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Documents/Interviews
A Note on the Tigrigna Translation of Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”
The following are some important notes the translator would like to jot down in relation to the task of translating Dr. Gene Sharp’s seminal booklet, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, into Tigrigna. The comments are given in line with the instructions provided by the document: A Guide to Translating Texts on Nonviolent Struggle, as prepared by the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI). Selecting a suitable text The translator believes that the text chosen for translation is a suitable one keeping in mind the objectives of several Eritrean initiatives which aim to achieve political change in Eritrea via nonviolent struggle. One of such initiatives is the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR), a movement of young and exiled Eritrean professionals. The movement was incepted in South Africa in the year 2003 and is expanding its network within all communities of the Eritrean Diaspora and inside Eritrea. The translation is expected to be widely used by all Eritreans who subscribe to the use of nonviolent action and will also complement the recently launched educational manual of EMDHR (Bideho Antsar Atehasasbana – Challenging of Our Perceptions); it is also expected to contribute to the noble struggle against tyranny.
Nonviolent action has not been widely practiced in Eritrea. If it was practiced at all, it was in an impoverished manner and has not produced significant successes. It remains little known among the Eritrean people. Like in many other languages, knowledge of nonviolent struggle has been severely limited and solid literature about its operation has been unavailable in the widely spoken languages of the country, one of which is Tigrigna. Tigrigna is one of the undeclared “official languages” in Eritrea and a vernacular widely spoken nearly by half of the Eritrean population. The language is also widely spoken, with certain dialectical differences, in the northern part of Ethiopia. Understanding of nonviolent struggle gained from published studies would be helpful to organizations, such as EMDHR and others, which have unequivocally adopted nonviolent struggle in furtherance of their objectives. Scholars have proven that the application of political defiance without adequate knowledge of the techniques and methods of nonviolent struggle risks high probability of failure. It is with the objective of avoiding such risks that the text at issue (already translated into twenty-one other languages) has been selected for translation. It would definitely contribute to acquiring a “knowledge of how to act, how to organize, and how skillfully to transform [the] power potential into an effective power” that can enable “previously weak people to participate in the determination of their own lives and society.” Permission for translation Permission to translate the work has been obtained in August-September 2004 from the AEI via the Executive Director of the Institution, Ms. Jamila Raqib. The work was supposedly set to be translated by Mr. Habtom Yohannes from Holland as the evaluator, the current translator with the same role and Ms. Jamila Raqib as the project manager. The three of them assembled the translation team. However, due to some