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Using La Sankta Biblio to learn Esperanto

de Starkman, 2010-majo-11

Mesaĝoj: 113

Lingvo: English

page4of3 (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-18 15:26:35

On a similar note, is there a translation of the Westminster Catechism in Esperanto?
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erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-18 15:46:20

Wikipedia tells me that the catechism you refer to is a protestant thing. Thus perhaps KELI, the protestant Esperanto association, would know something about it.

Otherwise you could ask the people who run kristana.org, a generic Christian Esperantist website, which has links to Esperanto associations and mailing lists of various flavors (including Orthodox), and some other resources.

But the best thing to do is just to translate the text yourself, or if it's a very long text, to choose a portion of it that seems particularly meaningful to you, and translate that part. It would be excellent practice to reinforce what you're learning.

page4of3 (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-18 16:38:21

But the best thing to do is just to translate the text yourself,... It would be excellent practice to reinforce what you're learning.
That thought did occur to me, but I would want to make sure that the translation isn't only grammatically accurate, but also thologically accurate.

I'll (also) check to see if those groups already have it translated (as to not duplicate effort).

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-18 17:04:25

page4of3:That thought did occur to me, but I would want to make sure that the translation isn't only grammatically accurate, but also thologically accurate.
I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were you. A lot of Esperanto groups are willing to discuss translations together. If you have a translation that you have done yourself, which is both grammatically wrong and theologically inaccurate, I'm sure that other Christian Esperantists would be happy to use your bad translation as a basis of a good one, and work with you to fix the mistakes (both grammatical and theological).

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-20 09:48:32

ceigered:On the original topic..
Bone by me! I once spoke to Gerrit Berveling by telephone, and if I remember correctly, he said that the "red" Bible does not contain his translation of the New Testament - just the Deuterocanonical books/Apocrypha. Further, the complete New Testament in his translation will not be published, till the stock of the translation in parts has run out. So for the foreseeable future, the price of Esperanto books being what it is, for an Esperantist to own all of the most recent New Testament will be quite expensive. malgajo.gif

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-20 10:14:25

Miland:
ceigered:On the original topic..
Bone by me! I once spoke to Gerrit Berveling by telephone, and if I remember correctly, he said that the "red" Bible does not contain his translation of the New Testament - just the Deuterocanonical books/Apocrypha. Further, the complete New Testament in his translation will not be published, till the stock of the translation in parts has run out. So for the foreseeable future, the price of Esperanto books being what it is, for an Esperantist to own all of the most recent New Testament will be quite expensive. malgajo.gif
I'd imagine more so in Australia where books incur a little tax (originally for letting the local book industry grow, but to be honest, the Australian book industry probably needs the international competition more than it needs to be sheltered).

Nonetheless, for those already owning a previous translation would there be any benefit to owning a newer version? Unless there's a similar split in EOlando to that of KJV and NIV in the English-speaking world?

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-20 10:33:10

ceigered:..for those already owning a previous translation would there be any benefit to owning a newer version?
That's a very good question. Speaking for myself, if an affordable up-to-date and accurate translation were available, I would prefer it.

However, I suspect that for most purposes, it doesn't matter much.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-20 11:56:49

This is just a guess but I think that relatively few Esperanto speakers would use their bibles for serious study, aside from unusual circumstances (unusual circumstances being, perhaps, that they're attending an Esperanto congress where there's a group bible study held, so the Esperanto bible would bring a distinct advantage).

In your national language, whatever that is, there are bound to be many more choices, so many people might prefer to use the bible that had more features - references, explanatory notes, etc, which are likely to be lacking in any Esperanto bible.

eojeff (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-23 15:51:07

I suppose I should chime in and say that I did buy an Esperanto Bible for the purpose of learning the language. Until relatively modern times the Bible was required reading in public schools to teach proper English to students in the United States. It worked well here for centuries—from the colonial period until the mid 20th century. I thought it might work well as an aid to learning Esperanto in my own studies.

Unfortunately, I'm still too early on in the learning process for an Esperanto Bible to be as useful as I'd like in the language learning process. I do expect it to be of greater use to me as I continue to learn the language.

I also went looking for a copy of Pirkei Avot "The Ethics of the Fathers" in Esperanto. Sadly, one does not seem to exist. I do see a blog post entitled Setting a translation exercise for myself about someone hazarding a translation of Avot. There are the beginnings of a draft translation at PA-in-E but it does not seem to have gotten far. I hope the author resumes his translation.

So, my thoughts are that using a well known sacred text such as the Bible to learn Esperanto (or any other language) is a good idea provided you're advanced enough in your studies of the target language for it to be useful.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-marto-23 17:17:48

I would be very surprised ever to find Pirkei Avot (or anything else from the Talmud) in Esperanto. With the exception of central religious holy texts (Bible, Quran, Bhagavad-gita, etc), most religious texts never make it into Esperanto.

However I did translate the Passover Haggadah into Esperanto.

In the grand scheme of things, the Pirkei Avot is not a very long text, so translating it and editing your translation is a pretty good way to practice.

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