English Translation of Taoist Text:「方生方死，方死方生；方可方不可，方不可方可。」莊子

chinesejapanese (38)in #chinese • 7 years ago

This text is taken from the Chinese classic Chuang-tzu, a fundamental text of Taoism* and posted on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/chinese_quotes/status/877685094743277568

I posted my translation as a reply (in two parts) with the hashtag #PoeticLicense because a single character can be interpreted in different ways: this fact provides fruitful ground for interpretation of Taoist text. For example, notice how many times the character 方 is repeated in in the single sentence.
「方生方死，方死方生；方可方不可，方不可方可。」莊子

Here is my translation in full.

When it is time to live, flout death.
When time to die, flout life.
When it is time to act, flout the impossible.
When time for non-action, flout the possible.

*Romanization

After reading English renderings of Chinese for only a short time one will notice discrepancies in spellings of the same words. This is so egregious that my otherwise mild-mannered professor back in school stated that if anyone came out with a new "improved" romanization, they should be shot. Since that time, according to Wikipedia, "From 1987 to 1999, thirty different romanizations were invented" including the stupidest system as well as the official system adopted in Taiwan in the oughties: tongyong pinyin. Present day Taiwan one exhibits a terrible mishmash of historical Wade-Giles, tongyong, Taiwanese dialect, and now the hanyu pinyin from the Mainland.

Thank heavens - at least officially - Taiwan adopted the rational Pinyin system. I use the romanization standard in academia historically above. For the record, here are the pinyin equivalents.