Precious Stones

This post provides a translation of a short piece of writing entitled "Precious Stones," by Aung Thu Nyein, also available on his blog here.

Maung Tha Noe on translating

The following is a copy of Maung Tha Noe's insightful article on translating between English and Myanmar. It is can also be downloaded here.

Losing gems as you translate

Some experiences of a Burmese translator

Maung Tha Noe

When I was an 8^th grader at high school I thought of translating a piece of Greek mythology into Burmese for the school magazine. The story I had in mind was from our English reading text and it tells of Ulysses returning from the Trojan War and being captured by Cyclops. Ulysses had told the Cyclops his name was No Man. One night he managed to blind the one-eyed giant with a burning log. When the monster screamed for help, the neighbors came to his cave door inquiring “Who is hurting you?” He answered “No Man is hurting me” and the neighbors cursed him and went home. It was the Cyclops’ answer that undid me. We have no equivalent in Burmese for the English word no, either for the opposite of yes or for phrases like no money, no food, no home, no man.