Nataliya Yanchevskaya writea:

A student of mine wants to study Sanskrit texts about translation and translators. She also asked me if I knew any short poems or jokes – again, in Sanskrit – about translators.

Hi Natasha,

On translator poems, jokes, etc.: When struggling for a decade translating an outrageously obscure medieval (Latin) text, I always wondered if there were something in Sanskrit (or Chinese, etc.) that could match the poetic efficiency of the classic Italian “Traduttore, traditore!”

I never found one, but I’d assume sentiments like this are linguistic universals of sorts. :)

If anyone knows anything similar in Sanskri, I’d assume he/she would be on the Indology List.

Steve

Steve Farmer

The Systems Biology Group

Palo Alto, CA