1 Sin menel ar cemen ar ilya hossenta ner telyainë. 2 Ar i otsëa auressë Eru telyanë carierya ya carnéro, ar sendéro i otsëa auressë ilya carieryallo ya carnéro. 3 Ar Eru laitanë i otsëa aurë ar airitánë ta, an tassë Eru sendë ilya carieryallo ya ontanéro ar carnéro.
4 Sina ná i nyarna menelo ar cemeno írë nentë ontainë, i auressë yassë carnë i Heru Eru menel ar cemen.
5 Úmë ëa voro tussa palúrëo cemessë, ar olvar voro úmer tuita, an i Heru Eru lá tyarnë mistë lanta cemenna, ar úmë ëa Atan mótien i palúressë. 6 Nan hísië ortanë cemello, ar antanes nén ilya palúren cemeno. 7 Ar i Heru Eru carnë i Atan astonen i cemello ar súyanë cuilesúlë mir nengwerya, ar i Atan né cuina onna.
8 Ar i Heru Eru empannë tarwa Erenessë, Rómenna, ar tanomë pannéro i Atan i carnéro. 9 Ar i Heru Eru tyarnë tuita cemello ilya alda i ná vanya cenië na ar mára matië ho, ar yando i alda cuilëo endessë i tarvo, ar i alda isto márava ar ulcava.
10 Eänë sírë i lendë et Erenello antien nén i tarwan, ar tanomello nés hyárina mir canta celumi. 11 I essë i minyo ná Píhyon; ta ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Havíla, yassë ëa malta. 12 Ar i malta tana nórëo ná mára. Tanomë ëar yando nísima suhtë ar ahyamírë. 13 Ar i essë i tatya sírëo ná Íhon; ta ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Cús. 14 Ar i essë i nelya sírëo ná Hirrecel; ta ná i celë rómessë Ahyuro. Ar i canya sírë ná Perat.
15 Ar i Heru Eru mampë i Atan ar pannë so Ereno tarwassë mótien tassë ar tirien ta. 16 Ar i Heru Eru pannë i Atan nu sina sanyë: "Ilya aldallo i tarwassë nályë lávina matë. 17 Nan i aldallo isto márava ar ulcava áva matë, an i auressë yassë matilyë tallo, anwavë firuvalyë."
18 Ar equë i Heru Eru: "Umë mára sa i Atan ná eressëa. Caruvan son restar i ná ve so."
19 I Heru Eru carnë cemennen ilyë celvar palúrëo ar ilyë aiwi menelo, ar tultanérot i Atanna cenien mana estanérot. Ya i Atan estanë ilya cuina onna, ta né esserya. 20 Ar i Atan estanë ilyë lamni ar i aiwi menelo ar ilyë hravani celvar, nan Atanen úméro hirë restar i né ve so.
21 San i Heru Eru tyarnë núra fúmë lanta i Atanna, ar írë fumnéro, mampéro minë hónaxoryaron ar quantë hrávenen. 22 Ar i Heru Eru carnë i hónaxo ya mampéro i Atanello mir nís, ar tultanéros i Atanna. 23 San equë i Atan: "Sina lú nás axor axonyaron ar hrávë hrávinyo! Sina yéva estaina Nís, an Nerello nárë mapaina."
24 Tanen nér autuva ataryallo ar amileryallo ar himyuva vesserya, ar yévantë minë hrávë.
25 Nentë heldë, i Atan ar vesserya, nan úmentë naityainë.
Or verse by verse:
1 Sin menel ar cemen ar ilya hossenta ner telyainë.
Thus heaven and earth and all their army were completed [lit. finished]. [Sin seems to be a word for "thus", attested in PM:401: Sin Quente Quendingoldo Elendilenna, apparently meaning "thus spoke Pengolodh to Elendil". Hossë "army", see the Qenya Lexicon (QL) p. 41. Telyainë "completed" or literally "finished", plural passive participle of the verb telya- "finish, wind up, conclude", WJ:411.]
2 Ar i otsëa auressë Eru telyanë carierya ya carnéro, ar sendéro i otsëa auressë ilya carieryallo ya carnéro.
And on the seventh day God concluded his work that he (had) made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he (had) made. [Otsëa "seventh", my invention based on otso "seven". - Here the need for a true pluperfect is felt; lacking published information on that, I have to use simple preterites instead. Concerning the verb telya-, see verse1 above. Carië "work", noun; literally the gerund of the verb car- "do, make, build". Sendë past tense of the verb ser- "rest" - not **sernë since the original stem is SED and not SER (LR:385). Compare rendë as the past tense of rer- "sow" because the stem is RED (LR:383).]
