Hi Bhante @sujato
I wanted to translate some of the suttas to Tamil and in the process I stumbled upon this article Guide for translators · suttacentral/bilara-data Wiki · GitHub.
Can I raise a PR? Please let me know.
With Metta,
Arun
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Greetings @arun, and welcome to the forum! Great that you are interested in providing new sutta translations in your language!
In case you haven’t noticed yet, there is a project underway for translating blurbs into Tamil—these are the short descriptions that you find on suttaplex cards, like this:
(However, the project doesn’t seem very active lately.)
In any case, contributing new translations doesn’t work via PR on GitHub. SuttaCentral has developed a special translation software for that purpose, called Bilara. Bilara is integrated with the GitHub repository, and as soon as a translator commits a line of translation in Bilara, it is automatically saved in the repository.
If you would like to start a translation project you will first have to discuss it with Bhante @sujato . Perhaps you should specify the scope of what you would like to translate, your previous experience with translation, and perhaps a few thoughts on what kind of translation you are aiming at (like contemporary language that is easily accessible for modern readers, or literal word-for-word translation, and so on).
Please note that
- any translation created for SuttaCentral via Bilara has to be licensed under CC0;
- SuttaCentral will not accept translations created with the help of AI.
If Bhante agrees to your plans, a Bilara project can be set up for you, and you can start working.
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That is wonderful. Translation is a tough job, and I never got started daunted by the effort, and also because I am unable to settle on a set principle of translation. I can try to provide some criticisms or help brainstorm the choice of tamil terms to use for some commonly occurring/recurring buddhist terms in the Suttas, and also try to connect it with existing technical terminology (eg: from the buddhist epic Manimegalai or other religious literature) while balancing it with ease of comprehension.. Though I may have difficulty in allocating time, I want to help - even if it’s just a little. Good luck!!
Suggestion: Try to compare multiple English translations, and get AI to translate the Pali for you, in case you are not able to read Pali - because sometimes translating a translation may result in inaccuracies. But don’t let that discourage you! Any translation can always be refined.
Unfortunately this is not an accepted workflow for SuttaCentral.
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Hello Venerable,
Thanks for the call out, and I agree with the principle too.
But what I meant to suggest to someone who can’t read Pali was : To compare multiple English translations and then create a Tamil one out of it. But where the meaning is not clear, we must always go to the source - so use AI to get a translation of the Pali - and compare it with the official/expert English translations - since it might help clarify the meaning. I did not mean to suggest use of AI as the main tool for translation. I certainly do not trust it enough for that.
But it looks like even such assistance is not allowed. Then those who know Pali need to review the translation would be my suggestion. (I have a working knowledge but not sure how much time I can spend in review).
Much Metta,
Ravi
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