Quote:
{82:2} And when the stars fall, scattering,
The original doesn't say the stars fall, so the translation shouldn't either.
Totally agree. I don't know why they opted for "fall, scattering" when
scatter (the intransitive version) is a near-perfect translation of /in,tæθærat/
انتثرت.
Quote:
{82:4} And when the [contents of] graves are scattered,
The original doesn't say it's the contents of the graves that are scattered, so the translation shouldn't either.
...
"Scatter" was used to translate /in,tæθærat/
انتثرت in 82:2, so it should not be used again to translate a different word, /buʕ,θirat/
بعثرت in 82:4 since there are other words in English to serve a similar meaning. I chose "squandered."
I think I understand why they added "[contents of]" in their translation of the verb /buʕ,θirat/
بعثرت. The verb can be used to describe the scattering of what is inside a container, e.g., a barrel, without explicitly saying "contents" in Arabic. I reckon they understood the verb to have that connotation in the case of the graves, so they added the words between brackets.
Having said that, "squandered" does have a similar connotation so it can be used by itself to capture the meaning. The only problem I have with "squandered" is that it is commonly used as "wasted," but I could not find a more suitable verb. I thought of dissipated and unraveled, but they depart a bit from the scattering aspect of /buʕ,θirat/
بعثرت.