Alo and De Be Become #65
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 12, 2018
Updated January 07, 2019 (typo corrections)
Yan: It was very interesting to me, that the term that our people have used for many generations, I also found within the ancient texts... 'be and become', or, as is often said, 'being and becoming'. For centuries the term has been received with anger by outsiders... outsiders do not understand what to us is so obvious... but I wondered if maybe some of our people might have carried the idea from the west lands. Popular outsider beliefs, claim that our people came here before yesterday... outsiders' history books then quickly begin inventing many hypotheses and fantastic claims, but none are based upon evidence. If our people did come here by way of a land bridge over the ocean, then there could be no definite timeline... people today are still able to walk a similar path during ice of winter, as well as to swim, or even use little boats during warmer months... no reason to believe that our people could not have done similarly long years after the ancient texts were written... and also, no reason to believe that our people are ignorant of big boats.
Alo: A parallel... years ago, I saw an old book that had drawings of continents, of when the continents touched the others... the book also showed drawings of plants and animals that today are similar only between one continent's east coast, and another continent's west coast... the book's purpose was to point to how different kinds of life shared and formed within similar environments... similar might exist today, that some of our people might have always been here... existing before the continents split... here when the planet was much smaller, able for the continents to all touch, if indeed the book's drawings were valid... but that is a different topic altogether... and still books do not know where we came from...
Yan: Agreed, which again says that the history books do not know our people... not know who we are, not know where we came from, not know when we came here, not so much as know our words...
Jun: We still share, some, similar styles, as the ancients, also...
Yan: True... as we talked about before, some of our clothing is still similar to the west culture's clothing... which appears to suggest a closer, and more recent, tie with the ancients...
Alo: Which, to me, increases my suspicion, that, perhaps, some of the ancient words, are sometimes easier for us to grasp the meanings... I do wish it were true, so that I would not be so concerned, of making mistakes that might harm what the ancient words intended to imply...
Yan: One word, in the whole of the text's chapter, continues to gnaw... of all modern synonyms, none harmonize with the text's other words... the other words are so simple, obvious, but the one word... I also do not want to make a mistake, and harm the text's concept...
Alo: Levy?
Yan: Yes... modern cultures think of 'levy' as being a money-charge for a person to cross a bridge or river... one man uses, another man gains... but the ancient texts, they speak of being and becoming... one man uses, same man gains... if 'levy' were used in that sense, then yes, it would make sense, but... I still do not feel comfortable with the modern word...
Alo: Some outsiders have formed a belief that the ancient words often spoke of armies, wars, and recruiting soldiers... the outsiders then bent their translations to infer that the ancient texts merely spoke of military actions... and, thus, the 'levy' word, to outsiders, might mean recruit, conscript, hire, employ, as in increasing a military's quantity of soldiers and workers... so, yes, cannot easily fit a modern word into ancient thought. Also, words used, mean what they mean to each individual... in government school, a group of children critiqued another child's writing... the teacher said that the group was known as 'peers'... for a long time, I then interpreted the 'peer' word to imply someone who peers-down upon other people... haughty, believing one's self superior, demeaning other people... crude, vulgar, low intelligence... it was a long time before I learned that 'peers' are supposed to imply 'equals'. One man's meaning, defined by his own life, cannot be shared by all people's lives...
Yan: Agreed... I had also posed to myself a possible parallel of militaries needing to levy people to help pay for long military journeys, but the word's idea would then still be... bizarre... so extremely out of place... maybe, like, my telling Jun... 'my love for you is wide and endless, I recruit armies, that is how endless my love is for you'...
Jun: Ha! Oh I do not believe that is a good thing to tell a wife!
Yan: Ha! Precisely! But that is how the modern language's synonyms would sound within the text's other words... to be speaking of being and becoming, and to have a pattern of many parallels that all agree with the concept of being and becoming, but to then toss-in the word 'levy', well, just makes no sense... the modern word cannot be similar as what the ancients implied...
