Lost in translation

Last Saturday we had a singing seminar at church. Ed Cantrell, an American who works with the congregation in Chemnitz, was kind enough to come share some of his extensive knowledge with us. (By the way, we didn't talk about the use of instruments in the assembly, which is a big issue right now in Germany. Ed thought that required a seminar of its own and so did not cover it here).

A lot of the discussion reinforced what I already believe about singing in the worship assembly, as far as its purpose and technique. We sing to praise God, but we sing also to lift up and encourage one another. If we all sing with our heads stuck in our songbooks, we sing only to ourselves. If we can learn songs well enough to be able to lift our faces and look at the Christians around us, we foster a sense of communal worship of God, which in turn helps promote a sense of brotherhood and fellowship.

The biggest surprise of the day for me occurred after the seminar was over. Six or seven of us stayed around for awhile to sing together, and Ed asked us to choose which songs to sing. As we turned to one song, I noticed the song on the next page was a German translation of "There is Power in the Blood" by Lewis E. Jones. As I've said before, singing in German is not easy for me because I have trouble reading the music, pronouncing the words, and understanding the text all at the same time. So, when we finished the song, I requested "There is Power in the Blood," knowing that we would sing in German but relishing the opportunity to sing a hymn for which I at least know the music.

As the other people looked at the song, one of the German women scrunched up her face and literally shuddered in disgust. "I don't like this song," she declared.

When we asked why, she said, "It reminds me of the Nazis and killing people." I was appalled. How could a hymn celebrating the saving power of Jesus' crucifixion remind someone of the atrocities of the Holocaust? To add to my shock, another woman agreed with her.

Apparently, the German translation is...lacking. The translator (who is not named) seems to have focused on translating the words instead of the hymn's overall feeling; the meaning of the English words, which is transferred when a person tries to do a word-for-word translation, just doesn't work in German. Besides that, the rhythm of the German doesn't fit the music all that well.

But most offensive for Germans today are the words themselves. The first half of the refrain literally means "It is power, power, wonderful power in the blood." The slight difference between the "There is" in the original English and the "It is" in the German translation has a big impact. The German seems to connote that it is the blood itself that is powerful instead of what the blood symbolizes, as the English implies. Hence the connection for Germans to needless bloodshed associated, at least in this country, with the Nazi regime.

We did end up singing the song, but the whole experience taught me a couple things:

1) Be more aware of what people and their country have experienced. The past helped make those people who they are today. For Germans, the events of the late 1930s and the 1940s still impact their lives today. They seem to be ashamed of what their country did, and therefore don't have pride in their country (except, of course, when it comes to soccer), and anything that sounds nationalistic brings back horrible memories.

2) Meaning, not words, is important in translation. Another reason being able to somewhat think in German is helpful.