February 15. On this date in 1957, a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to French Bahá'ís addressed the capitalization of pronouns referring to God, noting that "he would like in the European languages to have as much uniformity with the English translations as possible." Bahá'í works, such as the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, are translated into the world's languages from English versions, not the original Arabic or Persian.

 

February 15. On this date in 1957, a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to French Bahá'ís addressed the capitalization of pronouns referring to God, noting that "he would like in the European languages to have as much uniformity with the English translations as possible." Bahá'í works, such as the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, are translated into the world's languages from English versions, not the original Arabic or Persian.

365. Capitalizing Pronouns in Other Languages

"He is interested in accomplishing two things--he would like in the European languages to have as much uniformity with the English translations as possible; he does not wish the Bahá'í translations to be in any way a flagrant violation of the rules of the language into which our literature is being translated.

"Your Committee must conscientiously study this question, and then do the best you can to have the Bahá'í literature in French meet the high standards of the French language and grammar.

"If the possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in French are never capitalized where they stand for 'God', then this should not be done in the Bahá'í literature. If there is a precedent for doing so in the French language, however, they should be. The same is true of the attributes of God."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Translation and Publication Committee of France, February 15, 1957)

To summarize rules of Bahá'í translations...

Arabic works cannot be translated into Persian.

Persian works cannot be translated into Arabic.

Persian and Arabic works can be translated "into Oriental languages such as Turkish and Urdu."

Persian and Arabic works can be translated into English.

Persian and Arabic works cannot be translated into European languages.

English works can be translated into European languages.

For further reading, please see "Persian, Arabic, and Provisional Translations", "Translation and provisional translations", "Unveiling the Hidden Words, by Diana Malouf: Commentary on "Translating the Hidden Words,' review by Franklin Lewis", a letter dated June 27, 1933from Shoghi Effendi to Adelbert Mühlschlegel about Bahá'í orthography, a letter dated June 30, 1999 from the Universal House of Justice outlining its procedures for approving provisional as opposed to authorized translations, and a letter dated February 15, 1957 from Shoghi Effendi to French Bahá'ís.