Monday, December 24, 2012

Translation Agreement: Hermeneutics & Text Interpretation

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"Of Tonpa Shenrab's many disciples, the foremost was Mucho Demdrug (Mu cho lDem drug), who in his turn taught many students, the most important of whom were the 'Six Great Translators': Mutsha Trahe (dMu tsha Tra he) of Tazig, Trithog Pasha (Khri thog sPa tsha) of Zhang-zhung, Hulu Paleg (Hu lu sPa legs) of Sum pa (east of Zhang-zhung), Lhadag Nagdro (Lha bdags sNgags grol) of India, Legtang Mangpo (Legs tang rMang po) of China and Sertog Chejam (gSer thog lCe byams) of Phrom (Mongolia)....http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Tonpa+Shenrab

"After Shenrab’s, the teachings were then brought to rest of Asia by the ‘Six Translators.. ’Three of them, Debon Gyimtsha, Lishu Tagring, and Tang Musha, spread the treasure. The texts were brought in containers lifted by vultures and cranes. The great translator Vairocana simultaneously brought the Nine ways to India. The Bon of Astrology and Medicine was carried to China, and from they’re into Tibet. Finally Lishu Tagring brought the Bon of Effect to Tibet during the reign of the second king of the Yarlung Dynasty."....http://synchchaos.com/?p=1584

"the 1047 verses of the Kalachakra Tantra used today (the original is 12,000 verses) was composed by the eighth King of Shambhala, the first Kulika (Kalki), Jampal Trakpa. The original 12,000 verses have never been translated into Tibetan." (Kongtrul: 1995..pg 271)..

"Those who translate Buddhist texts from Tibetan into English sometimes talk in nostalgic terms of our forbears who laboured to translate the vast corpus of Sanskrit Buddhist literature into Tibetan. In contrast to the chaotic scene today, where nobody can agree on a standard English word to translate any given Tibetan term, Tibetan translators worked under a top-down system in which royal edicts decreed the correct Tibetan word to be used for every Buddhist Sanskrit term. The result was the admirably coherent and consistent canons of Tibetan Buddhism, undoubtedly one of the wonders of the Buddhist world."....http://earlytibet.com/2008/04/30/buddhism-and-bon-iii-what-is-yungdrung/

"Translating something that has deep meaning into another language can be a very difficult task. It takes a lot more than just knowing the language. One needs to know the idioms and the culture in order to get the true meaning of what is being said. Our scripture reading for today can be understood more deeply with a translation done by someone who is more familiar with the culture of that time and language. The beatitudes are well-known to us as pronouncements of blessings on some puzzling and difficult situations. They seem to say that Jesus was blessing those who were in unfortunate situations. If you are poor, then God will bless you. If you are persecuted, the God will bless you. We are puzzled at such blessings and pronouncements of Jesus. But the key to understanding these beatitudes lies in the translation!....The New Testament was written mostly in Greek. However, according to biblical scholars the language which Jesus and his disciples spoke was Aramaic and some Hebrew. So, the stories that were recorded in the Greek in the Gospels were translations of the oral Aramaic tradition of the stories and teachings of Jesus into the Greek. One person who has done some good thinking on the topic of the beatitudes and their translation is Father Elias Chacour who is an Arab Melkite (Catholic) archbishop in Israel. In his book We Belong to the Land, Father Chacour explains that “Knowing Aramaic, the language of Jesus, has greatly enriched my understanding of Jesus' teachings. Because the Bible as we know it is a translation of a translation, we sometimes get a wrong impression. For example, we are used to hearing the Beatitudes expressed passively… ‘Blessed; is the translation of the word MAKARIOI, used in the Greek New Testament. However, when I look further back to Jesus' Aramaic, I find that the original word was ASHRAY, from the verb YASHAR. ASHRAY does not have this passive quality to it at all. Instead, it means ‘to set yourself on the right way for the right goal; to turn around, repent; to become straight or righteous.’....