3 Ar Eru laitanë i otsëa aurë ar airitánë ta, an tassë Eru sendë ilya carieryallo ya ontanéro ar carnéro.
And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, for on it God rested from all his work that he (had) created and made. [Verb laita- "bless", a word used when Frodo and Sam were praised on the fields of Cormallen: A laita, laita te "bless [them], bless them", translated in Letters:308. Airita- "hallow", pa.t. airitánë, a verb found in an unpublished Tolkien manuscript quoted in Vinyar Tengwar #32, November 1993, page 7. The article is also available online, though Carl F. Hostetter has for his own reasons deleted the original reference to the unpublished manuscript and now apparently tries to make his readers believe that he derived this word himself. - The Hebrew text of this verse ends in the strange wording mela`khto `asher bara` la�asoth, literally "his work that he had created to make [?it / ?something]." I simply translate "that he (had) created and made", as do several modern versions.]
4 Sina ná i nyarna menelo ar cemeno írë nentë ontainë, i auressë yassë carnë i Heru Eru menel ar cemen.
This is the story of heaven and earth when they were created, on the day when the Lord God made heaven and earth. [Sina "this", UT:305; írë "when" from Fíriel's Song, LR:72. - In the interest of accuracy, I would normally argue that the divine name Yahweh (Jehovah) should be carried over into the target language, abandoning the traditional practice of substituting the title "Lord". But in Quenyarized form, Yahweh would most likely become Yávë, clashing with the word for "fruit". Adapting "Jehovah" as Yehóva would be a possibility. However, I cannot resist the music of i Heru Eru = "the Lord God"...though there is no such rhyme in Hebrew Yahweh Elohim!]
5 Úmë ëa voro tussa palúrëo cemessë, ar olvar voro úmer tuita, an i Heru Eru lá tyarnë mistë lanta cemenna, ar úmë ëa Atan mótien i palúressë.
There was not yet any bush of the field on earth, and plants still did not grow, for the Lord God [had] not made rain fall upon earth, and there was no man to cultivate [lit. work on] the field. [Voro "continually", here used together with a negative for "not yet", "still...not". Úmë ëa, lit. "did not exist", the negative verb úmë "did not" (see verse 18) + ëa "exist". Palúrë (locative palúressë) "surface, bosom, bosom of Earth", LR:380 s.v. PAL; here translated "field". Tuita "grow", QL:96.]
6 Nan hísië ortanë cemello, ar antanes nén ilya palúren cemeno.
But a mist rose from the earth, and it gave water to the entire surface of the earth. [The precise meaning of Hebrew `edh is disputed. Even the translators of ancient times seemed uncertain; they rendered it "fountain" or "cloud". Some modern versions read "mist" or "vapor", hence I use hísië here. (In Sindarin, mith "wet mist" would perhaps have been the perfect rendering!)]
7 Ar i Heru Eru carnë i Atan astonen i cemello ar súyanë cuilesúlë mir nengwerya, ar i Atan né cuina onna.
And the Lord God made the man out of dust from the earth and breathed [/blew] life-breath into his nose, and the man was [/became] a living creature. [I assume that the instrumental case in -nen can also denote a material being consumed in the making of something, hence astonen = "out of dust". - Some translations read "living soul" instead of "living creature", but Hebrew nephesh refers to a creature or living being, hardly to a "soul" in the normal modern sense, sc. some kind of inner spirit. - The Hebrew word for "man" or "human being", `adham (Adam), may well be Tolkien's real-world inspiration for the Quenya word Atan; the Sindarin cognate Adan is similar to the Spanish form of Adam, and Spanish was a language Tolkien liked. By using Quenya Atan for Hebrew `adham in a Bible translation, we may have come full circle.]
8 Ar i Heru Eru empannë tarwa Erenessë, Rómenna, ar tanomë pannéro i Atan i carnéro.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, toward the East, and there he placed the Man that he [had] made. [The name "Eden" may be Quenyarized as Eren, not to be confused with a word for "steel" occurring in the early Qenya Lexicon (QL:36, LT1:252). Following a vowel, earlier *d had become r in Quenya, and the Eldar imitated this development when adapting foreign words to High-elven. Hence, Dwarvish Khazâd was adapted as Casar (Kasar); see WJ:388, 389. Following this example, I adapt Eden as Eren. - Tarwa "garden", QL:87. - The invention tanomë "in that place, there" corresponds to the attested word sinomë "in this place"; cf. sina = "this" and tana = "that". The ablative tanomello "from there" occurs in verse 10. - For "planted", I adopt the word empannë from the early "Two Trees" sentence, starting Valar empannen Aldaru, probably meaning "the Valar planted the Two Trees" (read perhaps *Valar empanner Aldu in more mature Quenya). The Qenya Lexicon, p. 80, has a verb rista- "plant", but this clashes with a later verb "cut" (LR:384 s.v. RIS) and is therefore best ignored. - Here I use pannë as the past tense of panya- "place, set, fix in place", partly to go with empannë, but cf. also vannë as the past tense of vanya- "go, depart", LR:397 s.v. WAN. However, the past tense of panya- could probably also be panyanë with no contraction.]
