Tiramu’s draft

A bug-eaten corner of a draft

Tiramu, a translator in his own language of Kope told us he had some drafts of Bible translation at home. What he brought to us was a pile of papers, yellowed with age and bug eaten at the corners, but obviously stored with love and care for many years. Among the pile was nearly half of Acts, back translations of the Acts drafts and several chapters of Mark.

Sorting through the document pile
with Tiramu (Photo: D.Petterson)

In the 80s there was an expat translator in that village for a while. Tiramu joined the translation team, got training and set to work drafting in his language. In time the expat translator moved on, but Tiramu kept working. Eventually he too ground to a halt. It is hard to maintain momentum when you work alone and when village pastor responsibilities demand your time.

The drafts and back translations had been typed up by another expat. This was a lady from my home town who had formerly been married to a man from that village. As we were from the same town (Adelaide), it was decided that I was family to the village, even though I’ve never met this lady! I did have a lovely chat with her ex-husband though. Her typed copies were dated 1990, so it is a long time since any work had been done.

Tiramu supervising Catherine’s

typing (photo: D.Petterson)

We took photos of all of the papers that Tiramu had. I was impressed with the document setting on my camera, which I’d never used before. Catherine and Susie then spent several hours typing away to enter Acts into a translation program that we commonly use, Paratext. Although we do not know what the next step will be, having recorded this work in photos and type means that should the well-cared-for file of papers be damaged, the work is not lost. It has now been copied, stored and backed up in several locations.

Susie typing with lots of local
supervision (Photo: D.Petterson)

At the moment Tiramu is working with a new and younger team on translating the Jesus Film. It should be recorded later this year and be ready for showing next year. He is hoping that this will encourage the community to revive their translation programme and return to work on the Bible. Maybe these recently typed drafts will help get things rolling. His beaming smile sure encouraged us in our typing and photo taking, as his face spoke of his desire to see the work continued.