(December 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm)Minimalist Wrote: You raise a good point about the possible use of idiomatic expressions. Without a real context of the language how would we know how to interpret the words? In English when we read the term "beating around the bush" we know that it means to equivocate but try to put yourself in the position of a translator who has never seen the phrase before and comes across it. It might be a tad confusing!
Ιdiomatic axpressions do present a problem but they cannot harm an entire text.
Key words translated faulty can do real harm.
Especially with the term “cow” I know cases where there is no excuse for the translator.
In the epic of Gilgamesh Enkidu addresses Gilgamesh and says the following:
Translated by Alexander Heidel
31. “As one unique (among men) thy mother,
32. The wild cow of the encloses
33. Ninsunna.
34. Did bear thee”
Translated by E.A.Speiser
31. “As one alone thy mother
32. Bore thee,
33. The wild cow of the steer-folds
34. Ninsunna! (II, vi, )
Gilgamesh is god by two thirds and therefore his mother has nothing to do with steer-folds though she has to do with enclosures (The Mother-wombs who were producing gods, semi-gods and men were kept in enclosures).
And then, the “Shepherds” are the gods. Shepherds of people are meant, not shepherds of sheep.
Gilgamesh is half-god, he is called Shepherd of the town of Uruk, and he is the “Bull” of his flock because he is raping all the women of the city (as instructed by the gods)!
“Bull”, “Cow”, “Calf”, “Shepherd”, “Ram” are names used as titles or epithets of people and should be used in the translations only if the reader has been informed in advance of their meaning, but as you see above even Speiser is reluctant to make the correction (steer-folds I understand that have to do only with animals. Am I right?)
In the Egyptian texts there are two kinds of “Wild Cows.” One is the natural mother (human) and the other is the foster mother (goddess). The word “smAt,” meaning “Wild Cow,” when refers to the human one is determined by the ideogram of the cow and sometimes is followed by the word “Hmt” meaning “woman” (Wild Cow woman) but when the divine mother is meant the determinative of the cow is followed by the determinative for the god.
Still, the translators cannot bring themselves to translate “smAt Hmt” as “Wild cow woman.” The best they can do is “Female Wild Cow”. You understand that in this way is no wonder that the texts are not so popular.
