Thursday, August 13, 2020

Translation - Analects 2.10 Watch their actions.

子曰:「視其所以,觀其所由,察其所安。人焉廋哉?人焉廋哉?」

子曰:视其所以,观其所由,察其所安。人焉廋哉?人焉廋哉? 

Shì qí suǒyǐ, guān qí suǒ yóu, chá qí suǒ ān. Rén yān sōu zāi? Rén yān sōu zāi?

"Watch their actions; observe their reasons; examine them at rest. People, how can they hide [their nature]? People, how can they hide [their nature]?"

Noteworthy elements:

The most interesting part of this translation for me was the following structure: [seeing verb] [person pronoun] [] [transitive verb].

This structure provides the basis for the passage.  and  can indicate simple sensory function, but they can also indicate a more evaluative manner of observation. can also be a kind of examination, but almost always involves an evaluative component. This may involve inquisitively examining the phonemena or considering consistency with prior phenomena.

results in turning the following transitive verb into a nominal phrase. For example, "take" or "use" becomes "that which is taken" or "that which is used." has a number of translations, but I tend to defer to "take" or "by means of."

This is an interesting case where and should be understood separately and not as 所以. The second and third phrases also use  but here it is clear is operating singularly.

*Side note, Chinese thought tends to regards sensory action in terms of complete/successful versus incomplete/unsuccessful; this is inherited  by modern linguistic conventions, e.g. 看到,看不到; the heart-mind is also regarded as a sense organ, and is responsible for evaluation.

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