| 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a translation, it was also an ambitious attempt at making visible to a larger global audience the multiple layers of historical references, proverbs, polemical discourses, spiritual counsel, and community making that became visible once a particular set of verses was translated and contextualized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  Commemorating Rahuldeep Singh Gill’s Calling: Translation as Love and Ethical Practice – Purnima Dhavan SRJ V7N2 Winter 2022 Special Issue – Dr. Rahuldeep Singh Gill Click the PDF icon to view, and right-click to save as. |
| Purnima Dhavan University of Washington |
