Translations and parallel texts
If most English speakers probably wish to learn the spoken language, with learning from written sources taking second place, written material is still certainly important in the overall learning process.
It provides visual reinforcement to aid memorisation of, phrases perhaps first learnt orally.
The series of Te Rangatahi books (published in the 1960’s and still in print) although somewhat “dated” in terms of content, might, with its cartoon-like illustrations to the text, be considered unsurpassed in this methodology.
But time has moved on, and there is now an enormous variety of printed books, as well as “online” learning programs.
Children’s books feature largely – including Māori translations of wellknown books originally written in English. Whether the translation (of children’s or adults’ books) is from English or other languages into Māori, or vice-versa, the availability of parallel texts offers great learning opportunities.
Perhaps most monumental among Māori-to-English parallel texts is the now five-volume edition of Ngā Mōteatea – The Songs, developed under the guidance of numerous scholars from the original compilation by Sir Apirana Ngata in the mid-twentieth century.
In the opposite direction (that is, from other languages into Māori) the most substantial English-Māori parallel texts in a single volume is the NRSV Holy Bible and Te Paipera Tapu.
Both of the above present the reader with more than a lifetime of possible study – but this doesn’t mean one can’t become familiar with selected passages.
Among briefer, but important, Māorito-English parallel texts, Anaru Reedy’s publication of writings of Mohi Tūrei and of teachings of Pita Kāpiti should be noted.
An outstanding English-to-Māori parallel text, published just last year, is Te Haumihiata Mason’s Rōmeo rāua ko Hurīeta (a version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet).
This follows the same writer’s version of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, performed at the Globe Theatre, London, in 2012, and her Te Rātaka a Tētahi Kōhine (“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank) of 2019.
As Lachy Paterson, writing on the website Te Hau Kāinga of Pei te Hurinui Jones’ versions of The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and Othello, commented: “Translating Shakespeare is no easy task”.
The problems are compounded because much of Shakespeare’s language is far from normal contemporary English.
Juliet’s “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” is an expression of her being tortured by the question of why Romeo must belong to the family at enmity with her own.
Te Haumihiata carefully renders “wherefore?” as “he aha?” (“why?”): “E kō Rōmeo! he aha koe i tapaina ai koe ko Romeo?” (“Oh dearest Romeo, why must you be called Romeo?”)
Ventures such as this would seem to have many implications for the future of both Māori and English.