October 7, 2018 – Tsadra Conferences

Dynamics of Devotion

Migmar Lama — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 08:14:53 +0000

Andrew Quintman (Wesleyan), Lara Braitstein (McGill), Heidi Nevin (Independent), Anne Klein (Rice), Holly Gayley (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Annabella Pitkin (Lehigh) take on the topic of devotion in translation. Annabella Pitkin skillfully facilitates discussion focused on three themes: literary and embodied devotion, translation as an act of devotion, and the cultural translation of devotion. Regarding the first, the group considers what terms are particularly difficult to unpack in English, posing questions like, “How does language serve to dictate devotion?”, and, “How does literature and its utterance help mediate the distance between subject and object?” While translators are positioned as well-intentioned authorities, translation as an act of devotion relates to the ethos of the translator approaching the translation of devotional literature and how translators might perform their craft in service to particular communities of practice. Finally, the panel discusses how to translate a concept like devotion across language communities and cultural differences acknowledging the role of the translator to guide or teach based on his or her choices. These topics elicit enthusiastic participation from the audience and a lively discussion ensues.

Collections of Songs (mgur ‘bum)

Migmar Lama — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 08:13:53 +0000

By taking a bird’s-eye view of collections of songs (mgur ‘bum), Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia) and Andrew Quintman (Wesleyan) examine gaps in our knowledge based on the extant collections and their experiences both as translators and as historians of literature. They elicit an exploratory discussion by beginning with a series of key questions and positing ways in which we can think about songs as an autonomous literary form as well as how we might approach the provenance of songs and the process of their production and reproduction from the standpoint of history, in addition to other stimulating topics. What were the earliest song collections (mgur ‘bum)? When did they appear and how were they constituted? What are non-Kagyu examples of such collections?

Gender in Translating Devotional Verse

Migmar Lama — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 08:12:03 +0000

In this collaborative discussion breakout session, Jue Liang (University of Virginia) and Natasha Mikles (Texas State) discuss the dynamics of socially constructed ideas about gender on our readings of classical texts and biographies. The group also explores devotion as a culturally constructed idea and devotional language as gendered. Jue and Natasha lead the group in developing “word banks” of terms that elicit a mood of binary gender constructs and then the discussion naturally unfolds into thoughtful exploration of the deconstruction of the binary and a consideration of the opposites of gender and devotion and the value we place on all of these concepts.

Linguistic Hospitality

Migmar Lama — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 08:11:08 +0000

Dominique Townsend (Bard) and Lucas Carmichael (University of Colorado, Boulder) present Paul Ricoeur’s essay, “On Translation“, as a starting point for discussion of linguistic hospitality. After a brief introduction to the essay, small group discussions on the ethics of translation, the dynamics of retranslation, and “resistance to the foreign” focus the conversation. The small groups then share a summary of their exploration and find that Ricoeur’s optimism in his encouragement to give up the idea of a perfect translation became the basis for small group conversation and further discussion.

Rasa Theory and Affect

Migmar Lama — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 08:10:23 +0000

Nancy Lin (84000) and Annabella Pitkin (Lehigh) lead a rich discussion about how rasa and affect theories might help translators of Tibetan appreciate and communicate about art and literature in English, particularly regarding the more subtle aspects of tone, mood, and feeling in a given work. Nancy begins by facilitating a discussion of a particular verse to develop a shared vocabulary for rasa theory. She then presents potential understandings of rasa through consideration of Bharata’s Treatise on Drama and Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetry and employs this shared vocabulary in a conversation about the work of Tibetan authors. Annabella poses compelling questions about how we describe the indescribable experience and how we might valorize the experience we have when reading or translating from the Tibetan in order to reproduce that experience in English. The facilitators suggest that making efforts toward developing an integral vocabulary for rasa theory and affect theory could help translators continue to deepen the richness of description for emotional experience.