Events The Fourth Buddhist Text Translation Seminar: Zhiyi's Fahuaxuanyi 法華玄義
October 25th, 2024. 10:30~12:00 JST
online
Speakers Paul L. Swanson
The Buddhist Text Translation Seminar is designed to provide researchers who are working on long-term translation projects to discuss their ongoing work in a casual, online format with fellow researchers. The seminar will meet on the morning of the last Friday of the month, six months per year. Participants may join by invitation only.
Zhiyi's Fahuaxuanyi 法華玄義 (Hokkegengi), one of the "three great texts of Tiantai/Tendai," is an exegesis on the "profound" or "hidden" meaning of the Lotus Sutra by discussing the meaning of the five characters 妙法蓮華経 of its title (as translated by Kumarajiva). Most of the text famously focuses on the meaning of "sublime" 妙and, to a lesser extent, the meaning of "Dharma" 法. Toward the end of the text (T 33.775a-779a) Zhiyi briefly discusses the meaning of "sutra," beginning with whether it is appropriate or not to translate the term or to use a transliteration. This provides a challenge of translating into English a text about a discussion on translating a term from Sanskrit to Chinese. I will discuss the first half of this section (T 33.775a-776c) where Zhiyi discusses the meaning of the term "sutra" and whether or not it should be translated (as 經) or transliterated (since there are many nuances to the Sanskrit term that cannot be conveyed in a translation). Zhiyi's discussion reveals some common problems facing all translations, and some unique comments on the subject.
Program:
10:30~11:00 General discuss of the text by the translator
11:00~11:30 Analysis of translation