Dear Youngman:

Do you speak Spanish?  If you do, have you ever the read the Spanish
scriptures?  I have the Reina-Valera 1909 and the Cipriano of 1865.  The
translations are so terrible that I had to stop reading them a few years
ago.  I would not tell this to Spanish speakers, but it is true.  I
believe that this situation has certainly held up our Spanish language
program because I was beginning to gain strength when I had to stop
reading it because I did not want to confuse my mind with heresy from a mistranslation.

We've come back to our Spanish studies using some Mennonite educational
materials written in Spanish.  I've also begun to translate the Authorized
Version into Spanish.  [Aside:  I know we've talked about the word
"version" but I ask you to see Webster's 1828 for a secondary definition. 
Also, the King James Bible has been long known as the AUTHORIZED Version. 
This is good title.  The scriptures were not originally written in
English--they were written in Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramic as I
understand it--but the AUTHORIZED Version is written in English.  It is
one of a kind.]

This translation started by me wanting to teach Hannah Spanish the way that
I've taught her the language arts--through scripture reading.  I was
starting with what I call "the ten" which are those 10 important events in
Genesis that overview the entire book.  In translating the ten, I found
myself translating it all.   My daughter looks over the translation and
makes suggestions.  I find myself daring to do this--but it really came
from necessity and quite by degrees.  In teaching Hannah, I found the Old
Testament narratives absolutely perfect for teaching a 2 year old.  In
translating, I find them easy to translate.  I perceive that if and when I
get to the New Testament epistles, there will be grace to translate them
too.

I've been making a list of rules that I've been following in making the
translation.

***Translate the King James BIble into Spanish using formal equivalency,
often using word for word order, where reasonable.
***Maximize use of congnates (or words that are close to cognates) to
conform to words of the Authorized Version, e.g., "comandar" instead of
"mandar" for the word "command"; "faz" versus "haz" for "face".
***Maximize use of other cognates.  This will help non-native speakers to
understand and learn Spanish and it will help Spanish people to learn
English.
***Simple words easy to be understood.
***Where there are several choices, use words that I know first as opposed
to searching for new words.
***Consider how word may be used in other places in the scriptures to
determine word choice e.g., marida and esposa.
***This translation is for us at this time.  I have notably left out (1)
"a" to denote direct objects when it is confusing to us and (2) articles
"el" and "la" when there is no article in the English.  Although this may
be awkward to a Spanish speaker, it may actually assist them in learning
the use (and non-use) of articles in English.

La Santa Biblia
Una Translación de la Versión Autorizada

Sometimes I only translate a verse or two in a day.  I've also begun
taping it on cassette so that Hannah and I can listen to it.  I have the
Spanish Bible on tape but ran into the same problem as reading from the
Spanish scriptures.  "Demonios" in place of "diablos" is not acceptable. 
If you keep reading and listening to things like this, you will say them--
I've unwillingly done that in the past.

From time to time Hannah checks my progress--she will translate the
translation into English as I follow along in the Bible.  It is very
close.  When I can't find a word like "fowl,"  I translate it based on
how that word is used in the scriptures and I've found myself getting the
answers later on.  A fowl in the scriptures is not just a bird--in
Leviticus 11, it includes bats and other flying animals.  [The sheer
multitude and differences in animals that God made is quite interesting
and phenomenal.]  I translated fowl, "criatura volando" (flying creature)
at first.  The other day, I came across "volatilla" in an old Spanish
dictionary that I picked up from a used book store.  Volar means "to fly"
and although they say volatilla means "flying bird" volatilla looks more
like a flying thing--and so I go with that.  I will use the same word in
Leviticus 11 should I get there one day.

If you speak Spanish and this ever means something to you at some point,
I'd be interested in hearing from you about it.

Mephibosheth