第一回: Chunk 19
derek
August 08, 2008, 05:22 AM posted in General DiscussionFinally I can get back to more important things! Here is the next section:
后来, 又不知过了几世几劫,因有个空空道人访道求仙,忽从这大荒山无稽崖青 埂峰下经过,忽见一大块石上字迹分明,编述历历.空空道人乃从头一看,原来就是无 材补天,幻形入世,蒙茫茫大士,渺渺真人携入红尘,历尽离合悲欢炎凉世态的一段故事.
Afterwards, again not knowing how many generations or how many kalpas had passed, a Daoist of the Great Void seeking the path of immortality, suddenly passed below the Qing Geng peak of Wu Ji cliffs on Mount Da Huang, and encountered a great stone with clear writing upon it, narrating a great story. The Daoist of the Great Void read from beginning to end, it was of course [that stone], being unsuitable for the repair of heaven and had magically been taken into the human world by the Great Scholar of the Unconscious Vastness and the Pure Man of Vague Infinity, it was a story of experience and suffering, seperation and reunion, and the sorrow and joys of the world.
后来, 又不知过了几世几劫,因有个空空道人访道求仙 -> Afterwards, again not knowing how many generations or how many kalpas had passed, a (空空道人) Daoist of the Great Void seeking the path of immortality.
(几劫 just use the sanskrit "Kalpa", its suits the mystical tone, 访道求仙 could also be searching for The Way and seeking immortality.)
忽从这大荒山无稽崖青埂峰下经过 -> suddenly passed below the Qing Geng peak of Wu Ji cliffs on Mount Da Huang.
忽见一大块石上字迹分明,编述历历 -> and encountered a great stone with clear writing upon it, narrating a great story. (Not sure about this 历历, my dictionary defines it as meaning clear or distinct.)
空空道人乃从头一看,原来就是无材补天, -> The Daoist of the Great Void read from beginning to end, it was of course [that stone], being unsuitable for the repair of heaven.
(原来就是, always a bit difficult to translate into english, literally means: Originally just is....)
幻形入世,蒙茫茫大士,渺渺真人携入红尘 -> and had magically been taken into the human world by the (蒙茫茫大士) Great Scholar of the Unconscious Vastness and the (渺渺真人) Great Man of Vague Infinity.
(Not sure about the great scholars names here, but they are pretty cool anyway.)
历尽离合悲欢炎凉世态的一段故事. -> it was a story of experience and suffering, seperation and reunion, sorrow and joys of the world.
(Or perhaps it is more correctly: the vicissitudes of the world.)
liansuo
August 08, 2008, 07:29 AMOh, changye sensei, and I was so happy to understand 蒙 the way you taught me – as a verb meaning „receiving the gracious gift of, being granted the favour", which would allow the 茫茫大士,渺渺真人 to be nicely parallel ( also to the 空空道人). What the stone was 蒙 -ed would then be „being taken along into this world“ 携入红尘. I will accept your verdict to the contrary, of course and I moreover promise not to frivolously use the expression "kalpa" again. Not even in private.
changye
August 08, 2008, 08:47 AMHi liansuo,
To tell you the trugh, I'm often confused about three 蒙, i.e. meng1, meng2, and meng3. If you have time, please look into a dictionary. How do you pronounce 蒙古？
liansuo
August 08, 2008, 08:56 AMChangye sensei -- I am doing nothing but --- look into dictionaries-- and I am the last person to know about correct pronunciations since I have had so little exposure to native speakers. But that was not a real question, was it? There is an 易 經 hexagram on 蒙 -- all about not bothering one's teachers. I'll take it to heart!
changye
August 08, 2008, 09:03 AMHi liansuo,
> 易 經 hexagram on 蒙
That is "meng2". Now let me go out for beer!
henning
August 08, 2008, 09:22 AMNow you two totally leave me back in the dust. A "hexagram" on "not bothering teachers"? Uh? What are you talking about?
I would have never gotten such deep, subtle hints due to my lack of background. And in my happy ignorance I will of course continue to bother you masters.
;)
henning
August 08, 2008, 09:26 AMThe 蒙茫茫大士 and the 渺渺真人 really kicked me out. Thanks for your explanations. 真人 would also need to enter the imaginary group dictionary.
derek
August 09, 2008, 03:37 AMNice work guys, a group vocab feature would be really useful, I spend a lot of time going back through previous posts trying to find definitions.
I guess Kalpas must mean aeons of geological time, so it is not correct to use it for human time frames, but it sounds cool. :()
Have fun in Canada henning.
changye
August 08, 2008, 06:58 AMHi derek,
Welcome back. It won’t hurt you to interpret 红楼梦 on the first day of the Beijing Olympics. On the contrary, it might be far more interesting and significant than watching other guys running and jumping.
不知过了几世几劫 I don’t know how many generations have passed.
(I don’t know why you guys prefer using the word “kalpa”. Kalpa means a very long time, and even the length of mankind history is only a fraction of one kalpa.)
编述 (write, state) 历历 (clearly, every bit of ～)
幻形 (morphed figure) 入世 (enter the human world)
Be noted that 入世 often means “join WTO” (世界贸易组织) in China.
真人 (Great master of Taoism)
蒙(vague)茫茫(vast and obscure)大士 and 渺渺(vague)真人 are actually interesting names. I think that they might be figurative expressions of 某某大士 and 某某真人, where 某某 means “so and so”.