What does a really fluent “Lord’s Prayer” translation really say?
Today I’m simply showing you an accurate back-translation from Chinook Jargon to English.
This is the Lord’s Prayer that lots of Christian denominations are familiar with.
“Native American Lord’s Prayer” (image credit: ebay)
It’s from a French speaker, so it’s originally modeled on the French version of the Lord’s Prayer (look it up), but it’s still instructive to see in English what it’s literally saying.
See how this strikes you:
<1.> Iht son, pus ShK kopit styuil, iht
‘1. One day, when Jesus finished praying, anlisapotr wawa kopa iaka: “O taii, tlus maika mamuk
‘apostle asked him, “Oh, chief, you should’komtaks kopa nsaika ikta nsaika wawa kopa ST pus
‘teach us what we should say to God when’nsaika styuil.”
‘we pray.” ’ShK wawa: “Pus msaika styuil, tlus msaika
‘Jesus said, “When you pray, you should’wawa kakwa: “Nsaika papa, maika mitlait kopa sahali
‘say this: “Our father, you’re in hea-’ilihi; tlus pus kanawi tilikom mamuk tlus maika
‘ven; everyone should treat your’nim, tlus pus kanawi tilikom chako kopa maika, aias
‘name well; everyone should come to you, the great’taii; tlus pus kanawi tilikom kopa ukuk ilihi mamuk
‘chief; everyone on this earth should do’drit kakwa maika wawa, kakwa sahali ilihi tilikom mamuk
‘just as you say, like the heaven people do’drit kakwa maika wawa. <X> Ukuk son pi kanawi son
‘just what you say. Today and every day,’patlach nsaika makmak; mash komtaks nsaika masachi
‘feed us; forget our badness’kakwa nsaika mash komtaks ukuk masachi hloima
‘like we forget the badness that other’tilikom mamuk kopa nsaika; mamuk skukum nsaika tomtom
‘folks do to us; strengthen our hearts’pus wik nsaika mamuk masachi; tlus nanich
‘so we don’t do bad things; be watchful’pus wik nsaika mamuk masachi; tlus nanich
‘so we don’t do bad things; protect’nsaika pus wik nsaika chako klahawiam. Tlus pus
‘us so we don’t get pitiful. Let it’kakwa.”
‘be this way.” ’
— “Kamloops Wawa” #134 (November 1895), page 173
It’s worthwhile to compare the version from the Chinook Bible History with the version in the Chinook Manual (1896):
Nsaika papa,
maika mitlait kopa sahali,
tlus pus kanawi tilikom mamuk haha maika nim;
tlus pus kanawi mamuk taii maika;
tlus pus kanawi tilikom kopa ukuk ilihi
mamuk maika tomtom,
kakwa klaska mamuk kopa sahali ilihi.
Ukuk son pi kanawi son patlach nsaika makmak;
pi tlus maika mash ukuk masachi nsaika mamuk kopa maika,
kakwa nsaika mash ukuk masachi
hloima tilikom mamuk kopa nsaika;
pi mamuk hilp nsaika pus ilo ikta tolo nsaika kopa masachi;
pi tlus maika mamuk hol nsaika [Did I read “hol” correctly?]
pus wik nsaika chako klahawiam.
Tlus pus kakwa.
What stands out to you?
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Talk about good translations as you want, but the bad ones are always pretty funny.
This reminds me of an infamous early translation of Psalm 23 into Tlingit, which some Tlingit guy interpreted as:
“The Lord is my goat-hunter, I don’t want Him.
He knocks me down on the mountain,
He drags me down to the beach…”
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Nice and apparently true.
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