I think what Sarabhanga is talking about is the understanding of sound, of language, and how different it is between East and West - and, nowadays, this "Westerner thinking" also includes Easterners brought up in the West, because they too are educated to think like Westerners.
That is why the proponents of the Vedas were called 'kavis', or poets. They understood that the sound that the language made was just as important as its meaning, if not more so. The first primordial sound in the universe is 'Aum' and everything, every sound, every vibration, every musical note, every word proceeds from that.
Most Westerners don't understand that. They think that language is a purely functional tool and music is just for gyrating in the disco!
Mystic Moslems would have also understood about the importance of sound and of language, particularly as, according to my research, Mohammed's forefathers were Vedic priests.
So much gets lost in translation, in any nation's sacred literature, not just because of the sound waves that get lost but also because the stories contained in them are allegorical and contain symbols. For example, the 18th century British translators of the Rig-veda have Indra releasing the 'cows' from the cave of the Panis (demons). But this is because 'go', which is cow in Sanskrit, also means 'ray of light'. Indra's obviously bringing light out of darkness, not cows out of darkness!
Another example of this are the problems that occur in trying to understand Judaism and Christianity. The old Jewish stories that make up the Old Testament were originally compiled and written down not in Hebrew, but in Greek. Centuries later, the Bible was translated into Latin, and that's where the trouble began.
Ever wondered where Lucifer, or the Devil, comes from?
Here are eight different translations from one verse in Isaiah:
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the earth, low among the dead bodies!
How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations!
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst cast lots over the nations!
How hast thou fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the dawn! Thou hast been cut down to earth, O weakener of nations.
So why Lucifer?
Here's the explanation: http://www.lds-mormon.com/lucifer.shtml
In the original Hebrew text, the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah is not about a fallen angel, but about a fallen Babylonian king, who during his lifetime had persecuted the children of Israel. It contains no mention of Satan, either by name or reference. ...Some early Christian scribes, writing in the Latin tongue used by the Church, had decided for themselves that they wanted the story to be about a fallen angel, a creature not even mentioned in the original Hebrew text, and to whom they gave the name "Lucifer."
Why Lucifer? In Roman astronomy, Lucifer was the name given to the morning star (the star we now know by another Roman name, Venus). The morning star appears in the heavens just before dawn, heralding the rising sun. The name derives from the Latin term lucem ferre, "bringer, or bearer, of light." In the Hebrew text the expression used to describe the Babylonian king before his death is Helal, son of Shahar, which can best be translated as "Day star, son of the Dawn." The name evokes the golden glitter of a proud king's dress and court (much as his personal splendor earned for King Louis XIV of France the appellation, "The Sun King").
It was Jerome in the 4th century AD who mistranslated the 'day star' of Venus into 'Lucifer' when translating the Bible from Greek into Latin.
So I think that's a pretty good example of how poetry and symbology get mascereted, going through the translation grinder, not to mention, misunderstood - and that's before you add on the two millennia of political intrigue that has seen the text changed so many times according to the whims of the day.
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