Review: The Bhagavad Gita |
| Written by Hamsa Stainton • November 2008 |
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Author: Anonymous Laurie L. Patton offers readers a fresh, thoughtful new translation of The Bhagavad Gita, along with an excellent introduction and notes to the text. The accessibility and quality of her work make it stand out amid the many translations of The Bhagavad Gita already available (including Juan Mascaro’s less noteworthy translation with Penguin Classics from 1962, reprinted in 2003). The newness of Professor Patton’s translation goes well beyond its publication date. Both her decisions as a translator (discussed in detail below) and her supporting materials bridge the divide between the ancient Sanskrit text and contemporary readers by showing the diverse religious, political and cultural influences The Bhagavad Gita has had in history.
The content of The Bhagavad Gita, often called simply the Gita, is a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his friend, charioteer and teacher Krishna on the cusp of the great battle in the Mahabharata epic. In this dialogue, Krishna instructs the dejected Arjuna on the nature of the self (atman), the three paths of action (karma), knowledge (jnana), and devotion (bhakti), and the teachings of samkhya, including the three gunas. He also reveals his own divine identity as the eternal, imperishable, yet personal lord, leading up to the eleventh chapter in which he grants Arjuna a vision of his awesome cosmic form. Through Krishna’s teachings and revelation, Arjuna acquires the right understanding--and the determination-- to act, to begin the great war. Professor Patton’s introduction to this famous dialogue, organized around the questions of “who, what, where, when and why?,” sets the scene by describing the central literary, historical and conceptual contexts of the Gita. In lucid, engaging prose, she surveys how diverse authors have translated, interpreted, and commented upon the Gita for hundreds of years. These authors include early Indian commentators such as Shankara, Ramanuja and Abhinavagupta, writing in Sanskrit, and important regional translations like that of the 13th century Jnaneshwar in Maharastra; British colonialists like Charles Wilkins, whose 1785 translation was the first into a European language; early Indian nationalists, reformers and spiritual leaders, including Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda and M.K. Gandhi; and spiritual figures from India who traveled and taught in the West, like Swami Bhaktivedanta and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Professor Patton also draws attention to some prominent artistic representations of the Gita, such as Philip Glass’s contemporary opera, Satyagraha. The diversity and complex history of these examples highlights the Gita’s great potential to be relevant for generations of new readers. Professor Patton’s introduction also conceptually frames the Gita quite well. With the three famous “paths” discussed in the Gita as her framework (the path of knowledge, the path of action, and the path of devotion), she clearly and concisely introduces the key terms of the text: jnana, karma, atman, brahman, yoga, samkhya, guna, dharma, and bhakti. Within a short amount of space, she equips the reader to plunge into her own dialogue with the Gita itself. The only notable weak point in Professor Patton’s otherwise outstanding introduction is her description of the main characters of the Mahabharata (and thus the Gita). Perhaps this is simply inevitable, considering the vast complexity of the epic. On the other hand, some of the central characters and their struggles might have been better represented. In her description of Yudhisthira’s loss to his duplicitous uncle and cousins in the famous dicing scene, for example, Professor Patton seems to overemphasize his love of gambling, characterizing it as his tragic flaw, his Achilles’ heel (xi). This overlooks how gambling was a feature of kingly dharma, as well the questions and tensions surrounding the fulfillment of dharma that are played out through the narrative of the epic. While this specific issue could be debated, the larger point is that the literary context of the Gita is the only part of the introduction that seems a bit too abbreviated. The translation itself is both careful and bold. It distinguishes itself by appealing to the aesthetic sensibilities of 21st century readers, while staying closer to the original Sanskrit than many other translations. It is, in general, accessible, clear, and enjoyable to read, without trying to over-interpret or explain away the enigmas in the ancient Sanskrit. In chapter two, for example, Professor Patton renders many of Krishna’s famous explanations of the self into clear English, simple yet elegant: The one who perceives the self as a killer; and the one who perceives the self as killed: neither of them know that this self does not kill, nor is it killed. (2.19) A few verses later in the same chapter: Weapons do not cut the self, nor does fire burn it, nor do waters drench it, nor does wind dry it. The self is not to be pierced, nor burned, nor drenched, nor dried; it is eternal, all-pervading and fixed-- unmoving from the beginning. (2.23-24) As these verses indicate, Professor Patton translates each Sanskrit verse (shloka) into an eight-line free verse composition, with no line having more than eight syllables (and most having far less). As she argues, this approximates a contemporary equivalent to the structured yet flexible Sanskrit shloka and allows new thoughts to unfold individually, line by line (xxxvi-xxxvii). She herself is a recently published poet; her collection, Fire’s Goal: Poems from the Hindu Year, was released by White Cloud Press in 2003. One of the prominent features of Professor Patton’s translation is her decision to leave four of the key terms discussed in the introduction untranslated: dharma, yoga, samkhya, and guna. The multivalence of these terms, therefore, emerges for the reader throughout the text. In chapter four, for example, Krishna begins to reveal his full identity to Arjuna: Son of Bharata, whenever there is a decline in dharma, and the absence of dharma increases, I create myself. I come into being from age to age with the purpose of fixing dharma-- as a refuge for those who do good and as a doom for those who do evil. (4.7-8) In such verses, the semantic richness and complexity of the term dharma, discussed in the introduction, is not