Translation carried out by the Institute for Bible translation in partnership with the Centre for work with deaf and hard of hearing “right Hand” at the temple of All saints resplendent in the Russian land, in Novokosino, Moscow, Coordination centre for work with deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing at the Synodal Department for Church charity and social Ministry and the Russian public organization “all-Russian society of the deaf”.
In March 2018, the project became a winner of the International grant competition “Orthodox initiative 2017-2018” Fund “Cooperation” and is held with his support.
First results of the work — the translation of the initial chapters of Mark’s gospel — are presented to the attention of the deaf for whom sign language is their mother tongue and is the main natural channel of communication (about 200 thousand people in Russia).
The translation is published in video format at two sites: on the YouTube channel of the Institute translation of the Bible is separated into meaningful passages for later use in the application for electronic mobile devices; and on the channel “right Hand” — with the layout of the chapters.
The videos include illustrations, maps of biblical places and subtitles adapted from a Russian text established on the basis of reverse translation from RSL, as well as the audio recording of the text. Subtitles neslysim will help in the understanding of sign translation, linking gestures with the written text of the gospel. The audio recording will be useful for hearing family members of deaf people and all those who wish to immerse themselves in the biblical text in sign language. All these additional components have been included in the translation at the request of the respondents at the time of the field testing conducted in the project implementation process in Church and secular environment.
Each Chapter of the translation in RSL held a multi-step check — in process was filmed four draft video. At all stages of the work of deaf participants in the project, highly qualified specialists in Russian sign language and created a translation and watched over the preservation of its natural and hears, theologians, biblical scholars have checked its accuracy of matching the meaning of the source text (the Greek Text of the majority, at one time formed the basis of Church Slavonic and Synodal translation).
The annotated translation is referred to as the translation group has set itself the task to make it as explicit. In addition, as promotion of the project recognized the necessity to create a parallel translation dictionary of biblical terms, explaining concepts which may be unfamiliar to the audience. The publication of the dictionary will be the next stage of the project — it will be posted on the video IPB YouTube and become part of the application that will be soon published on AppStore and PlayMarket.
The creators of the translation of the gospel of Mark on RSL I hope it will be useful not only for deaf and hard of hearing, but the clergy taking pastoral care of hard of hearing persons, ecclesiastical and secular teachers of the deaf and sign language interpreters, catechists and teachers specialized Sunday schools, to students of RSL (speech pathologists and linguists), as well as hearing members of families with hard of hearing persons.