OK, we boldly continue our Bible translation with Genesis, chapter 2...necessary comments are found in the verse-by-verse discussion below.
1 Sië menel ar cemen ar ilya hossento ner telyainë. 2 Ar i otsëa auressë Eru telyanë carierya ya carnes, ar sendes i otsëa auressë ilya carieryallo ya carnes. 3 Ar Eru laitanë i otsëa aurë ar airitánë sa, an sassë Eru sendë ilya carieryallo ya ontanes ar carnes.
4 Sin ná i nyarna menelo ar cemeno írë nentë ontainë, i auressë ya carnë Yehóva Eru menel ar cemen.
5 Voro palúressëa tussa lá engë cemendë, ar olvar voro
úmer tuita, an Yehóva Eru lá tyarnë mistë lanta cemenna, ar
lá engë Atan mótien i palúressë. 6 Mal hísië ortanë cemello, ar ánes nén ilya i palúren cemeno. 7 Ar Yehóva Eru carnë i Atan astonen i cemello ar súyanë cuilesúlë mir nengwirya, ar i Atan né cuina onna.
8 Ar Yehóva Eru empannë tarwa Erendë, Rómenna, ar entassë panyanes i Atan i carnes. 9 Ar Yehóva Eru tyarnë tuita cemello ilya alda i ná vanya cenien ar mára matien ho sa, ar yando i alda cuilëo endessë i tarvo, ar i alda istyo márava ar ulcuva.
10 Engë sírë i lendë et Erenello antien nén i tarwan, ar entallo nes hyárina mir canta celumi. 11 I essë i minyo ná Píhyon; sa ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Havíla, yassë ëa malta. 12 Ar tana nórëo malta ná mára. Entassë ëar yando nísima suhtë ar ahyamírë. 13 Ar i essë i attëa sírëo ná Íhon; sa ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Cús. 14 Ar i essë i nelya sírëo ná Hirrecel; sa ná i celë rómessë Ahyuro. Ar i cantëa sírë ná Perat.
15 Ar Yehóva Eru mampë i Atan ar panyanë se Ereno tarwassë mótien sassë ar tirien sa. 16 Ar Yehóva Eru cannë i Atanen, quétala: "Ilya aldallo i tarwassë lertalyë matë. 17 Mal i aldallo istyo márava ar ulcuva áva matë, an i auressë ya matilyë sallo, anwavë firuvalyë.
18 Ar equë Yehóva Eru: "Umë mára sa i Atan ná eressëa. Caruvan sen restar i ná ve se."
19 Yehóva Eru carnë cemennen ilyë celvar palúrëo ar ilyë aiwi menelo, ar tulyaneryet i Atanna cenien mana estaneryet. Ya i Atan estanë ilya cuina onna, sa né esserya. 20 Ar i Atan estanë ilyë lamni ar i aiwi menelo ar ilyë hravani celvar, mal Atanen úmes hirë restar i né ve se.
21 San Yehóva Eru tyarnë núra fúmë lanta i Atanna, ar írë fumnes, mampes minë hónaxoryaron ar quantë hrávenen. 22 Ar Yehóva Eru carnë i hónaxo ya mampes i Atanello mir nís, ar tulyaneryes i Atanna. 23 San equë i Atan: "Lú sina nas axor axonyaron ar hrávë hrávenyo! Sin nauva estaina Nís, an Nerello nes mapaina."
24 Sië nér autuva ataryallo ar amilleryallo ar himyuva vesserya, ar nauvantë hrávë er.
25 Nentë heldë, i Atan ar vesserya, mal úmentë naityanë.
Or verse by verse:
