June 2, 2017 – Tsadra Conferences

The Proto-History of Buddhist Translation: From Gāndhārī and Pāli to Han-Dynasty Chinese

Marcus Perman — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 06:00:05 +0000

Discussions of the history of Buddhist translation usually begin with China, where in the middle of the second century Buddhist scriptures were translated into a non-Indian language for the first time. Yet the process of translation itself began many centuries earlier, when the words of the Buddha were rendered into a multitude of Indian vernaculars. Beginning with a brief sketch of these intra-Indian translations, I will then turn to the earliest Chinese Buddhist translations, focusing on the variety of “translation policies” used by their second-century translators and comparing them with the strategies subsequently employed in Tibet and elsewhere. I will conclude with a few remarks on the special challenges posed by translating these foundational works into English, in particular how best to proceed when “translating a translation.”

Translating: What and How?

Marcus Perman — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 06:00:21 +0000

On the second day of the conference, the nuts and bolts of the craft of translation became the focus and the main questions asked in this session were: What tools are in your translation workshop? What skills should one cultivate to be a good translator? How do we cultivate those skills? Elizabeth Napper begins the session by looking at the perennial issue of literal vs. aesthetic translation from a practical standpoint of needing to adjust to the intended audience of the translation. Thupten Jinpa continues this discussion of the tension between fidelity to the text and consideration of the reader and begins by making note of the paradoxical nature of translator and translation and highlights the need to have competency in the target language. Kurtis Schaeffer uses humor and intelligence to bring up core issues for translators, all the while presenting a four-fold rubric for analyzing Tibetan poetry: form (lus), content (srog), figure (rgyan), and feeling (nyams). Janet Gyatso discusses her idea of ‘referential resonance’ and the ability to let the text speak to you, the place from which translators make key decisions about how to translate, and the importance of quieting oneself and learning to pay attention to the relationship with a Tibetan teacher trained in a text when reading and translating.

Kavya in Tibet

Marcus Perman — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 06:00:05 +0000

Kavya in Tibet is a session following from a workshop on Tseten Zhabdrung’s commentary on poetics (Snyan ngag spyi don) that was hosted at the Latse Library with Gendun Rabsel, Nicole Willock, Andy Quintman, and Kurtis Schaeffer. The Tibetan system of poetics and ornate poetry is highly influential in the history of Tibetan writing and is based on the most important Indian manual of poetics, Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetics (Kāvyādarśa). This session introduced some of the fundamental theory and practice of this snyan ngag type of literature. The intellectual gravity of snyan ngag did not make itself felt until 1267 and 1270 when the Kāvyādarśa was translated fully into Tibetan. From that point onward we see hundreds of major and minor works on snyan ngag and its influence on writers throughout the Tibetan world can hardly be overstated. The organizers of this session give four main reasons for presenting a more extended public presentation of kavya and why that would be useful and enjoyable for people who engage in different kinds of work with Tibetan texts: 1) snyan ngag is one of Tibet’s major art forms and most other types of writing are heavily influenced and often include snyan ngag; 2) This classical form of literary art is still alive today, and snyan ngag is at the center of contemporary discussions and debates about the relationship between innovation and tradition in modern Tibetan literature; 3) it is notoriously difficult to learn, but useful for a deeper understanding and appreciation of Tibetan literature; 4) historically it is now possible to approach this challenging technical literature because of the work being done be a few scholars and translators these days.

Translating the Languages of Contemplative Experience: rdzogs chen dang phyag rgya chen po

Marcus Perman — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 06:00:33 +0000

In this panel, we draw on our respective explorations of translating Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) and Mahamudra (phyag rgya chen po) texts. Our hope is that you will come away from this session with an enriched tool-kit for your own work. The central thesis we will explore is that because these texts rise from and speak to experience in multiple ways, effective translation must be sensitive to experience on multiple registers. In particular, we look at the challenges of translation from three different experiential perspectives:

Using the rhythms of speech to find grammar and wordings through which an English translation evokes experiences similar to those evoked by the original Tibetan.
Paying attention to the experiences elicited by a translation and what to do with that information.
Exploring the diverse contexts of contemplative practices against the background of their lived worlds to better translate the forms of life of contemplative practices and experiences.

