TRANSLATION BETWEEN LINGUISTIC WORLDS

Abstract

This paper considers the role of poetic parallelism in the translation of various types of meaning between the linguistic worlds of gurbani, or Sikh scriptural language, and ordinary colloquial language. The first major section of the paper considers verbal art as an intensive form of language characterized by special attention to linguistic elements such as repetition and parallelism, and constituted in relation to a particular linguistic audience. The next section considers the relationship between ‘religious' language (as a form of verbal art) and ‘ordinary' language. Finally, the relationship between the formal properties of language and creativity is considered. The second major section begins with an overview of some major theories of parallelism and is then followed by a close analysis of some of the pervasive forms of parallelism present in gurbani. The paper then moves into an analysis of similar forms of parallelism in an excerpt of kathaa, or oral exegesis of Sikh scripture. Finally, the paper considers some of the correspondences in parallelism between these instances of gurbani and kathaa, bringing out the relations between scriptural language and ordinary language (in this case Panjabi, the language of exegesis). Finally, some new possibilities for understanding the relationship of translation between sacred and ordinary language are considered.