0:08 hi my name is jonathan dunn
0:12 and this is the first in a series of talks
0:13 talks [Music]
0:14 [Music]
0:16 called theological english
0:22 i'm a translator of literature this
0:24 means i
0:26 stand between the
0:29 source language and the target language
0:31 of a text
0:35 that text passes through my mind
0:38 through the sum of my experience
0:40 into another language
0:42 but the point is that it passes
0:44 through me
0:46 and i would like to suggest that uh
0:48 everything in this life
0:50 passes through us
0:53 or we pass through it
0:56 you might think of air when we breathe
0:59 it passes through us food when we eat
1:03 passes through us conversations when we
1:05 hear what other people say passes
1:07 through us and we tend in that process
1:15 and to expel the rest
1:17 uh and i think this is a process very similar
1:18 similar
1:22 to the translation of a text
1:26 it passes through us
1:28 and not only do we give that text
1:29 meaning in another language but we ourselves
1:31 ourselves
1:38 but
1:42 we like to think of ourselves as authors
1:43 authors
1:46 we like to think that things begin
1:47 with us
1:49 when in fact they don't
1:50 even life
1:53 does not begin with us we receive life
1:55 from our parents
1:57 and we pass that life
2:01 on to our children
2:04 so i would say that everything in this life
2:06 life
2:09 passes through us it does not begin with us
2:10 us
2:13 but we take a very dim view of
2:16 translation we tend to regard it as
2:17 second rate inferior
2:19 inferior
2:22 not as good as the original when
2:26 actually the original text so-called
2:29 is a form of translation the author is
2:31 writing down
2:33 their impressions the things they've
2:35 learned what they've heard using a
2:38 language that they did not invent [Music]
2:40 [Music]
2:43 but we think of it as being original
2:47 only god is original
2:48 things only
2:56 when something begins with you you are
2:58 in effect
3:01 talking about a line
3:05 and it starts with you and goes on
3:06 on
3:13 but i would like to suggest that for humans
3:15 humans
3:19 we are on the receiving end
3:22 and things pass
3:29 the idea of the line is very interesting
3:30 in language
3:32 we have uh nouns
3:36 uh that can be concepts like love justice
3:37 justice
3:39 and note that with these nouns we don't
3:42 use the indefinite article uh
3:43 or an
3:45 we talk about love
3:46 love
3:48 justice these are concepts that are very
3:52 often difficult to define to put a line around
3:58 but when we talk about objects such as
4:01 a book a table
4:05 something that we can draw a line around
4:07 we include the indefinite article [Music]
4:10 [Music]
4:13 and we make it countable you can have a table
4:14 table
4:17 two tables
4:18 a book
4:21 two books
4:23 so when we take something that is around
4:27 us and we draw a line around that thing
4:30 and we define it therefore we make it
4:36 a bottle
4:38 a car
4:40 all these things are different from
4:41 concepts they're
4:44 objects that we can conceptualize
4:47 and in our mind or on a piece of paper draw
4:48 draw
4:49 a line
4:50 around them
4:53 i would like to suggest that in
4:54 in
4:57 the beginning of the book of genesis
4:59 when god created man what in effect he did
5:01 did was
5:02 was
5:05 separate us off from himself he drew a line
5:06 line
5:08 around us
5:16 the name of god in exodus is i am who i
5:19 am exodus 3 14 am
5:20 am god
5:21 god made
5:22 made an
5:38 man is made up of am the name of god in
5:40 exodus 3 14 and
5:41 and an
5:41 an [Music]
5:42 [Music]
5:44 the indefinite article for something
5:47 that has a line drawn around it now why
5:52 did god separate us off from himself
5:54 of course we can never be separate from
5:58 god we are contained within him but
5:59 within him
6:06 i think he did this to give us
6:09 free will
6:11 he made us separate from himself so that
6:14 we could make our own decisions make our own
6:15 own choices
6:22 now i would like to contrast that
6:24 with what we do
6:26 in the world
6:28 we take things that were already here
6:31 that already existed
6:35 that flow if you like in front of us
6:37 and we package them
6:41 we draw a line around them it might be a barrel
6:42 barrel
6:43 a pipe
6:45 a bag
6:49 so
6:51 we imitate god
6:53 we make something that flows
6:56 continuously like rice or oil
6:58 oil into
6:59 into
7:03 a bag of rice a barrel of oil we do
7:06 exactly the same as god
7:08 we define
7:10 we draw a line around
7:12 around
7:14 but we don't do this
7:15 to give
7:17 the things
7:19 free will
7:20 we do this to trade
7:23 trade to
7:24 to
7:26 make a profit
7:29 we actually take things
7:32 that are freely there the earth does not
7:35 charge us for the products that we use
7:38 and we put a price
7:40 on those things
7:42 in order to make money and i would
7:44 suggest that when we
7:46 take that
7:49 awful role upon ourselves uh
7:50 uh
7:53 we actually are perverting
7:54 perverting things
7:56 things
7:59 from their true purpose we're putting a
8:01 price on them and from that drawing of a line
8:02 line
8:05 comes all the confrontation and conflict
8:10 so
8:13 god drew a line
8:15 in order to separate us from himself and
8:17 give us free will
8:19 we draw
8:20 a line
8:22 in order to
8:24 make money
8:26 in order to count what is coming in and
8:29 what is going out
8:32 and it is precisely the way that we draw
8:35 a line around something
8:38 with metal plastic whatever it is that
8:39 we use are
8:40 are
8:43 definition our
8:47 packaging that causes so many problems
8:49 to the environment
8:51 that pollutes our
8:52 our land
8:53 land oceans
8:58 this line
8:59 line
9:02 where you are claiming that something
9:04 belongs to you
9:06 and therefore you can
9:09 take possession of it and sell it
9:11 to another person
9:14 is something we have to move away
9:15 away from
9:20 and i think that is the purpose of human
9:21 life to move
9:25 away from the line
9:27 it is curious in english
9:31 that the ego is represented by the line i
9:32 i
9:33 capital i
9:35 this is a line
9:37 it is curious that the number we start
9:39 counting from one
9:41 one
9:42 is also
9:43 a line
9:46 we make the mistake of not starting
9:49 to count from zero we teach our children
9:51 not to count
9:54 zero one two three but to count
9:57 one two three so we again start from the
10:02 and i would like in the next
10:06 video to look at the ways that there are
10:08 in language
10:10 of moving away
10:12 from the line
10:14 which is
10:15 in effect
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