(Regarding the poor translation of Sri Aurobindo’s texts in the<\/i>
"Auroville Gazette." Mother had asked Satprem to check a few<\/i>
issues and try to rectify the situation with the collaboration of<\/i>
his friend Luc in Auroville. This triggered off reactions which were unmistakably … sharp.)<\/i><\/p>\n
… But, Mother, I’ve seen it: all the translators, whether<\/i><\/p>\n
\n Page 363<\/font><\/p>\n French, English, German or whatever, have a translator’s <\/i><\/p>\n COLOSSAL ego; the minute you touch their translation, it’s as if<\/i><\/p>\n you were ripping their little selves apart. Whether it’s Y, T., or any of the people I have dealt with, translators are simply<\/i><\/p>\n not-to-be-touched This is the truth. Well, let’s leave them alone.<\/i><\/p>\n A veritable grace is needed to make them understand.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n But I myself wasn’t satisfied with my translations.<\/p>\n It’s very difficult, Mother! I am well aware of it. But the<\/i><\/p>\n minute (Mother laughs) <\/i>Let’s just leave it, then.<\/p>\n Yes, Mother, it’s hopeless. I’ll inform Auropress that your note<\/i><\/p>\n is cancelled. [[Mother had sent a note to the Gazette <\/i>to the effect that all translations of Sri Aurobindo’s from within – you have to change us all from within, that’s the<\/i><\/p>\n crux of the matter.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n I think (that’s what she told me) that when she finds something difficult, she’ll ask me. She said, "If I have doubts, I’ll ask you."<\/p>\n But the trouble is, most often they have no doubts!<\/i><\/p>\n (Mother laughs)<\/i><\/p>\n No, no, Mother, I say this in all humility, because I’ve been <\/i><\/p>\n doing this work for … eighteen years now; and I see how<\/i><\/p>\n many years it took me, how many blunders, and how much <\/i><\/p>\n help Sri Aurobindo gave me until I really started getting into<\/i><\/p>\n the proper spirit. So I have compassion for these people, I<\/i><\/p>\n quite understand why they make mistakes. What annoys me is<\/i><\/p>\n how they can be so sure of themselves. ‘Tis a pity.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Sometimes people understand a poor translation better than a good one.<\/p>\n Yes, Mother, possibly!… But still, sometimes it plainly doesn’t<\/i><\/p>\n make Page 364<\/font><\/p>\n I can’t personally read through everything, it takes too much time. Manage with them the best you can.<\/p>\n Bah, bah, listen! Nothing short of a grace could do something!… <\/i><\/p>\n For me, it means more responsibility, more complications, it <\/i><\/p>\n means an extra load – I’m by no means looking forward to it,<\/i><\/p>\n you know.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Well, once in a while, if it really makes no sense at all…. I think we have to be a little….<\/p>\n Yes, Mother, I also feel we should forget about it – people must<\/i><\/p>\n understand I am hearing (through Nirod [[Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo. ]] ) certain things that Sri Aurobindo said, and he says that even he contradicted himself a great number of times …<\/p>\n Yes, yes, Mother!<\/i><\/p>\n … and that, of course, the two or three different approaches are all true. So we can afford to be as … as wide as he is! Truly speaking, his comprehension of things was very supple – very supple. Listening to certain things he said, I felt I had understood very little of what he meant. Now that I am more and more in contact with the supramental Consciousness, I see how supple -supple and complex – it is, and how it is our narrow human consciousness that sees things … (Mother draws little boxes in the air) <\/i>fixed, cut and dried.<\/p>\n Yes, of course.<\/i><\/p>\n So…. we are under the mind’s sway, and the mind is rigid like this (same little boxes in the air). <\/i>But I see that as soon as you go beyond the mind, it’s … it’s like waves on the sea. In a word, we have everything to learn. We try to understand in the mental way, so we understand nothing. We simply demarcate things (same gesture of drawing boxes), <\/i>and that’s what we call understanding. Page 365<\/font><\/p>\n When we have thoroughly put everything in boxes (same gesture), <\/i>then we say we have understood! (Mother plunges in)<\/i> Page 366<\/font><\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 14, 1973 (Regarding the poor translation of Sri Aurobindo’s texts in the "Auroville Gazette." Mother had asked Satprem to check a few issues and try to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13-volume-13","wpcat-140-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n CS.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n you touch a translator, it’s like touching dynamite!<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n texts had to receive the Copyright Bureau’s approval before publication. ]]
\n Amen. She [the translator] will have to change<\/i><\/p>\n
\n any sense.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n from within, and that will be that.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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