Over thirty years ago, Hessel and Coby Visser left for Botswana. Their mission was: to translate the Bible into Naro. Sometimes they encountered a translation problem.
'Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, turned tail to tail and made in the middle between each two tails a torch fixed.' The Naro translation of this text from Judges 15:4 had used for 'torch' a Naro word that seemed beautiful and natural and entirely peculiar to the Naro language, namely dtcòó-tcgáí, meaning 'leaping hare's eye'.
Spring hares jump around lustily in the field at night, and their eyes are very striking. Reason why Naro speakers call a torch that way. This construction therefore seemed a great option for the English 'torch' that the team encountered in the translations ('put a torch between each pair of tails').
But yes, the word torch has at least two meanings: it can be either 'torch' or 'torch'. The Naro team had looked too much at the word level as to what would be a good option for torch in the Naro could be, and too little considering the meaning in context, where it was really important anyway that it should denote something combustible, as Samson was the torches set on fire.
It was eventually decided to translate the word as 'grass'. Grass is highly combustible and can function together as a torch. It is then clear to any Naro speaker what Samson was doing.
