美国国家公共电台 NPR After 24 Years, Scholar Completes 3,000-Page Translation Of The Hebrew Bible

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There's a new translation of the Hebrew Bible, or what Christians¹ call the Old Testament². The three-volume set runs over 3,000 pages. It was a solo project by literary scholar Robert Alter. It took him 24 years to finish it. And he admits, at times, it was a real challenge.

ROBERT ALTER: If you keep going verse by verse, looking at the commentaries and wrestling with difficult words and so forth³, you can get a little batty.

MARTIN: Fortunately, he says he had other literature to occupy his mind.

ALTER: Nabokov and Stendhal and Flaubert and Dickens and so forth. And I kept doing those things. That kept me sane⁴ in a way.

MARTIN: I talked to Alter about why he decided⁵ to treat the Bible as a work of literature rather than as a religious text.

ALTER: The main reason is I'm a literary guy. And the Hebrew Bible - it has low points, like, as any writer has certain low points. But on the whole, it reflects a very high level of literary artistry. And what I found was that the existing English version simply didn't do justice to the literary beauty of the Hebrew.

MARTIN: Christians, of course, think of the Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament, as somehow valuable only in that it is the precursor⁶ to the New Testament.

ALTER: That's right.

MARTIN: Some reviewers are saying that this translation is valuable because it liberates⁷ the Hebrew Bible from the New Testament. Was that part of the intention behind it? And if so, what did you have to do to make that happen?

ALTER: In trying to be faithful to the literary art of the Hebrew Bible, I certainly edged it away from being merely a precursor to the New Testament, which is different kind of writing altogether. I would also say that in certain ways, I found myself, in the effort to be faithful to the original, cleaning up the Christological references in the existing translation. I'll give you two examples. I don't use the word soul at all. I don't think I use it a single time. And that's because the Hebrew word translated very often as soul means something like life breath. You know, it's a very physical thing. And there is no concept among the biblical writers in a split between body and soul. So I got rid of the soul.

Perhaps the piquant⁸ example, which every listener I think will be familiar with, is the 23rd Psalm⁹ - so thou anointest my head with oil in the King James. Everybody does that, including the moderns, but the Hebrew verb does not mean to anoint. The word that's actually used by the psalmist means to make luxuriant - something like that. It's a very physical word. So after wrestling with other alternatives, some of which were ill-advised - you always do that as a translator - I ended up saying you moisten my head with oil. You know, it feels good because you rub good olive oil into your head...

MARTIN: Yeah.

ALTER: ...Into your hair.

MARTIN: It's a nurturing¹⁰ - yeah.

ALTER: Right.

MARTIN: So did you often need to speak aloud when doing this, to hear how it felt on your tongue, in your mouth, as you were saying these words?

ALTER: I have a very peculiar¹¹ way of writing. I write - this may shock some of your listeners - by longhand.

MARTIN: You translated the Hebrew Bible by longhand?

ALTER: I did.

MARTIN: Come on.

ALTER: (Laughter). So I'm very particular. I write on narrow-lined paper, and I have a Cross mechanical pencil. They should give me a few free ones because I really endorse¹² them.

MARTIN: You think? Yeah, let's see if we can make that happen.

ALTER: (Laughter) OK.

MARTIN: Wow.

ALTER: And before I hand the scrawl¹³ to the transcriber¹⁴, I make an audio recording¹⁵ of it. So I do read everything out loud.

MARTIN: I wonder if you could talk a little about the - I guess mechanics is the right word. Hebrew is a more compact language than English.

ALTER: Ah, yes. You touch on an essential point. Words squeeze together. That is, and he saw him, which is three or four words in English, is one word in the Hebrew because you know it's he in way the verb is conjugated¹⁶. And then there's a little suffix¹⁷ at the end of the verb that tells you it's him.

