What makes material unusable in translation?
Meditations built on word plays or acrostics (M-O-T-H-E-R, where each letter begins a sentence or is the initial in a word) do not translate; these make the meditation containing them unusable. Slang words and phrases are often difficult or impossible to translate. Using standard English helps to assure that material can be translated and will in ten years still mean what it means today. | Return to Top | Can we quote hymns and poems and similar sources? Using quotes from hymns or assuming knowledge of familiar hymns often makes meditations unusable because these require additional explanation for readers in other countries. This makes the meditations too long in translation. Poetry is a problem for translators because the structures that make it poetry in English do not survive translation. In addition, use of as little as two lines of poetry requires specific permission from the copyright owner and often payment. Quotes from secondary sources can be included provided they are verifie
