I said this would be a high wire act. Today I celebrate making it across the first span!
I did it! I translated 30 verses from Sarah’s story in 30 days 🎉🎉🎉. Today I pull aside the curtain and offer a peek inside my translator's notebook, and I share the fruits of this labor of love.
“I know how unqualified I am to attempt my own translation – I hold no doctorate, no professorship, no permission slip at all – I am merely a woman who loves this poem.“
from A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
The above quote is by an author who went ahead and beautifully translated the Irish of her ancestors into English, not because she was an expert, but because she loved the language, culture, and wisdom of the ones who came before her.
I have embarked on my own translation for many of the same reasons, even in spite of the same surface limitations. After years of saying “I can’t” I finally said instead,
“If not now, when?”
I am studying Biblical Hebrew as I go. And I keep on going, inspired by my love of Sarah’s story, the deep spiritual gifts it has opened up for me, and my desire to discover the feminine power in a story that launched three world religions that are often described as patriarchal.
As it turns out, the truth is much more complicated than that — and even more resplendent with wisdom and beauty.
Celebrating a chapter in translation
I began this project with a bold claim: I said I was going to translate Sarah’s story for myself. I knew if I said this publicly to the 2,200 or so readers who subscribe to this newsletter, I couldn’t back down! That’s why I initially compared this feat to walking a tightrope in public … with no guarantee I’d make it to the other side. Well, as of today I’ve accomplished my first strut across that metaphorical high wire!
And I must tell you, it feels pretty good!
I granted myself permission, and today I’m celebrating some milestones!
Milestone #1
I’m thrilled to announce that I have succeeded in my month-long challenge! I have translated 30 verses from Sarah’s story in 30 days. 🎉🎉🎉
Milestone #2
In November I completed Level 3 of the 4-Level intensive biblical Hebrew course that I enrolled in so I could translate Sarah’s story for myself!
Milestone #3
I’ve completed translating 16 consecutive verses that comprise a complete scene within Sarah’s story. And quite a powerful one at that!
In today’s installment of The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined, I share the fruits of this joyful labor of love with you and:
I open up my Translator’s Notebook to reveal my day-to-day process.
I read my translation of my first completed section of Sarah’s story (as a bonus for those who donated to the fundraiser, or who are paid subscribers).
But first, here are opportunities for you to honor your dreams and your stories in the New Year.
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A Translator’s Notebook:
The first 11 days and 16 verses
I kept a running account of how I spent my time translating 30 verses in November. Here are excerpts from that notebook:
Day 1
I’m working at a picnic table outside the library, as leaves drift down onto my keyboard. Today’s task is to gather and organize my notes, including vocabulary lists and notebooks I’ve accumulated since undertaking this feat of translating Sarah’s story from the biblical Hebrew for myself.
The word that stood out to me in today’s verse (Gen. 18.9) is Hinei. It’s a pretty commonly used word in the Bible, but I’m not taking anything for granted.
Hinei means behold. With a pronoun attached, hineini, can mean: I am here. It’s how Abraham responds to God on several occasions, meaning I am present, I am ready, I am alert and listening.
In ancient Greek the word would be translated as eido, meaning, be sure not to miss this!
Here, the thing to behold, the thing to be sure not to miss, is Sarah’s presence in the tent!
Day 2
It dawned on me this morning that I should have a much stronger background in Hebrew poetry from ancient to contemporary times than I do! So, I reached out to members of my Jewish Poetry community for suggestions and already the book titles and poets’ names are flooding in!
Day 3
At first I thought there wasn’t much in this verse, 18.11) to dig into. It’s basically two sentences about Abraham and Sarah being old, and Sarah having reached menopause. Until I paused (yes, pun intended) and began to wonder: How was menopause regarded in ancient Mesopotamia? In Canaan?
The word for menopause in modern Hebrew, I learned, means “the age of worn out. (Not so inspiring.) But in ancient indigenous cultures it also meant the stage of elderhood when women retained their “wise blood,” and therefore increased their spiritual and healing powers! (I like that much better.) And I wonder what that might have meant for Sarah.
Day 4
Tomorrow is the election, so I’m distracted and can barely concentrate. Still, I want to stick to my plan, no matter what. So, I’ll keep going.
