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Help With Translation

aiernoviaiernovi
edited December 1969 in Hymns Discussion
Hi everyone,

Was just wondering if anyone could help me translate this piece of Coptic for me. I've tried but I'm at a loss and I know there are many on here who know Coptic much better than I do. I've attached the text and hopefully everyone can see it.

Thanks!

Comments

  • ophadeceophadece
    Go out then:
    The paths of the waters (= the waterways):
    and those who have (?) for water:
    are invited inside the wedding

    aiernovi,
    This is a very weak passage. I don't know where I got it from, but it doesn't make sense. The beginning of the second stanza should have "e" to express "to" so that it becomes "to the paths of waters". Also the third stanza isn't clear (or I don't understand clearly what it says). Again the fourth stanza eqoun isn't really suitable! Also the wedding is misspelt, as it normally spells as hop in both Bohairic and Sa'idic, but here it is "hob"!!!
    Someone else may be able to shed better light...
    Oujai qen `P[C
  • aiernoviaiernovi
    hmm. Thanks for your help. If anyone has any other ideas, that would be very helpful. Maybe I will review the passage and see if I made any errors in transcribing it.

    Thanks again
  • ArchdeaconArchdeacon
    The correct translation is "Go out to the water ways (possibly meaning the roadside) and whoever you find, call unto the wedding."

    This passage seems to be from the parable spoken by Our Lord Christ in Matthew 22.  It the one about the man who held a wedding and called all his friends but nobody came so he told his servants to find anyone they could and bid them to the wedding.

    The key to the translation is that in the third line it says nyeteten je mwou.  This is actually a typo as je mwou doesn't make any sense.  It's much more likely to be jemou the third person plural of the verb jem which means to find.

    Actually I looked it up and it is from that parable.  It's Matthew 22:9  The correct text should be Masenwten de ebol enima`mmosi `nte nimwit.  ouoh nyetetennajemou ;ahmou eqoun epihop.  Which is translated, "Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding."
  • ophadeceophadece
    Thanks a million Archdeacon .. Makes perfect sense now
    Oujai
  • aiernoviaiernovi
    Thank you both for your help. I am so happy that you guys were so quick and willing to help me. May God reward your services.

    PS: Is there any dictionary I could use (that is a little easier to understand than Crum's) that would help me in something like this in the future?

    Thanks again
  • ophadeceophadece
    I have an English Coptic dictionary but truthfully it's not reliable.. don't know how fluent in Arabic you are, but I have a more trustworthy Coptic Arabic one, perhaps on the level of higher level of studying Coptic, but the Arabic isn't easy.. let me know by all means..
    oujai
  • mark.naguib7
    [quote author=ophadece link=topic=14228.msg163096#msg163096 date=1359712213]
    I have an English Coptic dictionary but truthfully it's not reliable.. don't know how fluent in Arabic you are, but I have a more trustworthy Coptic Arabic one, perhaps on the level of higher level of studying Coptic, but the Arabic isn't easy.. let me know by all means..
    oujai


    May you please send the Coptic-Arabic one to me?
  • RemnkemiRemnkemi
    [quote author=aiernovi link=topic=14228.msg163093#msg163093 date=1359687811]
    Thank you both for your help. I am so happy that you guys were so quick and willing to help me. May God reward your services.

    PS: Is there any dictionary I could use (that is a little easier to understand than Crum's) that would help me in something like this in the future?

    Thanks again

    The best and most simplied English-Coptic dictionary for Bohairic Coptic is St Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society's dictionary. You can find it at COePA's site here or you can buy the CD from St Shenouda Society by contacting the Society's director Hany Takla by email ([email protected])

    Most other English-Coptic dictionaries are used for Sahidic Coptic. These include Bently Latyon's grammarian and Richard Smith's dictionary.

    The best Arabic-Coptic dictionary is Moawad Daoud. Second up is Claudius Labib (both are fairly complex). Then if you're courageous enough, I have a Sahidic-French, Sahidic-German, and 3 Latin-Coptic dictionaries.

    I hope this helped.
  • aiernoviaiernovi
    [quote author=Remnkemi link=topic=14228.msg163104#msg163104 date=1359763067]
    The best and most simplied English-Coptic dictionary for Bohairic Coptic is St Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society's dictionary. You can find it at COePA's site here or you can buy the CD from St Shenouda Society by contacting the Society's director Hany Takla by email ([email protected])

    Most other English-Coptic dictionaries are used for Sahidic Coptic. These include Bently Latyon's grammarian and Richard Smith's dictionary.

    The best Arabic-Coptic dictionary is Moawad Daoud. Second up is Claudius Labib (both are fairly complex). Then if you're courageous enough, I have a Sahidic-French, Sahidic-German, and 3 Latin-Coptic dictionaries.

    I hope this helped.


    Thank you so much! This is great. I appreciate everyone's help and input!
  • ophadeceophadece
    Sorry Copticandproud,
    I realised the dictionary is over 90MB in size. There is the direct link. There is an icon on the bottom left that says "download".
    The link is:
    http://www.calloflove.net/copticlibrary/coptic/copticarabicdic/1.htm
    Oujai qen `P[C
  • RemnkemiRemnkemi
    I'd like to point out that the link Ophadece provided for Moawad Daoud's dictionary is technically trilingual. He gives an English and Arabic translation for each Coptic word. However, his main translation language is Arabic and he gives most examples and translations of examples in Arabic. But it has been very useful and I don't speak Arabic well at all. You just need to recognize Daoud's abbreviations and it becomes much easier.
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