This article is transferred from: English Language Teaching and Research
[Picture: Peng Jingwen]
Author: Wang Xiaohui
Xuanzang's westward journey was a matter of Zhenguan in the early Tang Dynasty, and since then, the story of Tang Sanzang's learning scriptures from the west began to circulate among the people. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there was "The Poetry of the Tang Dynasty Sanzang Scriptures", Yuan miscellaneous dramas such as "Tang Sanzang Learned Scriptures from the West" and "Journey to the West", and in the early Ming Dynasty, there were also story fragments in the later novels of "Journey to the West". It is precisely because generations of storytellers and playwrights have continued to add, polish and organize, and constantly absorb the nutrients of folk imagination and language, that we have "Journey to the West", one of the four famous novels we see today.
"Journey to the West", as a chapter back novel, has distinct genes of storytelling and words, which is especially suitable for storytellers and singing artists to perform in teahouses and restaurants, so it is impossible to be too "sunny and snowy" in language, but to mix in a large number of dialects and slang, so as to be more down-to-earth.
In the first episode of "Journey to the West", the Monkey King walked out of Huaguo Mountain and went to the outside world to visit the Tao to find immortals, and met a woodcutter who was chopping wood, mistaken for a fairy, and stepped forward to salute. The Monkey King approached and shouted, "Old Immortal! The woodcutter hurriedly threw away his axe, turned around and replied: "Not a person! Not a person! I am a clumsy man who is not well fed and clothed, how dare I be a 'god'?"
In this passage, there are two places worth noting, one is "starting hands" and the other is "not the right person". "Starting hand" has a lot of meanings, when fighting, starting hand is to move, in Go terminology, starting hand is the first piece to fall when playing chess, and when saluting, starting hand is to make a move and make a move.
"Improper person" is also "not appropriate son of man", which means sin, not daring to be, not being presentable, not being like words, which can be used both to express self-humility and to criticize and criticize. It is said that expressions such as "sad for the Son of Man", "not the Son of Man" and "afraid of the Son of Man" are the dialects of northern Jiangsu, which are no longer used, and few even the locals know them. However, the frequency of such expressions in Yuan miscellaneous dramas and Ming and Qing novels is very high. For example, in the twenty-fourth chapter of "Journey to the West", the disciples of Zhenyuan Daxian entertained Tang Seng with ginseng fruit, and Tang Seng saw that the fruit was in the form of a human being, and said that he didn't believe that it was made on a tree: "Talk nonsense! Talk nonsense! There will be people on the tree again? Take it, not the son of man!" In the seventh chapter, the Buddha also said that Sun Dasheng was "not a son of man".
Let's take a look at the translations of two translators, Yu Guofan and Jenner:
The Monkey King drew near and called out: "Reverend immortal! Your disciple raises his hands." The woodcutter was so flustered that he dropped his ax as he turned to return the salutation. "Blasphemy! Blasphemy!" he said. "I, a foolish fellow with hardly enough clothes or food! How can I bear the title of immortal?" （余国藩译）
The Monkey King went closer and called to him. "Old Immortal, your disciple greets you." The woodcutter dropped his axe in astonishment and turned round to say, "No, no. I don't even have enough to eat or drink, so how can I possibly let you call me an Immortal?" （詹纳尔译）
Old immortals
Reverend immortal(余译)
Old Immortal（詹译）
Disciple Starter
Your disciple raises his hands.（余译）
Your disciple greets you.（詹译）
Unjustified person
Blasphemy（余译）
No (translated by Zhan)
These two sentences are very simple, but the two translators, Yu Guofan and Jenner, have translated them with completely different flavors. Professor Yu's translation of the dialogue between the Monkey King and the woodcutter seems to be a conversation between two scholars, and even the "old fairy" uses the word "Reverend", which has a strong Christian overtone. Reverend is an honorific title for a clergyman, and the New Oxford Dictionary explains that it was used as a title or form of address to members of the clergy, as in the Reverend Pat Tilly. Professor Yu is a scholar of theology, so he has a lot of ideas for religious vocabulary, while Professor Jenner aims to be easy to understand.
If in order to retain the cultural color of the original text, the literal translation is raise hands, I suspect that foreigners can't understand it, so they can only guess, because in English, raise hands only means to raise hands.
余国藩教授把“不当人”（“罪过”或者“不敢当”）翻译成blasphemy，也就是亵渎神灵（the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things）。 Blasphemy是一个非常典型的宗教词汇，用在这里表示口语中的罪过或不敢当，可以说把程度强化到了最高级。
Professor Jennal, in line with the principle of storytelling translation, used the simplest word in English to translate "inappropriate", which also expresses the meaning of "dare not be", but to a lesser extent.
