NJV. To the roots of the mountains, I sank into the underworld, and its bars closed round me for ever. But you raised my life from the Pit, Yahweh my God!
Iatmul. Kwaigwak vi’kka daaiwun – wuna kadi’ba si’va ki’pma si’va kwavanami waadi’, wun yivuk ki’kki’daba li’ka klawakmi’n, Wana Wakkadwana.
to the moorings of the mountains, I went down = kwaigwak vi’kka daaiwun
kwaigwak = to the mountain stream
vi’kka = cutting
daaiwun = I descended
“roots”/“bottoms” comes from Hebrew keh’tseb (קצב) something cut out.
kwaigwak vi’kka has three components:
1. kwaigu = water from the mountain
2. -ak = to
…
3. vi’kka = cutting.
Furthermore, we can split kwaigu in twain:
1. kwai = current.
2. gu = water.
vi’kka comes from vi’k cut down (trees).
In Iatmul, you do not swim. You kwai vi’k – you chop down the current.
the earth with its bars forever behind me = wuna kadi’ba si’va ki’pma si’va kwavanami waadi’
wuna = mine
kadi’ba = in the behind
si’va = weekday [x2]
ki’pma = earth
kwavanami = basket fish-trap
waadi’ = it is
si’va means weekday, and si’va si’va means every day of the week, but speakers also use it for always.
I could not find a Iatmul word for bars, so I went with kwavanami fish-trap with a basket.
God set a trap – he knew that Jonah would try and escape his mission.
The fish-trap is the fish in which Jonah is trapped.
A basket carried Moses to safety: he led the Hebrew slaves to freedom.
This basket carried Jonah: he will lead the Ninevites to faith in God, and this will save them from disaster.
and yet you have brought my life up from the pit, Yahweh my God = wun yivuk ki’kki’daba li’ka klawakmi’n, Wana Wakkadwana
wun = me
yivuk = alive
ki’kki’daba = the pit
li’ka = from
klawakmi’n = you lifted up
Wana Wakkadwana = O Yahweh my [God]
“pit” comes from the Hebrew shoo’akh (שוח) sink down.
I built ki’kki’da pit from two components:
1. ki’k = to sink [x2]
2. -da = [thing].
Be careful: ki’kki’da pit is very similar to ki’ki’da food.
The difference, of course, is that you eat the latter, but the former eats you.
I discuss Wakkadwun Yahweh in Jonah 2:1.
Wana Wakkadwana O Yahweh my God is my attempt at retro-fitting a fossilised Irregular Vocative.
I originally wrote wuna yivuk my life.
I changed wuna my to wun me for one simple reason:
Are you alive, or is the pit alive, or both?
KJV. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
Iatmul. Kwaigwak vi’kka daaiwun – wuna kadi’ba si’va ki’pma si’va kwavanami waadi’, wun yivuk ki’kki’daba li’ka klawakmi’n, Wana Wakkadwana.