Judith Skutch Whitson Interview

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Another "Journey Without Distance": Translating A Course in Miracles

From The Holy Encounter magazine

http://www.miraclecenter.org/Holy_Encounter.html

Since A Course in Miracles' publication in 1975 there has always been one person at the helm providing the energy and dedication that was needed to bring the Course to the world. That person was and still is Judith Skutch Whitson. As president of the Foundation for Inner Peace, publishers of A Course in Miracles, a sacred trust and responsiblity was given to her. It was in her hands to nurture and bring the Course to the world. As a student of the Course then and now, she knew that she was merely its caretaker and that she and her staff would be guided each step of the way. That guidance has brought much exciting change to the life of the Course as the Foundation for Inner Peace now steps into the arena of translating A Course in Miracles into the languages of those awaiting students around the world. In this exclusive interview for readers of The Holy Encounter, Judy shares with us the enormous task that faces them and how they feel the Holy Spirit's guidance each step of the way as they begin another "journey without distance."

HE: Why is The Foundation for Inner Peace translating A Course in Miracles into different languages?

JSW: As the Trustee of the Course and owner of its copyright, the Foundation for Inner Peace is committed to the dissemination of its message to everyone. Obviously, only a small percentage of the world's population speak English. Even so, if there had been no demand from foreign students for translations, we might have postponed the translations until a larger audience appeared. But English-speaking foreign students began to teach the Course to those who yearned to read the Course in their own language. To facilitate their teaching, some people began to translate portions of the Course. It became clear that such informal translations might misinterpret the original meaning of the Course. We could not permit a chaos of amateur translations to confuse both the principles of the Course and the foreign students who would be drawn to those profound ideals. It was therefore inevitable that we would embark on the translation project both to fulfill our mandate and to respond to the growing demand.

HE: Would you consider the translation effort the priority focus of the Foundation for Inner Peace now?

JSW: Unquestionably. Most of our financial and human resources are committed to that effort now.

HE: Does a single person have general responsibility for the translation effort?

JSW: Yes. Dr. William Whitson, the Executive Secretary of the Foundation, is also the principal administrator of all translations. He shepherds a translation from the initial selection and evaluation of a translator through contract design and successive revisions to final typesetting for publication.

HE: What factors have dictated your choice of languages?

JSW: We have certainly been conscious of student demand. And we have felt the passion of those who seemed to be inspired to dedicate themselves to the very difficult and time-consuming task of a translation. But as with all of our corporate and personal decisions, the Holy Spirit has guided our sequence of translations.

HE: Are most of the translators students of the Course before they start the translation process?

JSW: Yes, without exception. In fact, most translators are students who were so inspired by the English version that they felt compelled and guided to volunteer their services to render a translation.

HE: Do you accept such volunteers automatically?

JSW: No. We have learned to follow a very strict protocol of testing to insure that a translator is fully qualified for at least a five-year commitment to the task. We begin by asking for a sample translation of a difficult chapter, usually Chapter 13 or Chapter 23 of the Text.

HE: How can you possibly evaluate such a sample?

JSW: We are interested in two, often conflicting criteria: idiomatic fluency and accuracy. The unqualified translator who is only an amateur or is not thoroughly familiar with the English will often render an initial translation that is a word-for-word version of the English. Such a flawed effort immediately warns us that the student, as a teacher of God, lacks confidence to heed the guidance of the Course itself "...a good translator, although he must alter the form of what he translates, never changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained." (T106/115) Furthermore, word-for-word translations are usually incomprehensible to native speakers of the foreign language. So such an amateurish effort will be all but useless anyway.

HE: So who judges the adequacy of a sample translation?

JSW: Normally, we give the sample first to an experienced professional translation corporation in Washington, DC. Since they are not experienced students of the Course, we use them to evaluate fluency. We also ask another student of the English version who is also fluent in the target language to evaluate the sample.

HE: Does that end the qualifying process?

