Lights of Guidance/Bahá’í Publication, Translation, Review and Copyright

Lights of Guidance edited by Helen Hornby
Bahá’í Publication, Translation, Review and Copyright

360. Bahá’í Newsletters and Bulletins—Why Circulation is Restricted to "Bahá’ís Only"

"In reply to your inquiry of 18th November 1982 about Bahá’í newsletters and bulletins being for Bahá’ís only, we are asked by the Universal House of Justice to quote below from letters written by the Universal House of Justice or at its instruction to other National Assemblies which have asked similar questions.

'With reference to your letter of October 31st asking why the circulation of Bahá’í News should be restricted to Bahá’ís we wish to point out that the same reasons that make it necessary to restrict the attendance at a Nineteen Day Feast to Bahá’ís only apply also to the circulation of Bahá’í Newsletters.

'A Bahá’í news bulletin assumes that the reader is a Bahá’í and it would therefore normally contain items which are purely of a domestic nature of no interest to the general public and which, in some cases, may give the wrong impression to those not familiar with the Bahá’í teachings. However, there is no objection to the friends showing their newsletters to non-Bahá’ís if they so wish or find it useful at times. Furthermore, if the words 'For Bahá’ís Only' which appear on some newsletters are found to be offensive to the non-Bahá’í, there is no requirement for these words to appear on every copy of the newsletter.

'In answer to your query concerning the policy of keeping "Bahá’í News" for Bahá’ís only, the House of Justice instructs us to explain that the circulation of Bahá’í Newsletters is restricted to Bahá’ís because they are vehicles of news that is primarily of internal interest to the friends and the Assembly should be able to write freely to the believers without having to so word the information that it would be easily understandable to a non-Bahá’í reader. In other words, a Bahá’í newsletter is not secret but is an internal journal intended for an informed readership.'"

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Mexico, December 19, 1982)

361. Usage in Spanish Texts of Accents on Persian and Arabic Words

"The question as to whether or not the accents on the word Bahá’í (and indeed on other words transliterated from the Persian and Arabic) should be used when the word is printed entirely in capital letters is one that should be uniform in usage throughout the Spanish-speaking world unless usage varies significantly from country to country. It is suggested, therefore, that you refer this question to the two Bahá’í Publishing Trusts in Spain and Argentina for their comments. The guiding consideration should not be the usage in relation to accents on Spanish words, but the usage in Spanish texts of accents on capital letters on foreign words appearing in Spanish texts, such as the German umlaut, etc. It should be borne in mind that, whereas the accent in Spanish indicates merely a presence of stress, in the transliteration of Persian words it indicates a difference in articulation of the vowel. For example, the words 'VÁHID' and 'VAHÍD' are two words with different meanings and different pronunciations."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Mexico, July 22, 1984)

362. Publications from World Centre—No Restriction on Use of Quotations

"There is no restriction on Bahá’í authors, institutions and publishing agencies using quotations from the publications of the World Centre, and permission to do so need not be sought. This freedom to quote likewise applies to compilations of the World Centre which have been published.

"Permission to quote from publications of Publishing Trusts should be sought from the Trust concerned except in cases where the Trust has merely printed a compilation issued by the World Centre.

"Of course, Bahá’í authors should seek review of their works by the National Assembly of the country in which it will be printed."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, December 11, 1980)

363. Copyright Clearance on Sacred Writings not Necessary for Assemblies and Bahá’í Believers

"The Universal House of Justice has been concerned of late to note an apparently growing impression among Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers in many parts of the world, that they must obtain copyright clearance before they may quote from the Sacred Texts of the Faith in any publication. It has now instructed us to make it clear that the Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers are free to quote in their publications from any of the Writings of the three Central Figures of the Faith or from the writings of the beloved Guardian, whether in the original language or in translation, without obtaining clearance from the copyright holder, unless the copyright holder in the case of a translation is an individual or is a non-Bahá’í institution. It is recognized that this ruling may endanger copyrights, but we feel that this is a risk that must be taken.