problems which were duly and timely notified to the AEI, the actual task begun only in May-June 2005 and the translation was finally approved by the AEI in May 2006. The unnecessary delay amounts partly to the fact that there existed no clearly defined terms of reference between the evaluator and the translator, apart from the general guidelines of the AEI. Publication and dissemination Due to lack of adequate financial resources, no arrangements have been made thus far regarding the publication and dissemination of the translated work. Although this work is not officially sponsored by any organisation, it is anticipated that funds can be solicited by a concerted effort of interested individuals and/or organisations and most importantly by affiliating the task of publication and dissemination to any organisation interested to do the job. If that is possible, the translation can be published in the form of a booklet and would be disseminated within all communities of the Eritrean Diaspora. Efforts are also in place to safely smuggle copies of the translation to Eritrea. In addition, the translation is readily available for radio broadcasting and posting at major Eritrean websites. Alternations to the text In keeping with the strictest requirements of accuracy, no alternations, neither additions nor deletions, have been made to the original text of the work. The translator has taken utmost care to keep the original meaning of the text. Concepts and phenomena discussed in the English text are accurately translated in such a way that readers of the Tigrigna version can understand correctly the information and analysis conveyed by the original writer. Terminology As is true with other languages, there is discernible scarcity of Tigrigna literature on nonviolent struggle and unavailability of equivalent standard terminology on the subject matter. This has obviously made the task demanding. However, to the best of his ability, the translator has made sure that the terminology used in the translation conveys the original meaning of the text. Both literal and contextual interpretation has been used depending on the specific content of a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph. Although direct literal translation may sometimes convey the original meaning of the English text, virtually contextual translation is preferable as it can only correctly and sensibly convey the exact meaning of the original author. This is true when, for instance, a certain type of English expression may lose its original meaning if translated literally into Tigrigna. The following sentence is a typical example where the translator used contextual interpretation: Example: “The dictator’s power will die, slowly or rapidly, from political starvation.” è ፖለቲካዊ ደገፍ ዝሰኣነ መላኺ፡ ሓይሉ ቀስ ብቐስ ወይ ‘ውን ቀልጢፉ ይመውት። See page 17, paragraph 6, 6th and 7th lines in the English text; and page 12, paragraph 7, the last two lines in the Tigrigna text. Literally translated, political starvation would mean ፖለቲካዊ ጥሜት (poletikawi Tmiet) in Tigrigna. However, in order to provide for a sensible conveyance of the author’s thought, political starvation was translated as ፖለቲካዊ ደገፍ (poletikawi degef). The same is true about some terminologies. Direct equivalents of some English terms and concepts are not in standard usage in Tigrigna. Therefore, new terms had to be coined and introduced in some