One thought on “Notebooks of Helena Roerich: Notebook 01”
About H.R.’s Notebooks: Alena Adamkova, translating the notebooks from Russian into English (an ongoing project) writes: “The Notebooks [of Helena Roerich] are not the books of Agni Yoga, but diaries reflecting the history of the dramatic life path of the Roerichs, their experiences and in spite of all obstacles − continuous ascent towards the highest spiritual achievements, starting from the very first experiments to establish a clear connection with the Master, to the most extensive and diverse conversations with the Teachers of Wisdom, during which, in particular, the texts of Agni Yoga were dictated separately.
“Many participants mentioned in the Notebooks incarnated specifically to join the described events with their own task, role and to be rendered extent of required cooperation. Master Morya directly said on August 27, 1922: “Having accepted the mission, you cannot dispose of life.” Unfortunately, some of the would be coworkers of the Roerichs lost the memory of their voluntarily embraced assignment when immersed in the body.”
“While translating the Notebooks into English, a number of linguistic difficulties arose, directly related to the above mentioned circumstances of the Experience. The first conversations took place with the help of a table for spiritual séances, since Helena Ivanovna’s ability for clairaudience was yet to be restored again after entering the physical body, to be developed and attuned with the note of the Master. Therefore, often the meaning of the first conversations was for certain clear only to the members of the séances − we can only catch a high note of attunement over uninformative texts. The translator would really like the translation to preserve that spiritual tuning fork that is felt in the Russian version of the text from the very first entries. But translating that note into another language is an almost impossible task. In addition, the very structure of the recording of conversations was formed gradually. In the first notebooks, we often come across texts in which individual phrases are not related to the general context of the conversation. The conversation probably took place in the form of a dialogue, but Helena Ivanovna did not always write down her questions, and we see only the answers of the Master. Also, apparently, abbreviations were often used to speed up the recording. The list of abbreviations either did not exist initially or was lost; therefore, in order to avoid incorrect interpretation of the meaning of phrases during translation, these abbreviations were saved. When translating the texts, it was decided to translate idiomatic expressions absolutely identical to the original text and not use similar semantic idioms of the English language. Quite often, the imperative mood of verbs is used in texts, which, when translated, loses some semantic connotation, which is similar to a reminder of obligations assumed.”
About H.R.’s Notebooks: Alena Adamkova, translating the notebooks from Russian into English (an ongoing project) writes: “The Notebooks [of Helena Roerich] are not the books of Agni Yoga, but diaries reflecting the history of the dramatic life path of the Roerichs, their experiences and in spite of all obstacles − continuous ascent towards the highest spiritual achievements, starting from the very first experiments to establish a clear connection with the Master, to the most extensive and diverse conversations with the Teachers of Wisdom, during which, in particular, the texts of Agni Yoga were dictated separately.
“Many participants mentioned in the Notebooks incarnated specifically to join the described events with their own task, role and to be rendered extent of required cooperation. Master Morya directly said on August 27, 1922: “Having accepted the mission, you cannot dispose of life.” Unfortunately, some of the would be coworkers of the Roerichs lost the memory of their voluntarily embraced assignment when immersed in the body.”
“While translating the Notebooks into English, a number of linguistic difficulties arose, directly related to the above mentioned circumstances of the Experience. The first conversations took place with the help of a table for spiritual séances, since Helena Ivanovna’s ability for clairaudience was yet to be restored again after entering the physical body, to be developed and attuned with the note of the Master. Therefore, often the meaning of the first conversations was for certain clear only to the members of the séances − we can only catch a high note of attunement over uninformative texts. The translator would really like the translation to preserve that spiritual tuning fork that is felt in the Russian version of the text from the very first entries. But translating that note into another language is an almost impossible task. In addition, the very structure of the recording of conversations was formed gradually. In the first notebooks, we often come across texts in which individual phrases are not related to the general context of the conversation. The conversation probably took place in the form of a dialogue, but Helena Ivanovna did not always write down her questions, and we see only the answers of the Master. Also, apparently, abbreviations were often used to speed up the recording. The list of abbreviations either did not exist initially or was lost; therefore, in order to avoid incorrect interpretation of the meaning of phrases during translation, these abbreviations were saved. When translating the texts, it was decided to translate idiomatic expressions absolutely identical to the original text and not use similar semantic idioms of the English language. Quite often, the imperative mood of verbs is used in texts, which, when translated, loses some semantic connotation, which is similar to a reminder of obligations assumed.”