五不翻 The Five Transliteration

今天上课，老师提及玄奘法师乃一大翻译家，并立有“五不翻”的原则，故而查究。

玄奘所立之“五不翻”：

1. 秘密故。含有微妙深隐之意不翻；如真言与陀罗尼。
2. 多含故。含有多层意义，不择一而翻；应先译音，再讲解普及。
3. 此无故。中国、东土所无，不翻。
4. 顺古故。既已有的译音，不再重译。
5. 生善故。只可意会，不可言传者，要译音。

我想这些原则，现代翻译依然可用得上。

The Five Transliterations

Ven. Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty was a great translator. He established a principle of using transliteration instead of translating the meaning under five circumstances.

1. Words with secret or esoteric meanings. Eg. mantras and dharanis.
2. Words with multiple meanings. E.g Bhagavat/Bhagavan has multiple meanings. Choosing one of the meaning to translate would result in the loss of the other meanings. It's better to transliterate and then further explain with notes.
3. Words for things which did not exist in China (and hence in local language).
4. Words with established transliteration. If some terms had prior transliteration, use the transliteration instead of a new translation. E.g. Xuanzang used a transliteration of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi which had been in used since the Han Dynasty, although he did shorten it in some instances.
   
5. Words with subtle meanings. E.g. Although prajna is frequently translated as "wisdom", the word "wisdom" cannot convey the deeper and more subtle meaning behind the prajna.

I think these are still very applicable for use in our current translation of Buddhist texts.