Tryangulation: Education versus learning, 14th century version

Education versus learning, 14th century version

At least twice a week I find myself in conversations that turn on the point that education is not the same as learning, and that information is not the same as knowledge. A few weeks ago one of these conversations led to my translation last year of a stanza by Yunus Emre, a Turkish mystical poet who lived approximately 1240-1320. Oddly, I had memorized the Turkish original but not my English translation. Just as well, since the translation continues to evolve.

İlim ilim bilmektir
İlim kendin bilmektir
Sen kendini bilmezsin
Ya nice okumaktır

For the English translation it helps to know that the word 'ilim' can mean 'knowledge', 'learning', 'scholarship' or 'enlightenment'. It's possible that the first line uses two different senses of the same word, which would set up a nice chiasmus in the translation of the first two lines. Still, what Yunus meant 700 years ago is open to interpretation.

To know is to gain understanding
To understand is to know yourself
If you do not know yourself
Then all your study is only so much reading

May 26, 2006 in Learning, Quotes | Permalink