JSW: Not at all. If the evaluation is promising, we invite the candidate to Roscoe, New York, for an interview with Dr. Kenneth Wapnick, President of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. Ken will interview the candidate for a more thorough evaluation of his or her understanding of the Course. He also uses a week of interviewing to assess the maturity of the candidate. After all, if chosen, that person will enter into at least a five-year dialogue with Ken to explore all the more subtle meanings of the Course line by line. If a translator doesn't understand a sentence, he or she must ask Ken for clarification. So we ask Ken to insure that a translator is already relatively sophisticated about the Course before such a dialogue begins.

HE: By dialogue, do you mean that every translator must live at Roscoe?

JSW: Generally that is not convenient-or necessary. But since Ken is primarily responsible for insuring that each translator truly understands every detail of the Course in English, some translators have lived at Roscoe to study with him in order to accelerate their understanding of the Course. In any case, we expect each translator to raise any and all questions about meaning through constant correspondence and telephone conversations. Then, at least once a year, we like a translation team to visit Roscoe for face-to-face discussions and workshops.

HE: But there are so many levels of understanding! No student ever can be said to have "finished" with the Course. Each year of study deepens one's understanding. When is a student ready for the task of translation?

JSW: Good for you! You are touching on one of the most complicated issues that confronts all of us. No translator has come to Roscoe fully qualified to translate the Course. Invariably, the very process of translating deepens one's understanding because it evokes questions of interpretation that are not easily answerable. Such questions challenge any translator's deepest knowledge of philosophy, metaphysics, theology, psychology, pedagogy and the Bible. For example, at what cultural level should the Course be translated? Should it be street language? "Pop" language? Heavy intellectual, Biblical, Shakespearean or academic language? We have learned that some prisoners in San Quentin prison call Holy Spirit "Spook." Is that the kind of language that a translator should use?

HE: So by "understanding the Course," you also mean a candidate's sense of respect for the material as well as its accessibility to people in the target language?

JSW: Absolutely! If we have enough confidence in a candidate translator to sign a contract, we will still monitor their work through their first draft to be sure that we haven't made a mistake. We do not want major errors to go uncorrected too long, even during the crafting of a first draft.

HE: But you don't correct all errors immediately?

JSW: No. We urge the translator to forge ahead through a first draft for several reasons. We know that only after they have met the challenge of the entire Course will they have reached a necessary level of understanding of the task itself -- even if they may not yet have fully grasped the profundity of the material. Also, simply as a matter of technique, if a translator tried to correct each chapter in order to render a perfect chapter, they would inevitably be dissatisfied with their work by the time they reached the end. That has happened over and over to translators who tried to be perfect before they had really struggled through the entire work.

HE: So what happens after the first draft is finished?

JSW: That's when a reader and maybe even an editor join the team. They too must be thorough students of the English material. But we will often bring on an editor or a reader who is especially qualified in the literature of the target culture. By working with the translator and with Ken Wapnick, they struggle with specific problems in the target language, problems that we had advised the translator to postpone until he or she was more familiar with the entire range of such problems.

HE: Can you give me an example?

JSW: Of course. In French, there is no word for the highly ambiguous English word, "mind." In Hebrew "Holy Spirit" is feminine. Thus, the translator had to be very sure that "He" in a sentence referred to Holy Spirit before revising the sentence to the feminine gender. In Chinese, there are several different ways to say "God." How do you render capitalization of certain words in languages which don't use capitals, like Chinese? How do you translate our highly evolved language of psychology into a culture which may not yet have acquired the American sophistication with human motives?

HE: What do you do when the target language has no equivalent to the English word?

JSW: That is precisely the case where a word-for-word translation breaks down. The translator's obligation is to translate the idea of a sentence and a paragraph in words that least distort the vocabulary and syntax of the target language. So the team must convey that idea in ordinary language. However, it has sometimes been necessary to invest a pre-existing word with a new meaning, which must then be used consistently throughout the translation. Twelve years ago at the beginning of the Hebrew translation, we learned that there was no word for "mind" at all. Finally, a new meaning for an ancient word was introduced into the language that means the "font of thought." Sometimes, we may permit a footnote in the translation to explain the translator's choice. But we prefer to minimize footnotes, which tend to divert the reader's attention.

