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

Marcus Perman2022-10-26T05:35:53-06:00

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 […]

Translating Canonical Materials: Tantra

2022-10-30T22:44:37-06:00

This session begins with Tom Yarnall giving a brief overview of the extent of the canonical literature in the Tibetan tradition which leads into Christian Wedemeyer’s consideration of the audience of the translations of such esoteric materials. He then discusses issues of secrecy, transgressive language, rendering mantras, and refining of terminology. David Gray tries to untie particular knots that he has encountered when translating collaboratively for the 84000 Project and discusses specific textual criticism related to this work. Tom Yarnall then speaks on the need to acknowledge the intertextuality and overlapping constructs of these canonical materials.