1 Sië menel ar cemen ar ilya hossento ner telyainë.
2 Ar i otsëa auressë Eru telyanë carierya ya carnes, ar sendes i otsëa auressë ilya carieryallo ya carnes.
3 Ar Eru laitanë i otsëa aurë ar airitánë sa, an sassë Eru sendë ilya carieryallo ya ontanes ar carnes.
4 Sin ná i nyarna menelo ar cemeno írë nentë ontainë, i auressë ya carnë Yehóva Eru menel ar cemen.
This is the story of heaven and earth when they were created, on the day that Jehovah God made heaven and earth. [Sin "this" as an independent word, according to one interpretation of a sentence occurring in PM:401: Sin Quentë Quendingoldo Elendilenna = ?"This Pengolodh Said to Elendil". Another word for "this", sina, is rather an adjectival word connecting with a noun. Írë "when" from Fíriel's Song, LR:72. - The divine name YHWH (Yahweh, Jehovah) is here Quenyarized as Yehóva. In the first version of this translation, I followed the common if not universal practice of substituting "the Lord", Quenya i Heru. However, YHWH is not a title but a proper name, and should be preserved as such. (Even if i Heru Eru "the Lord God" sounds cool, Hebrew Yahweh `Elohim has no such rhyme!) While
"Yahweh" is certainly a better approximation of the original pronunciation of YHWH than is "Jehovah", Yahweh as a word is difficult to Quenyarize without clashing with existing words (like yávë "fruit", yáwë "ravine"). We therefore base our Quenya form of the divine name on the traditional pronunciation "Jehovah" instead.]
5 Voro palúressëa tussa lá engë cemendë, ar olvar voro
úmer tuita, an Yehóva Eru lá tyarnë mistë lanta cemenna, ar
lá engë Atan mótien i palúressë.
There was not yet any bush on the field on earth, and plants still did not grow, for Jehovah
God [had] not made rain fall upon earth, and there was no man to cultivate [lit. work on] the
field. [Voro "continually", here used together with a negative for "not yet",
"still...not". Palúrë "surface, bosom, bosom of Earth", LR:380 s.v.
PAL; here translated "field". The phrase palúressëa tussa, "a bush on
the field [or, surface of earth]" includes
palúressëa as an adjective (in -a) derived from the locative form (in -ssë)
of palúrë. (For "[being] in heaven", Tolkien himself used the adjective
menelessëa or meneldëa, based on menelessë,
meneldë as locative forms of menel "heaven"; see VT43:13, VT44:16.)
Lá engë, lit. "not existed" = did not exist or "there was not..." Tuita "grow", QL:96.]
6 Mal hísië ortanë cemello, ar ánes nén ilya i palúren cemeno.
7 Ar Yehóva Eru carnë i Atan astonen i cemello ar súyanë cuilesúlë mir nengwirya, ar i Atan né cuina onna.
And Jehovah God made the man out of dust from the earth and breathed [/blew] life-breath into his nose, and the man was [/became] a living creature. [I assume that the instrumental case in -nen can also denote a material being consumed in the making of something, hence astonen = "out of dust". - I cemello "from the earth". Normally
the article i is not here used with cemen "earth", but in this case cemen refers to
the substance of the earth rather than being a "name" of earth as a world or planet, and then the
definite article may properly be included. -
Some translations read "living soul" instead of "living creature", but Hebrew nephesh refers to a creature or living being, hardly to a "soul" in the normal modern sense, sc. some kind of inner spirit. - The Hebrew word for "man" or "human being", `adham (Adam), may well be Tolkien's real-world inspiration for the Quenya word Atan; the Sindarin cognate Adan is similar to the Spanish form of Adam, and Spanish was a language Tolkien liked. By using Quenya Atan for Hebrew `adham in a Bible translation, we may have come full circle. - Nengwirya "his nose";
the noun nengwë "nose" should evidently have the stem *nengwi-, since Tolkien derived it from NEÑ-WI, LR:376.]
8 Ar Yehóva Eru empannë tarwa Erendë, Rómenna, ar entassë panyanes i Atan i carnes.
And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, toward the East, and there he placed the Man that he [had] made. [The name "Eden" may be Quenyarized as Eren, not to be confused with a word for "steel" occurring in the early Qenya Lexicon (QL:36, LT1:252). Following a vowel, earlier *d had become r in Quenya, and the Eldar imitated this development when adapting foreign words to High-elven. Hence, Dwarvish Khazâd was adapted as Casar (Kasar); see WJ:388, 389. Following this example, I adapt Eden as Eren, here in locative form Erendë: Words in -n may have locative forms in -dë; compare cemendë as the locative of cemen "earth" (VT43:17) - Tarwa "garden", QL:87. - For "there" we use *entassë, literally "in yonder (place)"; this is the probable Quenya cognate of Sindarin ennas "there", occurring in the King's Letter (SD:128-9). The ablative entallo "from yonder (place)" occurs in verse 10. - For "planted", I adopt the word empannë from the early "Two Trees" sentence, starting Valar empannen Aldaru, probably meaning "the Valar planted the Two Trees" (read perhaps *Valar empanner Aldu in more LotR-compatible Quenya). The Qenya Lexicon, p. 80, has a verb rista- "plant", but this clashes with a later verb "cut" (LR:384 s.v. RIS) and is therefore not used here.]