cases without distorting the original meaning of the English text. A most important term coined in the course of translation is ተቕባል (teQbal) This term is the Tigrigna equivalent for “legitimacy” as used, for instance, on page 13, paragraph 3 and page 16, paragraph 2 in the English text; and page 9, paragraph 2 and page 12, paragraph 1 in the Tigrigna text. The term previously used in Tigrigna literature to denote “legitimacy” was ተቐባልነት (teQebalnet). This term, however, is not sufficiently expressive one as it also represents indistinctively other connotations common in everyday language. For example, to denote a speech which is quite acceptable, Tigrigna speakers and writers use that same terminology. In order to avoid such kind of indistinctiveness, the translator opted to coin a new word which is very close to what several Tigrigna speakers and writers have used previously, but can be used to distinctively denote the term “legitimacy” and hence avoid confusion. This newly coined word is believed to express rightly the desired meaning of “legitimacy.” It is derived from the root word ተቐበለ (tQebele). The most comprehensive trilingual dictionary, ever written in Eritrea, namely, the English-Tigrigna-Arabic Dictionary of EPLF (reprinted in 2003) has defined only the word “legitimate.” In its closest sense to the current context, “legitimate” is defined as legal (hgawi/ሕጋዊ), judicious (rtAwi/ርትዓዊ), acceptable (qbul/ቅቡል) or duty (gbue/ግቡእ). However, the dictionary failed to define the derivative word: “legitimacy.” The other most comprehensive Tigrigna-Tigrigna Dictionary of 1999 (edited by Tekie Tesfai) did not also contain the word ተቕባል (teQbal). The Tigrigna-Tigrigna Dictionary’s definition of ተቐባልነት (teQebalnet) does not encompass the concept of “legitimacy” as discussed in the translated work. The closest word one can find in this dictionary is ቅበላ (qbela). However, this word also falls short of the concept of “legitimacy” as discussed the current translation. The above two dictionaries have been extensively referred to by the translator, although they have some limitations. To fill this kind of gap, the translator has coined words such as ተቕባል (teQbal) which is believed to appropriately denote the English term “legitimacy.” The following purely foreign terms cannot be readily translated into Tigrigna: Lysistratic nonaction and Satyagrahic fast (only the italicized words). Other words such as discipline, strategy, bureaucracy, bureaucrat, caricature, poster, pamphlet, etc. are also commonly used in Tigrigna. Hence, they have been used in the same manner in the translation. All other terms used in the list of “methods of nonviolent action” have been translated to convey the very same meaning given in the English text. As used in the educational manual of the EMDHR, alternative terminologies have been adopted at a later stage. This has happened only after the current translation was approved by the AEI and as such the inclusion of such newly developed terms in the translation was practically impossible. However, readers are advised to acquaint themselves with such newly developed terms as they see it fit. A pertinent example in this regard is the phrase “methods of nonviolent intervention” which was later fittingly translated in the educational manual of EMDHR as ዘይጎነጻዊ ግብራዊ ተበግሶ (zyegonetsawi gbrawi tebegso) with which I find myself in complete