Friday, November 28, 2008

post-Thanksgiving: translating

So when traveling to Jerusalem,
he’s going across the border
between the West Bank
and that Shiksa District;

he’s going right into some shtetl,
met by ten men with AIDS who are
standing a good way off from him
shouting at the top of their voices:

“Your Honor (of Good Standing),
Joshua,
Please,
Pay Attention to Our Case!”

He looks at them
and says
“Travel on now: Fardrai zich deyn kopf!
Show yourselves to the Official Kohenim."

So while heading up there,
they are cured.

Then one of them looks:
sure enough, completely healthy.
Turns around with this huge voice:
Gives God credit;

Falls face down
at his feet:
Gives him thanks.
--a Shiksa’s boy, no less.

Then Joshua retorts,
“Weren’t ten cured?
Then where’s the nine?
Is the only one found turning around giving due credit to God this bastard?”

He says to him,
“Stand up like you’ve come back to life.
Travel on now.
You’ve been rescued by your own beliefs.”

καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ πορεύεσθαι εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ
καὶ αὐτὸς διήρχετο
διὰ μέσον Σαμαρείας
καὶ Γαλιλαίας

καὶ εἰσερχομένου αὐτοῦ εἴς τινα κώμην
ἀπήντησαν αὐτῷ δέκα λεπροὶ ἄνδρες
οἳ ἔστησαν πόρρωθεν
καὶ αὐτοὶ ἦραν φωνὴν λέγοντες

Ἰησοῦ
ἐπιστάτα
ἐλέησον
ἡμᾶς

καὶ ἰδὼν
εἶπεν αὐτοῖς
πορευθέντες
ἐπιδείξατε ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν

καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὑπάγειν αὐτοὺς
ἐκαθαρίσθησαν

εἷς δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἰδὼν
ὅτι ἰάθη
ὑπέστρεψεν μετὰ φωνῆς μεγάλης
δοξάζων τὸν θεόν

καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ
εὐχαριστῶν αὐτῷ
καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν Σαμαρίτης

ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν
οὐχὶ οἱ δέκα ἐκαθαρίσθησαν
οἱ δὲ ἐννέα ποῦ
οὐχ εὑρέθησαν ὑποστρέψαντες δοῦναι δόξαν τῷ θεῷ εἰ μὴ ὁ ἀλλογενὴς οὗτος

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ
ἀναστὰς
πορεύου
ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε

1 comment:

Jane said...

So of the ten with AIDS who get healed is the one who turns back and gives thanks for being healed the homosexual? or the raped African immigrant? or the woman in a DRC refugee camp?
or ?
or me?
or you?

Would we say thank you?

Anyway thanks for the translation