Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00485)

Dear Frank,

>- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Frank Reitemeyer" wrote:

>>If a translator makes SUCH errors the work shouldn't be regarded as 
> K------, if you were able to see theosophical books "translated"
> into German you were in danger to get a heart attack.

I imagine; for I am a translator myself. But my point was slightly 
different; the passage quoted was very simple and couldn't be 
misunderstood. I have found other errors there which are just errors, 
for they come from misunderstanding the English grammar, but this is 
not the case.

Yet I think that the great mistake of the Masters was that they gave 
all the theosophical literature in English where almost every word has 
double meaning, for what it was called in the East "the language of 
liars". I know German much worse than English, but when I cannot 
understand some English expression, because there seem to be two 
meanings, and the German translation is available, I always find there 
only one and clear meaning. I cannot say, is it right meaning or not, 
but I'm sure that if theosophical literature was given in German (or 
in Russian) we'd have much less problems. HPB herself resented that 
there's not enough words in English for her works, while there were 
more of them in German, as "das Sein" for instance.

First I thought that all that misunderatanding is due my imperfect 
knowledge, but when I began to show the dubious passages to 
english-speaking people, I oftenly got from them the same two meanings 
between which I had to choose!

> before 1945 was of a much higher quality (and quantity!) than since 
the last sixty years, including translations.

Wasn't it prohibited during Hitler's Reich?
I have read somewhere that some alternative translation of SD was 
destroyed and translators imprisoned, or even killed.

> A rapid degeneration by return, as if someone shifted the switch.

Nevertheless now we are in position to make much better translations 
than before, because we can ask our english-speaking friends about any 
doubtful sentence by internet. I ask them just to retell the paragraph 
in their own words. Yet sometimes I wasn't successful, for those 
people whose native language is English, probably, sometives have 
vague conception what translation is and begin to explain me the 
teaching in length instead just rephrasing one or two sencences.

> "lay chela". They translate it as "mundane chela", whatever that may

Yes, "lay" is somewhat difficult word and we translate it as a 
"worldly chela".