A translator: Bridging the gap

In our Open Mind series this month, pro­ducer Peter Aronson talks with Ruth Sonam about the art of trans­lat­ing — bridg­ing the gap between a bril­liant teacher speak­ing Tibetan and his English-​​speaking stu­dents. Ruth Sonam has been trans­lat­ing for the same Tibetan lama since 1983, with whom she has co-​​authored 10 books. She con­tin­ues to trans­late for him in daily classes at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, an insti­tu­tion for Buddhist study in Dharamsala, India. She earned a Master’s degree at Oxford University, and her story starts a few years after that, when she arrived at the Library in Dharamsala in the early 1970s.