Sunday, September 14, 2008

中文的提示性 The Suggestiveness of Chinese Language

中文是一种提示性的语言和文字。中国的哲学自然也就是用提示性的方式来说和写的。这个形而上学里的许多概念如道,德,自然,阴阳,气,都是提示性的字词。
可以这么说,提示,而不是明述,向来是中国哲学,诗歌,绘画,等等的典型表述。
提示就是有非直觉和示意的意思,所谓字简意深。提示性的文字和叙述不容易被翻译成另一种文字。在翻译的过程中,提示性的部分不可避免的会被遗漏。翻译只能表达一个观念或想法;可是,原本叙述和书写可能包含的其他意思和想法。
西方老子道德经有不少翻译版本,可是每个版本都有不足之处。因为这本书原本句子的提示太多,要以明述来了解它的意思,实难胜任,翻译就更不用说了。原书字句简练,学者对它们的注解已经意见分歧,要翻译,自然问题多多。
要了解原书的风貌,需要把所有译本,加上将来的各种译本一齐读才可。如果不会中文,西方读者要进一步了解中国哲学和艺术,简直是件不可能的事。
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It is well recognised that the Chinese language is suggestive and it is therefore expected that many Chinese philosophical writings follow the grammar of suggestiveness. For instance the whole idea of metaphysical conception of Chinese philosophy dao(道),de(德),ziran(自然),yin-yang(阴阳), qi(气)all stands for some suggestive meanings.
It can be said that suggestiveness, not articulateness, is the ideal of all Chinese writings, whether it be philosophy, poetry, painting, or anything else.
Suggestiveness means to show something by indirectly hinting in it. The suggestiveness of the writings and sayings of the Chinese philosophers is something that can hardly be translated into other languages. The translation would inevitably miss the suggestiveness which can mean a great deal in the original writings. Translation usually conveys only one idea, one interpretation, while the original saying or writing may contain many other meanings and ideas besides the one given by the translator.
There have been many translations of Laozi’s Dao De Jing, but each is only partially successful. This is because many of its sentences are so suggestive that definitive interpretation, much less translation, has been proved unattainable. Translating into another language a work that says so much in so few words, and about whose meanings scholars differ greatly, can only be problematic.
It needs a combination of all the translations already made and many others not yet made, to reveal the richness of the Chinese classics in their original form. This makes it almost impossible for Western readers who do not read Chinese, to have a better understanding of Chinese philosophy and arts.

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