agreement. In the current translation, it has been translated as ዘይጎነጻዊ ኢድ-ኣእታውነት (zyegontsawi id-aetawnet). In some instances, long sentences have been broken into two or three smaller sentences without losing their original meaning. This has been done for purposes of simplicity. For example, see the sentence on page 59, paragraph 2; the last sentence on paragraph 3, the same page; and on page 61, paragraph 1, 4th sentence, all of which are in the English text. Compare these with page 41, paragraph 4; the same page, paragraph 5, the last two sentences and page 42, paragraph 7, the last two sentences in the Tigrigna text. Limitations By its nature, a translation project is a difficult task. It surely requires a great deal of knowledge, skill, time, energy and utmost care. This particular translation has been conduced under tight conditions. It was done in the middle of an overloaded academic commitment and human rights activism of the translator. This made the task undeniably harder. Initially, the translator planned to finalize the task during the first six months. Unfortunately, that was impossible for reasons discussed above. Although lack of “pecuniary incentives” was one of the limitations of the task, it has not, however, impacted on the quality and speed of the translation. The progress was somehow delayed for reasons which were beyond the translator’s control and due to certain developments that ensued once the task of translation actually begun. From the outset, the idea of translating the work has gained much support from different quarters. However, it was difficult to solicit the necessary financial assistance for purposes of the task. As a result, the task has not been sponsored by any organisation. In spite of that there appeared a great and practical need for translating such a seminal work on nonviolent struggle. Driven by such an exigency, all costs of the work have been covered by the meager financial resources of the translator. There is a staunch belief that the translation would serve the purpose of the current struggle against dictatorship. It is believed to be “more rapid, less expensive to make, cheaper to print, easier to distribute, and more likely to be read.” The translator volunteered to firmly commit himself to the project without pecuniary compensation and to the best of his ability acted without undue delays. This has been duly acknowledged by the author, Dr. Gene Sharp himself, when he said to the translator, “The positive results of this translation will be greater payment than mere money could provide.” That remains to be the principal motive of this translation – the establishment of a free, fair and democratic Eritrea. Acknowledgments Many thanks go to the AEI in general and particularly to Dr. Gene Sharp, author of the book and Senior Scholar at the Institution as well as to Ms. Jamila Raqib, the Executive Director of the Institution. The translator is also grateful to his comrades-in-arms at EMDHR, who never ceased encouraging him while doing this tough job - the only reward of which is free, fair and democratic Eritrea. In particular, the translator is thankfully indebted to a long time friend and colleague, Samuel Bizen Abraha (the current Chairperson of EMDHR), who have accomplished a wonderful task of evaluation of the text. My host university provided the most conducive atmosphere to do the job at this