Day 5
More distractions today! But I did manage to translate 3 verses from Sarah’s story, which I had to do for my biblical Hebrew class, anyway. I also wrote a poem (in English) for N’s birthday.
Day 6
I could make plenty of excuses not to work on this today. The distraction of the past two days was nothing compared to the leaden feeling that’s settled over me today. Still, I wrote a post for The Life of H on Substack about my recent translations, and I shared some inspiration to keep on writing with my readers. I think that counts. Besides, I added those 3 verses yesterday, so I’m ahead of the game.
Day 7
What riches!
I’m translating the lines where Sarah essentially laughs and talks back to God. She remarks with surprise that at her advanced age she’ll now share sexual pleasures again with her husband. The word for sexual pleasure edna shares a root with Eden. There’s a whole garden of delight to ponder in this one word!
And then there’s that laugh! I could have spent hours more on this verse, but alas, I must go pick up G. so we can get our final farm share of the season. (Going to the farm is my version of visiting Eden. Such bounty, and such beauty!)
Day 8
Yesterday I started taking a Hebrew chanting class! I enrolled because I want to understand the cantillation marks, those little curved, angled, and squiggly lines and symbols that appear in addition to the dots and dashes that indicate the vowels throughout the text. After all, as a poet, I need to understand the melody of the cresting and dipping tones, and the timing of the pausing and bridging between the words. I want my translation to capture some of the musicality of the language.
In the first class I learned this:
The Hebrew verb Kriya that is used for reading the Torah, actually means to cry out. So these verses I am translating are meant to be sung, not just stated — and certainly they are not meant to be read silently. That little nugget is music to this poet’s ears!
Today, in addition to my homework for my biblical Hebrew class PLUS practicing for my chanting class, I still managed to translate the next verse to meet today’s quota!
Day 9
Today’s verse features the word for laugh! Good, because I can sure use some laughter, especially now. And digging into this word brought me much joy!
Turns out, the word laugh appears about 13 times in the Torah, 11 of which are in Genesis, and at least 6 of which directly relate to Sarah! For example, one occurrence relates to Sarah‘s son, whose name Itzhak means laugher. Two others refer to Itzhak and Rebekah, his wife and Sarah’s spiritual heir. So, laughter and Sarah — and her legacy — are intricately interwoven in these texts!
Day 10
I used the time I set aside for translation to build a vocabulary list in advance of attempting the next few verses. I also worked on my poem, “How the Light Gets In,” from my Life of H: Sarah Reimagined manuscript with A., and then a little more on my own.
Day 11
I did a rough translation of the next three verses, which are the final 3 in this scene that I’ve been working on now for many weeks!
This section ends with Sarah’s controversial and contested laugh, God getting huffy about her lack of faith in his miracles, and then, abruptly, the scene ends as the angels rise to go.
There’s a lot to ponder about this transition (pun intended). At this point in the story we move from Abraham and Sarah’s exquisite acts of hospitality to Lot’s story. By contrast, in Lot’s case, the residents of Sodom display a pathological lack of hospitality.
As far as my 30-verses-in-30-days goal, I’m officially at verse 16, so I’m a few days ahead. That is:
I’ve polished the 8 verses I started before this challenge, and
I’ve translated 8 new verses.
Plus I’ve typed up pages and pages of annotations that explain my translation choices.
Stay tuned. I’ll share more excerpts from my 30-Day Translator’s notebook in future posts.
At the end of my 30 Poetic Verses in November challenge, I raised $749 for the Center for New Americans thanks to 22 generous supporters, and I translated 30 verses. I’m currently knee deep in the next section of the story. Stay tuned for more on that in future posts.
Next up: I can’t wait to move onto the next chapter of Sarah’s story with everything I’ve learned from working on this one.
Paid subscribers can get the full experience by hearing the translations as I write them, and can read more notes on what I discovered in the process.
And now, you can listen to me read my first fully rendered scene from Sarah’s story …
I am sharing these translations with paid subscribers to this newsletter, and with anyone who contributed to my 30 Poems in November Fundraiser. Find more posts in this series starting here.
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