Re: Problem in Italian Translation of the Quran
- From: "Abu Jamil" <abujamil@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 10:44:52 -0500
Hi, Abdalla,
Franchement je n'aime point les tentatives de traduire les titres des
sûrât en français. Les résultats sont considérablement moins
élégants que les formes arabes.
Most French-language Qur'ans seem to leave the sûrah titles
untranslated, which I think is fine, since they never do a good job
translating them. However, were I to select a rendition for each of
those that you have listed, they might be something like this:
Sûrah 7 (اÙ?أعراÙ?), Les hauteurs.
Sûrah 15 (اÙ?Øجر), Le pays rocheux.
Sûrah 46 (اÙ?Ø£ØÙ?اÙ?), Les ensablements.
Sûrah 52 (اÙ?Ø·Ù?ر), Le mont.
Sûrah 69 (اÙ?ØاÙ?Ø©), L'inévitable.
Even though I prefer English-language title capitalization, especially
when writing in plain text (since it sets titles apart more clearly),
we use ordinary sentence capitalization in titles in French, so only
the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
I think the translation "Celle qui montre la vérité" for al-Haaqqah
is confused with something like al-Haaqiqah. Obviously, in Arabic there
is a notion of "truth" in that word which does not translate smoothly.
The word "inevitable" in English or "inévitable" in French hides the
truth connotation in the word. Of course, this is an example of the
meaning that is always lost in translation. A great deal of
misunderstanding occurs by people who try to interpret what the Qur'an
says on the basis of someone's translation alone. Interestingly, I
think the Qur'an is easy to understand for those who read it, even just
in translation, in an honest effort to learn from it. Those who are
looking for defects will, on the other hand, inevitably find a few in
the translated words, never realizing that they are not, in fact, even
reading the Qur'an.
It is so extraordinarily interesting how the Qur'an says repeatedly
that God guides whom He will and leaves astray whom He will. Those who
do not try to understand the words, which are naturally somewhat crude
in the translation, tend to feel that this is saying that God is
somehow arbitrary! It never occurs to them that their very sincerity,
if that is what drives them, will enable them to understand all that is
necessary, even if they cannot yet read the Arabic Qur'an. Yet if they
do not want to find truth in the Qur'an, their eyes will just wander
around in search of error. A very interesting example of how the Qur'an
allows those who seek error to find error, while those who seek truth
find truth, is at 19:7:
Ù?ا زÙ?رÙ?ا Ø¥Ù?ا Ù?بشرÙ? بغÙ?اÙ? اسÙ?Ù? Ù?ØÙ?Ù? Ù?Ù?
Ù?جعÙ? Ù?Ù? Ù?Ù? Ù?بÙ? سÙ?Ù?ا
This can be translated more than one way. Here are some examples.
Notice the difference from one translation to the next:
[19:7 - Asad] [Thereupon the angels called out unto him: [6] "O
Zachariah! We bring thee the glad tiding of [the birth of] a son whose
name shall be John. [And God says,] `Never have We given this name to
anyone before him."
[19:7 - Yusuf Ali] (His prayer was answered): "O Zakariya! We give thee
good news of a son: His name shall be Yahya: on none by that name have
We conferred distinction before."
[19:7 - Pickthall] (It was said unto him): O Zachariah! Lo! We bring
thee tidings of a son whose name is John; We have given the same name
to none before (him).
[19:7 - Hamidullah] "� Zacharie, Nous t'annonçons la bonne nouvelle
d'un fils. Son nom sera Yahya [Jean]. Nous ne lui avons pas donné
auparavant d'homonyme".
[19:7 - Chouraqui] Ã? Zakarîyâ, voici, nous tâ??annonçons un
garçon: son nom sera Yahyâ. Nous nâ??avions auparavant, jamais donné
ce nom.
[19:7 - al-Azhar] Il entendit alors un appel: "Zacharie, Nous
t'annonçons la bonne nouvelle de la prochaine naissance d'un garçon
que Nous avons appelé Jean, et ce nom Nous ne l'avons donné Ã
personne d'autre auparavant".
