torah translation

[cellio]

I chanted torah this morning and, as I did last time, I translated from the scroll instead of reading it out of a chumash. This time I explicitly asked my checker to also check me on translation, which seemed to work well. I was less nervous this time but still fumbled in places; biblical Hebrew has a lot of verb-subject orderings, so when translating into English you have to read ahead sometimes. I also stumbled over "ito" (with him) and "oto" (him, direct object), which are identical without the vowels. (You have to know enough grammar to just know.)

Here is approximately my translation of the fifth aliya of Vayeishev. As before, I'm translating this fresh as I type, and no two of my renditions are exactly the same.

Faithful translation:

Genesis 39:1-6

And Yosef was taken down [1] toward Egypt and Potiphar bought him [2] -- he was a courtier of Paro, chief of stewards -- and the Egyptian bought Yosef from the Ishmaelites who brought him down there. And God was with [3] Yosef and he was a successful man [4] in the house of his lord the Egyptian. And his lord saw that God was with him and all that he did God made successful in his hand. And Yosef found favor [5] in his eyes, and he [Potiphar] gave him charge of [6] all his house, and all that was his he gave into his [Yosef's] hand. And it was from the time he charged him with his house and (upon) all that was his, God blessed the house of the Egyptian on account of Yosef, and God's blessing was on all that was his in the house and in the field. And he left all that was his in the hand of Yosef, and he did not concern himself [7] except [with] the bread [food?] he ate. And Yosef was well-built and handsome [8].

[1] Literally: was caused to go down

[2] The word order from here to the end of the verse is convoluted. Literally it's closer to "bought-him Potiphar (subject), courtier of Paro, chief of stewards, an Egyptian man, from the hand of the Ishmaelites etc". By the time we get to the "from", though, it's been a while since the verb. So I rephrased here.

[3] It doesn't really say "with", but that's the only way I can make sense of the first clause -- "vay'hi [God] et-Yosef, vay'hi ish matzliach, etc".

[4] I left unaddressed what seems a stray "vay'hi" here. That might be bad.

[5] Favor: literally "grace".

[6] Approximate; I'm taking others' word for the verb phrase here.

[7] Concern himself: literally "know with him".

[8] Well-built and handsome: totally taking a chumash's word for it on this.

More-literary translation/adaptation:

When Yosef was taken down to Egypt Potiphar, a courtier of Paro and chief of his stewards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. God was with Yosef and made him a successful man in Potiphar's house. His master Potiphar saw that God was with him, and Yosef found favor in his eyes. Potiphar put Yosef in charge of all his household and made him responsible for all his property. From this time God blessed Potiphar's house on Yosef's account; God's blessing was on all of Potiphar's property, in the house and outside. Potiphar left Yosef to run his house, and he concerned himself only with the food he ate. Now Yosef was well-built and handsome.

Comments

a couple of things

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I also stumbled over "ito" (with him) and "oto" (him, direct object), which are identical without the vowels. (You have to know enough grammar to just know.)

In modern Hebrew writing (w/o vowels) the standard spellings are alef-yud-tav-vav for "ito" and alef-vav-tav-vav for "oto" which takes care of the confusion. Also, as you say, enough grammar knowledge makes it simpler since most of the time only one of these will make sense.

[3] It doesn't really say "with", but that's the only way I can make sense of the first clause -- "vay'hi [God] et-Yosef, vay'hi ish matzliach, etc".

Keeping in mind that "ito" (alef-tav-vav) = alef-tav + vav, it makes sense that "verb et someone's name" should be semantically equal to "verb ito" w/"ito" acting as a pointer to that person. (Sorry if the linguistics + math + computer programming = confusion; I'm tired and my mind is balking at translation from my thought style to proper English.)

[4] I left unaddressed what seems a stray "vay'hi" here. That might be bad.

You're doing ok for slightly less literal and easier on your listeners' ears. The Hebrew is quite repetitive (I wouldn't be surprised if various commentators have something to say about it): and God was with Yosef and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.

[8] Well-built and handsome: totally taking a chumash's word for it on this.

Literally something like pretty of description and pretty of appearance.

Re: a couple of things

[cellio]

Thanks for the help!

All of the "ito"s and "oto"s in this portion were spelled alef-taf-vav, which was no help. Glad the convention is different in modern Hebrew. :-) (And yes, often only one makes sense and I'm starting to have enough comprehension to get that right.)

Keeping in mind that "ito" (alef-tav-vav) = alef-tav + vav, it makes sense that "verb et someone's name" should be semantically equal to "verb ito" w/"ito" acting as a pointer to that person.

Aha! Yeat, that makes perfect sense -- thanks! (And your description was plenty clear; don't worry.)