Proverbs and Phrases of Biblical Origin
By Igor Maslennikov
German interpreter and translator.
Vancouver, Canada
igor.maslennikov@gmx.de
www.maslenikau.com
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During
my work on the origin
of German idioms I purposely left out many
German idioms and proverbs which come from well-known
sources such as ancient tales or the Holy Bible. As
usual, such proverbs have similar meanings in all
languages and don't show the singularity of the language.
However,
proverbs and phrases of biblical origin are often
used, knowingly or unknowingly, in modern speech
(ex: face-to-face or daily bread),
especially with the rising of interest in the Bible
after the publication of books such as Brown's The
Da Vinci Code. Sometimes we use or listen to
phrases automatically without thinking about the
fact that they originate from the Bible (ex:
crown of thorns as a symbol of suffering
or dove with an olive
branch as a symbol of peace). Because of
their frequent use, these proverbs and constant
phrases are very important for translators and interpreters.
After some research and careful reading of the Scriptures
in English, German, and Russian, I figured out that
the proverbs and phrases which come from the Bible
are sometimes not identical in their translation
in the different languages. This fact gave me the
idea that sometimes it could be difficult for translators
and interpreters to give the right wording of biblical
quotations in the target language. I don't mean
the word-for-word substitution of the Bible quotation
from one language to the other, but rather following
the popular use of proverbs of biblical origin,
which have sometimes been modified over time.
I
believe that the obligation of every translator
is to find an equivalent of the phrase (provided
the use of the phrase contextually agrees with its
biblical meaning) that is normally used in the target
language. That is why a simple word-for-word translation
sometimes doesn't help and can be absolutely incomprehensible
to the target audience. This is especially true
for Russian proverbs, which come from the old Slavic
translations of the Greek version of the Bible.
Russian proverbs and often-used phrases from the
Bible contain some old Slavic words, which are not
understandable to modern Russian people, except
in the context of the full proverb and may be absolutely
unknown to non-Russian translators. For example,
the Russian equivalent of the phrase like
a lamb (in the biblical meaning of the context)
is аки агнец,
where both words are rarely used in modern Russian;
they can be found together in contemporary Russian
literature but only in this phrase and often have
a humorous connotation. The English phrase "to
keep smth. as the apple of his eye" (Deuteronomy
32.10.) will be translated in Russian
as "беречь
как зеницу
ока" or literally
"to keep as the pupil of his eye". The
word "Greek" in the phrase "Here there cannot
be Greek and Jew" (Colossians 3.11.) becomes
in the Russian equivalent not in the modern word
"грек" (Greek) but
in the old Slavic "эллин"
(Hellene), which is hardly used in
the Russian language today. The same situation can
be observed when comparing the English biblical
proverbs and phrases with German ones. For example,
such phrases as "in the fullness of one's
heart"(Luke 6.45.) in English and
"aus dem guten Schatz seines Herzens" in
German or "Do not judge by appearances" (John
7.24.) and "Richtet nicht nach dem, was
vor Augen ist" are not word-for-word translations.
In
all these cases I emphasize only the difficulty
in translating proverbs and constant phrases of
biblical origin from English into the target language,
without touching on the matter of translation of
the Scriptures into different languages. This is
a topic in itself, which has been discussed for
the past two thousand years.
The
glossary of biblical proverbs and constant phrases
in English, German and Russian, which I have compiled,
only aims to help English-speaking translators and
interpreters find the equivalents of English biblical
proverbs in German and Russian as quickly and easily
as possible without turning to the Scriptures or
special dictionaries. I am sure this glossary is
especially relevant for interpreters, where previous
versions have been incomplete. I give the source
quotation from the Bible (King James Version) for
information only. Translators are advised to remember
that the equivalents of English proverbs and phrases
in German and Russian often do not coincide with
the equivalent quotations from the German and Russian
versions of the Holy Bible but are only proverbs.
I added in my glossary some biblical names with
different spellings in English, German, and Russian
(ex: Caesar (English)Kaiser
(German)Кесарь
(Russian). The proverbs are listed alphabetically
by key words. I hope my glossary will effectively
help translators in their daily work.
English-German-Russian
phrases & proverbs of biblical origin
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