TY - JOUR

T1 - Anatomy of the Mongolian Colophons in the Translations of the Word of the Buddha

AU - Alexeev, Kirill

PY - 2019/10/18

Y1 - 2019/10/18

N2 - The article brings into focus the structure and typology of the colophons in the Mongolian translations of texts whose authorship is ascribed to the Buddha himself. Such texts were repeatedly translated into the Mongolian language and highlyvenerated by believers. As old as Mongolian literature itself, colophons or “concluding words” accompanied the nation’s literary canon over a period running from the late thirteenth to the early twentieth century. They are the blocks of textual information that the creator of a text or book, be it a translator, a scribe, or a publisher, regarded as being an important addition to the main text. Despite the diversity of such informative blocks, which include praying formulas, panegyrics, benedictions, cosmological, historical, and quasi-historical accounts, didactic fragments, and so on, the colophons followed a settled template and established quite fixed information and expression spheres, i.e., they only narrate about certain things and use a certain language. This inflexibility of the colophons is explained by their main function – they represent a certain type of paratext forming part of the complex mediation between the book and the reader aimed at ensuring the reception of the translated text as an authoritative and legitimate source of Buddhist wisdom.

AB - The article brings into focus the structure and typology of the colophons in the Mongolian translations of texts whose authorship is ascribed to the Buddha himself. Such texts were repeatedly translated into the Mongolian language and highlyvenerated by believers. As old as Mongolian literature itself, colophons or “concluding words” accompanied the nation’s literary canon over a period running from the late thirteenth to the early twentieth century. They are the blocks of textual information that the creator of a text or book, be it a translator, a scribe, or a publisher, regarded as being an important addition to the main text. Despite the diversity of such informative blocks, which include praying formulas, panegyrics, benedictions, cosmological, historical, and quasi-historical accounts, didactic fragments, and so on, the colophons followed a settled template and established quite fixed information and expression spheres, i.e., they only narrate about certain things and use a certain language. This inflexibility of the colophons is explained by their main function – they represent a certain type of paratext forming part of the complex mediation between the book and the reader aimed at ensuring the reception of the translated text as an authoritative and legitimate source of Buddhist wisdom.

KW - colophon

KW - paratext

KW - Mongolian literature

KW - translated texts

KW - buddhavacana

KW - Mongolian Kanjur

KW - colophon

KW - paratext

KW - Mongolian literature

KW - translated texts

KW - buddhavacana

KW - Mongolian Kanjur

KW - aesthetics of identity

UR - http://aror.orient.cas.cz/banner/issue-872-2019/

M3 - Article

VL - 87

SP - 315

EP - 331

JO - Archiv Orientalni

JF - Archiv Orientalni

SN - 0044-8699

IS - 2

ER -