Heavenletter title transactions
Beloved Gloria and fellow translators,
Today is Thanksgiving Day. My family just had a Chinese way to celebrate it: we had a dumpling banquet. It was great… Yummy… wish all of you are enjoying Thanksgiving! ~*^_^*~
My special thanks to God, to Gloria, to the Heavenletters we received, and to all of you for making the world more beautiful. I am so thankful to be in this group, and to be with you all in my heart.
My thoughts to share today are about Heavenletter title transactions.
I understand that as a translator, my translation should stay as close to the original meaning as possible, but still, I had used phases with different meanings in Chinese as the titles for a few letters. Below is a list of them and also the reasons of using the changed titles.
Like a Butterfly’s Wings --- I used: Your Real Heart and Awareness (你的真心觉性)
http://www.heavenletters.org/like-a-butterfly-s-wings.html
真心- Real heart or Mindfulness in Chinese. Reason of using this title came from this sentence: “Your wings are your heart”. In Chinese, the word “Heart” has different meanings: 真心 or Real heart(Mindfulness, Inner Divine Guide), 妄想心 or delusion mind full of ego, and 意识心 or mind which can perceive -- director of eyes/ears/nose/tongue/body/thoughts. And they are layered in depth. The deepest is the real heart which needs the other two to quiet down in order to be heard.
“Butterfly’s wings” not used due to its girlish meaning in Chinese (I don't want readers to consider this letter as for girls/ladies only by glancing the title).
Overture of Love ------ The meaning of life (生命的意义)
http://www.heavenletters.org/overture-of-love.html
I have been seeking the meaning of my life for years, and this letter tells us all about it, for which I could not agree more. Changed title came from this sentence in the letter: “When you ask what life is all about, by now you know the answer.”
Changing of the Guard ---- Creator of life (生活的缔造者)
http://www.heavenletters.org/changing-of-the-guard.html
This letter is encouraging us to co-create our own lifves instead of totally relying on God as our life savor.
How lovely is a heart --- Quiet and Peaceful Minds lead us to High and Far (宁静致远)
http://www.heavenletters.org/how-lovely-is-a-heart.html
The phase “宁静致远” originated by the most intelligent man named Zhuge Liang in Chinese history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang
“非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远” was written in a letter by Liang to his son. It was one of the famous teachings among the intellectual world.
“非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远” means:
Living a simple and restrained life without lusting fame and fortune to establish and demonstrate one’s ambition;
Quiet, calm and peaceful minds lead us high and far spiritually. (This part was used for this letter's title)
I do think this phase fits perfectly as this Heavenletter’s title, since the key point of this letter is to teach us how to quite our minds in order to listen to our inner God and thus enjoy the heavenly music.
Catch a Moonbeam --- Come Home, My Child (回家，孩子)
http://www.heavenletters.org/catch-a-moonbeam.html
Calling from God: Come home, my child! This letter is all about it.
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I am not sure whether beloved Gloria knows all about the above changes or not. I feel sorry for not telling her in advance. Recently she sent me an email regarding: Like a Butterfly’s Wings --- The Real Heart and Awareness (你的真心觉性):
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On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 3:11 AM, Gloria Wendroff wrote:
Extra beautiful in the Chinese language. The title could have been translated from Chinese to English!
Like a Butterfly’s Wings 你的真心觉性
Thank you!
Loving you, dear angel.
Gloria
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And I wrote back as below:
Dearly Beloved Gloria,
It is so nice to hear from you!
Yes, 真心觉性 means “Mindfulness and Awareness” ~*^_^*~
Dear Gloria. I am very grateful that you are doing this great job for God and for all of us. I have been talking to you in my heart. May you feel my love waves sending to you. I love you so much!
Often, I found myself in tears of joy when translating Heavenletters. Through your work, through the translation process, I got trained to become God: to think like God, to love like God.
I deeply understand what you have written, and what God is teaching. “Oh yes, I have been thinking about it this way, but just would not express as well, as simply and as meticulously.” --- It is indeed the source of my joy: I got the confirmation and confidant.
I am very happy and proud that I have a way to serve the world and in the meantime to improve myself. One of my friends congratulated me: Looking for guidance while serving, you are likely to find it and to complete your mission. Thank you for always doing this!
Beloved Gloria, Thank you very much for always doing this for us!!!