Alo: Agreed... 'So, extreme honest not-have end, not end then long-time, long-time then levy, levy then long far, long far then wide substantial, wide substantial then high bright'... the chapter agrees with all other chapters... all sentences in the chapter agree... all words agree close enough... the concept was written by an individual who, plausibly, himself understood firsthand what 'being and becoming' means... hundreds of words, beautifully written, beautifully expressed with patterns of sequences... but that one word... the only way to choose a suitable modern synonym, must come from an individual who himself understands what being and becoming is...
Yan: Precisely correct... I have chosen, a small number of potentially usable modern synonyms... but I have not yet permitted myself to commit myself to any one word... no modern word really says what needs to be said...
Alo: Similar for me... we understand what occurs between long-time and long-far... we understand wide substantial... we understand high bright... we also understand extreme honest not have end... for us, the understanding is obvious... we merely feel our heart, remember what happened between being and becoming... and there, is the thing that has no word in the modern language...
De: Also, no word, for love, being and becoming...
Alo: Very much yes... very much so... but there also, love itself is of specific intensities, specific tones and colorings of inner bright, specific directions, specific cycles, specific curves, specific patterns, specific ingredients... similar is the way of being and becoming... but also, if the ancient word were written the same, but slightly pronounced differently, then the word can imply a musical note, the fourth note within the ancients' musical scale. Interesting here is that the musical scale does not use a singular note like what we would think of as a piano note... instead, the ancient scale uses more than one note, a harmony note...
Yan: Aha, that sounds a lot closer to what might a possible interpretation... but any idea of why the fourth note?
Alo: Not precisely... I was an adequate musician when young, but not now... I am now very unfamiliar with music, and, of course, fully ignorant of ancient music... however, it is said that the ancients' musical scale was and still has a very interesting pattern... the scale is said to be one, two, three, five, six, eight... C, D, E sharp, G, A sharp, C flat... the fourth note F is said to be the perfect note, an essential interval of proportions... and, so, if the ancients gave sizable importance to poems and music, then it is reasonable to suspect that the ancient word in question might have indeed implied a musical note as an analogy... I also often use words of notes as analogies... it is a common way to speak of an intensity of an emotion. Therefore, the ancient words' sequence would be, as... 'So, extreme honest not-have end, not end then long-time, long-time then 'tone of perfect proportions', 'tone of perfect proportions' then long far, long far then wide substantial, wide substantial then high bright'. The concept of perfect proportions of tone, coupled with widths, heights, and durations of time, fits very close to a portion of the act of being and becoming...
Yan: Very interesting indeed... so much better than the idea of 'levy', and also far above the outsiders' translations that almost always chose to use 'manifest' as the synonym... 'manifest' implies a thing that is expressed... already exists... like saying 'I am walking to a destination, I am now at the destination, soon I will be at the destination'... makes no sense to say 'manifest'...
Alo: Agreed... at first, I had questioned whether the fourth note might have been the author's pointing to his own inward tone... for a little while I was excited, because, if the author had indeed hinted of his inner tone, then to my knowledge it would have been the first and only known reference to anyone outside of our people to speak of his own inner tone... and also, the note itself would be interesting to learn of, so as to glean a small idea of the author's own heart... but, upon finding references to what the fourth note may have actually implied, now I lean much more heavily on the idea, of the note, simply referring to harmonious proportions... which, does, mirror what exists... although, admittedly, still I am attempting to force-fit a wide, real thing, into a narrow, unreal word. Yan, in the book's following sentences, you will find that the present interpretation, will fall... contradictions will rise... harmony will fall... creativity, will end...
De: Harmony... and creativity... chidao...
Alo: Yes... all things, similar birth... no such thing as a perfect note... no such thing as identical notes... cannot happen... either the ancient word pointed at a cultural concept, or, mistaken... being and becoming, different for everyone, no one is same, no one is identical... different ingredients always... different tone note, always... Nature's way, is that way... man creates his own tone, man's history is portion of tone, man's past 'being' is portion of future 'becoming', man's tone is product of inward qualities, inward qualities must exist to create tone, tone by itself cannot create qualities... a dull man cannot create same tone as bright man... angry man cannot create same tone as happy man... only similar inward qualities can create similar tones... inward qualities are ingredients, then travel from being to becoming... the ingredients chosen, be, then, become...