??????? 本月16日,世博意大利館展出了一份珍貴的手稿,也就是《中庸》的全球首個(gè)拉丁文譯本,由被世人譽(yù)為“孔子的第一名歐洲譯者”的耶穌會(huì)教士殷鐸澤翻譯。拉丁文的我們就不談,說說英語(yǔ)中“中庸”的表達(dá)吧。
???????《中庸》的英譯本名稱是The Doctrine Of The Golden Mean:
???????The Master [Confucius] said, the virtue embodied in the doctrine of the Mean is of the highest order. But it has long been rare among people.
???????子曰:中庸其至矣乎!民鮮能久矣!
???????不過,為什么要用Golden Mean來翻譯“中庸”呢?其實(shí)這個(gè)概念在西方哲學(xué)中也有出現(xiàn):
???????In philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. For example courage, a virtue, if taken to excess would manifest as recklessness and if deficient as cowardice.
???????亞里士多德的哲學(xué)觀中就有“中庸”這個(gè)說法,指的是兩個(gè)極端之間的平衡狀態(tài)。例如勇氣,過頭就是魯莽,不足就成懦弱,居中則正好。
???????所以,這就是Golden Mean的由來。至于意大利館展出的拉丁文譯本,在拉丁語(yǔ)中,“golden mean”的說法是aurea mediocritas,從英語(yǔ)可以反過來推測(cè)拉丁文的意思,因?yàn)橛⒄Z(yǔ)中的aura意為“光環(huán)”,而mediocre意為“中等的、平庸的、普通的”。
(來源:catti.net.cn) |