Recently I've come across the translator's foreword to Mouravieff's Gnosis. I thought it worth sharing with the translation team, since there are some hints of how to deal with some problems that one undoubtedly encounters while translating.
Note that he is talking about translating from French to English, but it can be applied to any language combination.
I've highlighted the passages that relate to the usage of the words.
Note that he is talking about translating from French to English, but it can be applied to any language combination.
I've highlighted the passages that relate to the usage of the words.
THE LANGUAGE OF GNOSIS: FOREWORD BY THE TRANSLATOR
When translators have translated complex and elaborate literary or
philosophical works into other languages, they often make excuses for not
giving their readers the original with all its shades of meaning, its
subtleties and intonations. The translators of scientific works never do this,
as they are certain they have been able to translate the complete content.
But although Gnosis is a work of esoteric philosophy — with all the
shades of meaning that this implies — its author, Boris Mouravieff, has
insisted on its scientific precision and on the rigorous scientific method
which has been followed throughout. He says in the twentieth chapter of
the second volume, Gnosis II:1 'Just like positive science, this Gnosis is
systematic; it is the same as the other knowledge in its systematic arrangement of the
Cosmos, in its ensemble as well as in its smallest parts.'
Gnosis describes the Cosmos and man with equal precision. Wherever
both consider the same subject, its method is systematized in exactly the
same way as in positive science. Because of this precision, I have some-
times found it necessary to translate the French text word for word,
sacrificing elegance in favour of precision.
The three volumes of Gnosis, like the scriptures, are built on the
principle that no special terminology is used — just as the gospels were
written in Greek and not in Hebrew, which was the ancient sacred
language. At the same time, some of the words used have been given very
precise meanings which remain the same throughout the book. The only
exceptions to this consistency, says the author, are in old translations made
by enlightened men.
These special terms are sometimes explained by notes. I have not
hesitated to employ words now little used in the English language, but
which prove exactly suitable, such as the word 'ensemble' —which means
exactly the same in both languages, and 'notion', which once meant the
same in French and English but which is now much less used in English,
and often in more narrow ways. Here it is used in its original breadth of
meaning.
Two other words should also be brought to the notice of the reader.
These are 'gamme', translated by 'gamut', and 'echelle', translated by the
word 'scale'.
The author has stipulated that the use of simple terms does not exclude a
rigorous precision of meaning. (Chapter II, p. 12) This is particularly true
concerning certain important French words: 'savoir' and 'connaitre', which
are more or less indiscriminately translated by the English term 'to know',
but which have very different meanings in French. If the reader refers to
the sixth paragraph of the first chapter he would read: '...knowledge leads
us towards power.' 'Knowledge' here is the translation of the French word
'connaissance', which derives from the verb 'connaitre'. If we turn to the
third paragraph of the second chapter we would see that: 'one can know
without understanding, while the reverse is not true' and also that: 'to
understand is to know with something imponderable added to it'. Here
again, 'to know' translates the French verb 'savoir'.
We deduce from these two facts that since Knowledge (connaissame, not
savoir,) leads us towards Power, and since knowledge (savoir) is nothing
but a preliminary step towards understanding, savoir is a kind of inferior
knowledge which, though indispensable, neither leads to Power, nor is in
itself Understanding. Considerations like this have shaped the translation
of this book, sometimes involving a choice between accuracy and ele-
gance. These often difficult choices are summarized in the translation
notes that follow.
TRANSLATION NOTES
As the Translator's introduction says, because of the specialized nature
and precise terminology of the French original, we have found consider-
able difficulty in translating certain French words, particularly where
modern English uses one word for meanings clearly differentiated by
different terms in the French. The most important examples are summar-
ized below, and sometimes also indicated by footnotes to the text:
Niveau / Niveaux: Levels in the psychological or anthropological sense:
'Abaissement de niveau mental'.
Translated: Level-Levels.
Conflicts with: Echelle /Echelon :
Echelle: ladder used in a sense of stepladder or sometimes in a different
sense as a graduated scale.
Translated: Scale.
Echelon: rung, used in the sense of level (that is static, i.e. it is already
there), rung, step—of a stair: one level above another; rank in a hierarchy.
Translated: Step.
This in turn conflicts with and must be differentiated from:
Gamme, in the sense of musical scale of several different but related
notes. Translated by gamut — a forgotten English word for a 'musical
scale', which is rare but technically correct, if not previously used quite in
the way in which gamme was used by the author. The use of this word
gamut actually originated in French with Guido d'Arezzo (Klein's Ety-
mological Dict, says 'Gamut, n., range of musical sounds from gamma (the
lowest) to ut (the highest) — Coined by Guido d'Arezzo. Fr.) This word also
has more than one meaning in the book, and refers in general to a se-
quence of events developing according to a musical scale.
Translated: gamut.
Octave: octave as a complete musical scale from Do to Do.
Translated: octave.
Plan: The French word 'plan' is used in what appears in English in two
ways, one equivalent to the English term 'plane', the other in the everyday
English sense in which an action is preceded by a plan, or as in the Fr.
phrase, 'le plan de la creation'. This fortunate double meaning in French
does not translate well in English.
Translated: plan OR plane as appropriate.
Words for road, path or track, intentionally differentiated by the author:
Voie: translated way, Chemin: translated path, Sentier: translated track.
Words for knowledge and understanding:
Savoir and related words describe knowledge that is 'outside ourselves',
information that we may or may not understand.
Translation: knowledge, to know.
Connaissance and related words refer to knowledge which we contain ...
the knowing of that which is outside us by that which is within.
Translated: Knowledge, to Know.
These two forms of knowledge are often distinguished in the text by
footnote reference to the French.
Comprendre is understanding. This is within us and is limited by our
capacity.
Translated: to understand, understanding.
Savoir-faire is knowledge we can successfully put into practice.
Translated: savoir faire.
Older English words brought back into use. The author distinguishes in
French between: idee and notion, often using 'notion' where normal loose
use of English would use 'idea'. We are doing the same in English.
Translated: idea and notion.
He uses the word 'ensemble', (as in 'tout ensemble'), to describe a loose
mixture or combination of different components, often in contexts in
which looser use of English would us the word 'whole'. To be precise we
have translated this by 'ensemble', correct but now rarely used in English.
Translated: ensemble.
He distinguishes this from various derivatives of the word 'integral',
which translates loosely into the English words 'whole' or 'complete'. In
this text these words are used by the author to achieve greater precision,
and his meaning has direct links to the mathematical idea of integration.
Translated: DERIVATIVES OF integrate.
Constatation: French words that exist in English, but are very little used: A
group of words including 'constate' and 'constatation', which are used here
with very precise meaning.
Translated: 'constate', 'constated' and 'constatation'.
Psycbique: The French word 'psychique' is translated throughout the
book as 'mental', used in the same sense that Descartes distinguished mind
from body, so that mind and mental refer to the ensemble of intellectual,
emotional and instinctive processes. It is used in this way to avoid the
occult connotations now attached to the English word 'psychic' — this
usage is marked by footnotes. Where the word 'mental' is used without a
footnote it directly translates the French 'mental'.
Translated: mental; ' centres psychique' translated as 'mental centres'.
Because of their importance, certain of these translations will also be
referred to by footnotes.
A number of more general footnotes have been added by the translator
and editor. These are marked 'Tr.' and 'Ed.' respectively.
Sadek Alfred Wissa, December 1989
