Re: So taul soria thei callu? ("So what is life for?" translation)
From: | J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> |
Date: | Saturday, March 2, 2002, 1:40 |
In a message dated 2002.03.01 11.33.13 AM, annis@BIOSTAT.WISC.EDU writes:
>>From: J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
> >
> >"...So what is life for? Life is for beauty and substance and sound and
> >colour; and even those are often forbidden by law [socio-cultural
> >conventions]. . . . Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow
>other
> >people's rules and live to please others?..." ~Lieh-Tzu/Liezi, Taoist
>Sage
> >(c. 450- c. 375 BCE) ~~~
>
> I don't suppose anyone happens to know of a nice on-line
>version of this text, and perhaps a chapter/line attestation? I'd
>love to see the Chinese text before getting to attached to a Vaior
>translation.
I am basing my freely adapted English version on the following:
1. Eva Wong's translation of _Lieh-tzu_, Part Seven: Yang-chu
2. Lionel Giles' translation of the above-mentioned passage
3. consulting with my father & other Chinese familiar with Taoism/Daoism
I'd like to have it - my English version - translated into PinYin ::WRY
GRiNNie::
czHANg
~§~
_LILA_ <from Sanskrit> = "Divine Play" - the 'joyous exercise of spontaneity
involved in the art of creation' (Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan)
...the play of creation, destruction, and re-creation, the folding and
unfolding of the cosmos...both the delight and enjoyment of this moment, and
the play of [the] God[head].
WHIM = 1a. a sudden fancy; a caprice. b. capriciousness. 2. a kind of
windlass for raising ore or water from a mine. [17th century: origin unknown]
WHIMSY (plural forms: WHIMSIES, WHIMSEYS) = 1. a whim; a capricious
notion or fancy. 2. capricious or quaint humour. [related to WHIM-WHAM
]/Italian _capriccio_, French _boutade_
WHIM-WHAM = a toy or plaything