Beloved Gloria and fellow translators,
Today is Thanksgiving Day. My family just had a Chinese way to celebrate it: we had a dumpling banquet. It was great… Yummy… wish all of you are enjoying Thanksgiving! ~*^_^*~
My special thanks to God, to Gloria, to the Heavenletters we received, and to all of you for making the world more beautiful. I am so thankful to be in this group, and to be with you all in my heart.
My thoughts to share today are about Heavenletter title transactions.
I understand that as a translator, my translation should stay as close to the original meaning as possible, but still, I had used phases with different meanings in Chinese as the titles for a few letters. Below is a list of them and also the reasons of using the changed titles.
Like a Butterfly’s Wings --- I used: Your Real Heart and Awareness (你的真心觉性)
http://www.heavenletters.org/like-a-butterfly-s-wings.html
真心- Real heart or Mindfulness in Chinese. Reason of using this title came from this sentence: “Your wings are your heart”. In Chinese, the word “Heart” has different meanings: 真心 or Real heart(Mindfulness, Inner Divine Guide), 妄想心 or delusion mind full of ego, and 意识心 or mind which can perceive -- director of eyes/ears/nose/tongue/body/thoughts. And they are layered in depth. The deepest is the real heart which needs the other two to quiet down in order to be heard.
“Butterfly’s wings” not used due to its girlish meaning in Chinese (I don't want readers to consider this letter as for girls/ladies only by glancing the title).
Overture of Love ------ The meaning of life (生命的意义)
http://www.heavenletters.org/overture-of-love.html
I have been seeking the meaning of my life for years, and this letter tells us all about it, for which I could not agree more. Changed title came from this sentence in the letter: “When you ask what life is all about, by now you know the answer.”
Changing of the Guard ---- Creator of life (生活的缔造者)
http://www.heavenletters.org/changing-of-the-guard.html
This letter is encouraging us to co-create our own lifves instead of totally relying on God as our life savor.
How lovely is a heart --- Quiet and Peaceful Minds lead us to High and Far (宁静致远)
http://www.heavenletters.org/how-lovely-is-a-heart.html
The phase “宁静致远” originated by the most intelligent man named Zhuge Liang in Chinese history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang
“非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远” was written in a letter by Liang to his son. It was one of the famous teachings among the intellectual world.
“非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远” means:
Living a simple and restrained life without lusting fame and fortune to establish and demonstrate one’s ambition;
Quiet, calm and peaceful minds lead us high and far spiritually. (This part was used for this letter's title)
I do think this phase fits perfectly as this Heavenletter’s title, since the key point of this letter is to teach us how to quite our minds in order to listen to our inner God and thus enjoy the heavenly music.
Catch a Moonbeam --- Come Home, My Child (回家，孩子)
http://www.heavenletters.org/catch-a-moonbeam.html
Calling from God: Come home, my child! This letter is all about it.
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I am not sure whether beloved Gloria knows all about the above changes or not. I feel sorry for not telling her in advance. Recently she sent me an email regarding: Like a Butterfly’s Wings --- The Real Heart and Awareness (你的真心觉性):
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On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 3:11 AM, Gloria Wendroff wrote:
Extra beautiful in the Chinese language. The title could have been translated from Chinese to English!
Like a Butterfly’s Wings 你的真心觉性
Thank you!
Loving you, dear angel.
Gloria
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And I wrote back as below:
Dearly Beloved Gloria,
It is so nice to hear from you!
Yes, 真心觉性 means “Mindfulness and Awareness” ~*^_^*~
Dear Gloria. I am very grateful that you are doing this great job for God and for all of us. I have been talking to you in my heart. May you feel my love waves sending to you. I love you so much!
Often, I found myself in tears of joy when translating Heavenletters. Through your work, through the translation process, I got trained to become God: to think like God, to love like God.
I deeply understand what you have written, and what God is teaching. “Oh yes, I have been thinking about it this way, but just would not express as well, as simply and as meticulously.” --- It is indeed the source of my joy: I got the confirmation and confidant.
I am very happy and proud that I have a way to serve the world and in the meantime to improve myself. One of my friends congratulated me: Looking for guidance while serving, you are likely to find it and to complete your mission. Thank you for always doing this!
Beloved Gloria, Thank you very much for always doing this for us!!!
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From my deepest heart, the whole purpose of the changes is to serve God’s teaching better ---to catch the reader's eyes and the essence of the letter in Chinese way. ~*^_^*~
On the other hand I totally understand that our translations should stay as close to the original meanings as possible, since the Heavenletters are perfect by themselves by all means.
I would like to get your opinions and suggestions on this.
With endless love and blessings,
Happy Thanksgiving…
Leean