PART FOR A PARTICLE

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1952, Page 16

PART FOR A PARTICLE One thing which afforded the committee much pleasure was the restoration to the Maori Bible of the use of the specific particle ‘ko’. Right from the beginning, Mr Bird insisted that ‘ko’ should be restored to its rightful place, not only from the grammatical standpoint, but because it is the correct Maori. And so we started off with the title, ‘Ko te Paipera Tapu,’ and inside the title page, ‘Ko te Paipera Tapu ara ko te Kawenata Tawhito me Kawenata Hou.’ Anyone looking at that quite dispassionately would agree with us that it meant more than the mere restoration of a particle, but the restoration of the old dignity of the Maori Bible. And so the work went on, adding ‘ko’ to the title of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, and the text of the Bible itself. One recollects the innumerable ‘ko's' added in one morning's sitting of the committee which brought forth the remark that it must have been dropped as a measure of economy in the printing! Unworthy thought! But when the particle was dropped, and why, are two questions to which we have not been able to give an answer. But we found that our main quarrel with the former version was in the lack of emphasis, or, in countless instances, misplaced emphasis. I suppose that is a besetting sin in any work of translation. In the process of transferring the thought from one tongue to the other, invariably the emphasis is lost or misplaced. That was the case with our Maori Bible. The corrected version more often than not consisted simply of the same words arranged in a different order. Let us look in for a moment at a full meeting of the revision committee. The tables are covered with books—all the authorities, dictionaries, concordance and so forth. Each member has a typed carbon copy of the particular portion under review. One member is reading aloud from his script, and enjoying it because it is all in his dialect. Eru Te Tuhi has the 1925 edition before him, and notes any departure

therefrom, however slight. Dan Kaa revels in his Hebrew text, and usually starts an argument somehow, but has to be reminded that it is the Maori Bible that is under revision. Manu (Mr Bird) has his beloved Authorised Version in hand, with its beautiful English. The Bishop keeps a close check on everything, with his eyes on the 1887 edition. The chairman, who holds the master copy, concentrates on his script for any correction or change, but at the same time keeps the Revised Version ever before him, in order that he may appreciate the new revision that is being read out aloud. Sir Apirana's alert mind hovers over all. If he is not taking the reading, he may be humming an old Maori waiata, seeking for the one word required in a certain context.