Dynamics of Devotion

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

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 […]

Dynamics of DevotionMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Collections of Songs (mgur ‘bum)

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

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 […]

Collections of Songs (mgur ‘bum)Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Translation: Fidelity vs Innovation

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:11-07:00

As translators we create new texts while striving to transmit the authenticity of the original. What constitutes an authentic translation? Throughout the history of Buddhism in Tibet and across Asia, adaptation, assimilation, and innovation have been essential to the persistence and continued relevance of texts and the contents they transmit. As translators, do we bear responsibility for fidelity to our texts? To our readers? To “the tradition”? To what degree may we innovate in the work that we do? In sum, what are the ethics of representation in our translation work, and how do we balance our fidelity to the […]

Translation: Fidelity vs InnovationMarcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:11-07:00

Kavya in Tibet

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

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 […]

Kavya in TibetMarcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

Translating Poetic and Inspirational Materials

Marcus Perman2022-10-30T22:45:26-06:00

Poetic and inspirational materials exist as a place where culture emerges creating a challenge for the translator to capture both the meaning and the psychological effect of the literature in the target language. Andrew Quintman begins this workshop with a theoretical discussion of how the characteristics and structure of a traditional song of devotion give clues about indigenous conceptions of poetry in the Tibetan tradition. Holly Gayley works through various grammatical structures and literary conventions, like metaphor and parallelism, to illustrate the scope of possibility in conveying meaning. Finally, Wulstan Fletcher guides the group through the challenge of capturing the […]

Translating Poetic and Inspirational MaterialsMarcus Perman2022-10-30T22:45:26-06:00