Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1934 — 1935

Letter ID: 546

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

January 7, 1935

Much more heartened I send you the queried portions marked in red pencil to compare with original (the booklet enclosed), page marks given in the margin.

Also two and half pages more today. I have done it with a lighter heart now that you have so kindly, etc.

Saurin is daily doing the typing in the morning – it is his typing I send. He is doing it all as a work of offering – and I thank the Supramental for it as it has made my work much less heavy in that side so that I can devote more time and energy to the improvement of my English. Still it is hard work I find. Because the humour is so Bengali!

A perusal of the original is rather discouraging. How can Indian style be rendered into English? and without the style all the spirit escapes and there is only a corpse. For the moment my suggestions are tentative. It seems [to?] me that after the translation is completed and one can get a whole view and impression, a revision will be imperative. You spoke to Mother I think of the [Nobel Prize?] – no hope of that unless one can render something of the style.

In your translation you use stock phrases too freely – by the way. They are good to know but not to use except very sparingly – as they give a sense of poverty and make up to [the?] language.