A guide for translating a text from one language to another

[Taro Hiroshi]

Peace everyone,

A few years ago I found a book that has a short guide for translating a text from one language to another. With regards to translation, it's the best guide I have found in my lifetime.

A paragraph from chapter 13 in the book:

The first thing to remember is that translation is the transfer of meaning from one language to another. It is not the transfer of words from language to language. You must translate the meaning of what is being said, rather than do it word-for-word. This is because languages are not just different words. Different languages also have different grammar, different word orders, sometimes even words for which other languages do not have any equivalents. The English spoken by a scientist may have words which a simple farmer cannot even start to imagine. And the farmer is likely to have words for things the technologist never dreamed of.

If you want to translate articles/books (about islam/quran) from one language to another, then you might find this guide very useful/helpful/handy.

You can read the translation guide in this link:

http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals%20Volume%201/volume1_13.htm

[huruf]

That i the very first problem of any translation: whether the translation understands the meaning of wht is said or written.

We hve seen in many translations of the Qur'an the the problem arises ot from the text but from the understanding of the translator.

Agreed the Qur'an is a work beyond and well above the age in which it was written and in fact beyond and above any age. But peoples wh can understand ome things excellently in some particular age, there are other things that are beyonde their understanding, not because of lack of intelligence but becaue of lack of experience and imagination. How ca we imagine what will be something self-understood from her to three hundred years ahead, or even thirty years. Already in the last thirty years there are so many concepts which are new... It i ok for those of us who l?have lived in htat span of time, but if we take people from 100 year ago, unless we do what many trnaslators have made with Qur'an, that is apply to the Qura'nic test, ideas or conventios that were developped latr on, unless we do that, we know that for thoe peple of 100 years ago, to be let loose in our world would be madenning for them, hocking and hey would feel helpless.

We have seen what it is to bring an old person from a village to a very modern city, how ueless and lot that person feels, mething like that but worse.

So obvioysly there is no translation if there is not a full understanding of the text. That is why people like Recluse and others who point us a gun to us to answer yes or no "the Qur'an says such and such, ar comletely beside the question. There are thig sin the Qur'an which are not for us to master or fully or even partially know, because we cannot be sure of the whole stuff that goes into the text at hand and what its scope is.

Salaam

[spodacus]

Salam,

With the Quran we have a situation where the understanding of the text in its NATIVE language is misunderstood 

Peace everyone,

A few years ago I found a book that has a short guide for translating a text from one language to another. With regards to translation, it's the best guide I have found in my lifetime.

A paragraph from chapter 13 in the book:

The first thing to remember is that translation is the transfer of meaning from one language to another. It is not the transfer of words from language to language. You must translate the meaning of what is being said, rather than do it word-for-word. This is because languages are not just different words. Different languages also have different grammar, different word orders, sometimes even words for which other languages do not have any equivalents. The English spoken by a scientist may have words which a simple farmer cannot even start to imagine. And the farmer is likely to have words for things the technologist never dreamed of.

If you want to translate articles/books (about islam/quran) from one language to another, then you might find this guide very useful/helpful/handy.

You can read the translation guide in this link:

http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals%20Volume%201/volume1_13.htm

[Taro Hiroshi]

Peace everyone,

huruf,

I think you raise some good points in your post.

spodacus,

Many past scholars haven't used the native/original language of the Quran to understand or interpret the meanings of the terms/words in this sacred/divine book. That might explain why much of the text has been misunderstood.

If you like the short guide (for translating a text from one language to another), spread the word. It is possibly the best guide out there. Imagine if many members on FreeMinds had translated at least 1 article from FreeMinds or from another Quranic website, from English to their native language or to another language (e.g. the language of the country they have migrated to). If each of them did that, then the message of "islam based on the Quran" could reach a much bigger audience. It seems that many members on FreeMinds want to write articles and/or books about Quranic islam in the future. But there are many excellent articles and books about Quranic islam that are already out there. So there is no point in reinventing the wheel, in my opinion. In my view, the only thing which matters is to spread the message of Quranic islam to others.

When it comes to spreading the message of Quranic islam, I am a big supporter of practical, realistic and results-oriented methods. There are many ways to spread the message of Quranic islam. And translating articles and/or books, is just one of them. But even though it's just one among many ways to spread the message of Quranic islam, I consider a translation project to be a worthy project.

I believe that an excellent project, is a project which enables a man or woman to reach as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. To me, results is of utmost importance.

[Taro Hiroshi]

Peace everyone,

I'd like to share a quote here. Because I think the quote is relevant to the topic of this thread. Some of you might be interested in the information in the quote.

...If one translates articles and/or books about Quranic islam from English to Arabic, then one can reach a wide audience in the Arab World. It appears that translating articles and/or books from English to Arabic, is a great way to spread the message of Quranic islam. Unfortunately, there are fewer books translated into Arabic than other major languages. I'd like to share some informative paragraphs from an article here. The title of the article is "Three Middle East Myths Exploded."

From the article:

Consider some of the important findings in recent Arab Human Development Reports and related studies:

? The total number of books translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years is fewer than those translated into Spanish in one year.

? Greece ? with a population of fewer than 11 million ? translates five times as many books from abroad into Greek annually as the 22 Arab countries combined, with a total population of more than 300 million, translate into Arabic.

For those who wish to read the whole article, you can read it here.