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Translation as a Threshold
Experience
However it
may appear to the world on the surface, the inner work of
translating, as well as that of interpreting, calls forth an
extraordinary consciousness during the process involved. In the
outer form one sees either the prose or poetic text, or listens to
a verbal communication simultaneously arising out of social
necessity. It is and has to be ‘taken for granted’ and trusted.
Yet, invisibly, the translator or interpreter has plunged into an
inner sea of language, emerging in time on the other side of the
shore, with a representation as true as possible to the original
meaning. That representation is then carefully placed back or
‘rendered’ into the ‘visible’ language structure to bring
understanding. A threshold has been crossed. Order has been
temporarily upset, so it may be restored in a different form. In
that sense, a Michaelic task is performed, promoting unity and
order in the world.
Nationalism, as such, is in opposition to the true Michaelic spirit
that wants to see the whole earth as one. Each nation should be
equally respected, but eventually they will all disappear. Striving
to be truly human is the essential task. Language barriers create
separation and misunderstandings. Thus the responsibility of the
translator to convey truth is of great importance. The process of
attaining unity and mutual understanding is inherent in every part
of the translating process.
For
someone one who is not bilingual since early childhood, there is an
element of courage involved in plunging into the foreign sea of
words. Love of the subject matter can help. The human needs must be
met, and necessity creates service. One has to simply trust the
thought pattern forming as the sentence progresses and be patient
enough to grapple with the meaning. This is a kind of trust in the
Creative Logos and has a strengthening effect on the human beings
involved.
There
is a ‘space of freedom’, engendered by the Michaelic forces, where
the ‘dragon’ is being vanquished. The translator helps to make this
possible by becoming one with the original, focusing all attention
on the change of syntax, thought, and meaning, and traversing the
barrier to the new order. The etheric space actually seems to
shield the onslaught of ‘chaos’ caused by the disintegrating
structure in the one language, as it is transformed into the new
language. This ‘spatial etheric experience’ becomes suspended for
the span of concentration during which the translator may have to
seek out a word or determine the appropriate quality of expression
in its structure and sound - the span needed ‘to pluck the flower
from chaos’. Sometimes the brain seems to sizzle with the activity
and long for completion. Finally, when a harmonious translation has
been found, the ‘catch’ is treasured. Perseverance has been
rewarded. The thought pattern shaped in one structure has been
traversed, to catch ‘the corresponding fish’ across the way. The
‘organ of the soul’ has become centred in this concentrated
effort.
For
simultaneous interpretation it is necessary to have the
corresponding word and quality immediately in the memory. An
immediate yearning for meaning is present. One feels the
individuals involved in the situation. In this experience, the
concentration becomes enhanced, adrenaline flows, as well as a
sense of the helping forces. Having once spoken with an interpreter
from the United Nations, I ascertained that the stress levels are
high in that field. A subtle nuance may shift the course of world
history.
Conversion from the language of prose to that of poetic form, in
rhyme and rhythm is akin to translation when one considers that
poetry itself is a language. While seeking to ‘translate’ stories
written in prose into hexameter or alexandrine, one approaches the
poetic spirits in Greek or French, for example.
Poetic
translation between languages teaches one how to penetrate deeply
into the qualities of the languages involved. The German poet,
Christian Morgenstern once said: ‘There are two kinds of
translations: bad, or less bad.’1) Indeed, the translator must be a
poet, and intuitively grasp how the languages lend themselves to be
interpreted.
This
provides the opportunity to plunge into realms that may be foreign
to one’s given temperament: Trochee tends to be melancholic; iambic
has a choleric character, anapaest can be sanguine, while dactyl
has a watery side. The attempt to master this variety in
translation can eventually help to transform the etheric
body.
In Vienna, Austria on 1 June 1918, Rudolf Steiner spoke of the
difficulty in ‘translating’ spiritual truths (such as a seer can
investigate) into an understanding suitable for present day
language. One must note that in German the verb for ‘to translate’
is ‘uebersetzen’; that means ‘to place over, above, or beyond’. It
is a heightened state of activity, a kind of ‘traversing between
above and below’ in a sense.
Steiner
speaks of three levels of language:
Language is pushed
down to a lower level in the day-to-day philistine communication
(dried-up, wilted language). The real purpose of speech is not to
negotiate communications on a rudimentary level.
In
language, he says, there is also a second level where the
artistic-picturing of the folk-spirit can be conveyed. It comes to
fruition in the poetic works of a folk, when the spirit of language
is really being carried.
Speaking of
the third level, Rudolf Steiner says:
‘The third kind is experienced in the realm of clairvoyant vision.
