Today's new word
虚而又虚，万事皆虚!
Xū ér yòu xū, wànshì jiē xū
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
We are not often in China before the end of July. This year, though, we were. At Mass two Sundays ago, I wondered if I had ever heard these readings in Mandarin. This was the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, and the readings were from Cycle C of the Lectionary at Mass. I searched my own Twitter account to see if I ever noticed them. I may have heard these same readings in 2010, but I was probably too jetlagged to notice just about anything. I know from my tweets I was at Mass on that 18th Sunday, but that is all I have recorded.
The first reading was the opening of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Even for people illiterate of the Bible, "Vanity of vanities" is a recognizable turn of phrase in English. The modern meaning of "vanity" does not resemble the definition used for the older English translations (based on the Hebrew hevel), but "Vanity of vanities" remains, probably because it is so poetic and familiar.
In the Chinese Lectionary, these same words are translated as 虚而又虚，万事皆虚! When I saw the reading this weekend, I wondered if the Chinese words capture the nuance that English has left behind. What I think I found was an even stronger statement.
First of all, this seems to be written as a two chengyu, the four character idiom common in formal Chinese. Four syllables have a memorable rhythm in Chinese. Ecclesiastes 3 seems also to be written mostly in this style. We English speakers remember these verses for the repetition and patterns of "a time to...and a time to...."
In the first four characters, 虚而又虚, the phrase begins with 虚. On its own 虚 means void or emptiness. It also means vanity in the modern sense when paired with 荣 (glory), as in 虚荣 xūróng. It is literally empty glory. However, the character immediately following 虚 is 而, a word for "and." There are many words in Chinese for "and." Next is 又, which can be used as an "and" or as a sign of a continuing thought. or as part of a repetition. When I was studying Chinese with a tutor, I practiced placing 又 in front of adjectives if I were going to describe someone, and the structure required two adjectives for balance. So, big and tall is 又大又高 yòu dà yòu gāo. The adjectives would either have to be complimentary or opposites to sound right. You couldn't say that someone was tall and smart, two adjectives that aren't in the same category. For Ecclesiastes, the translator has decided to use 又 for the repetition of another 虚. It is almost like a double underscore under the word 虚. This is such an emptiness we're talking about here.
The second four characters, 万事皆虚, start with 万事, meaning everything. It has as long as I have studied Chinese been fascinating to me is how the word 万, which literally means "ten thousand," is thrown around to mean "really big." For instance, 万能 wànnéng looks like it could mean "ten thousand possibles" but it means all-purpose or universal. So 万事, "ten thousand things" is really "everything." When we get to 皆 jiē, which means "all," it is followed by another 虚,
Ecclesiastes, then, begins in this Chinese translation with words that really grab the attention, "EMPTINESS!! ALL THE EVERYTHINGS ARE EMPTINESS!!"
Xū ér yòu xū, wànshì jiē xū
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
We are not often in China before the end of July. This year, though, we were. At Mass two Sundays ago, I wondered if I had ever heard these readings in Mandarin. This was the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, and the readings were from Cycle C of the Lectionary at Mass. I searched my own Twitter account to see if I ever noticed them. I may have heard these same readings in 2010, but I was probably too jetlagged to notice just about anything. I know from my tweets I was at Mass on that 18th Sunday, but that is all I have recorded.
The first reading was the opening of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Even for people illiterate of the Bible, "Vanity of vanities" is a recognizable turn of phrase in English. The modern meaning of "vanity" does not resemble the definition used for the older English translations (based on the Hebrew hevel), but "Vanity of vanities" remains, probably because it is so poetic and familiar.
In the Chinese Lectionary, these same words are translated as 虚而又虚，万事皆虚! When I saw the reading this weekend, I wondered if the Chinese words capture the nuance that English has left behind. What I think I found was an even stronger statement.
First of all, this seems to be written as a two chengyu, the four character idiom common in formal Chinese. Four syllables have a memorable rhythm in Chinese. Ecclesiastes 3 seems also to be written mostly in this style. We English speakers remember these verses for the repetition and patterns of "a time to...and a time to...."
In the first four characters, 虚而又虚, the phrase begins with 虚. On its own 虚 means void or emptiness. It also means vanity in the modern sense when paired with 荣 (glory), as in 虚荣 xūróng. It is literally empty glory. However, the character immediately following 虚 is 而, a word for "and." There are many words in Chinese for "and." Next is 又, which can be used as an "and" or as a sign of a continuing thought. or as part of a repetition. When I was studying Chinese with a tutor, I practiced placing 又 in front of adjectives if I were going to describe someone, and the structure required two adjectives for balance. So, big and tall is 又大又高 yòu dà yòu gāo. The adjectives would either have to be complimentary or opposites to sound right. You couldn't say that someone was tall and smart, two adjectives that aren't in the same category. For Ecclesiastes, the translator has decided to use 又 for the repetition of another 虚. It is almost like a double underscore under the word 虚. This is such an emptiness we're talking about here.
The second four characters, 万事皆虚, start with 万事, meaning everything. It has as long as I have studied Chinese been fascinating to me is how the word 万, which literally means "ten thousand," is thrown around to mean "really big." For instance, 万能 wànnéng looks like it could mean "ten thousand possibles" but it means all-purpose or universal. So 万事, "ten thousand things" is really "everything." When we get to 皆 jiē, which means "all," it is followed by another 虚,
Ecclesiastes, then, begins in this Chinese translation with words that really grab the attention, "EMPTINESS!! ALL THE EVERYTHINGS ARE EMPTINESS!!"
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