The seventh chapter of the novel "Journey to the West", "The Great Sage escaped from the gossip furnace, and the ape was determined under the Five Elements Mountain". Monkey King made a bet with the Buddha that if a somersault hit the palm of the Buddha, he would invite the Jade Emperor to live in the West and give him the Heavenly Palace; As a result, the Monkey King fought out with a somersault, and saw five flesh-red pillars, supporting a breath of green energy, so he thought that he had reached the end of the day, so he wrote "Monkey King, come here" on the pillar, and sprinkled a bubble of monkey urine under the first pillar.
Rulai scolded: "I have taken you urine monkey! You have never left my palm!" The great sage said: "You don't know." I went to the end of the sky, and saw five flesh-red pillars, holding a stream of green energy, I will keep a note there, do you dare to go with me to see it?" When the great sage opened his eyes and looked down, it turned out that the middle finger of the Buddha's right hand read, "Monkey King, come here." In the big fingers, there are still some monkey urine.
This story can be said to be a household name in China, and it also gave rise to a post-break saying, no matter how powerful Sun Wukong is, he can't turn it into the palm of the Buddha's hand.
Let's take a look at Professor Yu Guofan's translation:
"You pisshead ape!" scolded Tathagata. "Since when did you ever leave the palm of my hand?" The Great Sage said, "You are just ignorant! I went to the edge of Heaven, and I found five flesh-pink pillars supporting a mass of green air. I left a memento there. Do you dare go with me to have a look at the place?" "No need to go there," said Tathagata. "Just lower your head and take a look." When the Great Sage stared down with his fiery eyes and diamond pupils, he found written on the middle finger of the Buddhist Patriarch's right hand the sentence, "The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, has made a tour of this place." A pungent whiff of monkey urine came from the fork between the thumb and the first finger.
Probably because Sun Monkey urinated on Rulai's hands and made the Buddha angry, so he burst into foul language. However, the Buddha is a Buddha after all, and even if he bursts into foul language, he will not scold, but only say "I'll take you urine monkey!"
For example, the Buddha used a special form of words, followed by no disposition, leaving it to the scolded person to imagine for himself, which belongs to the elegant scolding in the spoken language. This type of sentence pattern is very common in Ming and Qing novels:
Mu Cha scolded: "I will take you mortal thing! I am the apprentice of the Bodhisattva of the South China Sea. ("Journey to the West" Chapter 8)
When Daiyu heard this, she turned over and got up, pressed Baoyu and said with a smile: "I rotten your mouth! As he spoke, he screwed it. (Dream of Red Mansions, Chapter 19)
To understand the original meaning of this proverb, you don't need to worry about the word "I put" when translating, just translate "you urine monkey". The translation of Prof. Yu Guofan is You pisshead ape! Pisshead is also an expatriate word in English, meaning drunk, drunk, and Professor Yu borrowed the word, probably because it is a compound word with a piss in front of it. Jennal's literal translation of "urine monkey" as piss-spirit of a monkey is also very vivid.
"In the big fingers, there are still some monkey pee. This sentence looks funny, but it is still very difficult to translate. Words like "ear roots", "finger seams", "heels" and "foot petals" that we often talk about are easy to become "black under the lamp".
A pungent whiff of monkey urine came from the fork between the thumb and the first finger.（余译）
The stink of monkey-piss rose from the fold at the bottom of the finger.（詹译）
Zhan Yi is simple and clear, and Yu Yi is elegant and thorough. Although the styles are different, they all have a deep foundation in Chinese and English.
Reading "Journey to the West", you will encounter all kinds of dialect slang, if you just watch the excitement, pass by, and understand the general meaning. However, if you are engaged in translating or learning the English translation of Chinese literary classics, you should not easily let go of any word. Interested readers, you can take a look at the following dialect slang, how many can you understand?
——Seeing this situation, Mrs. Gao couldn't help but say: "This little elder is also a family. Wukong replied: "If you are willing to keep me for half a year, I will return home." "The eighteenth chapter of "Journey to the West".
- Bajie was furious when he heard this, and said: "It seems that you think of me as an old man. Hugh is rude!Eat your ancestors' palladium!" The twenty-second chapter of "Journey to the West".
——The walker scolded: "This is a good rammer, why do you still want to be arrogant? My old grandson went back to the water curtain cave, and his heart chased the scriptures and monks. "Journey to the West" Chapter 31
- Bajie said: "What is the old man ticking...... If you have food, you can only add it to the future. The twentieth chapter of "Journey to the West".
- The walker said: "The monkeys under my Great Sage are all ordinary. You have a different face, and your appearance is a bit thunderous, you must be a demon from somewhere else. "The thirtieth chapter of "Journey to the West".
- Bajie smiled: "What's so difficult about unlocking? Don't use knives and axes, teach me that hairy-faced old man, he is the accumulation of years of unlocking." "Journey to the West" is the sixty-second chapter
Ladies and gentlemen, have you understood the above sayings? If you can understand them at a glance, it means that you have extensive knowledge of the language, and if you don't understand them, blame me for giving you a problem. Not the Son of Man!