HE: My goodness, a translator must be very courageous!

JSW: Unbelievably courageous and daring! Most translators work essentially alone. Of course, we provide him or her with aids and human resources like Ken Wapnick and readers. But finally, we must trust the translator personally to make thousands of decisions of interpretation.

HE: For example, the syntax of the English version is often very awkward because of the iambic pentameter. Do you expect the translator to echo or mimic that meter?

JSW: No. In fact, we warn the translator to avoid such a pitfall. There is no obligation for a translator to mimic ambiguities and awkwardness that result from Helen's metric style. If the English meaning is very clear and without any ambiguity, the translator must only render that meaning into the target language. That doesn't mean that a translation can't be beautiful, even poetic. Parts of the Spanish and the Russian translations are in blank verse and are quite moving, according to highly competent readers.

HE: But what if several alternative meanings are possible?

JSW: That's when the skill and courage and confidence of the translator face a supreme test. That's when we want the translation to be just as ambiguous as the English. One of our primary rules is "Don't try to improve the English."

HE: Does each language present special challenges?

JSW: Yes. We thought the Spanish, our first translation, would be easy. But we learned that Spanish takes on different cultural variations in each Spanish speaking country. To settle that problem, we decided that Castilian, the purest form of Spanish, would be required. We were indeed lucky that one of the original translators was a professional translator from Spain.

HE: How about Asian languages?

JSW: They pose two very special problems of both content and form. With respect to content, we have advised our Chinese and Japanese translators to translate for the tens of millions of Christians in their countries. At least they would already have a belief system consistent with western thought. With respect to format, the People's Republic of China uses a simplified font or character while the Republic of China (Taiwan) and most overseas Chinese use traditional characters. We must still decide which font to use.

HE: What languages have already been published and how many volumes are now in print?

JSW: Since its publication in 1991, we have printed over 60,000 Spanish books. Since the Gen-man translation was first printed in 1992, over 50,000 copies have been distributed. Since we first published the Portuguese last year, we have distributed about 5,000 copies. The Hebrew was published this past summer with about 2,000 copies in print.

HE: What translations are in process now?

JSW: The Russian should be finished by the end of 1996. Chinese and French should be finished in the autumn of 1998. By the end of 1998, our translations will permit nearly 90% of the world's population to study the Course in their own language. Over the next five years, we expect to publish another sixteen languages. In alphabetical order, they are: Bulgarian; Croatian; Czech; Danish; Dutch; Farsi; Finnish; Greek; Hungarian; Italian; Japanese; Norwegian; Polish; Rwnaniati; Slovene; and Swedish.

HE: Are the translations numbered in the same way as the English?

JSW: Yes. One of our goals in numbering the English version was to facilitate comparison of the same sentence in English and the translated language. If a reader or foreign student finds that the translation is not clear, he or she can refer to the same numbered sentence in the English for clarification.

HE: Have computers been useful in the translation work?

JSW: Not simply useful. Computers were essential. At the time we put the entire Course on computer with a search program, we did not know that the computer would be such a vital aid in translation work. But we soon discovered that only with a computer could a translator swiftly race through the entire Course to check a key translated word in all its uses. Indeed, one measure of the importance of a word is the frequency of its appearance in the Course. Such key words are like code words in the philosophical structure of the course; they must be used consistently throughout the Course.

HE: Can you give me an example?

JSW: Of course. God "creates." Egos "make." "Atonement" has a special Course definition which hides within the ambiguity of the English word. Thus, translators must develop a lexicon of key words that they will use consistently throughout their work.

HE: Can you tell us what an average translation costs?

JSW: The cost ranges from $300,000 to $500,000 for each language, which will usually require between seven and ten years to complete. When we first approached professional translation companies like Berlitz, we described the standards of excellence that we require and the multiple drafts and study visits to Ken Wapnick needed to meet those standards. They finally advised us that we were attaining our standards at much lower costs than the industry could have achieved.

HE: But those costs are very high. How can they be supported?

JSW: We put all profits from our book sales into the translation effort. We allocate all excess funds from our royalties to translations. But we finally realized last year that, for the first time in the twenty-year history of the Foundation for Inner Peace, we would need outside help.

