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ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : APRIL-JUNE 2005 / 537 NS
may then be adopted to prepare translations in other languages.
CONFUSING TRANSLATIONS OF GURBANI
1. i) About two decades ago, during a weekly youth class at the
Punjab Agricultural University campus, Ludhiana, while teaching
Asa di Var, I translated the hymn, jy sau cMdw augvih sUrj cVih hjwr ]
eyqy cwnx hoidAW gur ibnu Gor AMDwr ] p. 463, as “Even when 100 moons and
one thousand suns arise, without a Guru, there will remain pitch darkness”.
A smart student caught my omission. He smiled and asked, “If
2000 suns arise then...”. I immediately realised my mistake and
corrected the statement : “The numbers 100 and 1000 are used
as a phrase and mean 'as many as possible, or innumerable’.
Similarly, the number 100 or any other such number may be used
to lay stress on a point or a fact. For example, once a student
complained to me : w 100 t/oh dcso frnk, pkp{ pmk jh BjhI ;h . I went to
the office a 100 times, the clerk was not there.” The student had
actually gone there only twice or thrice.
Here this hymn tells that whatever the number of suns, without the
presence of a guru (the giver of gian, spiritual light, knowledge) the
ignorance (darkness) will remain. The couplet lays emphasis on the
need for a Guru for the spiritual enlightenment of people. The
translation must bring out this message of the hymn. A strictly
literal translation does not always do that. Examples of such
mistakes abound in the extant translation.
In the above, the word x'o nzXko refering to ‘total ignorance’ (antonym
of gian, knowledge), has been translated literally as ‘pitch darkness’,
‘appalling darkness’ or ‘dismal and dark’. These words fail to convey
the message given by the hymn.
2. A classical literal translation, confusing the reader, may be seen
in the paper, Peeking Back to Move Forward, p. 6, Papers and
Abstracts, the Fourth International Conference 2004 on Guru
Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
PrIdw jy qU Akil lqIPu kwly ilKu n lyK ] AwpnVy igrIvwn mih isru nØIvw
kir dyKu ] (page 1378)
Farid, if you are a master of wisdom, then do not keep on writing blackened
essays, Rather, Look underneath your own collar instead.
In this translation the message of the hymn is the casualty. First,
the slok is not addressed to Farid, he is the author; secondly, ekb/