9 Ar Yehóva Eru tyarnë tuita cemello ilya alda i ná vanya cenien ar mára matien ho sa, ar yando i alda cuilëo endessë i tarvo, ar i alda istyo márava ar ulcuva.
And Jehovah God made grow from the earth every tree that is beautiful to look upon [cenien, "for seeing", dative] and good to eat from [lit. "good for eating from it"], and also the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of (the) knowledge of good and evil. [Yando "also", QL:104. This early "Qenya" word for "also" may well have been rejected along with the word ya for "and" - Tolkien's later Quenya has ar instead - but we know no other word for "also". - Tarvo, genitive of tarwa "garden". The combination wo is probably impossible in Quenya, and in this position it would likely turn into vo. Compare the name Curvo (Kurvo) in PM:352; this probably represents the impossible form *Kurwo, since the stem is clearly KURU as in Curufinwë, the longer form of this name (*Curuo > *Curwo > Curvo). - I alda istyo "the tree of knowledge", istyo being the genitive of
istya "knowledge". Márava ar ulcuva "of good and evil": Ulco with stem ulcu- denotes "evil" as a noun, VT43:23-24. In the phrase márava ar ulcuva I use the "possessive" or "adjectival" case in -va rather than the genitive in -o, since the va-case seems to function as an "object genitive" in such phrases as nurtalë Valinóreva "hiding of Valinor" (Silmarillion ch. 11), Valinor being the logical object of the "hiding". In the case before us, mára "good" and ulco, ulcu- "evil" are the logical objects of the istya or "knowledge": good and evil are the things that are "known".]
10 Engë sírë i lendë et Erenello antien nén i tarwan, ar entallo nes hyárina mir canta celumi.
There was a river that went out from Eden to give water to the garden, and from there it was parted into four streams. [Engë "(there) existed" = "there was". Hyárina "parted", literally "cleaved", past participle of the verb hyar- "cleave", LR:389 s.v. SYAD. Perhaps this could simply be hyarna, but we may also ask whether primitive *syadnâ = *sjadnâ would not yield ?hyanda, which would clash with another word. So I prefer the long past participle ending -ina, combined with lengthening of the stem-vowel.]
11 I essë i minyo ná Píhyon; sa ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Havíla, yassë ëa malta.
12 Ar tana nórëo malta ná mára. Entassë ëar yando nísima suhtë ar ahyamírë.
And the gold of that land is good. There are also fragrant gum and onyx stone. [Hebrew bedholach refers to bdellium gum, a kind of myrrh made from a certain kind of fragrant resin; I first thought of simply Quenyarizing the Hebrew word as verola, but nísima suhtë "fragrant gum" should roughly cover the meaning. Nísima "fragrant" is isolated from Nísimaldar "Fragrant Trees", name of a region in Númenor (UT:167). Suhtë "resin, gum" is an updated form of Tolkien's early "Qenya" word sukte of this meaning (QL:86); he later decided that kt became ht in Quenya. - No word for "onyx" appears anywhere in the published material; my hopefully not too lame construct ahyamírë prefixes ahya- "change" (PM:395) to mírë "jewel"; this would refer to the "changing" or alternating layers of colour found in an onyx.]
13 Ar i essë i attëa sírëo ná Íhon; sa ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Cús.
14 Ar i essë i nelya sírëo ná Hirrecel; sa ná i celë rómessë Ahyuro. Ar i cantëa sírë ná Perat.
15 Ar Yehóva Eru mampë i Atan ar panyanë se Ereno tarwassë mótien sassë ar tirien sa.
And Jehovah God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it [lit. work in it] and watch [over] it. [I use mampë as the past tense of mapa- "grasp, seize, take", though the Qenya Lexicon (p. 59) lists nampe instead. If this unexpected past tense (due to confusion with another verb of similar meaning) had still been valid when Tolkien wrote the Etymologies, he would surely have mentioned it there as well, but in LR:371 s.v. MAP-, only the verb mapa- itself is listed. - We have no word for "cultivate", so I simply write mótien sassë "work in it" (sc. in the garden); the verb móta- "labour, toil" may have less than "paradisiacal" connotations, but I cannot readily think of anything better without having to invent new words. Compare mótien i palúressë "to work on/in the field" in verse 5.]
