Translation

     For the first time i have had the fascinating experience of translating a document from Portuguese into English. This was an e-mail giving a report about the extraordinary moving of the Holy Spirit with six or seven hundred young people in Brazil. I have been reading ( primarily the Bible) in Portuguese for about two and a half years. With a non-technical subject not requiring specialized vocabulary I comprehend eighty-five or ninety percent of what I read. This e-mail had about a dozen words that i was unsure of. Apart from that I had no difficulty with the vocabulary.
     My goal was to do word for word literal translation as best as i could while retaining the flavor and fervency of the original. Most of the time this was possible although in a few cases I had to paraphrase. One challenge is that word order in a sentence can differ between the two languages. Another is that the enthusiasm of the author sometimes produced sentences quite lengthy for an English reader. Occasionally I found that i needed to put a word for clarification in parenthesis.
     Although the process took several hours to translate from the e-mail into longhand in a notebook, then typed on a Word Doc, and then revised as i looked for errors, the resultant joy made up for all the work. The reality that I could then send the finished product to bless and encourage those that do not read Portuguese is blissful. I am looking forward to other opportunities.
     We finally have true spring weather here in New England although my experience is that we have another full month of potentially cold, raw weather days. Getting out for walks again in the countryside is renewing of body, soul and spirit.
     Reading in Luke today this verse jumped out at me. "But he said to them, 'I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well for I was sent for this purpose." ( Luke 4:43 ESV)