There’s a question of C.S. [a German translator]. Because there<\/i><\/p>\n
are differences between C.S. and T.K. [another translator] over<\/i><\/p>\n
the vocabulary to use. Three or four years ago already, when<\/i><\/p>\n
C.S. translated my first book, there was a whole discussion and<\/i><\/p>\n
you made certain suggestions. You said in particular that the<\/i><\/p>\n
word <\/i>“mental” [mind] and the word <\/i>“esprit” [spirit]
\n should<\/i><\/p>\n
not be translated by the same word.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Of course not!<\/p>\n
So various words were suggested for <\/i>“mental” and <\/i>“esprit,”<\/p>\n
and finally we had chosen two words: the word <\/i>“Geist” for<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>“mental” (if I remember correctly) and the word <\/i>“Spirit” for<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>“esprit,” although <\/i>“Spirit” isn’t German. And now C.S. wants<\/i><\/p>\n
to impose the same terms on all the German translators and<\/i><\/p>\n
on T.K. in particular — but the other translators don’t agree.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How does T.K. translate “esprit”<\/i>?<\/p>\n
I don’t know.<\/i><\/p>\n
Obviously “Spirit” <\/i>isn’t so good, but isn’t there a word in German for “Esprit”<\/i>?<\/p>\n
I believe they use the same word for <\/i>“mental”: “Geist” and<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>“Geist.”<\/p>\n
Page 67<\/font><\/p>\n How awful! (silence)<\/i> We should find out what T.K. is using, because…. Using the same But T.K. may not use the same word because she has a totally<\/i><\/p>\n different Yes, but we should find out what it is. We have Germans here, don’t we?<\/p>\n They can’t agree with one another! (laughter)<\/i><\/p>\n So what are we going to do?<\/p>\n I’ll ask T.K. what she is using.<\/i><\/p>\n Yes.<\/p>\n But I feel C.S. should be told he can’t dictate.<\/i><\/p>\n No, he can’t dictate. How can he?… Moreover, he doesn’t have the means.<\/p>\n For example he said that since he has a book-sales office, he <\/i><\/p>\n would refuse to sell any book using a different terminology!<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n That’s absurd. What should be done for these books is to put a note in, to insert a note in each book saying that this particular word used here corresponds to that word used in the other books — to let people know. Because if it’s the same word as “mental,” <\/i>that leads to terrible confusion — terrible, the worst confusion. There has to be a distinction, it’s imperative: either T.K. has to put a note or…. Because you see, if they put “mental”<\/i> for both words, or even another word that means the same thing, it distorts the teaching immediately. It immediately creates terrible confusion. In any event, there should be a note explaining that the word is taken in a particular sense.<\/p>\n Evidently, C.S. wanted to use the same vocabulary in the other<\/i><\/p>\n \n Page 68<\/font><\/p>\n book as the one he used in "The Adventure of Consciousness."<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n That’s reasonable enough.<\/p>\n Yes. Only I think T.K. very much objects to the use of the <\/i><\/p>\n word <\/i>“Spirit,” which is not German.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n I don’t like it either. But is German such a poor language? Isn’t all this ignorance on their part?… They could take a word that isn’t a common word and give it a special meaning — and then, put in a note the special meaning they’ve given the word. But to use a word that means “mind” is crazy, it immediately distorts the teaching.<\/p>\n Yes. The trouble is that the word they use for "spirit" is the<\/i><\/p>\n word mean "mind," they don’t have anything for "spirit," but if they<\/i><\/p>\n use it exclusively for "spirit," it may be interpreted as "mind."<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n No, they should put a note. But don’t they have another word for “mind”?<\/p>\n I don’t know what T.K. is using, but some people have made<\/i><\/p>\n up the word <\/i>“mental” (I believe <\/i>“das<\/p>\n Mental,” I don’t know exactly).<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n As long as the distinction is clear enough…. It has to be explicit.<\/p>\n All right, Mother.<\/i><\/p>\n It should not be left to people’s intuition: explicit. (Mother raises her arms in a heavy gesture, <\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 13, 1971 There’s a question of C.S. [a German translator]. Because there are differences between C.S. and T.K. [another translator] over the vocabulary to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-volume-12","wpcat-149-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761","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=6761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\nword is out of the question.<\/p>\n
\n vocabulary.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n generally used for "mind." So, if it is left exclusively to<\/i><\/p>\n
\n
\n
then goes within)<\/i>
\nPage 69<\/font><\/p>\n