"Hermeneutics (/hɜrməˈnjuːtɪks/), broadly, is the art of text interpretation. Traditional hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of written texts, especially texts in the areas of literature, religion and law..... the origin (Greek: hermeneutike) with Hermes, the mythological Greek deity whose role is that of messenger of the Gods. Besides being mediator between the gods themselves, and between the gods and humanity, he leads souls to the underworld upon death. He is also considered the inventor of language and speech, an interpreter, a liar, a thief and a trickster. These multiple roles make Hermes an ideal representative figure for hermeneutics. As Socrates notes, words have the power to reveal or conceal, thus promoting the message in an ambiguous way.[3] The Greek view of language as consisting of signs that could lead to truth or falsehood is the very essence of Hermes, who is said to relish the uneasiness of the recipients.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics

"The Quran in English: with cautionary points to consider. Those who have tried to translate the Quran from its Arabic original have found it impossible to express the same wealth of ideas with a limited number of words in the new language. Comparing any translation with the original Arabic is like comparing a thumbnail sketch with the natural view of a splendid landscape rich in color, light and shade, and sonorous in melody. Scanty knowledge of classical Arabic would deprive anyone from appreciating the different shades of meaning rendered by the occasionally slightly different declensions of Arabic words......http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/translate.htm

"Due to Tibet’s geographical and political isolation for most of its longhistory, the study of translation in Tibet is a very recent—and largely unexplored— field of inquiry. For centuries, translators in Tibetans have one of the most astonishing records of translation activity inthe world. Starting in the 7th century and continuing for some 900 years, theTibetans transmitted, preserved and translated the entire contents of the IndianBuddhist canon, a body of work amounting to more than 5,000 texts and 73 millionwords. As one Tibetologist notes, the production of the translations that became theTibetan canon was “one of the greatest cultural exchanges that the world has ever seen” (Khyentse 2009: 23).".....The Translator in Tibetan History: by Roberta Raine

Tibetan Plagiarism...Jamgon Kongtrul writes on Page 42 of his Retreat Manual....."I borrowed from the works of others to compose whatever treatises were appropriate."....Translator note....."Plagiarism was and is rife in Tibetan scholarship, where it seems to be looked upon favorably as indicative of an author's respect for great masters. Ths comment by Kongtrul was probaby written in a spirit of humility rather than as an admission of wrong-doing."....Jamgon Kongtrul's Retreat Manual......ISBN: 9781559390293......by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Kon-Sprul Blo-Gros-Mtha

"One of the problems for the early translators was what to do with certain important and powerful words that came from the pre-Buddhist culture of Tibet. In some ways it was clearly beneficial to use these words, so as to give them a new, Buddhist resonance. But they came with a lot of baggage. The same problems face translators nowadays when we contemplate using Christian words like ‘hell’ and ‘sin’ to translate Buddhist concepts.One of the most powerful and resonant words in pre-Buddhist Tibet was yungdrung (g.yung drung). It was a the key terms for the old royal religion, the mythological backdrop to the kingly lineage of the Tibetan Empire. For example, the inscription of the tomb of Trisong Detsen has the line: “In accord with the eternal (yungdrung) customs (tsuglag), the Emperor and Divine Son Trisong Detsen was made the ruler of men.” I discussed how to translate that term tsuglag in an earlier post. Here, as you no doubt noticed, I have translated yungdrung here as “eternal”. Eternity seems to be the general meaning of yungdrung in the early religion. In addition, the word was associated with the ancient Indo-European swastika design, which in Tibet was the graphic symbol of the eternal....http://earlytibet.com/2008/04/30/buddhism-and-bon-iii-what-is-yungdrung/

Sanskrit to Arabic Translations...... "Indian scholars were engaged to translate into Arabic the Sanskrit works on medical science, philosophy, astrology and other subjects..... Arabic is written from right to left while Sanskrit is written from left to right. The development of the two language is as separate as well. Considered to be the oldest language in human history, Sanskrit is the progenitor and inspiration for virtually every language spoken in India. The oldest surviving example of the tabulations of the rules of Sanskrit grammar is Panini's "Astadhyavi" (literally translating to "Eight-Chapter Grammar") dated to have been written around the 5th century BC." .....

"The great variation in phonetic transcription of Indian words into Tibetan may partly be the result of various Tibetan dialects. In the process of copying the Tibetan transcriptions in later times, the spelling often became corrupted to such an extent that the recognition or reconstitution of the original names became all but impossible. Whatever the reasons might be, the Tibetan transcription of Indian names of mahasiddhas clearly becomes more and more corrupt as time passes.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasiddha#Different_Mahasiddha_traditions

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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