"The ruling is made to ensure that the Sacred Scriptures of our Faith and the writings of the beloved Guardian may be freely used by the believers; it does not change the existing requirements for individual believers to submit their works on the Faith for review before publication, neither does it relieve Spiritual Assemblies of their responsibility to protect the dignity of the Faith and uphold the proper standard of reverence in the use of its Sacred Scriptures. Thus, if any Assembly sees that one of the friends is making use of any of the Holy Texts in an unbefitting manner, it should remonstrate with him and, if necessary, require him to stop doing so."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, September 4, 1981)

364. Capitalizing Pronouns in English

"The Guardian wishes your Committee to capitalize all pronouns when referring to Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and the Master, even though the newspapers do not use them."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’í News Service Committee, February 5, 1938)

"In regard to your question about capitalizing the pronouns: The Guardian realizes this looks a little strange to non-Bahá’ís, but he feels we, being believers, and having the full sense of the Stations of the Central figures of our Faith, should do this as a sign of respect under all circumstances."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, November 22, 1949)

365. Capitalizing Pronouns in Other Languages

"He is interested in accomplishing two things—he would like in the European languages to have as much uniformity with the English translations as possible; he does not wish the Bahá’í translations to be in any way a flagrant violation of the rules of the language into which our literature is being translated.

"Your Committee must conscientiously study this question, and then do the best you can to have the Bahá’í literature in French meet the high standards of the French language and grammar.

"If the possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in French are never capitalized where they stand for 'God', then this should not be done in the Bahá’í literature. If there is a precedent for doing so in the French language, however, they should be. The same is true of the attributes of God."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Translation and Publication Committee of France, February 15, 1957)

366. Quotation Marks—Must Uphold Rigid Standard Inculcated by the Cause

"Also the Guardian feels it is absolutely essential that in all releases issued by your Committee quotation marks be used when passages from Bahá’í Sacred Writings are quoted. The friends should be careful to uphold under all circumstances the rigid standard inculcated by the Cause, and not to compromise easily with the common and accepted standards of the time."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’í News Service Committee, February 5, 1938)

367. National Spiritual Assembly Authorises Translations Through a Committee of Bahá’í Translators—The Guardian's Method of Transliteration Should Be Used

"The National Spiritual Assembly which undertakes the translation, usually through a committee of Bahá’í translators, is the body which 'authorizes' the translation, if it is approved. In some instances, if there are no Bahá’í translators available, there is no objection, in principle, to employing non-Bahá’ís for this purpose. It is usual for the National Spiritual Assembly to appoint a Reviewing Committee, or establish some means of providing review of the completed translation. You will note from the enclosed memorandum that, with the exceptions enumerated therein, new translations of the Sacred Text into languages other than English must be made from the Guardian's English translation where it exists; and when no such translation exists, advice should be sought from the Universal House of Justice. In the case of Spanish, to avoid duplication of effort and to achieve the highest standard of accuracy, the National Assembly concerned should feel free to consult EBILA and/or the National Spiritual Assembly of Spain, and indeed the House of Justice encourages the closest co-operation between all administrative bodies and publishing trusts responsible for the production of literature in Spanish.

"Regarding the transliteration of Persian and Arabic words the House of Justice requests that the method adopted by the beloved Guardian, and which is described in the various volumes of 'The Bahá’í World', be followed, as it permits all languages which use the Roman alphabet to transliterate such terms in the same way throughout the Bahá’í world."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Panama, July 16, 1979)

368. Guidelines for the Translation of Bahá’í Sacred Writings

"Translations into languages other than those akin to Persian and Arabic should normally be made from approved English translations rather than from the original Persian and Arabic. In such cases it is an advantage if it is also possible for the translator(s) to check with the original.

"All new translations into English, and all revisions of earlier translations in that language must be checked at the World Centre and officially approved before publication.

"Any believer is free to translate for his own use anything he wishes, but dissemination or publication of such translation is dependent upon their approval by the appropriate National Spiritual Assembly or, in the case of translations into English, by the World Centre.

a) If an individual Bahá’í spontaneously makes his own translation of a passage he may willingly make it available to a Spiritual Assembly but he cannot be compelled to do so.

b) If a translation made spontaneously by an individual is approved and published, he retains the copyright of his translation unless, of course, he wishes to surrender it.

