Translation Peer Review

[dalsingh101]

I've come across a difficult paragraph and translated it as follows. Any constructive criticism is more than appreciated. One stumbling block was the 2nd sentence (in the original Panjabi text) starting half way along the 3rd line (Jo chetan hai...). The word akray is one that people seemed most baffled on. Any help appreciated.

Preliminary translation:

"When He has become accepted to be true, consciousness and then love (blissful) then surely He must have His own action/purpose of which we are ignorant. How can that which is consciousness, at its primal source, in its foundational substance be separated? Yes, His activity and our activities are not at all similar. Whatever they may be, they will be true, as He is. Meaning that Guru ji has spoken of his Akal Purakh as being the formless, almighty creator and then untainted, referring to him as the creator of the world, he is also spoken of as residing within it. He is told to exist within the confines of this world as well as within eternal truth ‘I am a sacrifice to Your almighty creative power which is pervading everywhere’ (xiii) we are told. None of His powers are separated from Him (ivx). No powers are related to Him in a husband and wife relationship. He is all-powerful and whatever He does, he does through the divine writ;"

PS - I don't have the skills or knowhow to translate in a gender free form yet, so I've stuck to the convention of using 'Him' in reference to Waheguru. I'm well aware of the inaccuracy of this in terms of the Sikhi conceptualisation of God.

Edited November 17, 2010 by dalsingh101

[Prabhjot Singh]

Wjkk Wjkf Veerji,

ਅਕ੍ਰੈ is ਅ + ਕ੍ਰੈ, where ਕ੍ਰੈ is a corrupted form of ਕ੍ਰਿਆ, which here means to perform action. And if we add ਅ to it, its form changes to negative, i.e., to not perform action. So, ਅ + ਕ੍ਰੈ would roughly translate to the One that performs no action. That is what the Atma is - it is free of any kriya and is indestructible, in contrast to the ever-changing and destructible universe around us. This is called Vivek, and is the root Saadhan if you will.

Edited November 19, 2010 by pjs

[dalsingh101]

Thank you PJS veer ji:

I've adapted the passage under scrutiny inline with the information you provided. I must confess I'm still not fully satisfied with the translation of the challenging line. ....jarh padarath wangu? Unless I'm wrong this translates as follows 'like base element'??? I would like to try and use like word for word as much as possible.

"When He has become accepted to be true, consciousness and then love (blissful) then surely He must have His own action/purpose of which we are ignorant. How can that which is pure consciousness, at it's primal source, at it's base element be inactive like? Yes, His activity and our activities are not at all similar. Whatever they may be, they will be true, as He is. Meaning that Guru ji has spoken of his Akal Purakh as being the formless, almighty creator and then untainted, referring to him as the creator of the world, he is also spoken of as residing within it. He is told to exist within the confines of this world as well as within eternal truth ‘I am a sacrifice to Your almighty creative power which is pervading everywhere’ (xiii) we are informed. None of His powers are separated from Him (ivx). No powers are related to Him in a husband and wife relationship. He is all-powerful and whatever He does, he does through the divine writ;"

Edited November 19, 2010 by dalsingh101