漢譯佛典禪修詞語英譯問題 ── 「總持」與「陀羅尼」詞義辨析與羅什本《維摩詰所說經》相關翻譯考察 =The English Translation of Terms Related to Meditation in the Chinese Buddhist Canon ―― An Analysis of Various English Translations of “Zongchi 總持” and “Tuoluoni 陀羅尼” (dhāranī) Based on Kumārajīva’s Chinese Translation of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa
Translation is by nature a type of cross-cultural communication that involves two languages and two cultures; therefore, translators have to be familiar with both cultures involved in this translation process. The English translation of Chinese Buddhist texts is even more complicated as Chinese Buddhist texts themselves are already texts translated from other Buddhist canonical languages. Therefore, issues such as the process, the education background of people in the translation team, motives of the translator, various strategies adopted by each of the individual translators, as well as the readers of these translated texts, all have to be taken into consideration when we read these English translations of Chinese Buddhist texts. In the process of cultural translation brought about through Buddhist texts from India to China, one particularly difficult problem is the translation of terms related to meditative activities, as in Chinese there were initially no corresponding terms to translate these terms to specify the nuances of different meditative techniques and mental states. Therefore, it is clear that the languages expressing meditative activities has proven to be a particularly challenging task for early Chinese translators. In this paper, the author will examine several English translation of “dhāraṇī,” ( 陀羅尼 or 總持 in Chinese), an important technical term related to Mahāyāna samādhis found in the current translation of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra based on Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation. Different English translations of this term and the strategies adopted by these translators of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra as reflected in their translation of this term will be discussed and compared with early Chinese understandings of this term found in the Commentary on the Mahāprajñāpāramitā (Dazhidu lun 大智度論 ), the Treatise on the Meaning of the Mahāyāna (Dasheng yizhang 大乘義章 ), the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra (Yuqieshi dilun 瑜伽師地論 ), and early Tiantai Samādhi manuals.
