Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling - potgooie en skakels

“Die doel van hierdie Afrikaanse Bybelvertalingsprojek is om 'n goed verstaanbare, bronteksgeoriënteerde Afrikaanse vertaling van die Bybel wat geskik is vir voorlesing en gebruik in eredienste, asook vir kategese, Bybelstudie en persoonlike gebruik te skep.” – Die Bybelgenootskap van Suid-Afrika

Potgooie

Op 3 Augustus en 17 Augustus het Die tale wat ons praat op RSG interessante onderhoude met dr. Karen de Wet (die voorsitter van die literêre advieskomittee) gevoer oor Die Bybel: ’n Direkte Vertaling. In hierdie onderhoud word die wyse waarop die vertaling geskied eenvoudige uiteengesit. 

Die ingewikkeldheid van hierdie tipe vertaling, die sorg waarmee dit geskied en die manier waarop woorde vir die teikenteks gekies word, is baie interessant. Ek dink die potgooi gee ook die luisteraar ’n algemene oorsig van die manier waarop alle vertalings (behoort te) geskied. Vertaling behels veel meer as om slegs ’n teks in Google Translate in te tik en ’n knoppie te druk. Dit is eintlik ’n spel met woorde – om die perfekte een te vind om die bronteks vir ’n nuwe gehoor oor te dra.

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Skakels

Die Bybel: ’n Direkte Vertaling het ’n webwerf met ’n algemene vrae, ’n verklaring deur Die Bybelgenootskap van Suid-Afrika oor die vertaling en verskeie verduidelikings aangaande die teks. Tekste vir kommentaar kan ook daar gelees word.

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What I'm up to at the moment

Tea Time Reads

There are now quite a few flash pieces up at A Slip of My Pen, along with a few behind-the-scenes posts about the of inspiration for the stories. These stories are all between 140 and 160 words long – perfect for something to read during tea time. Click here to go to A Slip ofMy Pen.

Content Writing

I’ve started writing web articles and hope to branch out in the future. At the moment the articles includes subjects like James Bond’s Cars, Robin Williams, Time Hacks, and following your dream (yes, that one I did write with myself in mind.). Click here for a complete list and links.

Geo-Writing and Other Writing

Besides the content writing, I’m also busy with a few fiction pieces. Apart from the story semi inspired by Broken Thread, I am also writing a story (maybe even two if all goes well) for Geo-Writing. Geo-Writing is part of the Brighton Digital Festival 2014, where writers are given prompts depending on where they find themselves in the world. At the end of September there will be a whole patchwork of standalone and interrelated stories from across the globe!

A New Look

Apart from doing a bit of redesign and finding out that Getty Images now lets you embed their images on blogs (thank goodness for this wonderful stock photo option!), I’ve now also made a landingpage. The landing page contains links to all the blogs, all my scribbles, and all my web articles. The redesign is still a work in progress, as I am only now working on Kammastories.

Coming up…

I’m working on a new blog series about folklore and mythology. With all the research involved, though, I’m only planning on starting these posts in towards the end of November. In the meanwhile, I’m going to dust off some of the myth and folklore gathering dust in the archives. 

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Book Impressions: God's Philosophers

God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science by James Hannam

God’s Philosophers is a superb book, with erudite discussions on the many misconceptions about the Middle Ages with regard to science and technology. Hannam shows that, rather than a few centuries where nothing much happened and the church suppressed all knowledge as heresy, the Middle Ages were a vibrant time during which much was learned and developed. The chapters range from “The Rise of Reason”, “Heresy and Reason” and “Magic and Medicine” to chapters concerning Roger Bacon, “The Merton Calculators” and “Galileo and the New Astronomy”.

