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Translation of the Babel Text

From:Sai Emrys <sai@...>
Date:Sunday, December 24, 2006, 3:45
My question is: how did you do it?

1. Literally / word for word
2. Almost-literally - conceptually identical
3. Loosely - replacing some metaphors (e.g. for understanding
something or for building)
4. Total replacement - e.g. changing some major aspects of the story
to fit your culture, or some major assumptions (like the
personification of Yahweh)

This ties in to general translation issues, but scriptural texts
particularly seem prone to be treated as requiring literal
preservation of the original.

(I've seen this in other translations also - where people, instead of
translating the intention of a text, translate the metaphors and other
items literally... and end up with a cognitive calque.)

 - Sai

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Scotto Hlad <scott.hlad@...>