by Paulus Kieviet
(June 2015) This month, I spent two weeks with the Pa’umotu translation team on Tahiti. This team works on translating portions of the Bible into their own language, which is spoken on the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia.
The Gospels and the Psalms have been translated. The Gospels also have been thoroughly checked by the team over the past years, and it is now time to publish a first edition. It will be a trial edition, which will be printed and distributed on a small scale. We hope that this edition will lead to feedback, which will help the team to improve the translation further.
During my stay, we worked on further improving the translation of the Psalms. It was encouraging to see the dedication of the team and their keenness to get the translation right.
We also did some training in the translation software Paratext, so that the team can continue to meet and to check the translation when I’m not there.
Part of the Pa’umotu team. (Photo by Jean Kape)
One of the Tuamotu islands: Anaa