God's Philosophers by J. Hannam

The volume follows a largely chronological order, which makes for an easy understanding of this dense text. Hannam further shows how religious and political views and interpersonal relationships contributed to scholarly pursuits or worked to the detriment thereof. The influence of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, etc. on the general view of the Middle Ages we still (largely) hold today is also tackled. This is what I enjoyed the most about Hannam’s work; he takes the time to show a multitude of different viewpoints, thoughts, and actions, instead of an overused caricature of an uncivilised, backward and ignorant time.

This book will be enjoyed by those interested in history in general, the Middle Ages, and the history of science.

Visit James Hannam's website for more information about this and his other books. 

Hannon, James (2009) God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations ofModern Science. Icon Books.

I bought this book at a local bookstore, but it is also available at online retailers. 

Behind the Fiction: White Horses - Ghosts! Legends! Ships!

I wrote “White Horses” for one of the Flash! Friday competitions. If you haven’t read it, it’s posted below, with a look at the inspiration behind the story underneath.

The prompt - Miranda — The Tempest. Painting by John William Waterhouse, 1916. Public domain photo

White Horses

Lenie gazed at the waves and imagined Adriaan beside her. In one hand she grasped her hair; broken red strands caught on her wedding ring. In the other she clutched a gold locket her mother found after a tempest ripped apart a merchant ship.

She wanted to believe in happy endings. Like her Adriaan who would become a doctor after almost dying in a shipwreck as a child. Like the tall man on a horse riding into the waves to save those drowning amidst a wreck in roiling waves while clouds poured like devil’s smoke down the mountains.

But other endings also needed remembering.

Like those who nursed broken survivors while the rider grew weary and floundered unseen.

Like brine stinging mortal wounds.

Like shallow graves in fine sand.

Like a body never recovered.

Like those once saved returning to the sea.

Like a figure on horseback dragging Adriaan’s ship beneath the waves.

Like the briny taste of tears.

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Behind the Scenes

I really enjoyed putting some local flavour into this story. I didn’t really know where it was going at first, but I knew I wanted to set it on the South African coast without the story sounding too locked in time and place.

Regarding the shipwreck, my first thoughts were of the book Caliban’s Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of HerSurvivors by Stephen Taylor and a description of a shipwreck in DaleneMathee’s Kringe in ’n bos (available in English as Circles in a Forest), but then my brain shifted to the folktale of Van Hunks and the Devil smoking on top of Table Mountain. Their smoke, so the legend goes, causes the blanket of cloud on the mountain. From there it wasn’t a far jump (at least in my mind’s filing cabinet) to a folk hero called Wolraad Woltemade who died saving people from a shipwreck. Wolraad really did ride his horse into the waves to a wreck and perished after saving a number of people.

I didn’t want to include a ghost ship and immediately have the “Flying Dutchman” legend to contend with, so I thought about another way in which a ghost could sink a ship. Okay, and I couldn’t resist having a ghost on a ghost horse sinking ships. I also gave the characters Afrikaans names to link with the legends.

Ps. Also check out Dalene Matthee’s other works (as far as I know they’ve all been translated into various languages). And if you’re ever lucky enough to visit the Garden Route, be sure to go and have a walk in the Knysna Forest. It is truly magnificent.

Flash Fiction: Broken Thread

This was written for Flash! Friday (a weekly competition for 150 word fiction). The photo of St. Kelda was the photo prompt and you had to include a baby and the name Stella.

Broken thread

I met the man beside the stone house. He came at sunset, the baby in his arms. He didn’t have to explain; I knew exactly what happened. She was chosen. That was all there was to it.

“Her name is Stella,” he said and looked up at the swirling stars. As he did so I wrapped my cloak around me, hiding me from his sight. It was better this way. In the morning no one would ask after the missing child. It was the same with me.

I stepped into the stone house; our halls. Some called us faeries. If only we were. But someone had to do the work.

The other women looked up from their looms for a moment. Only mine was empty, the last thread broken at the moment Stella’s mother gave her last breath.

One day I’ll have to tell her how we are chosen. I’ll have to tell her that it was my fault.

St Kilda, Scotland. CC photo by Neil Wilkie