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Markup Of English Translations Of Tibetan Texts

Contributor(s): THL Staff.

Delineating Page Numbers between Tibetan Texts and their English Translations

As anyone dealing with Tibetan texts and translations is aware, it can be difficult at worst and arbitrary at best to decide how to align Tibetan text page numbers with page numbers listed in an equivalent translation of that text. When a Tibetan sentence or clause ends squarely at the end of the page, there's no issue; but this is quite seldom the case. More often it is that a Tibetan sentence continues from one page to the next, and so it can be difficult to indicate this clearly when demarcating page numbers in an English translation. This issue primarily arises from the incongruity of sentence structure and syntax found between Tibetan and English. A common case is when the verb, usually found at the end of a Tibetan clause or sentence, will appear early in an equivalent English translation. Consider the following Tibetan sentence, which is split between one page and the next as indicated by the number in curly brackets:

• Tibetan (wylie): des cang mi smra {22} bas khas blangs te/
• English: He accepted by not speaking at all.

Not only does the sentence carry over to the next page in the middle clause, but it cuts right in the middle of a nominalized verb, making it practically impossible to accurately illustrate the change in page number in the English translation. Even so, if one wanted to visually maintain the general nature of the page change by placing the number in the center of the sentence (i.e., "He accepted {22} by not speaking at all."), it would neglect the fact that, due to differences in sentence structure, the first portion of the English sentence is really the last portion of the Tibetan, and vice versa. There is no adequate solution to this problem except to standardize an acceptable arbitrary delineation. Thus, in this regard, I submit a standardization scheme for this issue, whereby the page number is placed evenly at the end of the split clause. Thus, we have:

• Tibetan (wylie): des cang mi smra {22} bas khas blangs te/
• English: He accepted by not speaking at all. {22}

One exception would be if the vast majority of the Tibetan sentence or clause was on the next page, with only the first syllable or so on the previous page. In which case, it would be more appropriate to place the page number indicator before the sentence. For example:

• skyed {29} mos tshal byi dor byas pa ri mo sna tshogs bris pa zhig tu rtsed chas sna tshogs bshams te sgor byung ba dang /
• {29} Having prepared a grove, they drew various pictures (on the walls) and arranged musical instruments inside, then they left.

Again, this is an arbitrary designation, but it seems to be the closest approximation to delineating page numbers in an English translation while maintaining the coherence of the original Tibetan.

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