Found in Translation

Victorian Secrets
It’s one of the most popular books in the world, with millions of copies sold.
Perhaps there’s even one in the drawer of your bedroom nightstand. But very
few people know what the title actually means. Imagine listing “sensual
pleasure” as one of the three most important pursuits of your life. The word
kama essentially means “sensual pleasure” in the context of ancient Indian
Hindu tradition. The term doesn’t just mean pleasure or desire—instead, it
evokes a quest for pleasure, almost as if it were a sacred and spiritual duty.
Sutra is a thread or a connecting line that holds things together, or a
formula. Thus one way of translating kama sutra (
in Sanskrit) would be

---

“formulas for sensual pleasure.” Many guides have been written with similar
words in their titles (think the Joy of Sex), but no words that fit on a book cover
really do justice to the concept of a lifelong commitment to seeking pleasure.
At least, not in English. The most faithful and concise translation we could
suggest would be something along the lines of “Enlightened Sensuality.”
The eighteen-hundred-year-old book is mistakenly known throughout the
Western world as a book of contortionist sexual positions. While it’s true that 4
percent of the book does discuss sexual postures, its primary goal is to
describe the pleasure-oriented aspects of human life. That’s what the rest of the
book covers—everything from how to arrange your furniture to maintaining
power in a marriage. It even includes recipes for love potions that include
ingredients like the bone of a camel soaked in marigold juice.
It took quite a daring and unconventional person to successfully translate the
Kama Sutra into English for the first time. It took even more guts to publish it
back in restrained Victorian times, when such writing was considered not only
risqué but pornographic (even without the illustrations that would be added
later). Enter Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, who was not only a linguist,
but a soldier, explorer, writer, cartographer, poet, fencer, and diplomat. With a
voracious appetite for languages, he reportedly learned at least twenty-five
different tongues with varying levels of fluency.
5
When his diplomatic career was over, and as he neared the end of his life,
Burton became focused on an important mission. He wanted to give English
readers a more satisfying sex life. He worked with Indian scholars to translate
several other Sanskrit and Arabic-language guides on the subject.
Had it not been for Burton overseeing its translation, the first into any
European language, the Kama Sutra would likely still be unknown to English
readers. The book’s publication sparked debate and got people thinking about
other ways to view their lives, and especially their sexuality in one of the most
gender-divided and sexually conservative periods in European history.
6