Csayeursost said:
thorbiorn: For my Swedish translation, I had the following thoughts on the translation of "Of" in "Of All Creation": Of can be translated into "om", but "om" has a more limited meaning the same as "about", and "of" can also mean "av"/"af". I considered which to use ("Om" or "Av"), and choose the latter because I thought it gives a more "expansive" and inclusive meaning; the knowledge is not just about creation, it is part of it, and comes from it. I tried "Om Hela Skapelsen" in my mind, but to me it felt too "limited". Is this also relevant for Danish?
How to translate the ”of”? In Danish the reason I chose ”om” instead of ”af” is because I connected the line ”Of All Creation” to the one above reading ”Help me grow in knowledge”, which I translated as ”Hjælp mig at vokse i viden”. In Danish one usually says ”viden om” rather than, ”viden af”, just as one says, ”høre/læse/tale 'om' et emne” and not ”høre, læse, tale 'af' et emne” when in English it is ”hear/read/talk 'of' a subject”.
So to your question if it is relevant in Danish I would say no, because there is much less of a choice than there apparently is in Swedish in this particular case.
If the division had been different, say: ”Help me grow/In Knowledge of All Creation” There would be an option of saying: ”Hjælp mig at vokse/ i Hele Skabelsens viden”. But even if that choice would be (or is there), would one actually chose it? That is a question for other Danish readers of this thread, just as they are very welcome to comment on the translation as a whole.
In the same lines, instead of using the Danish word ”vokse” one can choose the word ”gro” which is closer in sound and origin to ”grow”, but the combination of ”vokse i viden” sounds better to me than does ”gro i viden”, which one would not usually say.
However the subject of vokse/gro is interesting in this poetic context. For further reflection there is the following about ”Vokse”: It is a common-Germanic word, in Oldnordic it is 'vaxa', English 'wax' in German 'wachsen'; related to Sanskrit 'vaksáyati' let grow, (and surprisingly to) Latin 'auxilium' help ….
About ”Gro”: common-Germanic word, in Oldnordic it is 'gróa', English 'grow', related to græs(Dk)/grass(Eng), grøn(Dk)/green(Eng) (Sources: Nudansk Ordbog 11th edition Copenhagen 1982, The Living Webster Dictionary of the English Language, Chicago 1974)
Another problem of translating ”of” is presented by ”Ruler of the mind/Savior of the Soul”, which can be translated as ”Sindets hersker/ sjælens frelser” but looking to the words that come before: ”Carried in the heart/tr: Båret i hjertet” and those that follow, ”Live in me today/tr: Lev i mig i dag”; I decided in favour of translating ”Ruler of the mind/Savior of the Soul” as ”Hersker af sindet/Frelser af Sjælen”.
Translating words and phrases often leaves one with a number of choices. Just about any translation is ”A” translation rather than ”THE” translation. So if anyone is intending to use a translation, I hope they keep that in mind, and allow themselves sufficient freedom to modify it, if they feel that they can improve on it. And often one can, that is one reason why books sometimes appear in more than one translation even if the language is the same.
