the skillful speaker says nothing that can be found fault with or blamed;In this instance, three of the versions above seem to agree in their general tenor, while Lin's translation goes off in a different direction. Jonathan Star's translation -- [A knower of truth] speaks without causing harm -- is more in line with Lin's, yet it doesn't necessarily match up well with his own concordance!
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~
A good speaker makes no slips;
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~
Good speech does not seek faults
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~
Speak without stumbling over your words.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Star states the line reads in Chinese as follows: Shan yen wu hsia chai.
What this shows to me is the great difficulty with attempting to translate an ancient language that contains words or concepts that can have many different meanings. It is no wonder each complete translation does not agree with others. There are so many different paths to choose line by line and, sometimes, word by word.
- Shan: good, excellent, skillful or one adept at
- Yen: speaker, speech, words or talking
- Wu: no or without; leaves, makes or reveals - no
- Hsia: flaw, blemish, slip-ups or imperfection
- Chai: error, attack or reproach
In this instance, this line could be directed inward or outward. It all depends on which set of words the translator believes more accurately conveys the perceived intent.
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And of course it is a two-way dilemma, depending on which is the translator's native language. There are many words and concepts in Chinese for which there is no real English equivalent (e.g., ren, li and xiao), and for which apparent English equivalents carry too much baggage (e.g., tian.) You have to kind of become culturally assimilated, to learn to think Chinese.
ReplyDeleteIt's not exactly that there are a lot of choices for the translator to pick and choose, but that the choices are all approximations of the concept. I
In addition, Chinese is a very contextual language. A Chinese reader is less likely to struggle over "did he mean this meaning or that one"; he will just get the feeling. (This is one of the reason older Chinese are very disturbed over the application of simplified characters; much of the subtlety in meaning is lost.)