Book 11: 《先進》 Xian Jin (Former Eras)
《先進》 Passage 11.9
Legge Translation (1861)
When Yan Yuan died, the Master said: "Alas! Heaven is destroying me! Heaven is destroying me!"Word by word
- 顏淵 yán yuān
Yan Yuan (Yan Hui), Confucius's disciple
- 顏 surname element in the disciple's name, Yan Yuan (Yan Hui)
- 淵 Yuan, courtesy-name element in 顏淵; Yan Hui's given name is 回, his courtesy name 子淵
- 死 sǐ
to die
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, i.e. Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 噫 yī
exclamation of grief or anguish: alas, oh
- 天 tiān
Heaven
- 喪 sàng
to destroy, ruin
Read sàng, departing tone, 'to ruin, bereave', not sāng 'mourning'. Translators split between outright destruction (Legge, Peimin Ni, Watson, Chin, Ames & Rosemont) and bereavement, a loss inflicted (Slingerland, Roberts, Lau).
- 予 yú
me, object pronoun
- 天 tiān
Heaven
- 喪 sàng
to destroy, ruin
Second occurrence of the same cry; translators split the same way as the first: destroy/ruin vs. bereave.
- 予 yú
me, object pronoun
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