16 Ar Yehóva Eru cannë i Atanen, quétala: "Ilya aldallo i tarwassë lertalyë matë.
17 Mal i aldallo istyo márava ar ulcuva áva matë, an i auressë ya matilyë sallo, anwavë firuvalyë."
18 Ar equë Yehóva Eru: "Umë mára sa i Atan ná eressëa. Caruvan sen restar i ná ve se."
And Jehovah God said: "It is not good that the man is lonely. I will make him a helper that is like him." [Umë "(it) is not", negative verb (1st person umin "I do not, am not", LR:396). Sa: this is a nominalizer "that" according to the so-called Merin sentence, a somewhat questionable source (see Lesson 20 of my Quenya course for details); currently we have no better source for this feature of Quenya grammar. Sa is also the pronoun "it", and is so used elsewhere in this text. - Sen "(to) him, (for) him", dative of se. Restar "helper", derived by me from the verb resta- "aid", QL:79.]
19 Yehóva Eru carnë cemennen ilyë celvar palúrëo ar ilyë aiwi menelo, ar tulyaneryet i Atanna cenien mana estaneryet.
Jehovah God made out of earth all the animals of the field and all the birds of heaven, and he lead them to the man to see what he called [/would call] them. [Fairly straightforward. Cemennen, instrumental form of cemen "earth". Atanna allative of Atan, contraction of Atanenna. Mana "what", PM:395.]
19 (cont.) Ya i Atan estanë ilya cuina onna, sa né esserya.
20 Ar i Atan estanë ilyë lamni ar i aiwi menelo ar ilyë hravani celvar, mal Atanen úmes hirë restar i né ve se.
21 San Yehóva Eru tyarnë núra fúmë lanta i Atanna, ar írë fumnes, mampes minë hónaxoryaron ar quantë hrávenen.
22 Ar Yehóva Eru carnë i hónaxo ya mampes i Atanello mir nís, ar tulyaneryes i Atanna.
And Jehovah God made the rib that he took from the man into a woman, and he lead her to the man. [Tulyaneryes "he lead him/her/it", in this case "her".]
23 San equë i Atan: "Lú sina nas axor axonyaron ar hrávë hrávenyo! Sin nauva estaina Nís, an Nerello nes mapaina."
Then the man said: "This time it is bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh! This one will be called Woman, for from Man she was taken." [The Hebrew word-play îsh / ishshâ = "man / woman" barely works in English; the Quenya pair nér / nís shows only a vague parallelism (alliteration). A footnote would have to be included: The point of the Hebrew text is that Adam coins a word for "woman" by adding a feminine ending to the word for "man".]
24 Sië nér autuva ataryallo ar amilleryallo ar himyuva vesserya, ar nauvantë hrávë er.
Therefore [lit. thus] a man will leave [lit. pass from] his father and his mother and stick to his wife, and they will be(come) one flesh. [Ataryallo "from his father": contraction of atar-rya-llo "father-his-from". In full this would have been atareryallo; compare amilleryallo for "from his mother". Hrávë er "flesh one", one flesh. As for this
word order, compare Tolkien's phrase Eru er "one God", VT44:17.]
25 Nentë heldë, i Atan ar vesserya, mal úmentë naityanë.
They were naked, the man and his wife, but they were not ashamed. [The Qenya Lexicon, p. 65, has a word naitya- "put to shame"; the passive participle naityana (here pl. naityanë) should then mean "(a)shamed". In the first
version of this text, I used the form naityaina. When the ending -ina used to derive passive participles is added to a stem ending in -a, a diphthong -ai- naturally arises (which then receives the stress). However, it seems
that when the verbal stem already contains the diphthong ai, the shorter participial ending -na may be used, so as to avoid ai in two concomitant syllables: Tolkien expressed "blessed" as aistana rather than *aistaina (VT43:30).]