Translation vs. Interpretation

[Today is Saturday Stories Day! On Saturday I publish a story from life. Sometimes there is a moral to the story, and sometimes not. Either way, I hope you enjoy them. Have a blessed day.]

Conflict was escalating between the rebels and the new government which had come to power riding the promise of dealing with these factions by force. When you swat a hornet's nest, the hornets come out looking for someone to sting, and although we were not involved in the conflict, we were foreigners or prime targets to be made pawns on this political chessboard. National leaders decided we couldn’t hold our pastor’s training in our usual location. That town was right in the middle of rebel territory, and though we had been among them for many years, tensions were just too high.

They found another town where security was better. They reserved rooms in a hotel and planned to hold the meeting in a local Baptist church. The young associate pastor agreed to serve as a translator. We arrived in town and checked into the hotel after a long day of driving through the mountains, making frequent stops at military checkpoints.

A poster with pictures of the 50 most wanted terrorists was taped to the hotel lobby desk. The clerk, noticing my interest, assured me most of them had been eliminated. “Maybe, but it only takes one,” I thought to myself while smiling at the hotel clerk’s calm assurances.

Early the following morning, I quietly made my way down the staircase, trying not to disturb anyone, to see if there was any coffee available in the lobby. When I rounded the corner of the stairwell, the lobby was dimly lit. The only light was coming from the sunrays faintly streaming through the gaps in the curtains as the sun had just begun to peak over the horizon.

It was quiet. The desk clerk had left sometime during the night. A watchman was sprawled across a couch like a blanket tossed casually from across the room. His rifle dangled from its sling that was twisted around his neck. He was oblivious to my presence and the world around him. I moved cat-like across the room, not out of politeness but out of fear of startling a man with a rifle out of his deep sleep.

There was no coffee to be found, so I retreated to the relative safety of my room.

Later that morning, when everyone else had awakened and gathered at the church, we began our training conference. Roughly fifty pastors had risked the travel to attend. When we arrived at the church they were already praying and singing. Soon I was standing before them teaching.

Not long into the first session, I realized something was amiss. Having worked with translators for more than two decades and in several different countries, I have a good feel for the rhythm and flow of live translation. This wasn’t flowing well.

It wasn’t that the young man was struggling with understanding me. Instead, it was that he was taking way too long to translate what I had said. Two or three sentences from me would turn into a lengthy speck from him.

I stopped, turned to him, and asked, “What are you doing?”

He sheepishly responded, “What do you mean?”

“Well, you seem to be adding a lot to what I am saying. I am wondering why. Is there something about what I am saying that you are having a hard time translating?”

“No,” He replied. “I like what you are teaching and I just wanted to add some of my ideas to it to help.”

I politely insisted that he stop doing that. I explained that his role was to translate. Just say what I am saying. That’s it.

He was not translating. He was interpreting. There is a difference. There is a place for both, but the pastors who were in attendance were only understanding him, and they were assuming that what he was saying was what I had said. It wasn’t. Maybe his interpretations were an accurate reflection of what I was teaching. But maybe not. In that setting, he needed to stick with translating and leave the interpretation for another time.

Occasionally, people will ask about a good Bible version. The best ones are the ones that stick to doing translation and not interpretation. There is a place for interpretation, but it isn’t during the translation process.

Be aware of what you are reading. Bibles like The Message and the Amplified Bible are not translations. They are interpretations. Know the difference and take them for what they are.

Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash