Did you know the Bible was composed to be listened to?  Duh, of course, you say?  Not so fast.  Actually many of us think of the Bible as something to be read individually, silently.  Only infrequently is it read aloud like in a worship service.

However, the Old and New Testaments were both composed more often for the ear than for the eye.  There is careful attention to rhythm, plays on words, even rhyme schemes.  Too often, we Bible translators have translated trying to get the meaning across forgetting about how the thing sounds.  Actually artistry of composition is part of meaning.  Artistry communicates!

So what? Well the Komba people are very attuned to artful sounds and structures (poetics) in their speech.  So when our team translates we want to try and make the thing sound especially in places where the original sounded lovely to its original hearers.  This is no easy task.