Dear Church Translation Department,

More than an open letter, this is a note.  After all, I only have a few things to say.

Let me begin by saying "thank you."  It’s wonderful that you provide the wide range of foreign-language resources that you do.  I’ve just spent a year living in Latin America, and I can assure you that the Saints there are grateful for the Spanish-language materials you produce.  Many Latin American Saints seem to have an unfortunate and unjustified feeling of inferiority in comparison with North American Saints.  Imagine how much worse that feeling would be if church materials didn’t exist in their native language!

Actually, we don’t have to imagine that.  There are a lot of Saints in Latin America who don’t have reasonable access to church materials in their native languages.  I’m speaking here of the many people who are native speakers of indigenous American languages.  For example, Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani speakers don’t usually get to read the Book of Mormon or the Liahona in their native languages.  Instead, they have to read in Spanish.

For a lot of these people, that isn’t too much of a problem.  After all, many are fluent in Spanish.  But many are not, and some speak little or no Spanish.  Furthermore, that’s not really the point, is it?  If we could provide materials in these people’s native languages, that would be a sign of inclusion and acceptance.  Conversely, the current situation sends a message that native speakers of indigenous American languages are second-class Saints.

I’m sure there are reasons why materials either don’t exist or are not widely distributed in these languages.  Some are traditionally verbal, rather than written, languages.  However, they can typically be written in Spanish.  Alternatively, the church has been known to produce audio cassettes from time to time.  A second problem might be that there aren’t too many members of the church who speak these languages.  However, there aren’t too many members of the church who speak some of the Asian and Eastern European languages in which you do provide materials.  So this is obviously not a definitive obstacle.  A third possibility is that this would just be too expensive.  Well, I think the Saints are generous enough that they would fund an expansion of the translation department–if they were asked to do so.

So, please, consider providing these folks with church materials in their native languages.  I know you care about them, and this would be a wonderful way to show it!

Now, a second point.  Your translations into Spanish are great in so many ways!  You provide Spanish-language versions of a huge variety of different materials, and they’re cheap enough that many (although unfortunately far from all) of the Saints in impoverished Latin American countries can afford to purchase them.  That’s great!

But, would you mind making your translations a little less, um, literal?  I’m sure you know about the problem of false cognates, but in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a quick reminder.  A false cognate is a situation in which a word in one language sounds a lot like a word in another language–but the two words have quite different meanings.  A lot of the time, your translations into Spanish are so literal that they end up using false cognates and distorting the message of the text.

Let me give an example of a false cognate that has been showing up a lot in your translations.  In English, the word "violate" means something like "break" or "disobey."  In Spanish, "violar" means rape.  So "violate" and "violar" really don’t mean the same thing!  But, dear translation department, you often use "violar" to translate "violate." 

Let’s consider this year’s priesthood and Relief Society manual as an example.  Forms of the word "violate" show up three times: twice on page 131 and once on page 159.  All three of these usages are translated into Spanish using forms of the word "violar": twice on page 144 and once on page 175.  So, the Spanish text ends up talking about men who decide to rape their temple covenants, and people who rape moral and social laws.  This is certainly vivid imagery, but I don’t think it’s what President McKay had in mind in these quotes.  So, please remember that "violar" doesn’t mean "violate."  A much better, although somewhat less literal, translation would be "quebrantar."

A second, somewhat different bad choice in that manual was the description of McKay, in the "Life and Ministry" section at the beginning of the book, as having been "venerado" by members of the church.  In the English manual, this description uses the word "revered," which might be interpreted as healthy admiration but which carries a somewhat dubious overtone of idolatrous worship.  In Spanish, "venerar" takes the idolatrous worship aspect front and center.  "Venerar" is the word used in Latin Catholicism to describe lighting a candle to or praying to a saint.  Do we really want to claim that people light candles to McKay?  Or pray to McKay?  If not, could we choose a different word in situations like this from now on?  How about "amado," which just means "loved" with no intimation of idolatry?

In closing, I want to thank you once again for the great work that you do, translation department.  Please take my requests in the spirit in which they’re given: a couple of ways your work could be even better.

Thanks,
     Brother RoastedTomatoes