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Common
Translation Errors Overview
Reversing Concepts
Defective Part of a Whole
Commentary in Translation
Vague,
Meaningless Language
Stilted, Flowery Language
Vague, Meaningless Language
 Sun Tzu defined his own terms clearly. His brevity was the succinctness of mathematics, not
the abstraction of poetry. He used metaphors when they were the easiest way to
express his ideas and because they were a
well-defined part of traditional Chinese science and philosophy. Yet translators like their words to come out neat and tidy whenever
possible. Again, there is nothing wrong with this, except that Sun
Tzu's Bing-fa gets lost somewhere in the translation.
Many translators want their words to come out sounding "wise," even if it
means departing from what Sun Tzu wrote. This does not help readers understand
the text. For example, one translator writes at the end of Chapter 10:
"Thus, when one understands war moves, he does
not go the wrong way, and when he takes action, he does not reach a dead
end."
You have to admire how the
words all come out, well, not as poetry, but poetry-like. It seems
as though Sun Tzu
was using the analogy of city traffic, with one-way streets and dead ends as
metaphors. Of
course, neither of these traffic ideas existed in his era nor in his philosophy. The line
has little to do with what Sun Tzu actually wrote. He wrote, without
analogy:
"You must know how to make war.
You can then act without confusion.
You can attempt anything (in Chinese: lift without limit)."
At first, like the first example, this seems to be a vague exhortation to
study the methods of competition, but it is more than that. Each line is a summation of what
has gone before. Sun Tzu, like many trainers today, often summarized
important concepts at the end of a lesson. This phrase is an example. These three lines are important themes in Sun
Tzu's previous text.
The first line goes back to the idea that winning in competition depends upon knowledge as much as action. If you understand his five factors
model, half of it refers to the "information management" part of
competition. This idea opposes the action, action, action view that too
many people have about competition. This is especially important in
this chapter, which gives prescriptions for using different types of field
positions. In Sun Tzu's system, using any field position depends on the knowledge of the
leader.
The next point of "acting without confusion" is also a common theme in Sun
Tzu. In teaching specific
uses of field position, he reminds us that there are specific rules that must
be followed. We can act without confusion because the rules are set and
invariable. We can't do what we feel like. Once we know our
situation, we must then act precisely and instantly in the required manner. Only knowing the situation and the rules makes quick, decisive decisions
possible.
Finally, this idea ends with another general theme: we can achieve anything. Sun Tzu consistently taught that we should not
place limits on our
goals. Positions
are like stepping-stones; they are not ends unto themselves, but part of a continual path
to larger and larger victories. This too is a critical idea. Earlier
in the book, Sun Tzu says that we cannot know all the dangers in using arms, but
we cannot know all the opportunities in using arms either. We cannot
overlook opportunities because they are not what we planned.
Where are these three ideas in the "poetic" version about going the
wrong way and dead ends? They are more or less completely lost. Translators
must stay extremely close to the original text if they want to capture what
Sun Tzu was really saying, especially if they haven't spent a few decades
analyzing it. Most translators don't realize how tightly
written the original text was. Each line and each word was very carefully
chosen in the original. The best thing a translator can do, even better
than trying to understand the system, is to keep as close as humanly possible
to the original words. |