"When a Spiritual Assembly wishes to have a translation made it should, if possible have the task undertaken by a committee rather than by individuals, as is explained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

a) The members of such a committee need not all be Bahá’ís.

b) Translations made by a committee are the property of the Assembly appointing the committee, and not of the members of the committee.

c) Except for translations into English, a translation made by a committee does not have to be checked unless the Assembly deems it advisable.

d) In accordance with the instructions of Shoghi Effendi the name of the committee should appear in the book as the translator, but the names of the members must not so appear."

(From Guidelines for the Translation of Bahá’í Sacred Writings attached to a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Assembly of Panama, July 16, 1979)

369. An Individual Can Be Commissioned to Make Translations—Translations Become Property of the Assembly

"If it is not feasible to form a translation committee, translations must, perforce, be made by individuals.

a) When an individual is commissioned by an Assembly to make a translation for it the translation should become the property of the Assembly, not of the individual, even if the work is done without remuneration. It is advisable to have this and other matters agreed in writing before the work is undertaken so that there may be no ground for subsequent misunderstandings.

b) A translation made by an individual should be checked before being published, if possible, and such checking should be done by a committee rather than by an individual, if this is feasible.

c) When a translation made by an individual is published, his name may appear as translator if he so wishes.

"Normally credit for translation should appear on all complete works and compilations that are published, as well as on books that quote translated passages.

a) Credit for translation should not appear in the case of passages quoted in communications from Bahá’í institutions, even when these are published.

b) Credit for translation need not appear on published leaflets and pamphlets unless there is a legal requirement that it do so."

(Ibid.)

370. Translation of Bahá’í Literature into Everyday Language—Simplifications and Paraphrasing not to be Published as Scripture

"The Universal House of Justice, in response to your letter of 20 April concerning translations into French or Creole using simpler words than the original text, has requested us to send the following three quotations. These make it clear that a quotation in English may be rendered into simple English in order to facilitate its translation into another language or dialect. However, it is not permissible to publish simplifications and paraphrased extracts of Bahá’í Writings as Bahá’í Scripture.

'We have noticed a tendency in a number of countries to attempt to translate Bahá’í literature into the current, easy, everyday language of the country. This, however, should not be an overriding consideration. Many of the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are in exalted and highly poetic language in the original Persian and Arabic and you will see, for example, that when translating Bahá’u’lláh's Writings into English the beloved Guardian did not use present-day colloquial English but evolved a highly poetic and beautiful style, using numbers of archaic expressions reminiscent of the translations of the Bible.'

(From a letter dated 7 October 1973 written by the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly)

'Obviously teaching literature and books about the Faith can be written in simple English. However, we feel that when the Sacred Writings are published the standard English translation should be used, but there would be no objection to printing alongside it the translation into simple English which should be described as a paraphrase of the Holy Word. Thus, for the people of … who have difficulty in comprehending standard English, the simple English version would be in the nature of an explanation of the Writings which they could understand. In the case of teaching literature in which quotations from the Writings appear, these could either be paraphrased or a simple English version could be used with the standard version printed as a footnote. This method would also provide a means whereby the people of … could improve their knowledge and understanding of the English language.'

(From a letter dated 20 September 1973 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly)

'It is, of course, permissible to translate Bahá’í Writings into other languages and dialects of languages. It is also possible to simplify or paraphrase the Bahá’í Writings in order to facilitate their translation into languages and dialects having small vocabularies. However, it is not permissible to publish simplifications and paraphrases of Bahá’í Writings as Bahá’í Scripture.'"

(From a letter dated 13 March 1969 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly)

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the Spiritual Assembly of Guadeloupe, May 13, 1986)

371. Translators Should Utilize Most Recent Editions of Books

"The Universal House of Justice has requested us to advise you to base your translations on current editions of all the books referred to, if translation is involved. In each instance you should consult the original publisher and obtain a copy of the latest printing or edition to ensure that all approved corrections are embodied in your translation."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Taiwan, May 22, 1984)