The Arabic is <yâ zakariyyâ innâ nubashshiruka bighulâmin ismuhu
yaHyâ lam naj&al lahû min qablu samiyyâ(n>. That last clause, <lam
naj&al lahû min qablu samiyyan>, contains two meanings. First, it
means that no one before Yahya was so named. But it also means that no
one previously has been raised to distinction in the way that Yahya
will be. This dual meaning is achieved in Arabic through the use of the
<fa&îlan> form of <ism>, which gives it a meaning similar to the Latin
abblative, roughly similar to the English or French adverbial
construction, but requiring context in order to establish its precise
meaning. This clause is literally as follows: "We did not make for him
before in the matter of the name." Both of the meanings just described
are actually true. The more immediate meaning is that no one by the
name of Yahya has lived before, but that secondary meaning is brought
out in another verse (3:39), which restates Zakariyya's experience with
the Angel Jibril, but this time does not refer to Yahya's name per se.
Instead, the Qur'an here describes Yahya as destined to be
"distinguished" among his peers (<sayyidan>). The Qur'an again uses the
<fa&iilan> form, drawing the (honest) reader's attention to the
parallel construction, and clarifying that the meaning of "distinction"
is indeed intended in the analogous verse. More interestingly, those
familiar with Arabic can immediately see the meaning of <sayyidan>,
knowing that the word <sayyid> is a title of respect, which has come to
us more commonly in the form of "Mr." or "sir."
(The fact that <samiyyan> and <sayyidan> are the same form creates yet
another layer of meaning, which I'll bring out in the end.)
While the honest seeker after truth is therefore provided enough
information in the English or French translation of the verses, the one
who instead seeks error will stumble over the more superficial meaning
of 19:7, jumping on the question of whether there was anyone else in
history named "John" or "Jean," and running off with what he thinks is
ammunition for debate. In fact, the infamous Abraham Geiger did
precisely this, confusing translated variants on the names in Hebrew
and Aramaic that could be rendered "John," and using the mistake (not
knowing he had committed one) as part of his attempt to attribute as
much as possible in Islam to Judaism. In this case, he tried to argue
that the Qur'an is nothing more than an error-ridden collection of
Christian and Jewish folklore. The supposed "mistake" involving the
name of John was supposed to be an example of this.
What makes this particular example even more impressive is that it
highlights the error of relying on the New Testament only in Greek,
instead of having the Gospel available in its original language. This
is because "John" in the Old Testament is <yoHânân> in Hebrew (or
"Yowchanan" in Strong's Concordance), which is <yûHanân> or
<yûHânân> in Arabic. Meanwhile, "John" in the New Testament is
<Î?οάννηÏ?> in Greek, or <yûHannâ> in Arabic. The form
<yûHannâ> also occurs once in the Old Testament, so it is not a
unique name. At any rate, the words are similar enough for the reader
to confuse them, but the fact that the New Testament only preserves the
name in a rather rough Greek attempt to imitate the Aramaic form
obscures its distinctiveness.
It has long been a curiosity that the name of "John" in the Qur'an
should be so unique, and in fact different from the way Christian Arabs
say "John." But all Christians suffer from the fact that they do not
have the Gospel in its original language, having learned instead to
rely on an approximation of it, the depths of whose actual error is
utterly unknown. Therefore, they can't be sure how the John of the New
Testament said his name. It is a fascinating but incontrovertibly true
fact that the John of the New Testament did not call himself
<Î?οάννηÏ?>, for he did not speak a word of Greek. So what name
did later Greek writers try so clumsily to render <Î?οάννηÏ?>?
Since Christians destroyed their original proof, we can't be sure, but
the Qur'an tells us two things: (1) the name was unique; and (2) it
would be <yaHyâ> in Arabic, not <yûHanân>, <yûHânân>, or
<yûHannâ>.
Sadly, the lack of that knowledge that is the product of early
Christian scriptural corruption persists to this day to create
confusion in the minds of those who read the Qur'an looking for error
instead of truth. The very name of John the Baptist stands as a
testament to the serious error that was the destruction of the early
Christian writings. John is thus given a distinction that no other man
can claim.
--> Moreover, John's most poignant distinction <sayyidan> lies in what
his very name <samiyyan> emphasizes about both God's ability to guide
whom He will and the seriousness of how far astray the destruction of
the original Christian Gospels have really sent the followers of Jesus.
John's distinction is thus his very name: <sayyidan> = <samiyyan>. But
only those who are sincerely seeking truth will actually see that.
Salaamun 'alayk! - Abu Jamil
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Islamic Finance
- Next by Date: Journaling concept for SRI
- Previous by thread: Re: Do angels throw with meteors?
- Next by thread: Re: Islamic myths: the Jizyah
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
