The Bible in translation is being read to thousands and thousands in Africa. It is an integral part of their functioning and the way they look at the world.
NGUGI WA THIONG'OThe same questions are there in Native American languages, they’re there in native Canadian languages, they’re there is some marginalized European languages, like say, Irish.
More Ngugi wa Thiong'o Quotes
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I’m more trying to connect; I’m more listening to people. Whatever I get is very meaningful to me.
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It was a revelation for me, in a practical sense, that you could write in an African language and still reach an audience beyond that language through the art of translation.
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The Bible has affected their lives, but in translation, since they do not read the Bible in the original Greek or Hebrew.
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If poverty was to be sold three cents today, i can’t buy it.
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If a novel is written in a certain language with certain characters from a particular community and the story is very good or illuminating, then that work is translated into the language of another community.
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Through the act of translation we break out of linguistic confinement and reach many other communities.
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The same questions are there in Native American languages, they’re there in native Canadian languages, they’re there is some marginalized European languages, like say, Irish.
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So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.
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What is translated from English and into English – and in what quantities – is a question of power.
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Many people do not know that Jesus did not speak Latin or English or Hebrew; he spoke Aramaic. But nobody knows that language.
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The Bible affects everybody’s life who is a Christian, from the middle class in Europe to the peasant in Africa and Asia.
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Any writer likes to be near the area which is the location of his work.
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There is no way we can survive as a nation in the world without finding unity.
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So we’re talking about the Bible itself being a translation of a translation of a translation. And, in reality, it has affected people’s lives in history.
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We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.
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