "understanding", or "assistance" (as in, the way a teacher 'assists' a student).
  • The phrase "fetters of fault" gives birth to the modern Arabic term for 'karma', an oddly Eastern word to see in a Western prayer.
  • to "let go" in line 8 also means to unlock, relieve weight from, or release from grip.

All-in-all, the Aramaic words used strike certain stark differences tot he modernized version. A lot of people could wonder how so much could be lost in translation, and I urge those people to visit this site  which displays and illustrates Hermeneutical fallacies perfectly. 

Language is constantly changing. There is nothing intrinsically good or bad about that, but it is always important to see where the words we're using come from in order to gain a deeper understanding about the history of what we say and why we say it.

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Thanks for reading. Go forth and do good things, my friends.

Words for Love

I know it's been a while since I posted something last, so I'm going to make this count.

Valentine's Day is the one holiday that more people dislike than enjoy. I, for one, like everything about it. It's great to see lovers expressing their feelings for each other. Even if the PDA is a bit much, I really like seeing expressions of love in any form!

One thing that I've noticed in my study of multiple different languages is that the word for "Love" is difficult to translate. While I understand the meaning that those words try and convey, I never understood why it differs so much. 

Growing up in a church school environment, you learn a fair amount of things about ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew (if you're paying enough attention), as those are the two languages that the Bible is written in. What I loved most learning about are the four Greek words for Love. English has one word, two or three if you bend the rules a bit... Greek has four.

The first is φιλία, or Philia. Philia in modern Greek means friendship, but in ancient Greek carries the connotation of a brotherly love. We can see that meaning in "Philadelphia", the City of Brotherly Love, and in the words "Philosophy", a love for wisdom, and "Bibliophile", someone who loves books, et cetera. It also could mean loyalty to friends or to a specific cause.

The second is στοργή, or Storge. Storge means simply affection, a natural, innate affection such as that which a parent loves their child. It's often described as being affection through familiarity. Strangely enough, it's the word used least in any Greek work.


The third is ἔρως, or Eros. Eros is a very intimate love-- It's where we get the English word "erotic". It's a very passionate love, filled with desire and longing. However, it's not always sexual in nature. Plato once said Eros-type love for a person is also a love for the beauty of that person, and ultimately an admiration of beauty in and of itself.


The fourth is my absolute favorite word for love from any language: ἀγάπη, or Agape. Agape is the strongest love, and often translated as "pure love". What differentiates it from the other words is twofold: It is unconditional, and it is always giving, without expecting anything in return. It also carries an undertone of being completely content with the status quo-- When someone feels Agape, they won't want to change a thing.

The only thing I dislike about Valentine's day is that it focuses romance's importance into a single day. This is a problem for two reasons: Obviously, the first is that romance should be Valentine's Day-strength every day of the year, and the second is that it only focuses on one kind of love!

Real, true love is unconditional. It won't stop or sputter-- It's like a river, always flowing and rolling over or around any obstacles, no matter how much work it takes. It's determined! It's strong!

But it's also gentle. Like water, it can be as fierce and powerful as a crashing sea, but also peaceful and serene as a lake in the early morning. It is always content to take the lowest places. It is humble! When the lowest path is taken by water, eventually you will find the ocean.

 Look at how much Love has grown! When it is determind, strong, gentle, peaceful, and humble, it grows into something immense and strong as the ocean itself!

We should always strive to live out all kinds of love. When we do this, and we strive for what love should be, we become very strong by sharing love with our friends, our family, and (if we have one) our lovers. We should have Philia, Storge, Eros, and Agape all in balance in our life at all times. We can live in harmony this way.

Happy Valentine's Day. Let's all try to act out Love in all its forms, every day.

Reflections on Rice

At least twice a week, I work as an assistant coach for my old high school's speech team. It's a wonderful opportunity to stay involved in what I love and help cultivate the amazing talent that some of those kids have.

Today, my good friend Josh and I (Who is also now an assistant coach) had the privilege of coaching a young girl from South Korea. Her speech category was Poetry, and her pieces were quite... well, I'm not exaggerating when I say they were powerful. The poetry she recites was written by a North Korean man who documented, through his outstanding spoken word, the injustice dealt to them.

