The Universal House of Justice, in response to your letter
of 20 April concerning translations into French or Creole using simpler words
than the original text, has requested us to send the following three
quotations. These make it clear that a quotation in English may be rendered
into simple English in order to facilitate its translation into another
language or dialect. However, it is not permissible to publish simplifications
and paraphrased extracts of Bahá'í Writings as Bahá'í Scripture.
We have noticed a tendency in a number of countries to
attempt to translate Bahá'í literature into the current, easy, everyday
language of the country. This, however, should not be an overriding
consideration. Many of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá are in exalted
and highly poetic language in the original Persian and Arabic and you will see,
for example, that when translating Bahá'u'lláh's Writings into English the
beloved Guardian did not use present-day colloquial English but evolved a
highly poetic and beautiful style, using numbers of archaic expressions
reminiscent of the translations of the Bible.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 7 October 1973 to a National Spiritual Assembly; compilation: ‘Lights of Guidance’)
