“Not Unlike the Wrong Side of a Turkish Carpet”: Titles and Subtitles in Some Translations of the Dhammapada

Abstract

Drawn from a larger comparative study, this article offers a detailed
examination of eleven English translations of the Dhammapada’s titles
and subtitles as a means of exemplifying some of the problems inherent in
translating the text itself. The outcomes of the examination seek to answer
at least two questions: What do these figures reveal about the problems
inherent in the translation processes themselves? What are possible causes
for the diversities in the titling of these sections, all of which bear the same
source-language title? To contextualise this examination, the systems and
sub-systems of the translation process, together with some concomitant
problems, are presented as are the ways in which the translations were
selected. The outcomes themselves are presented in tabular and numerical
form before they are discussed. Clearly, the target-language choices available
to translators present not only a range of potential meanings but also
the concomitant possibilities of ambiguity, thus engendering as much
confusion as clarity for readers. Ultimately, readers of translations may
have to be satisfied with the gist of the source-language original because
any sense of definitive meaning remains essentially elusive.