Author | Thank you
Source | Confucius old book network APP dynamics
Aesop's Fables is a very good collectible subject, not only is the content short and pithy and meaningful, often read and new, but also has a sufficient number of unsolved mysteries to explore, a long enough history to taste, and a rich enough version to enjoy (the illustrations created by painters from ancient times to the present can almost independently constitute a relatively complete history of book illustration). Therefore, even if I have collected hundreds of representative Chinese and English versions, I will still have new gains from time to time, and I will find that my vision is actually very limited. I hope that my essays in this regard will attract more book lovers to join the ranks of collecting and studying Aesop's Fables, and make progress with each other.
Sheng Yimin, a teacher at Fudan University who studies the dialects and scripts of the Wu language area, once told that the Australian National Library has a copy of the American missionary A. Aibi (A. A. B. Cabaniss), an Aesop's fable written in more than 1856 in haituyin, is no longer understood by anyone in the world, and he is arranging for students to interpret it. The so-called Shanghai Tuyin character is an American missionary Gao Di Pi who entered Shanghai in the early 1850s, drawing on the ancient anti-cutting method of Chinese characters, and created a two-part pinyin script with phono and vowel, which is dedicated to expressing the Shanghai dialect. The reason why he started a new stove, instead of spelling with Chinese characters like others, was because after they entered Shanghai, they first faced the mission to the low-level people, and the low-level people did not read much, and writing dialects in Chinese characters was not conducive to the recognition of the people and affected the effect of mission; on the other hand, there were also problems in pronunciation and meaning when Chinese characters were spelled in dialects, and many dialect pronunciations could not find corresponding Chinese characters; and then most of the early Protestant American missionaries who came to China did not undergo strict Chinese training before entering China. The first thing you have to face after entering China is to learn Chinese speaking and writing.
This "Isha Po Analogy" contains more than seventy fables, and according to the cover, it should be based on the translation of the "Yi Shi Yu Yan" jointly completed by the British businessman Robert Thom and his teacher "Mr. Obscurantism". When it was published in 1840, it contained 82 fables, which were a comparative version of English, Chinese and Cantonese Pinyin, mainly for foreign students to learn Chinese and Cantonese; in the 1850s, Shanghai Shi Hospital reprinted the book, deleted nine, and deleted English and Cantonese pinyin, and the title of the book was changed to "Yi Shu Bodhisattva Yuyan". The book translated by Wu Aibi in Shanghai tuyin characters changed the title of the book to "Yi Xia Po An Analogy" according to the Shanghai dialect. I hope that Mr. Sheng's team can crack this Shanghai native character book as soon as possible.
It has also been reprinted twice in Japan under the titles "Chinese Translation of Isu Bodhisattva Tan" (1876) and "Jiang Translation criticizing the Tale of Isu Bodhisattva" (1898). As I mentioned in an earlier article, Aesop's Fables were introduced to Japan even before China. As early as the second year of Bunroku (1593), Japan was the first to publish the Amakusa translation of the Amakso "Izenho Monogatari" - ESOPO NO FABVLAS (abbreviated as Amakusa). Bound in one volume with the Golden Sentence Collection and the Tale of the Pingjia Monogatari, which are also written in the Latin alphabet, the translation is now in the British Museum and is the only one in the world. The book was later rewritten into Japanese by Shinmura, also known as the Old Translation of Bunroku Izenho Monogatari. The second Japanese translation is the Izenho Monogatari edition published between the first year of Gyeongcho's reign and the yuanhe (1610-1623), which is available in both ancient movable type and full versions. Some researchers have compared and studied the early Japanese translations and believe that when Matteo Ricci, Pondy, and Kinnige translated Aesop's Fables in the late Ming Dynasty on the mainland, it is very likely that they also used the Latin version of Aesop's Fables of the Stahurbon system as the base.
When I searched for "The Parable of Issho Bodhisattva", I was lucky enough to find a copy of "Isup fables, wonders of modern and ancient times, and new editions of Sochi" (Peking University Press, June 2018). The book is included in the Japanese volume of the "Interpretation and Research of Rare Texts of early Beijing Dialect", and the "Fables of Isup" is the Japanese version of the "Beijing Dialect Isup Parables" translated from the Japanese version of the Eleventh Year of Keiyoshi Nakata (1878), which is also the first translation of Aesop's fables in Beijing. Nakata Keiyoshi (1858-1943), a native of Kanazawa, Kaga Domain (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture), Japan. In 1871, he entered the Chinese Language Institute opened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then transferred to the Tokyo Foreign Chinese School. In 1876, he was selected to study The Beijing dialect at the Japanese Legation in Beijing, and in 1881 he worked as an interpreter in the Public Trust Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He participated in important Sino-Japanese diplomatic affairs such as the negotiations on the Ryukyu issue, the mediation of the Dprk "Noon Incident", and the Shimonoseki Peace Talks.
translate
Nakada's original intention in translating Aesop's Fables is similar to Robert's translation of the Yishi Yuyan in order to facilitate Japanese people to learn authentic Beijing dialect. Therefore, he consciously combines various things with Chinese culture and highlights the characteristics of Beijing dialect, such as quoting Quotations from Confucius, making extensive use of Child's and Spoken Words, and naming each fable with a four-character title. In order to make the translation more pure, Nakata Keiyoshi also specially hired the Manchu Jesuit priest Inshaogu and his second son Gong Enlu to carefully revise and polish it, which shows the rigor of his attitude. Here are two direct transcripts to illustrate:
In "Crabs Are Difficult to Mother", a female crab says to the little crab, "Why are you running away as a child?" The little crab said, "Mother, if you show me your way of moving, I will learn your way of walking straight." Instead of instructing, show it to the example, don't you hear the words "you are not righteous, you cannot be a righteous person"?
"Mosquito Stop Cow Horn" has a flying mosquito around the cow's head, landing on the horn of the cow, saying to the cow: "Cow Master, borrow a light, if my body is heavy and tired of you, I will fly away, please just say." The cow said, "Nothing, even if you fall, you will not be tired of my head, and you will fly or fall." I'll tell you the truth, I didn't know you were there. "The heart is small, and the thoughts are small.
Nakada Keiyoshi mentions in the Chinese example of the Beijing Dialect Isupu Parable: "The book is translated according to the translator of my Japanese. The base book he used was The Popular Isup, which was translated into Japanese by The Principal of the Tokyo Foreign Chinese School, Watanabe Wen, based on his English textbook Thomas James: Aesop's Fables at Numazu Military Academy, and published in November 1875. After Nakata Keiyoshi's "Beijing Mandarin Isupu Yuyan" was translated, it was also issued by Watanabe Wen in 1879. It so happened that shortly before I bought Isup's Fables, Wonders of the Past, and Sochi, I happened to buy a copy of Aesop's Fables: A New Version Chiefly from Orignianl Sources, published by John Murray Publishing Company in 1848, the first edition of Thomas James's English translation and produced by the famous illustrator John Tenniel. Illustrated with 100 beautiful steel prints – the man's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and Alice in the Mirror have become almost insurmountable classics. The book is fully fine Moroccan sheepskin hardcover, brushed with gold on three sides, and has maintained a good quality after 150 years of vicissitudes and sea crossings, which is really awe-inspiring and precious. The title page also bears an 1889 signature. This book is a rare "big deal" for me.
(The mini program has been added here, please go to today's headline client to view)