Edinost in Dialog (Dec 2021)
Woe to the One Who Would Change the Word of God or Translate it in His Own Way: Mag. Milan Holc's Translation Principles
Abstract
The article presents mag. Holc as a translator of the Bible and his views on translations and translation standards, based on the examples of the translations of verses Gen 3,15 and Ex 20,17. In the introduction, we present Holc's ethics of translation, i.e. his attitude towards texts of the Bible, determined by his personal attitude of humility and deep faith. Then, analogously to the parable of the scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, we present mag. Holc as the one who ≫brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old≪ (Matt 13,52). As an ≫old treasure≪, we present Holc's concern for the continuity of the Slovene translations on the example of the translation of the Tenth commandment (Ex 20,17). We understand Dalmatin as the father of this tradition, who in 1584, with the translation ≫Ti nemaſh sheleti≪, laid the foundations on which the catechetical form is still based and imprinted in people's memory as ≫Ne želi≪. Thus half a millennium later the last translation of the Bible, in the Jerusalem edition Holc translated Exodus, still reads ≫Ne želi≪. As a ≫new treasure≪ and an example of a change contrary to the tradition and continuity of the Slovene translations, we present Holc's proposal for new translation of verse Gen 3,15 (SSP). For the first time in the history of Slovene translations in 1 Gen 3,15 we do not have a forecast of a victory, but we are witnessing a substantive shift in the direction of a draw result. Although the translation interferes with the centuries-old translation tradition, it does not really take anything away from it. On the contrary, it partially illuminates it anew, as it radiates the originality of the biblical way of expression or the original dynamics of hatred between a woman and a snake.
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