Vice President of Tsadra Foundation, Lama Drupgyu Anthony Chapman, welcomes all the participants and reflects on the long journeys of many of the translators and practitioners present at this historic opening of the 2014 Translation & Transmission Conference.
In this first keynote speech of the Translation & Transmission Conference series, we hear from internationally renowned scholar and translator David Bellos on a wide range of topics including his approach to translation, uses and misuses of xenisms, translationese, translation history, and an important reminder to “be kind to the reader.” In discussing the history of translation in the western world, Professor Bellos describes two, almost simultaneous, historical origins for translation in the middle of the third century B.C.E., where, for the first time, two texts were brought from one language into another, not just rewritten, or re-encoded, re-elaborated, they […]
In this first plenary panel of the 2014 conference, Translation: Theory & Praxis, Thupten Jinpa shares a bit about what Tibetans themselves have thought about and written about translation. Roger Jackson discusses some of the projects he has worked on over the years and gives examples of the problems that translators face. Sarah Harding delves into problems of intention and layers of interpretation, as well as the importance of translation and translators.
“Traduttore, Traditore” is an Italian adage that means “translator, traitor.” In this panel on the roles of translators, translators of the Tibetan tradition mingle with scholars of Buddhism and discuss a range of topics from the possibility of the invisibility of the translator and the role of real-time interpreters to philosophical ideas about representation.
This workshop addresses the motivation and practical considerations of translating historical and biographical works. Amelia Hall talks about her experience with the construction and translation of a namtar (Wyl. rnam thar, hagiography) and the idiosyncrasies of balancing the needs of the academy and the world of spiritual practitioners as it relates to such a genre. Kurtis Schaeffer walks us through the practical decisions he made while producing a translation of an eighteenth century text to keep his specific audience inspired and engaged. Dan Martin offers a perspective about dating texts in an historical context using available resources.
Sarah McClintock and Thomas Doctor both engage with issues of the possibility or impossibility of translation and Dorji Wangchuck considers translation theory and practice and approaches to the ideas of translation and transmission. As all three of these speakers are well-known scholars of Tibetan Buddhism and philosophers, this session is a special opportunity to observe their thoughts and interactions, and learn from their ideas.
This workshop highlights the complex and nuanced process of translation and interpretation of key terms for spiritual instructions. Sangye Khandro presents examples of upadeśa, or spiritual instructions, so that the audience may reflect upon the importance of the translator’s expert status and the necessity of working closely with lineage masters to accomplish translation work. Peter Alan Roberts shares advice he wishes he could have shared with his younger self relating to the translation of oral instructions, and Sarah Harding speaks on the differences of translation choice between gdams ngag, man ngag, and zhal gdams, and challenges the publishing of such […]
Presenters approach the delicate process of translating Vajrayana commentaries and consider the importance of the combination of study and practice to support this kind of work. Lama Chonam speaks about receiving teachings on these commentaries in order to understand the deep meaning of terms. Jake Dalton brings light to the historical context as a way to approach the differences that might appear between commentaries of the same root text, and Elizabeth Callahan talks about the importance of using multiple commentaries to approach root texts so that multiple meanings emerge in the translation.
Leading members of the 84000 Project John Canti, Andreas Doctor, and Tom Tillemans speak about the scope of the project and issues that arise when translating canonical materials: multiple source texts, working from translations to make an English version, the difficulty of interpreting the intended literary style of the source materials, and the importance of the 84000 Project to the transmission of the dharma to the West.
Robert Thurman, activist-scholar-practitioner and pioneer of Tibetan studies and Buddhist studies in the academy, shares his eclectic, joyous, and encouraging thoughts to the audience of translators about the state of Tibetan Buddhism’s transmission to our ever-evolving Western society.
