A Special Book

“A Special Book” is reprinted with permission from the June 2021 issue of the Mirabella  Monthly, newsletter of the Seattle Mirabella community.  We are grateful to the author and to the editor, Jared Curtis, for allowing us to share this special article with the RVM community.

A Special Book, by Sally Hayman

Janet Ohta sat in The Bistro sipping coffee with the product of a nearly thirty-year project on the table beside her—two books with bright blue images of the Hawaiian Islands on the  covers. They are Da Jesus Book and Da Good An Spesho Book, translations of the New Testament and the entire Bible into Hawaii Pidgin.

Janet Ohta, a member of the translating team. Photo by Jared Curtis

Janet speaks Hawaii Pidgin even more easily than she does English. She was born in Hawaii of Japanese parents. Her mother and father had emigrated to Hawaii in search of a better life and a good place to raise their eight children. Japanese was spoken at home, but not encouraged in public for fear of being mistaken for Japanese spies during World War II. So, when Janet started first grade, she spoke Japanese and Pidgin English.  Her wonderful first  grade teacher spoke both languages and helped Janet to become more fluent in Standard English.

Hawaii Pidgin is not a dialect, but a Creole language developed when workers from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Portugal came together in camps to work under English- and Hawaiian speaking bosses on pineapple or sugar cane plantations. Pidgin is orally transmitted and cannot be learned from reading English books or from English classes. Today there are still large groups in Hawaii that speak mainly Pidgin, but only a little English. The language is a bit different from place to place.

Though Janet’s parents were Buddhists and even dedicated a Buddhist temple in Hawaii, her father decided that the chanting was not meaningful to his children. So, he took them to the Kahului Union Church, founded by American Congregational missionaries, and Hiroko (Janet’s Japanese name) and her seven brothers and sisters became Christians. Janet fell in love with the Biblical stories.

Then Janet met Drs. Joseph and Barbara Grimes, both former professors of linguistics at Cornell University and associated with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, a non-denominational, non-profit group.  The couple had retired to the west side of Oahu where mainly Pidgin is spoken. Embedded in a community of native Hawaii Pidgin speakers, the Grimeses worked with the Greek and Hebrew Bibles and countless other translations to ensure that every word in the Hawaii Pidgin Bibles was true to the intent of the text and to find meanings best suited for Hawaii Pidgin. They enlisted a group of twenty-nine people, including Janet, who helped with the translation through the years 1987 to 2020.  In Hawaii Pidgin the Old Testament is referred to as “Da Befo Jesus Book” and the New is referred to   as “Da Jesus Book.” Da Jesus Book was published in 2000, followed by Da Good An Spesho Book, comprised of Old and New Testaments, in 2020.

Janet and her husband Jim are members of Kalihi Union Church on Oahu, part of the Evangelical Free Church of America. They divide their time among three children and five grandchildren. Here at Mirabella, she and Jim continue Bible study in a group led by Phil Braden and Darrell Guder.

A sample of a few passages in the book will amaze you with the vitality of the language. When the Angel Gabriel comes to Mary he says, “Aloha! Da One in Charge goin do something spesho for you.” Or Song (Psalm) 23: “Da One in Charge, he take kea me, / Jalike da sheep guy / Take kea his sheeps. / Az why I get eryting I need.” Every new language brings new insights.

You can get a copy of Da Good An Spesho Book at Costco or Walmart in Hawaii. It might be more interesting than a can of macadamia nuts to bring back as a flavor of Hawaii. And for many Hawaiians the book opens a whole new world.