Book 8: 《泰伯》 Tai Bo
《泰伯》 Passage 8.3
Legge Translation (1861)
The philosopher Zeng being ill, he called to him the disciples of his school, and said: "Uncover my feet, uncover my hands. It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'We should be apprehensive and cautious, as if on the brink of a deep gulf, as if treading on thin ice,' and so have I been. Now and hereafter, I know my escape from all injury to my person, O ye, my little children."Word by word
- 曾子 zēng zǐ
Master Zeng, Zengzi (a disciple of Confucius)
- 曾 family name Zeng
- 子 honorific suffix: master (attached to a surname)
- 有疾 yǒu jí
to be ill, to fall sick
- 有 to have, be afflicted with (an illness)
- 疾 illness, sickness
- 召 zhào
to summon, call to oneself
- 門弟子 mén dì zǐ
disciples of one's school
- 門 school, house of disciples (lit. gate)
- 弟 pupil, disciple
- 子 disciple, pupil
- 曰 yuē
said, spoke
- 啟 qǐ
to uncover, expose to view; also read as 視, to look at
鄭玄 and 朱熹 gloss 啟 as 開, to uncover: the bedclothes are drawn back to show the body unharmed (Legge, Slingerland, Watson). 楊伯峻, following 王念孫, reads 啟 as 晵, to look at, which Peimin Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, Lau and Chin follow.
- 予 yú
my
- 足 zú
foot, feet
- 啟 qǐ
to uncover, expose to view; also read as 視, to look at
Traditionally read as 'uncover' (opening the bedclothes to check the body is unharmed); several translators instead render it as 'look at, examine.'
- 予 yú
my
- 手 shǒu
hand, hands
- 詩 shī
the Book of Odes, the Book of Songs
- 云 yún
to say, states (introducing a quotation)
- 戰戰兢兢 zhàn zhàn jīng jīng
trembling with fear and utmost caution
- 戰 to tremble, shake (with fear or caution)
- 戰 to tremble, shake (with fear or caution)
- 兢 cautious, apprehensively wary
- 兢 cautious, apprehensively wary
A reduplicated idiom pairing 戰 (tremble) and 兢 (be wary), quoted from the ode 小旻 (小雅) and still current in modern Chinese as 戰戰兢兢.
- 如 rú
as if, like
- 臨 lín
to approach, draw near to
- 深淵 shēn yuān
deep abyss, deep gulf, deep pool
- 深 deep
- 淵 abyss, deep gulf
- 如 rú
as if, like
- 履 lǚ
to tread on, walk on
- 薄冰 bó bīng
thin ice
- 薄 thin, slight
- 冰 ice
- 而…而 ér … ér
coordinating frame linking successive time phrases: from...and continuing to...
- 而 conjunctive particle: and
- 而 conjunctive particle: and
Frames 今 and 後 into one temporal expression, 'from now on'.
- 今 jīn
now, the present moment
- 後 hòu
hereafter, henceforth
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 知 zhī
to know, be sure
- 免 miǎn
to escape harm, be spared from injury
Traditionally read as being spared bodily injury, in keeping with the filial duty to keep one's body, a gift from one's parents, unharmed.
- 夫 fú
sentence-final particle of assertion
English does the work through the exclamation mark and sentence rhythm alone (Watson alone gestures at it, recasting the line as the tag question 'have I not?').
- 小子 xiǎo zǐ
young ones, my disciples (term of address)
- 小 young, little
- 子 child, term of address for a disciple
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