Thank you to each of you who listed languages you speak besides English.
Idioms and metaphors present special complications for translation, including Bible translation. Idioms and metaphors are not not likely to be understood by a speaker of another language if translated literally to that language. For instance, if I said in Cheyenne Enehpoese ma’eno, the literal translation to English would be ‘The turtle is hanging closed’. I assume that no one who hears that English translation would understand what the Cheyenne idiom actually refers to. And if I called someone an o’kome, literally, ‘coyote,’ I assume that few, if any, of you who read this post would know what I am actually saying about the person I am talking about. But an interpreter at the United Nations who knows both Cheyenne and English would be able to translate both of these examples of Cheyenne figurative language to English so that their meaning to Cheyenne speakers would be understood by English speakers. The interpreter would know to translate the first Cheyenne expression to English ‘It’s foggy.” And they would translate the metaphor as ‘foxy.’
I invite any of you who understand languages other than English to list examples of idioms or metaphors in those languages. Please include both a literal translation as well as a translation of the (figurative) meaning the example has to speakers of the language.
© 2010, Matt. All rights reserved.
