ثوار
10-03-2006, 12:35 AM
Consider the following piece of a Muslim nasheed:
فرشي التراب.. يضمني
وهو غطــائي
حولي الرمــال.. تلفــني
بل من ورائي
There is an interesting problem in translating the conjunction "bal":
The difference between "bal" and "wa" is that should the writer say "wa min wara2i" then the meaning is that he has a whole picture of what is around him in the case of which he is INFORMATIVE ( i.e writing to inform the reader of new information). The present use of "bal" however is interesting. Here, the word "bal" cnacels the meaning of the untterance that has come before in a wonderful easthetic way to show how the writer is "frightened to death": the sand is now behind him in such a way as it made hiim consider other sand that he had talked about so trivial in comparison with the new sand.
Consider also another incident: Surat Al-Zumar (Quran Kareem)
There are two verses in this sura that are of interesting analysis from a translator's point of view:
وسيق الذين كفروا إلى جهنم زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها فتحت أبوابها.........
وسيق الذين اتقوا ربهم إلى الجنة زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها وفتحت أبواها....
First of all: you notice that the two verses are identical save to the mentioning of "wa" conjunction in the second verse. Why? The conjunction "wa" here serves a wonderful easthetic function that defies translation: as you notice there is no pause at all between coming to Hell and entering it! There is a pause however between coming unto Heavens and enetring it! In fact, if you refer to Muslim scholastic books on the matter you wilg find an explanation: Believers will come unto Heavens then wait (here is the pause represented by "wa") until Prophet Muhammad sala Allahu alaihi wa sallam comes and opens the gates of Heavens with his own hands then he will be the first enterer to Heavens followed by all believers.
Then we come to the word "seeqa". You can imagine sinners who know their destination: Hell fire. They do not want to go there but the angels want to take them there. "seeqa" is therefore to be translated as "were driven" (or will have been driven). In the other case, you would correctly conclude that the translation should be "were escorted".
The world translation is amazing indeed.
فرشي التراب.. يضمني
وهو غطــائي
حولي الرمــال.. تلفــني
بل من ورائي
There is an interesting problem in translating the conjunction "bal":
The difference between "bal" and "wa" is that should the writer say "wa min wara2i" then the meaning is that he has a whole picture of what is around him in the case of which he is INFORMATIVE ( i.e writing to inform the reader of new information). The present use of "bal" however is interesting. Here, the word "bal" cnacels the meaning of the untterance that has come before in a wonderful easthetic way to show how the writer is "frightened to death": the sand is now behind him in such a way as it made hiim consider other sand that he had talked about so trivial in comparison with the new sand.
Consider also another incident: Surat Al-Zumar (Quran Kareem)
There are two verses in this sura that are of interesting analysis from a translator's point of view:
وسيق الذين كفروا إلى جهنم زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها فتحت أبوابها.........
وسيق الذين اتقوا ربهم إلى الجنة زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها وفتحت أبواها....
First of all: you notice that the two verses are identical save to the mentioning of "wa" conjunction in the second verse. Why? The conjunction "wa" here serves a wonderful easthetic function that defies translation: as you notice there is no pause at all between coming to Hell and entering it! There is a pause however between coming unto Heavens and enetring it! In fact, if you refer to Muslim scholastic books on the matter you wilg find an explanation: Believers will come unto Heavens then wait (here is the pause represented by "wa") until Prophet Muhammad sala Allahu alaihi wa sallam comes and opens the gates of Heavens with his own hands then he will be the first enterer to Heavens followed by all believers.
Then we come to the word "seeqa". You can imagine sinners who know their destination: Hell fire. They do not want to go there but the angels want to take them there. "seeqa" is therefore to be translated as "were driven" (or will have been driven). In the other case, you would correctly conclude that the translation should be "were escorted".
The world translation is amazing indeed.