Lost in Translation

   A good friend of mine ends his emails with a quote from Confucius, “The essence of knowledge is having it to use it.”  My first reaction to the quote was the statement does not show wisdom.  It shows a misunderstanding of the word essence.  I understand essence to mean the deep meaning or root meaning of a word.  A basic meaning, found below a common definition.  Many words can be substituted for the word knowledge in this quote.  Try the words a hammer or a saw and the quote is equally inaccurate.  Confucius is honored with wisdom lasting over twenty-five hundred years.  To be fair to Confucius, he never spoke these words.  The words he spoke were in Chinese and therein lays the problem.  It is in the translation.  The Chinese translation for essence is benzhi and translating it back to English, the first word choice is nature.  The Chinese translation for knowledge is zhishi and translating it back to English, the first option is understanding.  Now we have a more reasonable quote, “The nature of understanding is having it to use it.”  Or, I might say, “Knowledge without understanding cannot be put to reliable use.”  The meaning of any translation is in the hands of the translator, be it written or verbal.

Remember this while reading a bible:

“The essence of a quotation is often lost in translation.” – Jesus of Nazareth (Spoken in Hebrew.)

Cheers, Old Buz     4/21/2022