Reflections on the Translation Process

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Jules Levinson (Independent), John Canti (Padmakara, 84000), Dominique Townsend (Bard), Lama Jabb (Oxford), Sarah Harding (Tsadra Foundation), and Nancy Lin (84000) share their reflections about the process of oral and written translation from some of the first instances of Tibetan language being rendered into English in the United States through the first Lotsawa Translation Workshop in 2018. The discussion weaves through topics like facing the fear of “imposter syndrome” as part of the process of translation, the importance of “kindness to the reader”, and how translators relate to the concept of form. The speakers create a gentle, encouraging, and humorous […]

Reflections on the Translation ProcessMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Balancing Form and Content

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Jann Ronis (Buddhist Digital Resource Center) begins this session with a brief tour of evocative definitions of literature, form, and content from a variety of perspectives and muses that form is not the external shape, but the energy behind the making of a poem. And if this is so, can we also think of the form of a translation in the same way? He takes us one step further to consider the importance of intertextuality–when we approach translation by way of understanding the work as it was meant by the author, we can be supported by our own extensive contextual […]

Balancing Form and ContentMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Devotion to the Guru, Loyalty to the Nation

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:45-07:00

Riga Shakya, doctoral student in history at Columbia University, looks at the relationship between history and literature and the making of an inner Asian empire, specifically the early Qing expanses into the Tibetan plateau. By considering autobiographies, biographies, and key historical sources of this period, Riga explores the “language of loyalty” and the role of lay elites in articulation of the relationship between empire and subject populations. Holly Gayley (University of Colorado, Boulder) extrapolates on the theme of “language of loyalty”, drawing attention to pop music of the twenty and twenty-first centuries that illustrates embodied acts of devotion through the […]

Devotion to the Guru, Loyalty to the NationMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:45-07:00

Ornamentation Shared by Poetry and Song

Migmar Lama2022-10-26T05:23:38-06:00

With humor and levity, longtime collaborators Nicole Willock (Old Dominion) and Gedun Rabsal (Indiana) present chapter three of Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetics (Kāvyādarśa) through the lens of twentieth century Tibetan scholar Tseten Zhabdrung (the Snyan ngag spyi don). The focus is the concept of “world-play” (sgra rgyan) and the various examples given in this section of the text. Nicole outlines the third chapter and delves into the “richness of the phonemic value of poetry” with focus on beat, rhythm, and alliteration using examples from one section of the commentarial text focused on “phonemic reduplication” (zung ldan). Professor Rabsal looks at […]

Ornamentation Shared by Poetry and SongMigmar Lama2022-10-26T05:23:38-06:00

Textuality and Materiality

Migmar Lama2022-10-26T05:22:00-06:00

What is the physical basis of a work of art and how does its material existence represent the process of its creation? Ben Nourse (University of Denver) and Alexander Gardner (Treasury of Lives) meander through various examples of physical objects embodying abstract work in this breakout session. Discussion about the constellation of objects around a book or a text considers that community endeavor could be important in creating material culture and that the appreciation and exploration of a physical location can enrich a translation of a certain text.

Textuality and MaterialityMigmar Lama2022-10-26T05:22:00-06:00

Lotsawa Translation Workshop Closing Remarks

Migmar Lama2022-10-26T05:24:17-06:00

In this short session, Dominique Townsend (Bard), Holly Gayley (University of Colorado, Boulder), Marcus Perman (Tsadra Foundation), Janet Gyatso (Harvard), Kurtis Schaeffer (UVa) and Lama Jabb (Oxford) offer their gratitude and brief reflections to responders, participants, and sponsors. Four participants of the workshop share their impressions of the weekend including having developed a deeper understanding of what is at stake in, and the challenges of, the practice of translation, and the importance of one’s disposition as an ambassador of a text’s content and context. Overall, attendees expressed appreciation of the collaborative process and how the community of translators of Tibetan […]

Lotsawa Translation Workshop Closing RemarksMigmar Lama2022-10-26T05:24:17-06:00