Maro Ghukasyan’s thoughts on translating Osho (Օշո) for the first time.
Translation is the difficult and at the same time gratifying art of finding a way to truly express what a writer is saying. The famous Armenian poet, Hovhannes Tumanyan, said about this art: “Translating is like a rose under glass; you can see the shape but you can’t smell the scent. And so much talent is needed to show not only the true form, but also to give that special scent. And so much love, with talent…”
Although Tumanyan’s words are about translating poetry, it’s related to translation in general. It’s not only about translating words, expressions, from one language to another, but also about sharing the author’s spirit. The task is especially difficult when translating one of the most famous philosophers, teachers, spiritual leaders of the world – Osho.
Before I started translating Osho I had done mostly poetry translations – but one day one of my friends, the Armenian filmmaker and poet Razmik Grigoryan, advised me to translate Osho’s book, Emotions: Freedom from Anger, Jealousy and Fear. I hadn’t known much about Osho and his teachings until then.
And so the meeting with Osho began…
The peculiarity of Osho’s books is that he hasn’t written them, all his books are transcriptions of his talks. So the translation should express not only the meaning of the words but also the intonation of the author’s speech. Not an easy task, actually. But when you enter into conversation with the author while translating, the process flows. Osho talks to you, teaches, understands and explains your emotions in depth.
Such simple words, sentences, but also difficult to understand their message. To understand you need a little bit of alertness, a little bit of life experience, a rich inner world and the ability to synthesize facts together in order to make an overall point. Maybe that’s why Osho is so controversial for many people: people think they understand everything they read, but in fact they understand their way, not necessarily Osho’s real message.
Osho has been translated into Armenian for the first time, and introducing him to Armenian readers for the first time is a big responsibility, as they have the highest expectations from the translation, despite the fact that they must be spiritually inclined to understand the hidden meanings of even his simplest words. But the Armenian language helps you, inspires you, encourages you. Translating a spiritual author into a spiritual language…
Why do I say ‘spiritual language’?
Armenian or Hayeren (Հայերեն) is one of the ancient languages of the world, an independent branch of the family of Indo-European languages. The Armenian alphabet was created in 405 CE by Mesrop Mashtots. The 5th century was notable in Armenia for cultural and literary achievements, particularly for the Bible translation, which is the oldest surviving text, written by Mesrop Mashtots, Sahak Partev and their students. The translation of The New Testament was described as “The Queen of Translations” by the French Benedictine historian and orientalist, Maturinus Veyssière La Croze.
In 1816, Lord Byron visited San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice, where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture and the Armenian language. He wrote, “Armenian is the language to speak with God.” Armenian is also the language of Grigor Narekatsi (Gregory of Narek), a 10th century mystical and lyrical poet, monk and theologian, author of The Book of Lamentations (also known as “the Narek”). The reading of this spiritual meditative book heals, purifies our soul, helps to access inner perfection… if the reader is able to communicate with the messages in the book.
I’m sure that “the Narek” would have been one of Osho’s favourite books if he had known about it. One of his favourite authors was George Gurdjieff, an influential spiritual teacher of the twentieth century, who was born in Gyumri, Armenia.
As you see, Armenia and the Armenian language relate to Osho in some ways. And now they have met! Osho speaks in Armenian about emotions, about freeing yourself from anger, jealousy and fear.
Every book is a communication of minds, souls and hearts, a communication of reader and author. I hope that the Armenian translation of Emotions: Freedom from Anger, Jealousy and Fear (Զգացմունքներ. ազատագրում զայրույթից, նախանձից և վախից) will help readers to have a sincere communication with Osho and with their emotions, and be a guide during these hard and uncertain times.
Featured images credit to Mkhitar Serobyan
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