Rebecca M. Rosenlund and Dr. Cynthia Hallen, Linguistics
Every six months, millions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints gather to hear the voice of a living prophet and other leaders and teachers. They look forward to the counsel and insight that they will receive for themselves and their families as they face the challenges of daily life. They rejoice in the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the Lord’s will and of his plan for his children living at this time. The proceedings of the semi-annual conferences are sent via satellite to thousands of stake centers and homes so that members throughout the world can benefit from the opportunity to receive conference in their own language as translators work to provide interpretation of the sessions in dozens of languages. Unfortunately, Lithuanian is not one of them.
Lithuanian is spoken by approximately five million people, nearly four million of whom live in Lithuania, with international groups accounting for the difference. A member of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, Lithuanian is a beautiful and archaic language. Many scholars have identified it as among the oldest Indo-European languages in current usage. The people of Lithuania are well aware of the legacy of their language, and they are proud to be a part of such an elite group of speakers.
Since the first LDS missionaries arrived in Lithuania in December of 1992, they have relied on the Russian translation of the Book of Mormon and many other church materials in working with the nearly 300 members and many investigators. A very limited selection of materials is currently available in Lithuanian. This is a hardship for some members and potential members, and Lithuanian saints and missionaries alike long for the day when more church-related publications will be available to them in Lithuanian. They would welcome the opportunity to hear or read the words of latter-day prophets in their own language.
The primary purpose of my project was to provide an opportunity for the members of the Church in Lithuania to experience the power and spirit of General Conference by providing translations of selected talks. My focus for the project included talks from the October 1996 and April 1997 General Conference sessions. I selected one talk from each session of both conferences, including from the special Priesthood, Relief Society and Young Women sessions. The talks that I selected are as follows:
October 1996:
Women of the Church President Gordon B. Hinckley
Christ at Bethesda’s Pool President Thomas S. Monson
Woman, Why Weepest Thou? President James E. Faust
The Twelve Apostles President Boyd K. Packer
Christians in Belief and Action Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
Strengthened in Charity President Elaine L. Jack
April 1997:
Our Testimony to the World President Gordon B. Hinckley
They Showed the Way President Thomas S. Monson
Eternity Lies Before Us President James E. Faust
Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer Elder Richard G. Scott
That Spirit Which Leadeth to do Good Elder L. Tom Perry
Modern Pioneers President Janette Hales Beckham
The secondary purpose of the project was to use and improve my Lithuanian language skills, as well as to gain a greater understanding of the complex process of translation and valuable personal experience in this area. I hope that the experience I have had will be of some assistance to others involved in Lithuanian translation work. As I work to complete this project, I plan to provide copies of the translations and a general list of recommendations, based upon my experience, to the Church translation department.
There have been many rewards involved with working on this project. Primarily, I have been grateful for the opportunity to study extensively the words of the latter-day prophets and apostles. It has been a pleasure to be able to focus so much time and energy on a study of the inspired teachings from these sessions of General Conference. Additionally, I have enjoyed the opportunity to sharpen my skills with the Lithuanian language. In the course of this project, I have learned many fine points of grammar and usage that I have previously not known or understood.
As with any undertaking, my work on this project has been faced with its share of challenges, most of which have contributed to the quality of the experience. Before I began my work on this project, I had only a very basic understanding of everything that is involved in the complex process of translation. At times I was overwhelmed by the difficulty of accurately and appropriately translating the meaning of even the simplest English phrase into Lithuanian. The prophets, apostles, and sisters who serve as our leaders are all extremely well-educated and articulate. Their use of complex grammatical structures and impressive vocabularies, as well as their inclusion of metaphor, allusion, and extensive quotation of scripture, hymns, and poetry — most of which have not been previously translated into Lithuanian — added to the complexity of the project. In addition to these difficulties, personal circumstances have made it impossible to complete this project as quickly as anticipated. However, in spite of any of the challenges, the translations will be completed in the coming months with help from some members of the Church in Lithuania who will be providing editorial assistance for the translations. I am grateful for their help, as well as for the support of my husband and family and Dr. Cynthia Hallen as I have worked on this project. I am also grateful for the opportunity provided by the Office of Research and Creative Activities to pursue this project.