Good-Bye, David

David Wayne Stevens
(28 January 1968 - 30 June 2008)

וְעַתָּ֣ה׀ מֵ֗ת לָ֤מָּה זֶּה֙ אֲנִ֣י צָ֔ם הַאוּכַ֥ל לַהֲשִׁיב֖וֹ ע֑וֹד אֲנִי֙ הֹלֵ֣ךְ אֵלָ֔יו וְה֖וּא לֹֽא־יָשׁ֥וּב אֵלָֽי׃
"I shall go to him, but he will not return to me..."
2 Samuel 12.23

From Fisher Funeral Home:

David Stevens, 40, of Albany lost his long battle with diabetes and died Monday at his home. He was born in Albany and lived his whole life in Albany.

He leaves behind a family who loves him dearly and will miss him more than words can express. He loved everyone and always tried to make everyone happy. He was happiest when he was outdoors - dirt bike riding, skiing, or any outdoor sports. He had a great time singing Karaoke at JP's. He loved to draw, sing, and write poems and songs. He loved to sing because it made everyone so happy.

David is survived by his mother, Charlote Bridges and step-father, Dave Bridges, who David always said was the best dad he ever had; son Keegan, sisters Michaelle Williams and her daughter Miranda Williams, Tami Butler and her daughters, Tonya & Tiffany; step-brother, Kyle Bridges: grandmother, Virginia Stevens; uncles, John Wood & Tom Leys; aunts, Karen Leys, Ruth Wood, Elizabeth Smarr & Roselyn Stowell, and many cousins. David will join his grandparents in heaven: his Grammy, Dorothy Couch who was his best friend and roommate for many years, and his grandfathers: Willis Wood and Jim Stevens.

Memorial services will be held at the Albany Eagles Club, 127 Broadalbin St NW, at 2:00pm, Saturday, July 5, 2008.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be given to any Central Willamette Community Credit Union or to Fisher Funeral Home, 306 SW Washington, Albany, Oregon 97321 to help with his final arrangements.

Lost in Translation

In Hebrew we (I say "we," but I didn't actually take part) had an interesting side discussion on the instructor's standards for a "good understandable English translation." As should have been expected, there were several different opinions on how to deal with language specific idioms (the example, I seem to recall was something like "עלה לישראל” ["he went up/ascended to Israel"]) Even among well qualified and experienced translators there would be many differing opinions, depending on what theory or philosophy of translation one holds to and what the target audience is (our instructor only mentioned the question of target audience, but am giving her the benefit of the doubt that she is aware of the differing philosophies of translation). The instructor favored translating the above phrase as simply "he went to Israel" or "he moved to Israel" to avoid any confusion on the part of the reader. Some of the students seemed purely concerned because they were used to merely copying a very literal translation from a dictionary, weren't used to be expected to make judgment calls on their translation and didn't want to lose points for a slightly wrong word choice, while another classmate seemed genuinely concerned about being true to the original Hebrew source and not losing any of the Hebrew "flavor". This struck me as a very Buber-Rosenzweig way of looking at things and I wondered to myself if he is familiar with either their work or that of their disciple Everett Fox. Perhaps instead of wondering I should just ask him?

Surely enjoying such theoretical discussions a sign that I do belong somewhere in academia. Or maybe it just shows that I'm weird (or both maybe!)