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The oldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a few fragments of the seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, and even in these the Chinese characters are in many instances used phonetically, because the meaning of the words thus transliterated had already been forgotten. Hence their interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of conjecture.
They have transliterated the Hebrew word Jehovah; so they have taken sides in a controversy where scholars have room to differ. The version would have gained in strength if it had retained the dignified and noble word "Lord," which comes as near representing the idea of the Hebrew word for God as any word we could find.
But what we learners want is not an exquisite, rare knowledge of particulars, we do not want to spend an hour upon Russian needlessly; we want to get there as quickly and effectively as possible. And for that, transliterated books are essential. Now these may seem small details in the learning of languages, mere schoolmasters' gossip, but the consequences are on the continental scale.
Now proper names, generally speaking, are not translated from one language to another, but transliterated as nearly as the genius of the language will permit. It was the fact that the Greek word Ptolemaics was transliterated on the Rosetta Stone that gave the first clew to the sounds of the Egyptian characters.
Nay, they are at present of no avail whereon to found any doctrine concerning the Gods' that man is railed at for his 'mean' and 'weak' arguments. * Transliterated from Greek. Was it thus, Father, that the heathen railed against thee? XVII. To Percy Bysshe Shelley.
P.S. On another page is given the list of the best known and most current Bahá’í terms, and other Oriental names and expressions, all properly and accurately transliterated, the faithful spelling of which by all the Western friends will avoid confusion in future, and insure in this matter a uniformity which is greatly needed at present in all Bahá’í literature.
The present text is a reproduction of the Brussels MS. plus lengthening of contractions. As regards lengthening in question it is to be noted that the well known contraction for "ea" or "e" has been uniformly transliterated "e." Otherwise orthography of the MS. has been scrupulously followed even where inconsistent or incorrect.
We have noted a few of the more glaring relics of mediævalism in the footnotes; the attentive reader will discover and dispose of others for himself. The title furnishes peculiar difficulties to the translator. Cole has simply transliterated it, "The Consolatory Terradecad." Spalatin paraphrased it "Ein trostlichs Buchlein," etc. The Berlin Edition renders it, "Vierzehn Trostmittel," etc.
Many of them are composed of Hebrew words, transliterated into English, spelled out with English letters. King James' translators did not know what they meant, so they reproduced them in this way. There has been much discussion as to the meaning of several of them, and the scholars are by no means agreed; the interpretations which follow are mainly those given by Professor Murray:
I am enclosing for all the friends recent translations of those highly significant utterances of Bahá’u’lláh, revealed some fifty years ago, and pregnant with His divine wisdom. His ringing call to humanity in its hour of peril sounds prophetic in these days of utter gloom. I am forwarding also a copy of the transliterated Oriental terms with few corrections of minor type errors.
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