(no subject)

[tylik]

So, I decided that I was going to try to apply what I know of guwen to translating some of the core Chan material. I mean, it only makes sense, right? (Though in fact, I went in more interested in just reading it, and translating is a whole 'nother ball of wax.)

Below is a first stab at the four vows. These are more literal than graceful, I suppose, and yet I often used simple short renderings when exact ones would be over long. Eh.

四弘誓願

Sì hóng shì yuàn

Four Generous(1) Vows

眾生無邊誓願度

Zhòng shēng wúbiān shì yuàn dù

Limitless myriad lives, I pledge to contemplate(2)

煩惱無盡誓願斷

Fánnǎo wújìn shì yuàn duàn

Inexhaustible irritating vexations, I pledge to cut free(3)

法門無量誓願學

Fǎ mén wúliàng shì yuàn xué

Immeasurable dharma gates, I pledge to realize.

佛道無上誓願成

Fó dào wúshàng shì yuàn chéng

The unsurpassed way of Buddha, I pledge to fulfil.


1 Okay, so I'm starting this by being a brat. But hong really does mean liberal - or magnanimous, or something along those lines. Great might be a smoother translation, but it's a pretty specific kind of great.
2 This is the one where having the big buddhist dictionary would likely have helped me the most. I am told "du", in a Buddhist context, means to assist someone in achieving enlightenment. But the du I know means to consider carefully, or think over (or to get a degree...) I'd like to have some idea how the first became the second. Anyhow, I think I might go with "assist" or "give aid" rather than "liberate" or "save". (Though the seeming impossibility of "save" or "liberate" is not without some utility.)
3 Duan means to cut off at the roots. I really don't like translating it as uproot. I'm not particularly fond of this wording, either.

(Sheesh, LJ, can your default Chinese font be any fuglier?)