Abstract
Drawing on a case study of an Arabic poem and two versions of its interlinear Malay translation, the paper speculates on the involvement of oral practices in the transmission of interlinear texts. The translations are found in two manuscripts from Aceh (EAP329/1/11, Endangered Archives, 18th c., and ML 341, Jakarta, late 19th c.), between the lines of a didactic verse dealing with the duties of a good Muslim student. While the Arabic text of the poem seems to have been reproduced through copying from a written source, the transmission history of its Malay translations appears to be more complicated. Juxtaposing the two versions of interlinear translation reveals that they are too similar to be unrelated and, at the same time, too different for the differences to result from corruption in the process of recopying. The paper argues that the interlinear text in the manuscripts under discussion has gone through both written and oral transmission—likely in the classroom settings, with a teacher dictating the translation looking into a written copy, but feeling free to slightly modify or complement it during the dictation.
Published Version
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