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34
ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
Ram na kabhoo chetio
hun kehan na mile khudai,
– Guru Granth Sahib, p 417
Translation:
Previously they did not remember Ram,
Now they cannot utter His Name.
Kabhoon cannot be properly rendered as ‘previously’; it should be
‘never.’ Khudai cannot be ‘His Name’. The poignancy of the original
verse is fully lost in the turpid translation.
Such translations by eminently renowned writers are but a sad
commentary on individual endeavours of our scholars. It is one thing
to be touched by the muses, pick up paper and pen and put down an
enthralling idea for posterity. It may be easy to write a piece of poetry
or prose which is one’s expression of the image kindled at a time and
place. However, translating another’s thoughts strictly requires rating
all pros and cons, dimensions and angles of that particular strain of
thought and then honestly retaining the mood and gist of that point.
However, each person will insert his own aura and level of thinking,
howsoever one may try to be dispassionate about it. What is required is to
have translators and have checks on them by instituting a panel of scholars
and intellectuals who may process each and every line or word to find the
most suitable and appropriate finished work of translating gurbani. Such a
work produced by most painstaking selfless efforts, nishkam sewa, will
remain an asset of rare value.
4. Let us study another attempt by a translator:
Iss dhan kau taskar joh(i) n sakai,
na uchakka le jai
– Guru Granth Sahib, p 511
This wealth, a thief cannot spy out;
Nor can a robber take it away.
It may be a literal translation, but using ‘spy out’ for joh(i) does
not fully express the essence of the original.
5. Gurbani text :
Sabh ko meet hum aapan kina,
hum sabhna ke sajjan. – Guru Granth Sahib, p 671
has been translated as :
All I have made my loving friends,