9 Ar i Heru Eru tyarnë tuita cemello ilya alda i ná vanya cenië na ar mára matië ho, ar yando i alda cuilëo endessë i tarvo, ar i alda isto márava ar ulcava.
And the Lord God made grow from the earth every tree that is beautiful to look upon [lit. to] and good to eat from, and also the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of (the) knowledge of good and bad. [Yando "also", QL:104. This early "Qenya" word for "also" may well have been rejected along with the word ya for "and" - mature Quenya has ar instead - but we know no other word for "also". - Tarvo, genitive of tarwa "garden". The combination wo is impossible in Quenya, and in this position it would probably turn into vo. Compare the name Curvo (Kurvo) in PM:352; this probably represents the impossible form *Kurwo, since the stem is clearly KURU as in Curufinwë, the longer form of this name. - I alda isto "the tree of knowledge", isto being the genitive of ista "knowledge". Márava ar ulcava "of good and bad" - here the adjectives "good" and "bad" are in effect used as nouns; I hope this works in Quenya as well. (According to QL:97, ulca means "bad" primarily in a moral sense; in one later text it is indeed translated "evil".) In the phrase márava ar ulcava I use the "possessive" or "adjectival" case in -va rather than the genitive in -o, since the va-case seems to function as an "object genitive" in such phrases as nurtalë Valinóreva "hiding of Valinor" (Silmarillion ch. 11), Valinor being the logical object of the "hiding". In the case before us, mára "good" and ulca "bad" are the logical objects of the ista or "knowledge": good and bad are the things that are "known".]
10 Eänë sírë i lendë et Erenello antien nén i tarwan, ar tanomello nés hyárina mir canta celumi.
There was a river that went out from Eden to give water to the garden, and from there it was parted into four streams. [Eänë "(there) existed" = "there was". Hyárina "parted", literally "cleaved", past participle of the verb hyar- "cleave", LR:389 s.v. SYAD. Perhaps this could simply be hyarna, but we may also ask whether primitive *syadnâ = *sjadnâ would not yield ?hyanda, which would clash with another word. So I prefer the long past participle ending -ina, combined with lengthening of the stem-vowel.]
11 I essë i minyo ná Píhyon; ta ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Havíla, yassë ëa malta.
The name of the first (river) is Pishon [Hebrew: Pîshôn]; that is the one that flows around all the land (of) Havila [Chawîlâ], where there is gold. [The Quenya sound that is closest to sh is hy; indeed Gondorians substituted sh for hy when pronouncing Quenya. Hence I Quenyarize Pîshôn as Píhyon. Sirë "flows", aorist of the verb sir- "flow", LR:385 s.v. SIR - not to be confused with the related noun sírë "river", occurring in the previous verse. - The unattested preposition os "(a)round" is based on the stem OS of this meaning (LR:379) and has also been used by other writers.]
12 Ar i malta tana nórëo ná mára. Tanomë ëar yando nísima suhtë ar ahyamírë.
And the gold of that land is good. There are also fragrant gum and onyx stone. [Hebrew bedholach refers to bdellium gum, a kind of myrrh made from a certain kind of fragrant resin; I first thought of simply Quenyarizing the Hebrew word as verola, but nísima suhtë "fragrant gum" should roughly cover the meaning. Nísima "fragrant" is isolated from Nísimaldar "Fragrant Trees", name of a region in Númenor (UT:167). Suhtë "resin, gum" is an updated form of Tolkien's early "Qenya" word sukte of this meaning (QL:86); he later decided that kt became ht in Quenya. - No word for "onyx" appears anywhere in the published material; my hopefully not too lame construct ahyamírë prefixes ahya- "change" (PM:395) to mírë "jewel"; this would refer to the "changing" or alternating layers of colour found in an onyx.]