In addition, there are not a lot of polysyllabic words in Biblical Hebrew. So one thing I do is that I avoid words with many syllables¹⁸. Usually, those are the words - you probably know - that come from Greek or Latin origins. And then I simply get rid of words that seem extraneous¹⁹. In Psalm 30, the speaker, who has almost died, apparently²⁰ from an illness, says in the King James version, what profit is there in my blood? That doesn't quite sound like a line of poetry - actually, a half-line of poetry. And what I did was I used the same words, but I dropped the is there - so what profit in my blood, which actually has the same rhythm as the Hebrew (speaking Hebrew). So I do that again and again.

MARTIN: I suppose it is inevitable²¹ that someone else will attempt to do this down the road, probably many years from now. What guidance would you give that person? What would you hope that that person could improve upon?

ALTER: Well, I think a translator of a great work is delusional²² if he or she thinks there aren't places where the translation falls down. Let's hope this translator is many, many decades down the road.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Of course.

ALTER: This translator, who will be more resourceful with the English language than I am, will say, that's awkward. I can see he's trying to get the literal sense of the Hebrew, but it sounds goofy in English, and I can do better than that.

MARTIN: Robert Alter - his new translation of the Hebrew Bible is available now. Thank you so much for talking with us.

ALTER: It's been a pleasure, really.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELUVIUM SONG, "WEIRD CREATURES")

1 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

2 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

3 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

4 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

7 liberates   

解放，释放( liberate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• On the contrary, my caring liberates both of us. 与此相反，我的关心会使我们两个都不受到束缚。
• May cause severe burns. Contact with acids liberates toxic gas. 可导致严重灼伤。与酸接触会释放有毒气体。

8 piquant   

adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的

参考例句：

• Bland vegetables are often served with a piquant sauce.清淡的蔬菜常以辛辣的沙司调味。
• He heard of a piquant bit of news.他听到了一则令人兴奋的消息。

9 psalm   

n.赞美诗，圣诗

参考例句：

• The clergyman began droning the psalm.牧师开始以单调而低沈的语调吟诵赞美诗。
• The minister droned out the psalm.牧师喃喃地念赞美诗。

10 nurturing   

养育( nurture的现在分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• These delicate plants need careful nurturing. 这些幼嫩的植物需要精心培育。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants. 这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

11 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

12 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

13 scrawl   

vt.潦草地书写；n.潦草的笔记，涂写

参考例句：

• His signature was an illegible scrawl.他的签名潦草难以辨认。
• Your beautiful handwriting puts my untidy scrawl to shame.你漂亮的字体把我的潦草字迹比得见不得人。

14 transcriber   

抄写者

参考例句：

• The compressed symbol allowed the transcriber to complete the letter in a single stroke. 这个压扁的符号让誊写者用单笔划结束书信。
• One the disadvantages of this method is that you are totally strange the transcriber. ( ) 这种方法的一个缺点是你对转录器完全不熟悉。

15 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

16 conjugated   

adj.共轭的，成对的v.列出（动词的）变化形式( conjugate的过去式和过去分词 )；结合，联合，熔化

参考例句：

• Hemoglobin can also be cross-linked to solublepolymers to form so-called conjugated hemoglobin. 血红蛋白也能交联到水溶性多聚体上，形成所谓的共轭血红蛋白。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Similar delocalization is found in other conjugated systems. 在其他共轭体系中，也发现类似的离域。 来自辞典例句

17 suffix   

n.后缀；vt.添后缀

参考例句：

• We add the suffix "ly" to make the adjective "quick" into the adverb " quickly ".我们在形容词“ quick”后加“ly” 构成副词“quickly”。
• It described the meaning of suffix array and also how to built it.它描述的含义，后缀数组以及如何建立它。

18 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

19 extraneous   

adj.体外的；外来的；外部的

参考例句：

• I can choose to ignore these extraneous thoughts.我可以选择无视这些外来的想法。
• Reductant from an extraneous source is introduced.外来的还原剂被引进来。

20 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

21 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

22 delusional   

妄想的

参考例句：

• You became delusional and attacked several people trying to escape. 你产生了错觉并攻击了许多人还试图逃走。 来自电影对白
• He is incoherent, delusional, suffering auditory hallucinations. 他出现无逻辑的，妄想的，幻听的症状。 来自电影对白