limited by translating dharma with a single word such as righteousness or law. These verses also illustrate the care in Professor Patton’s translation. Despite the quantity of theological interpretation surrounding these verses in particular, she stays verse close to a literal translation. In the final line of 4.7, for example, “I create myself” is a literal translation of the Sanskrit “atmanam srijamy aham”. Professor Patton carefully discusses the theological interpretations of Krishna as an avatara, literally the “crossing down” of a god onto earth, in her note on this verse. In this way the reader is able to engage with the original text itself and some of the long history of its interpretation as well. A number of Professor Patton’s decisions as a translator make the text more open and interesting for the reader. Throughout the text, she translates the specific epithets that Krishna and Arjuna use for one another, such as “Strong-Armed One” and “Blessed One.” As she argues, “the use of epithets gives the Gita a unique richness and texture”(xxxvii), which also makes the text more interesting for the reader. She includes an appendix with commonly used epithets in the Gita, in addition to a helpful glossary of names. Unlike most translators, she also chooses not to impose a title onto each chapter (other than referring to each one as a “discourse,” emphasizing the importance of the exchange between the two main characters). While this may deprive the reader of some obvious signposts, it reflects this translator’s straightforward approach and general faith in the reader to engage proactively with the text. Professor Patton’s translation also benefits from close attention to metrical changes in the text. Her notes point out when the text switches from the simple shloka meter to the more complex trishtubh, often at moments of intense emotion such as Krishna’s revelation in chapter eleven. The reader, furthermore, is able to make her own connections between different parts of the text because Professor Patton maintains consistency in her translation of key terms, and notes when she variates her translation. In chapter thirteen, for example, an early note explains that in this chapter she adopts the translation “matter” for the word “prakriti,” instead of “material nature” as in some earlier contexts. Her consistency in translation helps the reader appreciate the usage of key terms in various contexts through the Gita. In general, Professor Patton’s translation stays close to a literal translation of the Sanskrit Gita. The translation of a few verses, however, may surprise those readers familiar with the original Sanskrit or another translation of the text. Many readers of the Gita, for example, know Krishna’s explanation of yoga to Arjuna in 2.50: “yogah karmasu kaushalam”. The most common translation for this is: “yoga is skill in action.” Professor Patton translates: “yoga is ease in action.” The term kaushalam derives from the adjective kushala, which generally means “skilled, clever, able to or prosperous.” Professor Patton’s translation of this well-known phrase from the Gita is interesting, but difficult to accept since she does not include a note arguing for her decision. Considering the need to keep her scholarly notes to a minimum for general readers, however, it is remarkable how seldom one encounters such moments of mild confusion. Occasionally, Professor Patton’s translation does contain a few quirks inconsistent with the quality of the rest of the text. At a couple of points the translation seems a bit awkward, as in 12.6: But those who give up all actions to me, who hold me as highest, and with yogawhere the goal is clear, in pure concentration, they honour me. The strangeness of this particular verse might be because Professor Patton chooses to translate it as an independent verse, while some translators interpret it in connection with the one that follows (since 12.7 does contain a correlative pronoun that can grammatically construe with the relative pronoun in verse 12.6). Translators of Sanskrit texts encounter a plethora of difficult decisions, and the smooth translation of a few verses like this one seem to have suffered because of it. Professor Patton’s vigilant adherence to the original Sanskrit is one of the great strengths of this new translation. In a small number of instances, however, a bit of secondary interpretation seems to slip in. She translates verse 2.72, for example, as: Son of Pritha, this is the state of Brahman; if one has not reached this, one is confused. But firm in this, even at the time of ending, one reaches Brahman, the bliss of cessation. The crucial Sanskrit compound here is in the last line: brahmanirvanam. Nirvana is commonly translated as “cessation” and often occurs in a Buddhist context, as she discusses in her note to this verse. She also discusses the concept of Brahman in her introduction. What she does not discuss in either is the “bliss” that makes its way into the translation here. There are many ways to interpret this compound, such as “cessation in Brahman” or “cessation which is Brahman,” but the word “bliss” seems to be an addition based on later Indian interpretations of the verse. This is surprising because of how carefully Professor Patton stays close to the Sanskrit text in general. She herself, in verse 5.24, translates the same exact compound brahmanirvanam as “cessation in Brahman,” again with a note about the Buddhist associations of the word nirvana. It is worth stressing once again, however, that such inconsistencies in the translation are rare exceptions that highlight the consistent quality of the remainder of the text. Overall, the merits of this book are numerous, and its weaknesses minor. Laurie Patton offers readers a valuable new translation of the Gita that is straightforward, accessible and enjoyable to read. Its introduction is concise, learned and interesting. Clear notes support the translation and suggest some of the rich context and history of the Gita. Any translation of a text as widely interpreted as the Gita will be controversial, and scholars can debate many of Professor Patton’s interpretations. In the end, however, the Gita is about action, and the acts of reading and teaching this translation will prove the quality of Professor Patton’s work. I will certainly assign her book in my own teaching, and I am confident that students and teachers alike will benefit from studying it. Comments (0)
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