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Chapter II

“EUDOKIA” MEANS “AHMADIYEH”[LUKE ii. 14]

To retranslate a masterpiece of an eminent author
from a foreign version if he left other writings in his
own language would not be very difficult. For thus the
translator could study the mind, the technicalities, and the
expressions in his works, and do his best to retranslate
the book into its original language. However, how far he
would be successful is a question that only able translators
can decide and determine. Similarly, if there were at least
a couple of epistles or writings of St. Luke in the Hebrew,
his Gospel could, with comparatively less difficulty,
be translated into that tongue than it can now be done.
Unfortunately, even such is not the case. For nothing is
extant of the ancient writings in the language of Jesus (pbuh)
from which St. Luke translated the angelic hymn; nor has
he himself left us another book in a Semitic dialect.

To make myself better understood, and in order to
make the English readers better appreciate the extreme
importance of this point, I venture to challenge the best
scholar in English and French literature to retranslate
from a French edition the dramatic work of Shakespeare
into English without seeing the original English text, and
to show the grace and the elegance of the original as well.

The great Muslim philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
wrote in the Arabic, and some of his works were afterwards
retranslated from the Latin into the Arabic because the
originals were lost. Are this reproduction the exact texts
of that Muslim Aristotle? Certainly not!
In the previous article in this series [1] on “Eiriny,” we
discussed this translational point to a certain extent; and
we had no difficulty in finding its equivalent Hebrew

[1] Vide Islamic Review for November, 1929.