Commemorating Rahuldeep Singh Gill’s Calling: Translation as Love and Ethical Practice – Purnima Dhavan

Winter 2022
First Paragraph
Every translation is an act of interpretation. Rahuldeep Singh Gill’s Drinking from Love’s Cup:
Surrender and Sacrifice in the Vars of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla, published by Oxford University
Press as part of the American Academy of Religion’s “Religion in Translation” series in 2016,
represents a significant turning point in English materials available to students and scholars of
Sikh texts. Gill was characteristically modest about his goals in his preface to Drinking from
Love’s Cup, claiming that the original language of Bhai Gurdas was too “rich” and “pithy,” and
that “I have attempted to deliver clean, efficient English renditions of each line and then make
adjustments so that the stanzas hold together well— choosing to create readable translations that
privilege the historical value of these pieces over aesthetic quality alone” (xii). Anyone who had
the pleasure to hear Rahuldeep Singh Gill discuss his work, knew that, for him, “readable” went
beyond simply creating a coherent and accessible English translation. Drinking from Love’s Cup
was not simply a translation, it was also an ambitious attempt at making visible to a larger global
audience the multiple layers of historical references, proverbs, polemical discourses, spiritual
counsel, and community making that became visible once a particular set of verses was
translated and contextualized with early modern Punjab’s complex pasts. Since many of these are
multivalent, scholars can and do come to different conclusions about the interpretation and
contexts of many of these verses, but Gill’s work stands out as an original and bold interpretation
for many reasons.

Keywords: Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Bhai Gurdas, Sikh Studies

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Commemorating Rahuldeep Singh Gill’s Calling: Translation as Love and Ethical Practice – Purnima Dhavan
SRJ V7N2 Winter 2022 Special Issue – Dr. Rahuldeep Singh Gill
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Purnima Dhavan
University of Washington

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