(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Gathering of Esperantists on 1912-Apr-25 -- ABU1584)
Language, meaning, and reality
language and the structure of reality
Editorial introduction
The heart is a box and language is the key, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says; words are cups and meanings the wine within them. Every language exists to convey inner meanings, and every inner meaning exists to explain a fundamental truth, so that Persian, Arabic and Turkish are alike tongues of the lovers, and love itself has a hundred more. This conviction gives the practical labour of translation its dignity: a translator must grasp the meaning and context of words and not only their dictionary sense, and a translation can sometimes surpass its original. Letters, meaningless in isolation, disclose a hidden power once they are combined. Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb then carry language into mystery, where all letters become one letter and verb, noun and preposition become figures for the stages of divine action. Aristotle’s account of written signs, spoken words and the things they stand for offers a sober philosophical companion to these images [1]. The journey continues toward the limits of language, the interpretation of scripture, the meanings of letters and numbers, and the outward and inward senses that every symbol holds.
Selected passages
Words are like cups and meanings like wine - when the cup is in utmost delicacy and the wine in utmost sweetness, it becomes light upon light. The words of friends are like crystal decanters and their meanings are spiritual wine. When both come together in the letters of friends, spirit and fragrance result, and this becomes evidence of the reality and spirituality of conscience.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1912-Jan-16, to Aqa Mirza Muhsin Vakilur-Ruaya -- AB05356)
O my loving friend! The purpose of every language is to convey inner meanings, and the purpose of every inner meaning is to explain fundamental truths.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1900 or <, to Ahmaduf Milani, Haji Ali Muhammad (Son of Haji Ahmad) -- AB05862)
Observe the letters: individually these servants comprehend nothing from them and find no definite meaning therein, but after their combination and the appearance of words their meaning becomes clear and manifest,
and the influence and effect that appears after their combination was concealed before.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1293? [1875-1876] -- BH07024)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1907-Mar-06, to E E Wrestling Brewster -- AB00276)
Verily We have sent down the Book to every nation in their tongue, and We have sent down this Book in the tongue of the Remembrance, with truth upon truth, wondrously.
(The Báb, Qayyumu'l-Asma' (Commentary on the Surah of Joseph), 1260-05 [1844-May] -- BB00002)
O thou who gazest upon God! Persian, Arabic and Turkish are all languages of the lovers of the Beauty of the Beloved. Love itself hath a hundred other tongues. The purpose is meanings, not words - reality, not metaphor.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Mirza Husayn Aliuf Ouskouli -- AB10117)
...translate at least one page every day, either from English into Persian or from Persian into English, thus they may gain efficiency in this line of work. He recommended that in the future when the means are provided a committee of translators be organized of both nationalities who know the two languages well in addition to Arabic. Then the Tablets will be properly translated.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Badi Bushru'i and other students, Ramleh, 1913-Sep-19 -- ABU3175)
Sometimes, a translation is better than the original. A translator must fully comprehend the meaning [and the context] of the words.
For instance, some citizens of Iran can read, write and even compose poetry, but do not have a thorough command of the Persian language.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to the friends spoken in Dec. 1907 -- ABU2232)
O my friends, let us not delude ourselves: language is the most profound symbol of a people, nay, language is the vestment of the spirit of the people, language is the measure of the level of the culture of a nation. An uncontrolled mixing of languages soon affects the art and then the morale of the people.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to several women in the house of Abdu'l-Baha on 20 Jan 1910, spoken on 1910-Jan-20 -- ABU0201)
The Master said we should speak in the language of heaven - in the language of the spirit - for there is a language of the spirit and heart. It is as different from our language, as ours is different from that of animals, for they express themselves only by cries and sounds.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Ethel Rosenberg and Laura Clifford Barney, spoken on 1904-May-23 -- ABU0322)
Abdul Baha: The tongue of the soul is the tongue-less tongue. The spirit speaks in every language, in no particular tongue.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken at Haifa Pilgrim House, 1920-Nov-05 -- ABU1813)
Then know, O my strong confidant, that the name is the mark of the thing as it is in its essence. It has ranks, among them that mirrors are its grace, words its limit, forms its attribute, and inscribed images its trace. For every book according to the decree of all is from God, inexhaustible. God has made words as bodies for spirits which are meanings, and God has written with His hands between them a true relationship, and there was naught between them save as between the Kaf and the Nun.
(The Báb, Fi 'ilmi's-Sarf va'n-Nahv (Treatise on grammar), 1261 [1844-1845], to Mulla Husayn ? -- BB00239)
The letters (alphabet) and the numbers (arithmetic) have a mystic correspondence with transcendent reality. The letters and numbers are the elements (the Greek word for elements, which is also used by the Arab philosophers, is called "Stoicheia") of the spiritual and the material worlds. As words these elements are the source of all things intellectual, as letters they represent the source of matter.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken to Miss St. of Southampton on 7 Feb 1910 -- ABU0227)
For when letters are elevated and enter their gardens, all letters become one letter, all words one word, all languages one language, and all grammatical forms one form. Then a single word becomes noun and verb and particle, declinable and indeclinable, variable and invariable, subject and object, possessed and possessor, subject and predicate, circumstantial phrase and specification - unto infinity.
(The Báb, Treatise on the four pillars -- BB00023)
Every single thing among all things is a door leading to His knowledge, a sign of His sovereignty, a revelation of His names, a testimony to His majesty and power, and a path unto His straight way.
(Bahá’u’lláh, 1299-07-12 [1882-May-30], to Mulla Muhammad Ali -- BH00328)
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
The Bab interprets "verb" as a reference to the first stage of divine Action, Will, which is the source of existence... The noun symbolizes the second stage of divine Action, Determination, which is the source of the essences of things. The preposition represents the third stage, Destiny, which unites existence and essence: "Verily, the noun is the attribute of the thing as it is in its own station.... But the verb referreth to the movement of that thing, and is the source of both noun and preposition. The verb, in truth, is a motionless Creation that is not defined by stillness... and a moving Creation that is not defined by motion.... As to the preoposition, it is that meaning which testifieth unto naught but the link."
(The Bab, provisional translation, GOH.205-206, commentary by N. Saiedi)
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- What do the key and cup images suggest about the possibilities and limitations of words?
- What must a translator understand beyond the dictionary meanings of individual terms?
- How can we tell when a passage is describing language and when it is using language symbolically to speak about reality?
- How might attention to meaning change a disagreement that appears to be about words?