some thoughts on translation
Sep. 5th, 2023 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cattasallaI'm nearing the completion of my intro-level Pāli lessons (on the last chapter of New Course in Reading Pali), and I've begun translating suttas in my spare time. I've had a few thoughts on translation.
There's this tendency to want to use one and only one English word to gloss a Pāli word. This, I think, is misguided. First off, the same word can have different meanings in different contexts, just like many English words. Second off, there's often subtleties and nuances to the Pāli word that quite simply cannot be captured by a single English word--one which will carry its own subtleties and nuances in many cases. This is especially true for those words of interest to the practice.
So, some new translations I'm trying out:
Sīla. Heretofore I have been simply rendering that as "ethics". But I was just alerted to the fact that it can also more broadly mean "behavior" or "habit". I think that's important. First, it encompasses both ethical training but also renunciant practices. It also highlights the fact that we're trying to change our behavior, to restructure our habits to be healthier and more beneficial to ourselves and others, which we do by making healthy, beneficial, and wise choices in every moment. So I think "behavior" works pretty well for this, and I can modify it when appropriate for the context.
Upekkhā. That's typically translated as "equanimity". I'm thinking of two major contexts where it appears: As one of the bramhavihāras and one of the seven factors of awakening. In the former, I think "loving acceptance" might actually fit the bill better. The point is to regard someone's faults and virtues with the same loving heart. In the context of the seven factors, I think "serenity" might do better. I do have a previous post on this, and I've come around to this notion. "Equipose" is also a good gloss. One friend points out that there is a certain connation of close observation to this word. I'm not entirely sure how to integrate that into my thinking around the translation (he likes "serene observation"), and at this point it doesn't seem like one of the more important features of this quality. But, my thoughts on these topics are ever-changing so who knows what the future holds.
Dukkha. In contexts where this is normally translated as "suffering", that's recently been regarded as a poor rendering. Ajahn Thanissaro uses "stress and suffering", which does a better job of conveying the scope. Many will use "dis-ease", which highlights that really, at the heart of it, it's a lack of ease (a great rendering for sukha), and has a connection with disease (and thus the idea of the Buddhist path as one of healing). However, I find neologisms like that awkward. An aesthetic choice, I suppose. I was wanting a word that is the opposite of "ease". "Unease" is the wrong flavor of word. "Difficulty", however, seems to work, so for now I'm using that and seeing how it gfeels.
Kusala and akusala. This is one of those words that loses meaning when given only one English word to translate it. My desire is to get across both the sense of "wholesome" or "ethical" and the sense of "skill". So for now I am trying out "ethically skilled" and "ethically inept", respectively.
There's this tendency to want to use one and only one English word to gloss a Pāli word. This, I think, is misguided. First off, the same word can have different meanings in different contexts, just like many English words. Second off, there's often subtleties and nuances to the Pāli word that quite simply cannot be captured by a single English word--one which will carry its own subtleties and nuances in many cases. This is especially true for those words of interest to the practice.
So, some new translations I'm trying out:
Sīla. Heretofore I have been simply rendering that as "ethics". But I was just alerted to the fact that it can also more broadly mean "behavior" or "habit". I think that's important. First, it encompasses both ethical training but also renunciant practices. It also highlights the fact that we're trying to change our behavior, to restructure our habits to be healthier and more beneficial to ourselves and others, which we do by making healthy, beneficial, and wise choices in every moment. So I think "behavior" works pretty well for this, and I can modify it when appropriate for the context.
Upekkhā. That's typically translated as "equanimity". I'm thinking of two major contexts where it appears: As one of the bramhavihāras and one of the seven factors of awakening. In the former, I think "loving acceptance" might actually fit the bill better. The point is to regard someone's faults and virtues with the same loving heart. In the context of the seven factors, I think "serenity" might do better. I do have a previous post on this, and I've come around to this notion. "Equipose" is also a good gloss. One friend points out that there is a certain connation of close observation to this word. I'm not entirely sure how to integrate that into my thinking around the translation (he likes "serene observation"), and at this point it doesn't seem like one of the more important features of this quality. But, my thoughts on these topics are ever-changing so who knows what the future holds.
Dukkha. In contexts where this is normally translated as "suffering", that's recently been regarded as a poor rendering. Ajahn Thanissaro uses "stress and suffering", which does a better job of conveying the scope. Many will use "dis-ease", which highlights that really, at the heart of it, it's a lack of ease (a great rendering for sukha), and has a connection with disease (and thus the idea of the Buddhist path as one of healing). However, I find neologisms like that awkward. An aesthetic choice, I suppose. I was wanting a word that is the opposite of "ease". "Unease" is the wrong flavor of word. "Difficulty", however, seems to work, so for now I'm using that and seeing how it gfeels.
Kusala and akusala. This is one of those words that loses meaning when given only one English word to translate it. My desire is to get across both the sense of "wholesome" or "ethical" and the sense of "skill". So for now I am trying out "ethically skilled" and "ethically inept", respectively.
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Date: 2024-07-13 05:36 pm (UTC)For dukkha I personally like discontent. A word that helps convey an underlying feeling of wrongness with the world that seems to pervade normal conscious experience.