On February 16 I had a bad cold and thought I could power through the second session of our series “Warera: Shinran and Solidarity” but I could barely get through a half hour. My apologies to everyone who attended on Zoom.
The following is what I intended to talk about and probably only touched on. Starting at the top of CWS p. 452, “sacred” is the word I wanted to quibble about. It’s the translation for son, tootoi 尊. In the history of English translations of Shinshu texts, words like “sacred,” “holy,” “divine” etc. come from Christian vocabulary and the Japanese-speakers who used them felt they perfectly fit the religious value they wanted to convey. But I think those words create a sense of “high in the sky” holiness like rays of blessed sunlight coming down through the high windows of a medieval cathedral. Rather than “sacred,” the Name, namu amida butsu, comes into our lives as a great noble power, bringing dignity and respect rather than demanding them to be given. It is too bad the CWS translation doesn’t echo the sound of fukashō, fukasetsu, fukashigi, by repeating “not-possibly” before each verb: “described, explained, conceptualized,” instead of the bland “surpasses measure …” The Japanese readers could appreciate the zingyness of Shinran’s wording that the CWS denies to us.
“[I]t is the Name of the Vow” of great love and great compassion – why does CWS have to insert “embodying”? Causing all beings to enter supreme nirvana doesn’t need any “embodying.” Again CWS adds in extra wording – it is enough to say what the text already said about the vow making all beings enter the highest awakening. But somehow CWS wants to remind us that the Vow is “to save all beings.”
In the next section, mid-page, there’s more extraneous wording. Shinran elucidates the passage “exceedingly distinct and clear” to show how each being is uniquely distinguished from each other, yet are all included in the heart of compassion. Shinran does not have to spell out whose heart is directed towards us. But CWS has to insert that he must be talking about Amida Buddha who has a mission that “guides each to salvation.” In both cases of the wording inserted by the translators, the tricky terms “save” and “salvation” are used, while Shinran feels being made to enter the highest level of awakening does not need to dressed up as “salvation.”
I didn’t have the capacity to get into the jinen “come of themselves” section but I appreciate in the brief discussion we had, that it is something for us to contemplate on whether “only those who say the Name” can be born in the Pure Land (top of page 453). I would like to think it means we are not really in the Pure Land as long as we think we have to do something to make us deserving of it and saying the Name is an expression of completely letting go of our self-power effort (I referred to the scene in “Put Your Lips to the Dust” in Dr. Haneda’s book Dharma Breeze). How do we see others being born in the Pure Land when they are doing very different things than the single-hearted nembutsu?
Translating between languages and cultures is full of pitfalls as we are seeing in this study – the CWS translators not having the same level of trust for their audience as Shinran had for his. For this month, I’d like to highlight the book Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine edited by Refaat Alareer . The book was originally published in 2014 but last year a memorial edition was published to honor the murdered teacher Dr. Alareer. He felt it was important for his students to become fluent in writing English so their people’s stories can be heard by the world. It is unfortunate that in the U.S. we understand so little about life in other countries because a lot of literature is not skillfully translated and it must be especially hard to depend on English-speakers to translate from Arabic, when many Arabic learners are current and future U.S. government agents.
Besides bringing us inside the minds of the people suffering in Gaza, the young writers are also showing us the spirit of resistance that we will need to foster in ourselves and each other as authoritarian forces try to take over aspects of our lives. In these past days of February, the Japanese American community has been focused on the Day of Remembrance, commemorating Executive Order 9066 which took people out of the West Coast and into camps in the interior. This year because of the ramped up ICE raids, there are cries to stop detaining and deporting the refugees – “Never again!” Yet I’ve been bothered by the lack of intersectionality in these protests – Japanese Americans are concerned for people immigrating to the U.S. but not for those who like the Latin American refugees are also victims of global imperialist policies. I’m moved by the social media accounts of Palestinian commentators showing concern not only for their own people but also for Blacks and Native Americans in the U.S. Yet it seems difficult for the wartime camp survivors and their descendants to see any rationale for tearing down all prisons, not just the ICE centers, and for calling out all oppressors including those who are funding Day of Remembrance activities.