13 Ar i essë i tatya sírëo ná Íhon; ta ná i sirë os ilya i nórë Cús.
And the name of the second river is Gihon; that is the one that flows around all the land of Cush. [Tatya "second"; cf. WJ:380 where the word Tatyar is glossed "Seconds", name of the Second Clan of the Elves. - The name Gihon, Hebrew Gîchôn, must become Íhon in Quenya (might be spelt 3ihon = Ghihon in Rúmilian orthography!) Normally hy may be used as the closest equivalent of sh, as in Píhyon for Pîshôn above, but hy cannot occur finally, so Cush must become Cús (with a long vowel as in Hebrew: Kûsh). - Again, do not confuse sirë "flows" with sírë "river".]
14 Ar i essë i nelya sírëo ná Hirrecel; ta ná i celë rómessë Ahyuro. Ar i canya sírë ná Perat.
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is the one that goes east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. [Nelya "third", cf. Nelyar "Thirds" as name of a Third Clan of the Elves, WJ:380. Hebrew Chiddeqel, evidently a name of the Tigris, I Quenyarize as Hirrecel (using R for D as in Eren = Eden; see verse 8). The Hebrew name of Assyria, Ashshur, we adopt as Ahyur, while Perath, the Euphrates, may be adopted as Perat. - Referring to what Hiddekel does east of Assyria, the Hebrew text says that it "goes" (holekh, actually a present participle "going"). For "goes" we could of course use the normal Quenya word, lelya, but this seems such a good place to use a verb celë, considering that in LR:363, the stem KEL is defined "go, run (especially of water)". This verb is not directly attested in Quenya, but the same stem occurs in celumë "stream" (pl. celumi in verse 10). - Canya "fourth", my invention based on canta "four"; perhaps it should be cantya instead, but cf. nelya rather than **neldya in relation to neldë "three".]
15 Ar i Heru Eru mampë i Atan ar pannë so Ereno tarwassë mótien tassë ar tirien ta.
And the Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it (lit. work in it) and watch (over) it. [I use mampë as the past tense of mapa- "grasp, seize, take", though the Qenya Lexicon (p. 59) lists nampe instead. If this unexpected past tense (due to confusion with another verb of similar meaning) had still been valid when Tolkien wrote the Etymologies, he would surely have mentioned it there as well, but in LR:371 s.v. MAP-, only the verb mapa- itself is listed. The independent pronoun so "he, him" is unattested; it would correspond to the ending -ro "he", itself representing earlier -so (intervocalic -s- becoming first -z-, then -r-). Compare LR:385 s.v. S-, where a primitive pronoun "he" that would appear as so in Quenya is listed. - We have no word for "cultivate", so I simply write mótien tassë "work in it" (sc. in the garden); the verb móta- "labour, toil" may have less than "paradisiacal" connotations, but I cannot readily think of anything better without having to invent new words. Compare mótien i palúressë "work on/in the field" in verse 5.]
16 Ar i Heru Eru pannë i Atan nu sina sanyë: "Ilya aldallo i tarwassë nályë lávina matë.
And the Lord God placed the man under this law: "From every tree in the garden you are allowed to eat. [Fairly straightforward; lacking a verb "bid" or "command" I have to introduce an idiom panya...nu...sanyë. The Hebrew literally goes: "and Yahweh God commanded upon the man, saying..." Lávina "allowed", passive (past) participle of lav- "yield, allow, grant", LR:353 s.v. DAB.]
17 Nan i aldallo isto márava ar ulcava áva matë, an i auressë yassë matilyë tallo, anwavë firuvalyë."
But from the tree of (the) knowledge of good and bad do not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will surely die." [In Quenya, negative commands are formed with the word áva "do not" + an uninflected verbal stem, as in áva carë! "don't do [it]" (WJ:371); hence áva matë = "do not eat". - Tallo "from it", ablative of ta "that, it". Anwavë "surely, certainly", adverb derived from the attested word anwa "real, actual, true", LR:348 s.v. ANA2-.]
18 Ar equë i Heru Eru: "Umë mára sa i Atan ná eressëa. Caruvan son restar i ná ve so."
And the Lord God said: "It is not good that the man is lonely. I will make him a helper that is like him." [Umë "(it) is not", negative verb (1. person umin "I do not, am not", LR:396). Sa: this is a nominalizer "that" according to the misnamed "Elvish Christmas sentence" that surfaced on a Tolkien-list only this April (a third-generation quote from a letter Tolkien probably wrote in the early fifties; we must hope that there have not been any distortions along the way - it is not encouraging to notice that the quote contained one obvious error!) - Son "(to) him, (for) him", dative of so; concerning this word see verse 15. I assume that case endings can be added to it.]
