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Translating Ancient Chinese
Common
Translation Errors Overview
Reversing Concepts
Defective Part of a Whole
Commentary in Translation
Vague, Meaningless Language
Stilted, Flowery Language
Common Translation Errors
 There are
five common errors in translation.
Getting concepts backward: There are not one but two ways
that translators invert Sun Tzu's meaning. First, translators use modern dictionaries that don't take into account semantic drift. Second, and much more commonly,
translators take what Sun Tzu wrote and decide that Sun Tzu meant it to apply
to enemy forces rather than your own.
Missing by an inch: There
are hundreds of examples of where a "slight" misreading of a single word
completely confuses what Sun Tzu said. Even a "slight" mistranslation
makes whole sections of the text impossible to interpret.
Commenting instead of
translating: Most translators just can't help "explaining" Sun Tzu
instead of simply translating him. The only problem with this is that
they explain him incorrectly most of the time.
Choosing words with little meaning:
Sun Tzu defines his own terms clearly. Yet translators like to choose
vague words even when Sun
Tzu's Bing-fa gets lost somewhere in the translation.
Saying it with flowers: Sun Tzu wrote simply and directly. Unfortunately, few translations are written as directly and
clearly as the original. Many translations lapse into "fortune cookie" talk.
Taken together, all these problems make most
translations of Sun Tzu's The Art of War difficult if not impossible to
understand.
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