The Dzogchen Tantra Translation Project

The actual work of the three main translators of the Dzogchen-Community—Elio Guarisco, Adriano Clemente and Jim Valby—started in summer 2004 at Isla Margarita. They met in order to carry on the translation on the Mejung-Tantra which was also to study-text for the Training for Translators. In November and December 2004 Elio and Jim met again in Tsegyalgar and continued their intensive translation work.

In spite of being weak due to his sickness Elio worked on two Tibetan texts in spring 2005: he went on with the translation work of the Mejung, and he also finished the work on the book “On Birth. Life and Death”, the latest book of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu on Tibetan Medicine, which was published in summer 2006.

In December 2005, and January Elio, Adriano and Jim worked again on various translations in Margarita. They worked on the translation of the Mejung Tantra.

In September 2006 they continued their work in Merigar. They met once again and continued their work on the Mejung Tantra.

Elio wrote:

"The days we spent together were very fruitful. The text, which is really very difficult, with many passages open to various interpretations, has by now become much clearer to us. Our work was very smooth. Before our afternoon meetings, Adriano would review the text by himself, while Jim and I inserted corrections and prepared different versions of the translation of various passages for submission to Rinpoche. It was a pleasure to work with Adriano, who is very sharp and able to see all the possible interpretations, and with Jim, who painstakingly wrote them down.

Our discussion and analysis of the text proved absolutely fruitful and shed a great deal of light on this source. Unfortunately we had miscalculated the time needed to carry out such a large-scale review. For this reason we were able to cover only half of the material. We have thus decided to get together again in February 2007, in Margarita, and to review the second half, to decide on the final version and so on, with Rinpoche. We will do our best to carry on the completion the translation of this wonderful text in the shortest possible time and hope that this text can be published in 2009."

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu helps the three translators to clarify some unclear points in the text.