What inspired you to write another translation of the Bhagavad-gita?
A collegue of mine approached me about his teaching a Bhagavad-gita class at the University and, because I am somewhat considered the resident expert on the subject, inquired as to what translation of the Bhagavad gita he should use? After standing there for about an hour, casually discussing the pros and cons of various editions, he said, "Well, why don't you do one?" and I queried back, "Do one what?" "A translation of the Bhagavad-gita" I thought that that was interesting and wondered if Princeton, who had just published my book Dance of Divine Love had it on their list to publish. But I didn't really think of it seriously.
I happened to write to my editor at Princeton and asked, "Do you folks have the Bhagavad-gita on your list? That was all I said about that. She wrote back, "That's a wonderful idea. I'll send this over to Fred. Send a proposal in immediately."
What makes your translation of Bhagavad-gita different from others?
The way the gita has been translated in the past was usually one of two way. One, where the translator/author retains the 4-lined format, the quatrain verse, of the original text, . However, it takes many more words in english to explain an idea conveyed through sanskrit. So in an attempt to "squish" the translation into 4 lines, subtleties are lost, and meanings are dropped for the sake of maintaining the 4-lined form.
The other way, free prose, putting once what was in poetry form into prose, allows the translator/author the opportunity to maintain meaning, there is no sense of the form or shape of the original text, the poetry and flowing nature of the original text.
I have tried to combine the advantages of both the quatrain verse and free prose forms into, what I call, dedicated free verse translation, paying attention to the natural phrasiology of the sanskrit text, the rhythm, a cascading of phrasiologies while translating the text to maintain the meaning. As I approached this text in this way, jewels started to emerge, gems started to be mined - things that I had not seen in my 35 years of reading the Bhagavad-gita. Suddenly the gita comes alive. By focusing intensely on the intricacies of the sanskrit certain themes excitedly emerged, such as the gita itself being about "the supreme secret yoga"
Here is an example of a text that has it has been translated in the past as:
I am the source
of everything
and everything
emanates from Me
This is accurate, but it does
not convey or unpack the power in which it was originally
spoken. Here is how I translated this verse:
I am, of everything,
the coming forth into being;
from me everything
is set forth into motion.'
What were the
most challenging words to translate?
I would have to say it was the word "love". In english,
there is something absolute about the word "love", there is
no other word that we are so much invested in. I can say,
"You are very dear to me", "I'm very fond of you", and
that's fine. But if you hear me say, "I love you. I love
you as my best friend", ...it's the ultimate word. In
sanskrit there is no one "ultimate" word. There is
something ultimate in every nuanced word we use for love.
But in sanskrit there are different shades of love that are
put together with that absolute feeling of love. So I had
to incorporate the absolute quality of love from the
english with the nuanced shade emphasized by the particular
word used in the sanskrit. For example: priya, "You are
dearly loved by me", the love is there but there is an
endearing quality. Bhakti - bhakti is about love but there
is an active principle of love, the offering of love. So
the translation of "bhakta" becomes more than "devotee",
which doesn't convey the verbal feeling of the word - it
becomes "one who has offered love to me" and suddenly the
verse comes alive.
Is there any
indication, from the gita itself, as to what the whole gita
is about?
I'm glad you asked. Before translating the gita, I thought
it was the soul's bhakti for divinity. But I found it goes
beyond that, and that is the divinity's bhakti for soul.
Right from the beginning, the phrase "bhagavad-gita" is
widely accepted as the song of the divine. Where is the
song? The song is that this philosophical treatise is an
outpouring from the heart of the divine, the song of the
divine. And this continues through the 18th Chapter where
Krishna states that he has now presented the greater secret
(after having given the secret). "So listen once again to
my supreme word, my ultimate secret, 'You are so much loved
by me'". The whole of the gita can be summed by that
declaration; it is the song of love issuing forth from the
heart of God.
Why is "You
are so much loved by me" kept a secret?
If I consider you a dear friend, if I love you dearly as a
friend, but you do not feel the same way toward me, and I
know you don't feel that way about me, I would not go
around declaring that you are my dearest friend. The divine
is already loving us, but we are not loving him. Krishna is
not a god of threat, or of judgement, or of punishment. He
is a loving god, a patient god. And he is willing to wait
for the soul to come to love him. Out of his love for the
soul he puts and himself in this creation - if we do not
want to see him - he is hidden. If we want to acknowledge
him and turn to him, the same things that had hidden him
from us, now becomes the source of revelation.