Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.18
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 honorific title: the Master (Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 未 wèi
not yet
- 見 jiàn
to see, encounter, meet
- 好 hào
to love, be fond of
- 德 dé
virtue, moral excellence
Ames & Rosemont renders de as 'excellence' rather than 'virtue,' reflecting their broader convention of avoiding the metaphysical connotations of the English word 'virtue.'
- 如 rú
as, to the same degree as
- 好 hào
to love, be fond of
Peimin Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, and Lau use a single comparative verb for both instances of 好 (e.g. 'as fond of X as of Y'), so this second occurrence has no separately worded rendering in their versions.
- 色 sè
physical beauty, sensual attractiveness
Roberts renders se as 'semblance,' treating it as outward form or likeness rather than sensual beauty, unlike the other seven translators.
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who, the one who
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
English closes the sentence with a period alone; there is no copula or separate word doing the work of this particle, so all eight translators drop it.
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