Alo and De Understand #87
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 December 13, 2018
Yan: The ancient word, has many modern synonyms, but the modern synonyms mean fully different things... 'to know'... 'to be aware'... 'to understand'... the synonyms are not similar... makes it difficult for me to choose which to use...
Alo: Agreed... 'know', can be, as if, knowledge... hear a person speak, memorize the words, and then 'know' the knowledge... knowledge gained from hearing words, is, empty, faith-based, an unreasoned belief in a thing that might not be true. 'To be aware', is, the act of being conscious, and being conscious, of, being conscious, as, the speaker speaks... memorizing faith-based knowledge is one thing, but being aware is a fully different thing... not connected, except, of course, needful of being conscious for both. 'To understand', arrives from firsthand experience... arrives, from having walked the topic... 'understand' includes the ingredients of personal history... of real life... memories... judgments... the act of 'awareness' accompanied 'understanding', and from the two, was created useful knowledge... three different things... awareness, understanding, and firsthand knowledge, each with different angles... different curves... different reasons, different purposes... all three combined, to create one more, the one that we use for making choices in life...
Yan: Agreed... but, the big question, is, which might the ancient author have implied? Intended?
Alo: Not easy to choose... my first opinions, of when I first began reading ancient words, were that the author had spoken of awareness... perhaps, my opinion, was mere, hope, and expectation that the author knew the differences... but, in time, I finally accepted that most uses of the word simply implied 'knowledge'... the sentences themselves, did not appear to permit 'awareness', nor, permit, 'understanding'...
Yan: That is what I am also seeing... but... sometimes, the ancient sentences can only be sensibly interpreted one way, and yet, the next sentence or portion of sentence, can only be sensibly interpreted a different way... the change of meanings, troubles me...
Alo: Example?
Yan: 'Not understand life, nothing to-use to-become junzi'... 'knowledge' cannot be, a, foundation, of quality inward traits... 'awareness' might could work, but very weakly... 'understand' appears to me to be the only rational interpretation...
Alo: Yes... does work for that sentence...
Yan: But, the next portion of the same sentence continues... 'not understand propriety, nothing to-use upright also'... here, more difficulties rise... the modern word 'propriety' only implies proper conduct... but proper conduct is changeable, to meet social values, and, therefore, is a useless word... other modern synonyms are similarly useless...
Alo: Yes... my choice, is to ignore the synonyms, and to first give attention to the core concept... 'if no self-choice of having judged correctness of behavior, then, there would be no uprightness also'... but here again, we are brought back to awareness and understanding, plus the mental weighing of what has been experienced firsthand... knowledge alone cannot enable any form of proper conduct, except, of course, a knowledge and training of which body motions appease society... and so, I agree with your use of 'understand'...
Yan: But now, a third portion of the sentence... this is the one that most troubles me... 'not understand speak, nothing to-use understand people also'... regardless of which synonyms I use, the third portion contradicts... not just contradict itself, but also contradicts the other portions also...
Alo: Yes, that... is... awkward... the 'speak' word, has synonyms of 'say, speak, speech, talk, word'... but, all of the synonyms cause similar problem... also, changing the 'understand' synonym does not much change the problem... core concept, then, 'not know words, then cannot know people'... or, 'not understand words, then cannot understand people'... many different ways of phrasing, but I am not seeing any that would heal the problem...
Yan: I agree... either, someone misquoted the original words, or, both of us are not seeing what ought to be seen, or, the author did indeed speak the words... I would much prefer that it is us who are misunderstanding...
Alo: Me also... but, if the sentence is accurately recorded, then, that means, the author did not know...
Yan: Yes...
Alo: But, that would also mean... he could not have known, nor understood...
Yan: Not so much as close...
Alo: We can step around a lot of little things, shrug them off as little boo-boos... but not this... and, this thing... it deeply troubles me also...
Yan: To me, I am now undecided how to progress... should I return and reinterpret all of the previous sentences? Or maybe attempt to shrug-off this one as well? A few shrugs, not a problem, but, the shrugs are growing more frequent... cannot shrug-off too many shrug-offs...
Alo: Agreed... and the sentence's third portion appears to confirm my own concerns of the 'know' word... perhaps, the 'know' was, indeed, a knowing... without an understanding... troubling thought...
Yan: But the author did say numerous good things... an absence of understanding does not void correct words, although, it does void the words that claimed to understand...
Alo: Yes indeed... contracting the words, still has 'unknowing'... no known characters that are similar enough to have been mistakenly copied... pronunciations are unlike any close words that might have a different meaning... 'unknowing life, nothing take-advantage-of become junzi... unknowing propriety, nothing take-advantage-of upright... unknowing words, nothing take-advantage-of knowing people'... still does not begin to sing... oh... 'non-aware words, not from aware person'... ha!
Yan: Ha! Hey that works! Trying it on the other portions also... 'Non-aware life, not from be junzi... non-aware propriety, not from upright... non-aware words, not from aware person'... oh, I still feel that I am forcing the words, but only the 'be' word... maybe the 'act-as' or 'behave-as' synonyms might be better... or use the modern way and say 'behavior'... or, say, 'non-aware life, not use become junzi', or, 'non-aware life, not use act-as junzi'... but, seriously, I am tempted to leave the words as-is...
Alo: The sentence now sounds rational... actually much better... actually sounds more like the author's normal pattern...
Yan: I was so close to ending my translations... if this sentence had failed, then the whole of all ancient writings would have also fallen...
Alo: Yes, I had been in a similar position myself, several times... sometimes spent days struggling with one sentence, but then, the words began to click... to hum a suitable tune...
Yan: Lesson learned, again... my knowledge, cannot rule my understanding... my understanding, cannot bow to knowledge... also dictates how I translate words... if words do not agree with understanding, then the words are mere knowledge... unworthy...
Alo: Agreed...