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From my deepest heart, the whole purpose of the changes is to serve God’s teaching better ---to catch the reader's eyes and the essence of the letter in Chinese way. ~*^_^*~
On the other hand I totally understand that our translations should stay as close to the original meanings as possible, since the Heavenletters are perfect by themselves by all means.
I would like to get your opinions and suggestions on this.
With endless love and blessings,
Happy Thanksgiving…
Leean
Beloved Leann, thank you for
Beloved Leann, thank you for your openness. I understand what you are feeling and where you are coming from. You are an artist of a translator. Translating is not a mechanical process. Your heart is involved, and you want to do all you can do, the best you can do, your utmost. You spend all your heart on serving God the best you know how and serving the dear people who read God's words through your translations. You translate from love and God's glory.
I honor you and your style. I have great respect for you and every translator. I see a beautiful thing happening in front of our eyes. All of us here are part of a miracle on Earth that God is giving to the world. Miracles are to expand and never to contract.
Furthermore, if I understand, the Chinese language paints pictures, not only in how the language is written, but also in its use of metaphors and structure. Am I correct that Chinese is a most poetic language? All languages have their beauty of expression, yet, from the little I know, it would be fair to say that English, for example, is a much more straightforward language. I keep wanting to say that some languages are more linear and left brain thinking while other languages, such as Chinese, are more creative and right brain. So how can I, born into a Western language possibly deign to say I know what a Chinese translation should be like?
You sum up the whole thing beautifully, dear Leann:
From my deepest heart, the whole purpose of the changes is to serve God’s teaching better ---to catch the reader's eyes and the essence of the letter in Chinese way. ~*^_^*~
On the other hand I totally understand that our translations should stay as close to the original meanings as possible, since the Heavenletters™ are perfect by themselves by all means.
Leean, with all my heart I know that you are serving God's teaching in a Chinese way. I am reminded of words often heard in Western wedding ceremonies, something like this: "Let no man put asunder what God has put together."
You write:
Often, I found myself in tears of joy when translating Heavenletters. Through your work, through the translation process, I got trained to become God: to think like God, to love like God.
When I read these words of yours above, I could weep tears of an exquisite happiness.
Not if even the biggest bureaucrat in the world would read these words of yours, would he object:: “Butterfly’s wings” not used due to its girlish meaning in Chinese (I don't want readers to consider this letter as for girls/ladies only by glancing the title).
I believe with all my heart that the other examples you gave are also supported through your communication with God.
In terms of general guidelines, let me give you some examples of the other side of the story that lend a somber note, dear one.
This is a case of two long-time Heaven translators from two different languages from long ago. Separately, a publisher and a professional translator brought to my attention that the translations of these two people did not make any sense. Neither of the professionals who brought these translations to my attention knew whether the two translators of two different languages based their translations on computer translations or what.
I can only believe that these two dear translators were sincere and didn't realize that their translations were not optimum.
Again, long ago, this is not about a translator as such. This is about a native English speaker who wrote to say that she was posting Heavenletters on her website. So far so good. Then she showed me how she improved the Heavenletters according to her wisdom. She rewrote the Heavenletters. She, in effect, translated them to her taste! From my side, she had ruined the Heavenletters! The woman had no interest in hearing anything I had to say and insisted she knew better.
One other thing I will mention. There have been a very few people who have written in to say that they are translating Heavenletters into their language and they post them somewhere. I am happy to write back and ask them to send in their translations etc. and join the beautiful Heaven translating team, and I have never heard from them again, even though I wrote to them a couple of more times.
Dear translating angels, I think I have said enough! I have every reason to be deliriously happy with every one of you. You are the cream of the crop. We are so grateful.
Of course, in languages where we have established translators, the present translators can check out the translations of new translator candidates.
We had better have guidelines, do you agree? They are guidelines. Every translator can know where to begin from.
I am working on revamping the guidelines. Do you have ideas for the guidelines? What do you think of? What questions do you suggest to ask new translators?
With love and blessings and gratitude for each and every one of you. Without you...
Gloria
Beloved Gloria,Thank you
Beloved Gloria,
Thank you very much for being so supportive, open-minded, caring and loving. You are the best! I am very grateful.
~*^_^*~
Yes, working with Chinese language needs creativity and involves right brain. The Chinese language is the oldest written language in the world with at least six thousand years of history. It carries cultural accumulation and humanistic heritage through the long time. That is why it takes time and passion to master. I was surprised to see that the leading Chinese light workers have very good capability of using it. The Chinese translators in this group: Innerpeace, Xiyangyang and Rouzi are very good at it.
