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Target
Vol. 6:1 (1994) ► pp.15–41

Did Adapa Indeed Lose His Chance for Eternal Life?

A Rationale for Translating Ancient Texts into a Modern Language [1] 1

| Tel Aviv University

This paper takes as a model for discussing the issue of translating ancient texts into a modern language and for a modern western society an ancient Mesopotamian myth written in the Semitic Akkadian language. Aiming for an oral production for a Hebrew-speaking audience in contemporary Israel, the translator has tackled problems of transmission in both poetics and language. The genre and linguistic gaps have been bridged by the existent proximity of the two cultures in poetic meter. Both the theoretical approach and some practical problems and solutions are discussed.

Article outline
  • 1.How Did Adapa Lose Eternal Life
  • 2.Translating the Adapa Myth: Some Preliminaries
  • 3.The Target Culture: A Genre Gap
  • 4. The Target Culture: A Linguistic Gap
  • 5.The Poetical Bridge: Hebrew and Akkadian Meter
  • 6.Some Practical Problems and Solutions
    • 6.1.Textual Coherence
    • 6.2. Antiquity and Modernity
    • 6.3.The Lexicon, Phraseology and Idiomatics
    • 6.4.Phonology and Phonetics
    • 6.5.Morphology and TMA
    • 6.6.Word Order
    • 6.7.Prosody, Poetic Devices
    • 6.8.An Exemplified Conspectus
  • 7.Can the Lost Life of Adapa be Recovered?
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 January 1994
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.6.1.03izr
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