On term translation of English Śūraṅgama Sūtra from Chinese version : with a perspective of traditional Chinese translation discourses

The Chinese version of Śūraṅgama Sūtra is a unique sutra that integrates the specific world view of Buddhism, its recondite principles and the ways of practices, and is a classical work that gains attention from almost all schools or sects of Buddhism, occupying a distinctive role in the large amount of Buddhist scriptures. The first full English translation of Śūraṅgama Sūtra was published by the Buddhist Text Translation Society (BTTS) in the 1970s, a time when newly established Buddhist texts translation institutions or organizations just set off on the English translation enterprise. Since China embraces a translation history of Buddhist scriptures that lasts for a thousand years and gives birth to various Chinese traditional translation discourses, this gives legitimacy for these discourses to be put into use for the analysis of the translation of Buddhist texts. Under the guidance of and by the integration of three traditional Chinese translation discourses, namely, the three principles of fidelity, fluency and elegance by Yan Fu 嚴復, the match of names and meanings by Seng Rui 僧叡, and the five guidelines for not-translating a term by Xuan Zang 玄奘, this paper discusses the term translation by comparing the Chinese and English version of Śūraṅgama Sūtra, so as to catch a glimpse of the gains and losses and the difficulties in contemporary English translation of Buddhist scriptures, and meanwhile to rediscover traditional Chinese translation discourses’ value for contemporary English translation of Buddhist sutras, and hopes to reinvigorate the their vitality in contemporary translation activities of Buddhist texts.

ISBN:9783865152589

Jaar van publicatie:2018

Toegankelijkheid:Closed