说说“中庸”的表达
英语课
本月16日，世博意大利馆展出了一份珍贵的手稿，也就是《中庸》的全球首个拉丁文译本，由被世人誉为“孔子的第一名欧洲译者”的耶稣会教士殷铎泽翻译。拉丁文的我们就不谈，说说英语中“中庸”的表达吧。
《中庸》的英译本名称是The Doctrine 1 Of The Golden Mean：
The Master [Confucius] said, the virtue 2 embodied 3 in the doctrine of the Mean is of the highest order. But it has long been rare among people.
子曰：中庸其至矣乎！民鲜能久矣！
不过，为什么要用Golden Mean来翻译“中庸”呢？其实这个概念在西方哲学中也有出现：
In philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. For example courage, a virtue, if taken to excess would manifest as recklessness and if deficient 4 as cowardice 5.
亚里士多德的哲学观中就有“中庸”这个说法，指的是两个极端之间的平衡状态。例如勇气，过头就是鲁莽，不足就成懦弱，居中则正好。
所以，这就是Golden Mean的由来。至于意大利馆展出的拉丁文译本，在拉丁语中，“golden mean”的说法是aurea mediocritas，从英语可以反过来推测拉丁文的意思，因为英语中的aura意为“光环”，而mediocre意为“中等的、平庸的、普通的”。
1 doctrine
n.教义；主义；学说
- He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
- The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。
2 virtue
n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力
- He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
- You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。
3 embodied
v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含
- a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
- The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
标签：
笔译