Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/429

 ihe king, so his subjects ; as the teacher, so the pupil/ Similarly it can be said, ' As the speaker, so the language,' Shamalbhatt and other poets do not appear to have been obsessed with an idea of the incomplete- ness of Gujarati when they expressed their different thoughts, but they so coined new expressions and manipulated the old that their thoughts became current in the language.

" In one respect all languages are incomplete. Man's reason is limited and language fails him when he begins to talk ofi God and Eternity. Human reason controls human speech. It is, therefore, limited, to the extent that reason itself is limited, and in that sense all langu- ages are incomplete. The ordinary rule regarding language is that a language takes shape in accordance with the thoughts of its wielders. If they are sensible, their language is full of sense, and it becomes nonsense when foolish people speak it. There is an English proverb, " A bad carpenter quarrels with his tools." Those who quarrel with a language are often like the bad carpenter. To those who have to deal with the English language and its literature, the Gujarati language may appear incomplete for the simple reason that translation from English into Gujarati is difficult. The fault is not in the language but in the people be- fore whom the translation is placed. They are not used to new words, new subjects and new manipulations of their language. The speaker, therefore, is taken aback. How shall a ringer sing before a deaf man? And how can a writer deliver his soul until his readers have developed a capacity for weighing the new with the old and sifting the good from the bad.

"Again some translators seem to think that Gujarat

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