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Thank you grant, this really helps (that may sound facetious, but it's not).
Looking at zhongwen, it's worth noting that there's not a real verb in the first iteration of the first two lines -- Dao ke dao, fei chang dao. Ming ke ming, fei chang ming.
"Ke" means "may" or "but" and sort of represents a mouth being freed from obstructions, but it's not a verb, really.
"Fei" means "not" and "chang" means "upstanding" (like a banner outside a castle) and thus "proper."
"Ming" is a name.
So using the literal words for Ming ke ming I get:
The NAME is an OPEN NAME.
I translate this to say:
The name is speakable.
To arrive at "The name is speakable", I extrapolate the literal definition more literally, as, the NAME MAY COME OUT OF/ AWAY FROM THE MOUTH, as in the specific translation, unobstructed mouth. Physically this seems to indicate that the title (word) for it (Tao) can be vocally said. Of course speakable becomes non-physically literal ('a title can be assigned').
Second part of the second sentence:
...fei chang ming.
Literally: not the upstanding name, or not the proper name. I translate this two ways (the first is my favorite):
The name does not hold. OR
The name is not correct.
"The name does not hold" comes, for me, directly from the imagery of the banner standing outside of a castle. To hyperliterally translate is, NOT UPSTANDING NAME or, the name does not stand up. I use "hold" with the English connotation of 'keeping a post or a position' and simulataneously 'adherence'. So the Tao is like Teflon, our names won't stick to it.
Second definition of course is: NOT PROPER NAME, i.e. We're not calling it the right thing. Seeing as there is a pretty good amount of insistence that a name isn't going to work for the Tao, I think that this more simple translation will actually cause greater complications later in understanding the intention of the 'riddles', since anything we call it won't actually be it.
As far as Ming (name) being a measure word, best I can find is that it's like assigning a title or a 'level' of name (i.e. Professor Soandso). I don't know. Grant?
Anyway, to screw us up even more here's this:
The Chinese word most commonly used for fate is Ming (ming4). Ming means:
1. Life
2. Fate, Destiny
3. The ordinances of Heaven
4. Order, Command
5. Assign (a name, title, etc.)
Finally, to parallel the second sentence with the first, I translate, Dao ke dao, fei chang dao.:
One can talk about the way, [but] that is not the proper(actual/real) way.
Rhetorically, I figure the commas are working as 'buts'.
I won't go into another long translation explanation.
Basically, philosophically what I personally understand these two key sentences to mean is, I/You/We/Anybody can assign any word or title or description (or, hah, explanation) that we want, but it isn't the thing. It's just not- don't confuse yourself/myself, et al, with the word or image or metaphor for it.
But we do. Why, so that we can talk about it- like this. Cool. |
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