One is in an unusual situation because when one wishes to express
what is seen, one does not have the words of language; they are not
present in that reality. One cannot express what is beheld as a
seer experiences it in the same way as would be possible in
languages where words have been learned to communicate with. Words
are not made for it. Therefore the seer has to express many things
in a much different way. He must clothe his sentence so as to
approach what he means to say, and rely on his listener’s good will
to allow one sentence to shed light on the other. When this good
will fails, then people may reproach him for making contradictions.
One who really wishes to express clairvoyant thought must work in
contradictions, where one contradiction sheds light on the other,
for the truth lies between the two. In the process of traversing
this realm, one arrives in the sense of language, at the
relationship between the artist and the seer. The seer must rely on
the good will of those present and try to stress much more
how he expresses something than what he actually
says.
Gradually he makes it possible to reach back to
the
Spirit of Creative Speech, which held sway before language existed.
2)
Novalis
had an ‘all encompassing’ overview of translation. He claimed that
not only books, but, anything can be translated using one of
the following three methods. In fragments from ‘Bluetenstaub’, he
wrote:
‘A
translation can be either grammatically represented, transformed to
be made better or worse than the original, or mythical. Mythical
translations are of the highest style. They present the pure,
fulfilled character of the original work of art, giving us the
ideal rather than the real. There does not yet exist a
complete example of this level to my knowledge…. Greek Mythology
comprises, in part, such a translation of a national religion…. The
Madonna Mythology is another example.
Grammatical translations are translations in the usual sense. They
require a great deal of scholarly endeavour, but no extraordinary
talent.
The highest poetical
spirit is to be found in an authentic ‘altered translation’…. The
true translator of this sort is in fact an artist who
is able to give a greater idea of the whole in whatever
way possible, becoming the poet’s poet. The poet’s own idea
can thus speak itself out in the translation. The human
spirit is related in a similar way to each individualhuman
being…’ 3)
The
mythological, as well as the ‘altered translation’ level, would
bring forth the content of a work in accord with a folk spirit and
the spirit of a particular time. In early Christian times, the
Madonna and the Deeds of the Christ were to be seen and painted
directly out of the etheric world. They are written or ‘imprinted’
in the Akasha. Novalis said ‘not only books, anything may be
‘translated’. Are then from the universal to the temporal,
the temporal to the universal also possible modes of
translation?
Rudolf
Steiner shed light on the kind of translation necessary for ancient
scripts such as the first verses in ‘The Gospel of St. Mark’, where
an understanding of spiritual science is really necessary for full
comprehension.
He spoke of
how the Persians would translate the ancient manuscripts anew each
epoch. The spiritual divine Word in the Zendavesta has been
‘reclothed’ and transformed seven times. :
…. ‘Precisely when one seeks to maintain the greatness of an
old style, one should not keep to the ancient words as much
as possible, for we cannot understand them properly anymore. Rather
one must try to transform those words directly into the present
understanding…’ 4)
A
highly spiritualised, individual connection to the ancient script
itself, as well as grace, and poetic genius would somehow be
necessary to approach such a level of translation.
The mercurial
world wants to give us transcendental experiences. Saturn holds the
key to structure and depth. Mars forms speech. Venus enhances
artistic phantasy….Thus there are helping forces!
Translating works from authors who are living in the life between
death and rebirth can evolve into an intuitive grasping of their
individualities, where grace is involved in the process. The dead
experience the ideals and thought patterns that motivated them
during their earthly lives. Universal thoughts need to descend to
serve earthly existence, and in doing so they also link the living
and the dead. Here, one feels like a small fish in a big
pool!
Translating
understandings of truth, beauty and goodness brings the worlds
together. It promotes and necessitates further education, growth,
research, and social unity. It needs to be rightfully reimbursed,
although it is potentially a treasure beyond measure in dollars and
cents.
In
anthroposophical circles, further education, collaboration and
consultation between translators is made possible through the
Translator’s Conferences in the Literary Arts Section work at the
Goetheanum.
Katherine
Rudolph
1) As quoted
by Ted Van Vliet in his translation of Christian Morgenstern’s book
of poetry Turning Inward , Mercury Press.
2)
G.A. 271 Rudolf Steiner Kunst und
Kunst
Erkenntnis, ‘Das
Sinnlich-Uebersinnliche –
Geistige
Erkenntnis und Kunstlerisches Schaffen’
(‘The Sense Perceptible – Supersensible – Spiritual
Knowledge and Artistic Creation’).
Wein, 1 Juni, 1918.
3)From
Bluetenstaub (Pollen) Fragmente
von Novalis
# 67
4) G.A.
124 Rudolf Steiner Exkurse in das Gebiet
des
Markusevangeliums
1914.
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