I only have one suggested item to add into the Translator Guidelines so far.
Do not post future dated translations into the archive.
Questions suggested to ask the new translators:
1) Which of the following words describing you the best: (can choose more than one)
In pain and looking for help, Searching for spiritual guidance, Peaceful, Happy, Helpful, Enjoying every experience, Very detailed
(The translators who are willings to help, with happy hearts and enjoying attitudes are the ones we are looking for, since they are expected to bring happiness into this world through their work. “very detailed” as extra credit if applies. I believe that these are the indications of the high spiritual level achievement)
2) Which Heavenletter you like the most and why?
3) Sample translation of one Heavenletter. The already in group translators of this language may give comments and evaluations.
With endless love and blessings,
Leean
Thank you, Leann. You wrote
Thank you, Leann. You wrote your beautiful post.
Your three questions are excellent! Yes, we must include the questions like the ones you suggested when a new translator would like to "apply" to be a Heaven translator. The questions you suggest point us in a new direction. The questions will help us know the prospective translator and help the prospective translator express himself or herself in a focused way and perhaps know himself or herself better too.
Leann, you must have reasons why you think it's better not to post future dated translations into the list. Will you tell us about it?
My understanding of the reasons behind the advanced Heavenletters are: There are translators who want their translations to come out the same day as the English Heavenletter, and they need it in advance. Also, some translators may be traveling and want to complete their translations weeks ahead before their travels, and this is how they can. Also, we want a safe place for Heavenletters to be stored.
Did you know that there are about three months' worth of Heavenletters in advance?!!! This is because sometimes more than one Heavenletter comes on one day, sometimes two, three -- as many as five. The day's first Heavenletter, I intend it to come. The extra Heavenletters come spontaneously on their own.
Theophil who translates Heavenletters into German every day takes care of numbering the Heavenletters and organizing them into the queue.
It would be great to have other translators give their input here as well.
Thank you beloved Gloria.
Thank you beloved Gloria.
Please allow me to explaine the guideline suggestion:
When I just joined the translation group, I had two future dated translations posted on the archive, but I was later informed that it is illegal to do so. Since the system does not support that, it caused trouble for Sister Luus when she was publishing them.
If the system set to allow us to post future dated translations, it would be wonderful.
With endless love and blessings,
Leean
Thanks, beloved Leann. I
Thanks, beloved Leann. I still don't understand. Illegal? So you're not talking about the list that Theophil makes for us. Something else?
Beloved Gloria, Below are
Beloved Gloria,
Below are three emails sent by Luus to me regarding the future dated translations I posted before. Please read.
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l [dot] van [dot] leeuwen16 [at] kpnplanet [dot] nl via ns1.khanyi.com
Oct 24
Dear Leean,
I am the one who sends out the Chinese translations every day. I know that
you're new here and that is the reason why I contact you.
I see that you just posted #4360, but that is a Heavenletter that has not
yet been published. It is the one scheduled for November 1.
Of course, I am very happy that you translate, but please keep your
translations until the date they are published and then I will send them
out on the same day.
Blessings to you and good luck with your translations.
Luus
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Luus van Leeuwen
Oct 25
Dear Leean,
I now see that you also posted #4361, however, you should not do this until the publishing date. Please keep them in your private files until then and only post them under the Chinese Heavenletters on the day the English Heavenletter is sent out.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Blessings,
Luus
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Luus van Leeuwen
Nov 1
Dear Leean,
I tried to send out #4360 in Chinese today, but unfortunately as a consequence of the fact that I tried it when this Heavenletter had not yet been published it did not work out. I asked Santhan to fix the problem but it still does not work and therefore I now sent out #4351.
I just wanted to let you know.
Blessings,
Luus
Now I have a better idea of
Now I have a better idea of what you are referring to. Luus knows what she is doing. She is utterly reliable.
So, do I understand, what you would like to be able to do is to post your Heavenletter as soon as you have it completed? Is this what you would like? And at present this is not possible?
Is part of your reason that you would like a safe storage place?
Is part of the administrative reason that a translation isn't to be made public before its day of publication?
Let's see if there is something Heaven Admin can think of.
Yes, beloved Gloria. Thanks
Yes, beloved Gloria. Thanks to Luss for giving me the instructions.
You are right, I would like to have a safe storage place to hold the translations of those the English versions not yet published.
And please include the instruactions in the guidelines.
With endless love and blessings,
Leean