difficult time. Without the generous assistance of Professors J Loot Pretorius and Charles Ngwena of the Department of Constitutional Law this job would have never come to its successful completion. Their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. A word of gratefulness must also go to Berhe Yeman, in the person of whom lies the very idea of translating the booklet and introducing the translator with the concept and world of nonviolent struggle. Most of all, the translator thanks the Almighty Creator, for He has enabled him, at last, to cross the verge of the bridge. Daniel R Mekonnen September 13, 2006 University of the Free State Bloemfontein ሓጺር መዘኻኸሪ ብዛዕባ ትርጉም መጽሓፍ “ካብ ምልኪ ናብ ዲሞክራሲ - እምረታዊ መቓን ንሓርነት” ኣብ’ዚ ዘለናዮ ፈታኒ መድረኽ፡ ዜጋታት በብዓቕሞም ንድሕነት ሃገርን ህዝብን ኣበርክትኦም የደንፍዕሉ ኣብ ዘለዉ እዋን፡ ኣነ ‘ውን ከም ሰበይ፡ “ጭሩ ብዓቕማ ብብርዒ ስገም ትሕጎም” ካብ ዝብል መርሖ ተበጊሰን ‘ገለ ነገር ከበርክት’ ዝብል ቅዱስ ቅንኢ ስለ ዝሓደረንን፡ እነሆ ነዚ ብዙሕ ዝጸዓርኩሉ ናይ ትርጉም ስርሐይ ናብ ህዝቢ የቕርቦ ኣለኹ። ደራሲ ናይ’ቲ መበቆላዊ መጽሓፍ፡ ዶ/ር ጅን ሻርፕ እተባህሉ ውሩይን ገዲምን ኣመሪካዊ ሊቅ እዮም። መበቆላዊ ኣርእስቲ ናይ’ቲ መጽሓፍ ድማ From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation ዝብል እዩ። እቲ መጽሓፍ ምስ ተተርጎመ፡ “ካብ ምልኪ ናብ ዲሞክራሲ - እምረታዊ መቓን ንሓርነት” ዝብል ኣርእስቲ ሒዙ ይርከብ። ረቂቕ (ኤለክትሮኒካዊ) ቅዳሕ ናይ’ቲ መጽሓፍ ድሮ ኣብ መርበብ ሓበሬታ ትካል ኣልበርት አይንስተይን፡ ኣብ’ዚ ዝስዕብ መላግቦታት (links) ተዘርጊሑ ይርከብ ኣሎ፤ ብናጻ ድማ ክውነን ይኽእል፦ http://www.aeinstein.org/organizationsTigrignaFDTD.html http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/FDTD-Tigrigna.pdf እዚ ናይ ትርጉም ስራሕ’ዚ፡ ካብ’ቲ ዝግብኦ ንላዕሊ ግዜ ዝበልዐ’ኳ እንተኾነ ኣብ መወዳእታ ግን ተጻፊፉ ክርእዮ ብምብቅዐይን ንህዝቢ ድማ ብምዝርግሑን ኣዝዩ የሐብነኒ። ከም’ዚ ክብል ከለኹ፡ ሕልፊ ሰበይ ኣበርኪተ’የ ብዝብል ጃህራዊ ኣዘራራባ ኣይኮነን። ብሓቂ፡ ዓቢ ስራሕ ሰሪሐ እየ ኢለ ክጅሃረሉ ዝኽእል ነገር ‘ውን ኣይመስለንን። ዘጃህር ምኽንያት ኣብ ዘለወሉ እዋን ‘ውን እንተኾነ ጃህራ ፋይዳ ስለ ዘይብሉ ምቕልል ኢልካ ምቕራብን ብዛዕባ’ቲ ዝተሰርሐ ስራሕን ዝጠለቦ ሃልክን ምእማት ጥራይ ኣኻሊ እዩ ዝብል ግንዛበ ኣለኒ። እዚ መዘኻኸሪ እዚ እምበኣር ነዚ ንምእማት ድኣ’ምበር ንኻልእ ዕላማ ከም ዘይኮነ ኣንበብቲ ክግንዘቡለይ እምሕጸን። ዝርዝር ናይ’ቲ መስርሕ ምትርጓም፡ ንግዚኡ ኣብ’ቲ ከም ጥብቆ ቀሪቡ ዘሎ ናይ ቋንቋ እንግሊዝ ዝርዝራዊ ጸብጻብ (A Note on the Tigrigna Translation of Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”) ተገሊጹ ኣሎ። ነቲ ጸብጻብ ኣብ ቀረባ እዋን ናብ ትግርኛ ተርጕመ ከቕርቦ ምዃነይ ቃል እንዳኣተኹን ሕጂ ዘይምቕራቡ ድማ ከም ልግሚ ከይጽብጸብ እንዳተላበኹን ምስ ናይ ይቕረትኡ ከዘኻኽር እፈቱ። እዚ ናይ ትርጉም ስራሕ’ዚ ነቲ ኣብ’ዚ ቐረባ እዋን ብኤርትራዊ ምንቅስቓስ ንዲሞክራስን ሰብኣዊ መሰላትን (ኤምዲሰመ) ዝተዳለወ “ብድሆ ኣንጻር ኣተሓሳስባና” ዝብል ናይ ጎስጓስ መጽሓፍ ሓጋዝን መመላእታን ክኸውን ይኽእል’ዩ ዝብል ወሰን ዘይብሉ ተስፋ ኣለኒ። ዓቕምን ትሕዝቶን ብዝፈቕዶ መጠን ድማ ተሓቲሙ ብደረቕ ቅዳሕ ናብ ህዝቢ ክዝርጋሕ መደብ ኣሎ። ክሳብ ሽዑ፡ ኣንበብቲ ኣብ ትሕዝቶ ናይ’ቲ ትርጉም፣ ኣተረጓግማ፣ ኣጸሓሕፋ፣ ቅዲ፣ ኣድላይነት ናይ’ቲ ትርጉም፣ ወዘተ ዘለዎም ሃናጽን ነቐፌታውን ርእይቶታቶም ክቕበል ህንጡይ እየ። ኣብ መስርሕ ምትርጓም ናይ’ዚ መጽሓፍ’ዚ ዘይነዓቕ ኣበርክቶ ንዝገበሩ ትካላትን ውልቀ-ሰባትን ምምስጋን ግቡእ ስለ ዝኾነ ነዞም ዝስዕቡ ዘለኒ ምስጋና ወሰን የብሉን። ተቕዋም ኣልበርት አይንስተይን ነቲ ስራሕ ክሰርሖ ስለ ዝፈቐደለይ አመስግን፤ ብፍላይ ድማ ንደራሲ ናይ’ቲ መጽሓፍ ዶ/ር ጅን ሻርፕ ከምኡ ‘ውን ንዋና ዳይረክተር እቲ ተቕዋም ጃሚላ ራክብ ምስጋናይ ዝለዓለ እዩ። ኣብ ኤምዲሰመ ዘለዉ ናይ ቃልሲ ብጾተይ፡ ሰለ’ቲ ዘርኣዩኒ ዘይሕለል ደገፍን ምትብባዕን ከመስግኖም እፈቱ። እዚ ስራሕ’ዚ እንኮ ጻማኡ ናጻ፣ ፍትሓዊትን ዲሞክራስያዊትን ኤርትራ እያ’ሞ እታ እንብህጋ ሃገር ተሃኒጻ ምስ እርንርኢ ሽዑ ኢና ብሓቂ ኩላትና እንከሓስ። ናይ ነዊሕ እዋን ዓርከይን መሳርሕተይን፡ ናይ ሕጂ ኣቦ መንበር ኤምዲሰመ፡ ሳሙኤል ቢዘን፡ ነቲ ዕዮ ትርጉም ብምግምጋም ንኡድ ስራሕ ስለ ዝሰርሐ፡ ንኣበርክትኡ ንኢደ ኣይጸግቦን። እዚ ኣዕቊቡኒ ዘሎ ዩኒቨርስቲ (University of the Free State)፡ ኣብ’ዚ ተካል እዋን’ዚ፡ ነቲ ዕዮ ትርጉም ንምስላጥ ዝመቸአ ቦታ ኮይኑ ረኺበዮ። ልግሲ ፕሮፌሰር ሉት ፕሪቶርየስን ፕሮፌሰር ቻርለስ ንግዌናን እንተይሕብሕበኒ እዚ ስራሕ እዚ ከቶ ብዓወት ኣይምተዛዘመን። ነዞም ክልተ ሰባት ኣዝየ እየ ዘመስግኖም። ምስ ኣምርን ዓለምን ዘይጎነጻዊ ቓልሲ ዘላለየኒ፡ ብዓንደ-ርእሱ ድማ ነቲ ናይ ምትርጓም ሓሳብ ዘንቀደ፡ ሓው በርሀ የማን ምስጋና ይብጽሓዮ። ልዕሊ ኹሉ ግን፡ ንደንደስ ናይ’ቲ ድልድል ክሰግሮ ዘኽኣለኒ ልዑል ፈጣሪ ምስጋናይ አብጽሕ። ዳንኤል ረዘነ 13 መስከረም 2006 ብሎምፎንተይን ደቡብ ኣፍሪቃ | ||
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