We prayed for guidance and felt inspired by a plan based on the realization that in this ethnically diverse great country of ours, many of us have connections to other languages through our grandparents, our parents and our spouses. Why not appeal to that rich heritage? Why not let students of the Course make a direct contribution to their own cultural heritage that now yearned for the ideas of the Course in their own language? We started our "Adopt A Language Program."

The program appeals to students of the Course for assistance. We mailed an announcement about our need to those we knew who cared about the Course. We invited them to contribute in any way they could afford. They could either select a specific language to support or they could donate to our general fund.

HE: Can students still "Adopt A Language?"

JSW: Absolutely! Contributions can be sent to the Foundation for Inner Peace, P.O. Box 615, Tiburon, California 94920.

HE: Do you have any personal stories about translators?

JSW: Often people expect that these unusually committed folks must be extraordinary people. But in truth, they are just like Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford: ordinary people performing an extraordinary "assignment." They are mid-wives birthing the blue books for untold numbers of students of future generations. But to answer your question, I would rather let them speak for themselves.

Japanese translator Yuriko Tanaka

As I studied A Course in Miracles, at least I could recognize that there is another way to see things around me and in me. It took me over a year to read the whole book through twice. By then I strongly felt that this is the message I really would like to share with people in Japan.

One day it dawned on me, that for me to keep saying that I have been searching for the Peace of God, I am saying that I still do not have it or not being in the Peace of God, where in fact, God has already given me everything I want.

Chinese translator Chiao Lin Cabanne

I have been searching for the meaning of life since an early age.... I continued my search for years for a psychological line which could make concrete sense of what and where I am, and allow me to integrate every aspect of my mundane life into my spiritual pursuit.

Then an invitation came. I happily accepted the call to further my spiritual journey through the translation of A Course in Miracles. It shows me a way to transform my worldly relationships into a holy instant. It reminds me of my true self, the heaven that I never lost. It rests my mind after long restless searching, so that I may be able to live simply a life of grace.

Portuguese translator Lillian Paes

As many of us when I found A Course in Miracles in 1985, I had been searching most of my life. Finally I could see. I studied as much as I could and struggled to learn its thought, its lessons, its new language and I couldn't believe I was so blessed to do what I most wanted to do in this world. When I understood that after three years of hard work I had to start all over again reading dictionaries to keep my own interpretations out, I was humbled and inspired. But when the book was finally published in l995, that's when the real learning started.

I am no administrator and to this day I do not understand how come I am doing this. As Helen, I often ask, "Why me?" All I can say is that without Him I could never have come all this way. I feel very inadequate to this role and keep asking for Help over and over.

Hebrew translator Avi Yasur

It was obvious that to introduce A Course in Miracles to Israeli students I would have to translate the Course into Hebrew. During those days I was translating films so the translation did not seem impossible. I heard the call and answered it gladly. It seemed the commitment to the Course was an ancient and deep one, more than I could remember at the time. Much later I realized that indeed that decision had been made many years back. I found my life mission and purpose, I did not know then that twelve years of translation will be needed. And even if I were told I wouldn't even consider whether to answer the call or not. I didn't ask any questions, I had no doubts, I did what I was asked to do. A Course in Miracles had to be published in Hebrew and I followed the instructions.

Many spiritual and deep experiences took place during those twelve years, I cannot describe their immensity. I always found an answer to every conflict in my life. Sometimes while studying the Course, trying to comprehend it, reading it over and over, a radiant figure would suddenly appear before me explaining gently and lovingly the text and how it touches my life at this very moment.

I cannot envision my life without A Course in Miracles, as if it has its own personality. The Manual for Teachers tells us that unity is certain, "... all who meet will someday meet again."(M7/8) I felt I had met an old friend, an ancient love. An ancient love I cannot keep only to myself. I must share it with the whole of humanity. For this privilege I am grateful. Through my response to the Call others came and created more holy encounters, and more healing. I cannot envision my life without this holy encounter that introduced me to the Course and with those that were with me and were partners in my life dream.