19 I Heru Eru carnë cemennen ilyë celvar palúrëo ar ilyë aiwi menelo, ar tultanérot i Atanna cenien mana estanérot.
The Lord God made out of earth all the animals of the field and all the birds of heaven, and he brought [lit. summoned] them to the man to see what he called [/would call] them. [Fairly straightforward. Cemennen instrumental of cemen "earth". Atanna allative of Atan, contraction of Atanenna. Mana "what", PM:395.]
19 (cont.) Ya i Atan estanë ilya cuina onna, ta né esserya.
What [lit. (that) which] the man called any living creature, that was (to be) its name. [I would have liked to know how to say "was to be" in Quenya, instead of having to use a simple preterite.]
20 Ar i Atan estanë ilyë lamni ar i aiwi menelo ar ilyë hravani celvar, nan Atanen úméro hirë restar i né ve so.
And the man named all the beasts and the birds of heaven and all wild animals, but for man he did not find a helper that was like him. [Úméro hirë "he did not find": the negative verb úmë "did not" (here with a pronominal ending) combined with the verbal stem hirë "find". Restar "helper", derived by me from the verb resta- "aid", QL:79.]
21 San i Heru Eru tyarnë núra fúmë lanta i Atanna, ar írë fumnéro, mampéro minë hónaxoryaron ar quantë hrávenen.
Then the Lord God had a deep sleep fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and filled [up] with flesh. [Tyarnë...lanta lit. "caused...to fall". Fúmë "sleep", LT1:253/QL:39, verb fum- "sleep", QL:39. In Tolkien's earliest "Qenya" as set down in the Qenya Lexicon, the past tense of fum- was fúme- or fumbe, but I think that in later Quenya the pa.t. would rather be fumnë; compare for instance tamnë as the past tense of tam- "tap" (LR:390 s.v. TAM). - We have no ready-made word for "rib", only axo = "bone" in general; obvious compounds like "chest-bone" or "side-bone" can't be made either, since we don't have any words for "chest" or "side". I settled on hónaxo "heart-bone", since the ribs cover the heart.]
22 Ar i Heru Eru carnë i hónaxo ya mampéro i Atanello mir nís, ar tultanéros i Atanna.
And the Lord God made the rib that he took from the man into a woman, and he brought (lit. summoned) her to the man. [Tultanéros "he summoned him/her/it": in object position I tend to use the short 3. person ending -s with no distinction of gender; it seems that the ending covers the whole 3. person singular. In one attested word, Tolkien used it in such a way even in subject position: Eques "said he" or "said she" (WJ:415); undoubtedly eques could also be rendered "said it", since the ending -s is translated "it" elsewhere.]
23 San equë i Atan: "Sina lú nás axor axonyaron ar hrávë hrávinyo! Sina yéva estaina Nís, an Nerello nárë mapaina."
Then the man said: "This time it is bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh! This one will be called Woman, for from Man she was taken." [The Hebrew word-play îsh / ishshâ = "man / woman" barely works in English; the Quenya pair nér / nís shows only a vague parallelism (alliteration). A footnote would have to be included: The point of the Hebrew text is that Adam coins a word for "woman" by adding a feminine ending to the word for "man". - Hrávinyo "of my flesh", genitive of hrávinya "my flesh" (hrávë "flesh"); the ending -nya "my" shows the connecting vowel -i- when added to a noun ending in a consonant (e.g. Atarinya "my father", LR:70), and it has been assumed that this -i- would also displace the final vowel of nouns ending in -ë (not -ië), though we have no direct evidence: It is possible that "my flesh" should simply be hrávenya instead. - It is difficult to tell whether the past participle of mapa- "take, grasp" should be mapaina or mápina; both may be possible.]
24 Tanen nér autuva ataryallo ar amileryallo ar himyuva vesserya, ar yévantë minë hrávë.
Therefore a man will leave [lit. pass from] his father and his mother and stick to his wife, and they will be(come) one flesh. [Tanen "by that", instrumental of ta "that, it", hence "therefore". Ataryallo "from his father": contraction of atar-rya-llo "father-his-from". In full this would have been atareryallo; compare amileryallo for "from his mother".]
25 Nentë heldë, i Atan ar vesserya, nan úmentë naityainë.
They were naked, the man and his wife, but they were not ashamed. [The Qenya Lexicon, p. 65, has a word naitya- "put to shame"; the past participle naityaina (here pl. naityainë) should then mean "(a)shamed".]