Now, before I get to the core of what I want to express, I want to say that seeing this piece gave me a new perspective on exactly how venomous the conflict between North and South Korea is. Growing up in America, we pretty much learned that "North Korea= bad and people can't leave and their leader is crazy and" et cetera, and that "South Korea= the victims". It's quite a bit more complex than that.

The words were heavy. The poet witnessed what was called "relief rice" from the UN brought for hungry people, but given to the military. At first glance, one can already see the horrible leadership, but when one looks mindfully into the text, one begins to realize exactly what is happening.

Rice is the staple of almost every single Asian culture's diet. Over 3,770 million (that's almost 4 billion, yes) people eat rice every day, myself included. It truly is the stuff of life. The poet witnesses the rice being transported past starving, emaciated people and given to the military. Any excess rice they had was thrown during a parade to display the might of their military having had a full meal. This says something strong... Not only do they not even drop the extra rice into the hands of the starving, they waste it by throwing it in celebration of war.

The poet tells the "people of the world" not to call it "relief rice"-- How powerful that request is! He doesn't want relief rice, because that makes it sound like rice alone will solve all of North Korea's problems! He even tells the United Nations that if they have rice to send, it would be better to fire it into the air! This again draws a terrible picture of misusing life-giving food as ammunition. Rice, the grain of life, is being used to support war, spread starvation, and deal out death.

Rice is so small, so light, and yet so powerful. Something so innocent, if misused, can spread suffering-- But it still brings life to billions of people.

I like hearing prayers, songs, poetry, et cetera in other languages. Sometimes translations use very subtle changes to influence the message they want to get across. In the Chinese translation of the Lord's Prayer, for example, the Prayerspeaker asks God to "give me today my daily rice". I love that! It's a fantastic coloring of the difference (and also similarity) of Eastern culture to Western culture. Staples of our diet such as bread and rice can say such simple but powerful things about who we are!

If you've ever seen videos of people farming rice in countries such as Vietnam and China, when it's done traditionally it is quite obvious that it's back-breaking work. As much as I may not look like it, I do understand the value of hard manual labor. It's a fantastic feeling, being able to contribute strongly to something through work! Rice takes a very, very long time to farm and the work is quite tedious.

Rice can be a very powerful symbol of what I believe I should be like. Simple, subtle, but full of power. Hardworking. Fast to give life, and careful to not take it away.

Of Love and Faith

Earlier this morning, someone asked me if I had ever been in love. I thought for a moment, and nodded. The followup question was if I currently was in love. I responded, "I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to make that judgment yet." She then asked me something that caught me off my guard.

"What does being in love feel like?"

I didn't know how to respond. How can you define something like that?  I was speechless for a few moments, but then remembered something I had written about 2 years ago, back when I was wrestling with a definition for something as bizarre as Love. I showed it to her, hoping to give her a general picture of what I felt about it.

"Define

Love is being kind enough to give while being stern enough to take.

Love is the deepest trust for another person.

Love is putting your whole world in another person's hands and trusting them not to drop it, or even shake it too hard.

Love is red, blue, green, yellow, brown, white, black

Love is one hundred thousand different ways to show your concern
your devotion
your sense of humor
your sorrow
your fury
your sunshine
your moonlight

and best of all...

Love is all of these things
and countless more."

 I told her love was cold. Not freezing, like winter, but... calming. Soothing. Drinking from a coconut on a hot, muggy day. I told her love felt like fire and ice. I told her love is trust, but it's so many leagues deeper than that.

She then asked me how I know the other person will come through for me and do the same for me. I took a second and thought again. For whatever reason, my mind brought up a passage in the Bible, in the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews:

 "Now, Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

So, I told her about that. I then took a second to think a bit deeper...

I had always thought that in many cases, the words "Faith" and "Love" are interchangeable. After all, if I love someone, won't I always have faith in them? And if I have faith in an idea, doesn't that show a certain amount of love for a cause? In addition, many instances in the Bible where the word "hope" appears isn't always translated the ideal way. The Hope they speak of is concrete. It isn't up in the air-- it's looking forward to something you know is true and right. That is Faith. That is Love. So, if we reword that passage, look what we have:

"Now, Love is being rooted in what we know is true and certain of what is unable to be seen."

Love and Faith are placing your heart within the soul of another and being absolutely certain they do the same for you. You know the other person feels the same way, because that is what Love is.