Walking a tightrope in public

Welcome back to 'The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined.' This newsletter is also a book-in-progress where I share poetry and musings about an ancient story that re-shaped our world.

“The world cannot be translated. It can only be touched and dreamed.”

Dejan Stojanovic

I have published in a wide array of genres, including poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, and self-help.

And now, I’ve dipped a toe into new waters. As I’ve mentioned here earlier, I’ve recently begun to explore the art of translation.

In my case, I’m using a poet’s sensibility to (attempt to) translate Sarah’s story in Genesis from biblical Hebrew into English.

My goal is not to perform an exact word-for-word translation, but to bring the story alive in my own words in a way that captures the essence of the verse.

For example, the word for eyes in the original Hebrew, can also mean springs. As in “tears spring from my eyes.”

So in Genesis 18:2, when Abraham lifts his eyes to find mysterious visitors at the entryway to his tent, familiar translations say:

• “Abraham looked up and saw …” (NIV)

• “And he lift up his eyes and looked …” (King James)

• “And he lifted up his eyes …” (JPS 1917).

I chose:

• “Then his eyes sprang open …”

which traditionalists may take issue with. But I think that wording captures Abraham’s surprise at encountering three mysterious strangers in his midst, while also invoking a bit of wordplay.

There are about 100 verses in Genesis that directly relate to Sarah. So far I’ve translated three of them! Sharing this process with you so early on feels a bit like walking a tightrope in public. If I fall, you’ll see it! Nonetheless, I’ll share updates as I move along, one careful step at a time.

Photo by Sean Benesh on Unsplash

My balancing act

For this project, I’m using a method I’ve adopted and adapted from the poet Jane Hirshfield, who shares her thoughts on translation in her essay, “The World is Large and Full of Noises,” (from Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry). Hirshfield describes translating from Japanese to English, and since I am also translating between languages and alphabets, I thought her technique might help me.

One big difference is that Hirshfield translates from poetry into poetry. I, on the other hand, am translating from biblical prose, and I am doing it as a poet, not a theologian. So, I’ve tweaked her method to create my own. Here’s my step-by-step process:

1. Listen to the verse in Hebrew (without looking at it) and write down what I hear, without regard to meaning. Doing so, I create a nonsensical transliteration.

2. Transliterate the verse (correctly this time) from the Hebrew characters into the English alphabet.

3. List possible English meanings beneath each word.

4. Take cues from the cantillation marks (notations to aid in the ancient ritual of chanting the verses) to invite some of the rhythm, sound and syntax of the original text into my translation.

5. Rewrite the verse again and again, speaking the words aloud as I go, until I feel satisfied — just as I would with any line of poetry.

“Writing in another language reactivates the grief of being between two worlds, of being on the outside. Of feeling alone and excluded.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, Translating Myself and Others

Your turn

Consider ways that you live between two languages, two realities, or two worlds. Where in your life do you find yourself translating your experience for others? Write about it.

A glimpse of a translation in progress…

I chose to begin my translation at a key moment in in Genesis Chapter 18, when visitors appear at Sarah and Abraham’s tent in Mamre. These visitors, it turns out, are angelic beings who have come to announce that Sarah, at long last, will conceive a child!

“And the LORD appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed down to the earth” (Genesis 18: 1-2, Jewish Publication Society)

If you encounter a paywall it is because if I share these poems and translations with all 2,000-plus of my readers, it will be more difficult to get them published elsewhere later on. If you decide to become a paid subscriber, not only will you get a free, signed copy of one of my already-published books, you’ll also have access to what is essentially a book-in-progress, as it unfolds here.

And here is my version: