Team Translation Workshop

‘Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

– Matthew 4:4

“No way, you can’t say it like that!” Nate and friend have a good laugh at Nate’s misused Pal idiom.

It’s Harder than You Think

‘He stuck leaves and things in his armbands and looked very good’ – a Pal language helper trying his best to describe how Joseph’s coat of many colors was different from ordinary clothes… not exactly the same mental picture that we usually get when we think of that passage is it? (We had to change our wording  to make things more clear.)

For a little more than a week now, we have been attending a translation workshop with a few of the Pal fellas… and the whole Pal team (first time we have all been together in one place – ever).  These days have been pretty interesting. In seeking to understand how best to bring God’s word accurately into the Pal language we have had to grapple with wording, preconceived ideas, and our limited understanding of the different styles of Pal speech. We surely don’t want to, by our phrasing, indicate ideas that simply are not there. For instance, in our practice passage (Genesis 37), there is the mention of how Jacob ‘loved Joseph more than any of his other sons’. My Pal language helper immediately supplied the interpretation within his translation; ‘Yes, that is because he always did what his father told him to and his brothers did not.’

That was only one of the instances. We are learning about how to bring ideas of caravans, camels, cisterns, and even flocks across into the Pal language clearly and accurately.

At the bottom of this post is a portion of the translation work that we did this week as well as a fairly literal back-to-English translation of it.

Please pray for us as we embark on this amazing task – that in our efforts, God’s Word would be clear and effective for the Pal people.

Our three Pal translation helpers in training. Pokia, Kasam, and Nimacom. They are the first Pal guys to ever travel to the Goroka Valley.

On the Merry-go-round.

If we have been a little slow to communicate in these last weeks, please know that it is not because we are loathe to. Rather, we have had hardly a moment to spare. With our translation training course going 6 days a week (includes homework and general care for our Pal friends who are really feeling out of place), and team meetings (did we mention that our whole team is together for the first time), we feel a bit thinly spread…and things are just heating up.

The translation workshop ends today, tomorrow Nate leaves to help manage helicopter transport of building materials for our partner’s house, and Thursday (the day after he returns), we will be preparing for another workshop on clear communication in translation. A week later we’ll be back in village.

Please thank the Lord with us for all of the people who are giving input and knowledge and care to the Pal work. We know that we are much too small to be able to do this alone. Also, for good team discussions.

Do you want to help the Pal people with literacy?

We are going to be developing the materials and preparing the Pal people for their first ever course in reading and writing. One thing that is very difficult to procure here in PNG is good, simple, reading glasses. Lots of our Pal friends will need them. If you (or your small group) would like to do something practical that would directly impact literacy in Pal, please contact us for more information.

In the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts

and fix my eyes on your ways.

Psalm 119:14-15   

Thanks for praying.

The Claasens

Here is a verse or two in Pal with the more or less literal back-to-English translation on the right.

Alia emc Israel, mesi bc mesi simc cvc nini kian. Mokoragclowcnc mesi mcmcncgclan bc emc ovc peme kekevagclan. Mesi bc ovc nini ka epcp kotan. Mesi mesimi ola ngotcvc nini ka sukcp kotan. Nini kicnc ngombc pagana gol ngcvan. Mesi Josep cvc pagana kukurikcp gol imat ngcvan.  Mesi pagana bc ngu utan. Ngombc papalot  bc mcnja vivigclanot. Emc peme sugu kcpcnc mcnja vivigclanot.  Miak ovc mcnja vivigclanot.  Mcnja vivigcnc pal pele ovcnc mctavanot. Ngombcnc pele mokotanot.

Joseph Set Apart 3 Alright, the father, Israel, that son, the middle one really liked. He was almost very old when the child was born so he got very good thinking about him [the son]. He liked that son very much continually. His other children he like a little bit continually. With his like, he made a very nice clothes. For that son Josep, he made a very nice, long clothes. He gave the clothes to that son. 4 When he did that, the older brothers were bad in their hearts. They saw their father's thinking and were bad in their hearts. About their little brother, they were bad in their hearts. With that badness in their hearts, they would not talk well to him. They did not stop good with him.

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