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ON TRANSLATION OF HOLY TEXTS
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which have so far already hit the market, which can damage the intention
and purport of the original, as illustrated in the following few examples:
1. The text in Guru Granth Sahib reads :
Sahu hamara tun dhani,
jaisi tun ras deh taisi hum leh.
– Guru Granth Sahib, p 165
It is translated as :
You are my rich money lender,
The amount of capital you loan, I take.
The translator has not bothered about the term ras in the original,
which is the key to the spirit and direction of the idea of the sabd. If the
writer had refered to the meaning of ras, the spiritual capital, it would
become clear that there is no mundane requirement of the supplicant for
a ‘loan’ from the ‘money lender’, but it is the pleading for spiritual
enlightenment from the Guru, who has abundant divine knowledge.
2. Let us refer to another sample of self-willed translation being fed
to the public eager to imbibe the purport of gurbani.
Gurbani text :
Sabd marey so mua jape
Kaal n chappe dukh(u) n santape.
– Guru Granth Sahib, p 112
Translated as:
He who dies reciting the Holy Word
Only appears to be dead.
Death suppresses him not,
Nor can pain dread.
‘Dying while reciting the Holy Word’ would not by any stretch of
imagination mean physical death. The gurvak actually states that by
annihilation of I/me/my, it may seem that a person is vanquished,
but death (spiritual) cannot claim him nor worry beset him. Dr Sahib
Singh has expressed it thus:
“A person imbibing the Guru sabd experiences the death of his ego. Such a
death of ego receives honours and respect in the world. He cannot be ensnared by
spiritual degradation. He is not bothered by materialistic worries. His person
merges into Godhead.”
3. Another writer has cursorily translated the following simple
gurbani verse ambiguously: