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Forgive me for writing in English because I find it more comfortable to express myself in English than in Chinese. You may think that I am somewhat weird but there are good reasons. Most important of all, though it is true that speaking my mind in Chinese is easier, at the same time, I would be so carried away in speaking Chinese that I hurt or offend my listeners carelessly. When I speak in English, I would speak more carefully, more slowly and thus causing myself less troubles.
Sometimes, relying on English may not be a good choice. Read the following poems and you will see why. Everywhere round me the singing of birds - But now I remember the night, the storm, And I wonder how many blossoms were broken. 1 Or Feeling not when cometh th' peep of spring dawn, Everywhere birds' songs I hear in my slumber. Through the sounds of wind and rain all th'night long, Know I not how many th' flowers fall in number. 2 Or Asleep in spring I did not heed the dawn Till the birds broke out singing everywhere. Last night, in the clamour of wind and rain, How many flowers have fallen do you suppose? 3 Your suspicion is right. They are English translations of the same Tang poem. Guess what the original poem is. I bet you would agree with me that no English translations would be good enough, not even Shakespeare's. At most, they can keep the meanings and better still, the imagery. However, they cannot retain the rhythms or the rhymes. In a world where printing was not yet popular and sheepskins or bamboos were difficult to come by, books were not easy to produce and people relied more on listening and reading (aloud). You would appreciate the importance of such poetic devices as repetitions, rhythms and rhymes in helping to transmit the messages. Therefore, the translation of poems across civilizations is extremely difficult. We only have Babel to blame for all our babblings. Alas! The Bible we are reading are all babblings: LXX, Vulgate, Lutherbibel, KJV, Ang Dating Biblia, 【和合本】、【聖書】etc., and many Biblical passages are in fact, poems. If we apply the same logic above, none of the translations would be satisfactory because they are translations. Through these translations, we can understand only the key messages. If we are poetically gifted, we may be able to re-create the imageries the authors intended, but we will still miss the rhythms and rhymes completely. Sometimes, I fancy what language God speaks. God surely speaks. Genesis tells us that God created heavens and earth with His words. Therefore God must speak. Moreover, God speaks to us because we have been created in the image and likeness of God. God has created a creature with which He is able to communicate. We are this creature. Now, in what language does God speak to us? Greek? Latin? German? English? Tagalog? Chinese or Japanese? It must be Hebrew because in Hebrew we find the first words of God known to men.  So, I took a deep breath and plunged into the Hebrew Space in order to communicate with God more intimately!  Congratulations! I'm sure all of us have learnt the Hebrew words of light, evening, morning, day, one, two … six, good and even God! I feel like I am speaking with God! Do you? The next logic step, of course, is to read some real Hebrew poems. Where else to turn to if not the book of Psalms? One day, while intoxicated with the newly acquired Hebrew skills, I came across Psalm 19:3. I became speechless. It dawns to me that God does not speak in Hebrew because He does not speak in speeches or languages. He 'speaks' in voices so small that we have to make full use of all our senses: our eyes to gaze the heavenly glory; our ears to listen to the pulses of our surrounding; our nose to smell the winds; our skin to caress the sick and dying and our tongue to taste all sorts of flavours of life. And even our souls must be animated to 'hear' Him. My jaw drops. I bow myself in dust and pray. "Have mercy on me Lord, I am but dust. Amen." 
1. Translation by Bynner 2. Translation by Sun Dayu 3. Translation by Innes Herdan |