Guiding principles of the translation  (gurbani)

 Dr. Kanwar Ranvir Singh .

1. Performance piece. The Guru Granth Sahib is organised by ragas. It is a hymn book. The translation of the words should coincide with the mood generated by the raga, lyrics should fit the mood. The rehao serves the function of a chorus. It contains the central message which is then explained and amplified in the various verses.
2. Self-contained system. Gurbani can explain Gurbani. In earlier pieces such as the War of the Soul I tracked usages of the same imagery across the Guru Granth Sahib.
3. Context of utterance. In a dialogue such as Siddha Gosht, Guru Nanak's discussion with the Siddhas, there is widespread use of Buddhist vocabulary. This may have been familiar to listeners at that time as the Ai Panth would have been a well-known group; otherwise, why discourse with them and mention them in Jap Ji Sahib?
4. Contemporary relevance. As science progresses, we may have different understanding of certain terms and expressions. Also, for example, the Persian 'Khuda' can be used to refer as it originally did to Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrian religion as well as Allah of the Muslim religion.
5. Human relevance. There is a lot of psychological and social/political relevance of Gurbani to our lives here and now.
6. Mystical understanding. Gurbani deals with union with the Divine. The interpreter/translator is limited by the extent of her/his experience.
7. Mythological. Gurbani can act as an interfaith connector as it makes reference to a range of people and images shared with different traditions.
8. Dated. This project has been proceeding since 1986 or 87. It has stopped and started with changes in my understanding. Five hundred years from now people will be interpreting Gurbani differently but finding themselves just as blessed to have 'discovered' or 'been given' it.
9. Inspirational. I hope it encourages more people to translate and share their understanding. This work is a project-in-progress that I hope continues after my death. My effort is in no way intended to be definitive.
10. Rules of grammer. Professor Sahib Singh is used as a touchstone for the translation offered. His method of attending to the grammer is important. Applying that I often use an active voice where the words literally would lead to a passive voice.
11. The separation of words in contemporary printed works is not universally accepted. For example, I use ikoankarsat applying principles of grammer, nasalisation/sound and sense.
12. While careful to avoid the brahmanic lens, in particular in its distortion of Buddhist ideas, and, therefore, supporting the Singh Sabha I am equally careful to avoid the Anglo-Saxon lens under which hegemony they operated. In particular I reject the use of masculine terms such as Lord God, unless masculinity is implied, e.g. if the verse refers to the seeker as female. I also reject the dualism implicit in Western thought, whether between Mind and Heart, Mind and Body, or Us and Them in favour of the unity of Being, oneness both psychological (peeri) and political (meeri).
13. Gurbani is a sounding board into the Sabd, the Inner Tutor, the Divine at the heart of Life. It is untranslatable and the present effort in no way pretends to be a replacement of the Guru.

 __._,_.___