| Description | This talk introduces a concept of translation developed by the Indo-Persian poet-philosopher Bidel of Delhi (d.1720). In his autobiography and narrative poems—which range across many disciplines, including comparative religion (Islam and Hinduism)—Bidel advocates for a form of practical comparison he calls crossings (taʿbīr, literally “crossing over a body of water”). As Bidel unfolds this concept’s multilayered connotations, crossings emerges as an open-minded, humane, and creative endeavor to understand another tradition through translation and imaginative comparison. This practice of crossings is something that anyone, regardless of their religious affiliation, education, and social status, can and should attempt to undertake. This is a UW Translation Studies Hub event.
Jane Mikkelson (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, and Comparative Literature, Yale University) researches and teaches premodern literary cultures of Islamicate South Asia and the Near East. Her essays and translations (from Persian and Russian) have appeared in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; Journal of South Asian Intellectual History; Asymptote; and Exchanges.
Accommodation requests related to a disability or health condition should be made by April 17, 2023 to the Simpson Center, 206.543.3920, schadmin@uw.edu. |
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