Unique Registers and Specialized Terminology: Sanskrit and the Tibetan Language in Translation

Marcus Perman — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 06:00:38 +0000

Art Engle has translated both Vasubandhu’s Pañcaskandhaprakarana (ཕུང་པོ་ལྔའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་) with Stiramathi’s commentary and Asaṅga’s Bodhisattvabhūmi (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་). Over the course of many years of close textual study and Buddhist practice his insights into the translation of Sanskrit and Tibetan texts will be of interest to a great number of those translators faced with issues arising from translating Tibetan texts that are themselves translations of older Indian texts. Similarly, Christian Wedemeyer has translated Āryadeva’s Caryāmelāpakapradīpa (སྤྱོད་པ་བསྡུས་པའི་སྒྲོན་མ་) and annotated translations of short works on the Guhyasamāja, including sādhanas and instructional works by Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Nāgabodhi, Candrakīrti, and others. His recent work on these texts has led him to question how terms come to mean particular things for different communities and he will explore some of the related theoretical issues in this session.

Working with Old Tibetan Sources

Marcus Perman — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 06:00:39 +0000

Journey into the world of old Tibetan orthography and explore some of the oldest existing Tibetan writing through the eyes of two specialists who have worked on documents from Dunhuang and Tibet’s earliest historical record, focusing on a range of topics including early tantra and the early kings of Tibet.

Approaches to Transmission in the West: A Discussion with Contemporary Shedra Students

Marcus Perman — Sat, 14 Apr 2018 06:00:18 +0000

There are significant barriers to western people looking to study at the highest level in the Tibetan Buddhist world. Would you enroll in a Tibetan monastic college in India or Nepal? Meet four westerners who did just that, many of whom still continue their decade of rigorous study today. This public session was facilitated by Robert Miller, who was director of education at a monastery in India, and features four western students from Tibetan monastic colleges: Katrin Querl (Drikung Kagyu College, Dehra Dun), Simon Houlton (Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala), Matt Weiss (Sera Je Monastic University, Bylakuppe), and Gerd Klintschar (Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu).

Working with the Medium of the English Language

Marcus Perman — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 06:00:14 +0000

A craft person’s medium is one of the most essential aspects of their work. Although translators spend much of their time learning the Tibetan language, the target language is just as important when looking at the final product of a meaningful translation that reaches modern readers. Spend a session with master translators Thupten Jinpa and Wulstan Fletcher exploring the essential medium of communication in the modern world.

Accuracy and Inspiration: Translating Mahamudra Texts

Marcus Perman — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 06:00:10 +0000

The craft of translation often involves the tension between the need for accuracy and the need to express inspirational text in appropriately inspirational language. In this session, Elizabeth Callahan shares her experience wrestling with these issues on her work with Dakpo Tashi Namgyal’s Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā (Phyag chen zla ba’i ‘od zer) and the Ninth Karmapa’s Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance (Ma rig mun sel). Professor Mathes discusses difficulties arising from translating quotations of Indian texts found in Tibetan works, such as Phyag rgya chen po gsal sgron and the Zla ba’i ‘od zer.

Oddities and Curiosities in Tibetan Translation

Marcus Perman — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 06:00:43 +0000

“What is an oddity,” you ask? How odd of you to ask! We all know what oddities are when we see them. It may be a subjective response, but it’s there all the same. The odd thing seems out of place, it sits there glaring out at you without an obvious explanation. Every problem has its solution, or so it’s sometimes said, but that doesn’t mean they always will be solved.

The co-organizers take turns presenting oddities from among their personal favorites. The range of possible oddities, which seems beyond all limit, were narrowed down to more manageable categories that included the following: 1. Oddities of script. 2. Oddities of Spelling. 3. Word oddities. 4. Odd identifications (problems with proper names). 5. Odd philosophical discussions. 6. Odd choices of quotations 7. Odd ways of filling numeric categories. And, as a final catchall category, we should add oddities of content. Our primary intention is to discuss literary examples, oddities found in Tibetan-language texts.