Orality and translation: focusing on images rather than words

Orality

Orality and translation: focusing on images rather than words

By Janet Stahl ⋅ January 1, 2008 ⋅

In the scholarly world we can separate translation as a written task from interpretation as an oral task. Bible translation is a written task, while evangelism and preaching engage oral interpreters to cross language barriers.

So what are some of the differences between the two tasks, and how can the Bible translation process benefit from oral interpretation strengths and thereby involve non-readers in the Bible translation task?

Oral storytelling is the bridging of images from the mind of the teller to the audience. Doug Lipman, a highly regarded storyteller, claims that, “Stories are made of images, not words.” Cognitive scientists claim intelligence is best measured by the ability to recall knowledge when it is needed. Human memories function by indexing and recalling images stored as stories.

Good tellers use visual, aural, kinesthetic and verbal/conceptual clues to help stimulate the images. They use intonation, facial expressions and gestures along with words to help enhance the images. Essentially, written communication aims to communicate images as well, but the letter symbols, words and punctuation are the medium and are often perceiving the images requires a very high level of reading fluency. It seems that thinking in images arranged in stories is a familiar process for oral communicators and may be better integrated into the translation task.

The Bible is full of images that need to be studied in order to translate it from one language to another. For example, take the concept of ‘hell’. What images do you think of when you hear this word? Do you see hell as a fiery furnace, with tortured souls crying out for relief? What inspired your images—stories from the Bible and/or Hollywood films? One approach to gaining an accurate understanding of the Biblical image of ‘hell’ (as well as ‘heaven’) is to look up the definitions in a Bible dictionary and check out the cross-references in the Bible. Of course, this is a very literate approach that requires being able to think of words in isolation.

Another approach might be to share the stories from 2 Chronicles 28 and 36 that describe the Valley of Ben Hinnom, where idolatrous Israelites offered up child sacrifices to the gods Molech and Baal. You could also read the prophecy in Jeremiah 7: 30-34, where he says the valley will be a mass grave for the dead bodies of people of Judah who are killed by an invading army. To amplify the images of carrion-eating birds and animals and the unceremonious dumping of bodies to indicate that the dead are under God’s curse, the storyteller can use intonation, facial expressions and gestures. An additional step would be to tell the story from Mark 9 where Jesus describes hell.

But what if local practices involve ceremonially burning the dead or allowing the bodies to be ravaged by wild animals? Good stories often remind us of our cultural stories, so exploring Bible stories about ‘hell’ will most likely inspire listeners to share their own images and stories of ‘hell’. Before the translation process can be continued and words found that best fit the concept ‘hell’, the images have to be explored and discussed. People have to discover that their images of these concepts are not necessarily the Biblical ones that God uses to teach us.

A very literate person might say that this process can be made more efficient by giving the definitions and a summary of the OT stories of child sacrifice to Baal and prophecies about mass graves and defiled bodies and then searching for an explanation of cultural beliefs and words. However, we must ask ourselves if the people we are working with are building the appropriate Biblical images and can compare them with their own images, particularly if they haven’t had the opportunity to interact with the Bible stories and tell their own stories. Who of us doesn’t get drawn into a well-told story of a current event in the Middle East more so than with a brief summary of conflicts?

Images are powerful tools that aid us in our learning, processing and remembering information and experiences. Good storytellers conscientiously work to help build the appropriate images in their audience’s minds, knowing their audience is already developing mental images, whether they are accurate or not. Typically telling stories is a non-threatening way to stimulate discussions. Storytelling can help train Bible translators who are working in their own languages and engage the wider population to help them check the accuracy and naturalness of the translated Scriptures.

Janet Stahl has been a member of Wycliffe since 1989. She and her husband have worked in Vanuatu, South Pacific since 1991 during which time she worked as a literacy and Bible translation trainer. She is currently working with The Seed Company as oral strategy consultant.i