Last year, while translating a text that someone had asked me to translate; I encountered the word ”evolutsya” (evolution) and decided to translate it since the client had assigned me to translate the text because he trusted me. I had no need to open a dictionary. I already knew what was going to be written as a definition without even opening the dictionary. Although the client would not be mad at me for leaving the word as ”evolutsya”, I still decided to translate the word into Armenian.
Generally, translating is a hard but at the same time pleasant job during which the translator has many opportunities to learn new words. You are even forced to think about your world outlook and put aside certain moulds. So you can think of many definitions for a word like ”evolutsya” (evolution).
The first word that comes to my mind, I don’t know why, was the word ”kapkagnatsutyun” (evolution from monkey to man), which is like an invented word. Well, it’s not really invented, more like copied. I copied it from a page in a school textbook where it talks about the ”Evolution theory” of Charles Darwin. If you remember, that lesson was described as the evolution of ”monkey-man”. The monkey that jumps from one place to another and stands on its own two feet was separated from the rest of the animal world and became human.
During my years in school and while translating the text, however, I had no guarantee that the picture describing the process was accurate, that the last character in line was the didactic monkey- to stand on two feet is not enough proof of being smart. Of course, the word ”kapkagnatsutyun” would definitely not please my client and I thought about that word for a long time due to the fact that the subtext of the material being translated was different. If my memory serves me right, there was a text about pottery and metallurgy.
The next definition that came to me was horizontal change, which was fixed in my mind as an antonym for revolution. I felt the influence of Darwin’s theory due to the fact that his process is longer and boring in contrast to revolution. In Darwin’s theory, the monkey progresses and progresses until finally it becomes a man, and then revolution turns the man into a monkey and the monkey into a man.
This change was transformed into a belief for revolutionaries in the famous ”International” song where it is literally said: ”kto bil ne chem, tot stanet vsem” (the one who was nobody is now somebody). So, we have for example, Monkey Gvon, who is a market wagon driver turns into Gvidon Volodyayevich after walking around the square where the revolution is taking place. It’s okay if he sometimes spits on the ground in his newly modeled room and it’s okay if he signals for a long time while riding in his ten thousand dollar car as if he is yelling “make room, make room” by pushing his cart through the middle of the market.
Now, in your opinion, how long was Gvidon Volodyayevich going to stay Monkey Gvo and how long was he supposed to be a wagon driver in order to fit in Darwin’s famous theory? Why did he have to become the victim or one of the victims of that unproved theory? True, his father had told him a couple of times when he was a child: “Gvo, study well so you can be somebody when you grow up,” while he had stood up and said “I know how to count and I will sign my name where it is said to do so,” but he never thought about the fact that one becomes somebody without any preconditions. He doesn’t think about it now either because he has given his cart used during his childhood years to his friend who was riding it in the mornings from “school-university-P.H.D.”.
So, there may be some mistakes in changes and it is not the antonym of revolution. The antonym for revolution is not starting a revolution at all. The antonym for revolution is not even the constitutional amendments referendum because Gvo is not “Monkey Gvo” or “Gvido Volodyayevich” based on this or that constitutional clause, but simply because that is who he is.
Then I thought about the word “haratch” (progress), but I immediately refused because that word alone does not signify development. For example, there can be “har atch” (small progress), but not development. Basically, growth can be double and step by step just like Darwin was explaining the development of man. In this case, the Armenian people have a nice phrase which goes “you eat like the donkey, you become the donkey” (metaphorical-“live and learn”); this probably means that the type of food doesn’t depend on the person’s preferences, taste or even appetite.
On the other hand, the wise Armenian people go along with the vertical development version, when the stage of the square is higher in contrast to the number of people gathered. Now the reader is probably thinking that altitude can not be compared to quantity. In order to clear all doubts, I must say that for Armenian reality, altitude can be compared to both quantity and quality.
For example, the constitutional amendments referendum was in contrast to the empty streets, but that wasn’t a problem for the people who voted “yes” to be in contrast to the number of disappointed people or be compared to the people’s strives to join the “Russia-Belarus” alliance in the not too distant past.
If Charles Darwin knew all about this at the time, he would probably advise Albert Einstein not to stick his nose in the theory of relativity and he would advise me to only occupy myself with translations and not go deep into concepts, much less in a country like Armenia where time is in direct comparison to the herd and the herd is following the herdsman towards Europe.