Some of you would recall that we had dedicated, in this very church, the Delhi Version of The New Testament with Psalms and the Proverbs on March 28, 2004 and the Holy Bible on October 7, 2007. And to-day August 30, 2015 we gather together here again to dedicate the Second, Re-edited and Revised Edition of the Bible which has become much slimmer and more refined than the previous one. This is a clear manifestation of God’s grace and blessings for which we are extremely grateful to Him.
I don’t know how many of you have tried your hands in Bible translation. Those who dared the challenge will agree with me that it is an extremely tough job and the most humbling one at that. Its sheer challenge and enormity pinched down your ego to the ground and laid bare your inadequacies. Forty five years ago, I had cracked by God’s grace what was then and even now considered as the toughest and most challenging All-India civil service examinations instituted by the Government of India. But compare to the challenge thrown up by Bible translation with its endless hues and shades, the competitive exam to me seemed a child’s play. I took up the call only after my inner voice unmistakably told me that God had been preparing me for this task from childhood and that I could fulfill the mission with His help. It was indeed a life-long preparation which took me to almost all the lands of the Bible and made me a tri-lingual, author of more than 20 books, 150 songs and poems and over 1500 essays and articles before I finally plunged headlong into Bible translation and worked on an average 10-12 hours a day since 2002.
One question that cropped up at that time was: why should I undertake Bible translation in Hmar while we have already had since long two identical versions published by the Bible Society of India (BSI) and the Bible For the World (BFW). My reasoned argument was that the two versions were strait-jacket translation from the original Lushai Bible and contained not only inaccurate renderings but also grammatically flawed sentences that are ambiguous, unintelligible, confusing and theologically unsound. In fact, I switched over to the English Bible since 1963 as reading the Hmar rendering made me perplexed in a matter of minutes for reasons mentioned above. I was the first man who wrote an article questioning what the society and the clergymen then believed as something unquestionable. A barrage of condemnation came down on me from the uncircumcised mouths of the so-called Bible defenders, consigning me to eternal damnation for daring to challenge the truth of the Bible. If it were the Dark Age, they would definitely burn me at stake with shouts of vengeance and condemnation.
But when the next edition came, they happily righted all the wrongs I had pointed out. How about the other mistakes that dotted almost every page of our Bible? In fact, on two or three occasions, I had to withdraw some of my critical reviews on several flawed passages in the Bible translation in consideration of the appeals of some senior church leaders who had apprehension that the exposure could produce doubts on the trustworthiness of the Bible in the innocent but ignorant minds. They said they would rectify the mistakes. Thirty years later, when I returned from abroad, I found that our people continued to use the same identical Bibles!
While the Bible invariably enriched the literature and language of its users, the Hmar translation of the Bible apparently acted the opposite. It partially destroyed the structure of the Hmar language and those who followed the pattern could no longer write correct Hmar language. People dared not question this linguistic genocide as they were blinded by the misguided belief that the translated words, however incorrect, were the words of God and no one could change or take way God’s words from the Bible and those who did would be punished with eternal damnation. They did not realize the danger of hanging on the robe of mistranslated words or what they were wrongly taught as Biblical language and expressions. They are still doing with gay abandon and holistic demure.
When the late Eugene A. Nida (1914-2011), considered as ‘Father of Modern Bible Translation’ visited USA in 2002, he was interviewed by David Neff and asked him what he considered as his most important contribution to Bible translation, he replied “To help people be willing to say what the text means- not what the words are but what the text means. For example, Hallowed be thy name in the Lord’s Prayer. I have not met one English-speaking person who can tell me what that means. I’ve met some theologians who say that this is a passive imperative (which we don’t have in the English language), but it seems to me a tragedy for us to use expressions that most people don’t understand.”
How about our own translation? What do we mean when we say I hming inzaum raw se? Is it an acknowledgement of His attribute as a Supreme Being? Or are we giving Him due respect or promotion as His name deserves? When we sing a hymn saying Inpak tlak Pathien i lo nih, is it an acknowledgement of a praiseworthy God or a word of appreciation by a mortal being for the good work the Immortal Being has done for him or her? What was the exact word Jesus used when he taught his disciples how to pray? Some say, the English equivalent of ‘sanctify’ and offer you long commentaries. Do humans have the power to sanctify the Almighty? If yes, how? If not, why not?
I gave the above analogy to explain how intricate the job of a translator is. A translator stands between the textual language and the translated text. The translator is expected to be complete master of the subject matter to be translated which is good as well as bad in that a translator having too much knowledge on the subject tends to presume unconsciously the readers will also have certain level of knowledge as well and translate passages over the heads of the intended audience. Another danger is a desire on the part of the translator to preserve the mystery of the language and the literary beauty and tends to adopt formal equivalence or word for word translation instead of dynamic or functional equivalence which is a trend these days. Delhi Version is a blending of what is best from the old and the new to make a new composite whole acceptable to the old and the new generation of believers. It retains its traditional beauty but easy to understand to the young generation.
Delhi Version is a unique translation. It is perhaps the only Version on earth in which every line of each Psalm is set in equal measure, mostly in seven and eight syllables. For example, every line of Psalm No. 23 is set in 7 syllables whereas Psalm No. 24 is in 8 syllables. Only Psalm No. 117 is left out for no apparent reason but for its being the middle chapter out of 1189 chapters in the Bible. All poetic verses in the Bible are kept as in their original form, maintaining poetic discipline and internal rhyming as is the tradition in composing folksongs and hymns in the Zo world. Anyone who reads Delhi Version will now feel that the Bible is now written in Hmar and that the hen has come to roost in our courtyard. This is the hand of God. Praise be to Him.
(August 30, 2015 Delhi)
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