Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A Transliteration of:
The Tao Te Ching in Marshallese and English
I once heard a story of a wise old man long long ago, in ancient China. Lao Tzu is usually dated
to around the 6th century BC and reckoned a contemporary of Confucius, but some historians
contend that he actually lived during the Warring States period of the 5th or 4th century BC. He
was a marvelous man of great wisdom who was called Lao Tzu. He was the Keeper of the
Archives for the royal court of Zhou (also known as the Chou Dynasty). He gave out advise on every
subject and answered many people's deepest questions. They listened to him, went home, and did
what they wanted to do anyway, regardless of his advise.
After many years of effort, he decided that people were not able, or at least did not seem to want
to follow his advise, but went about their lives much the same as before they came to him for
help. In frustration, he determined that he was going to go through the Great Wall of China and
loose himself in the wilds of Mongolia.
He and his servant packed his belongings on a donkey and started out on their journey. However
when they came to the Great Wall of China, the Gate Keeper there had some questions for him
before he would allow him to pass through.
Because he was dressed as a noble person of obvious high rank, with a servant, he wanted first to
know his name. The old man told him his name was Lao Tzu. (Lao Tzu was an honorary name mean
something like Wise Old Man - His given name was Li Er.)
Then the Gate Keeper wanted to know what his position was, and what he was doing so far away
from the Capital and the center of Chinese culture, politics, and business of that time. It seemed
to him that this man was certainly a man of means, and had no business traveling on the open
road with a single servant. He needed to be assured of who he was and what he was doing.
Lao Tzu answered him truthfully, and said that he was indeed the Keeper of the Archives for the
royal court of Zhou. The Gate Keeper was very surprised and wanted to know why he was there
at the very border of the kingdom. He still wanted to know what Lao Tzu was doing.
Lao Tzu explained to him that as an advisor for those who needed to ask him deep questions. He
said that he had become frustrated and had determined to loose himself in the wilds of Mongolia.
He wanted to pass through the Gate and be done with his job as an advisor, because no body ever
followed his advise anyway.
Well, the Gate Keeper was just a low official, but he was concerned about the fact that this was
indeed an important person in the Royal Court of the Zhou Family, and he was not sure if it was
proper to allow this man to pass and be lost to that family at all.
He insisted that Lao Tzu should not be allowed to pass through the Gate and that at the very
least, he would have to be required to put all his wisdom down into writing before he be allowed
to pass through! He assured Lao Tzu that he would give him accommodations and food, but that
he could not simply allow him to walk through the Gate and pass on to the Wilds of Mongolia,
because the wisdom that he held in his head was the property of the Royal Court of the Zhou. He
would give him shelter and time to write his wisdom down. Come up and dine with me first,
and we will make our decisions afterward.
To make a long story short, this is what happened. After a sumptuous dinner and fine wine, the
Gate Keeper was told by Lao Tzu that he didn't understand at all.
You see, Lao Tzu had a particular way of looking at wisdom. He told the Gate Keeper that words
had special power, and when things were written down, they became worthless. It was analogous
to a good fire. The blaze was akin to the spoken words themselves, but the words written down
were only like the ashes of the fire and had no strength or benefit at all.
He told the Gate Keeper that he was not opposed to telling him his wisdom if he wanted him to
do so, but that if the Gate Keeper wanted to have his wisdom written down, he would have to do
that himself, because he did not believe in the written word.
It was in this clever way that Lao Tzu tricked the Gate Keeper into writing down the words
himself. You see, he knew that for his words to have any benefit, they would have to be the
words of the common man. The Gate Keeper was a good man, and what he was doing was a
good thing. As a common man, he would have to write down Lao Tzu's wisdom (81 beautiful
sayings) in the tongue of the common man so that everyone would be able to understand what he
was telling the Gate Keeper.
Thus was born The Tao Te Ching, know today in English, as the The Way Of Life. The earliest
copy of the Tao Te Ching ever found was written on slips of bamboo dating from the late 4th
Century BCE. The Gate Keeper was so moved by the sayings, that he became a disciple of Lao
Tzu and did follow his advise. He was never seen in China again after completing the Tao Te
Ching with Lao Tzu.
Now I read perhaps a dozen translations of the Tao Te Ching in the early 1970's after I began my
time in the Peace Corps in 1969. When I returned to the United States in 1971 between my first
and second term in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands, I purchased a copy (the Witter Byner
translation) in Waipahu Hawai`i for $.50.
When I completed my two tours of Peace Corps, I went to Graduate School in Vermont at
Goddard College, and I did not want to loose my skills as a Marshallese Interpreter and
Translator, so I began to make my transliterations into Marshallese incorporating what I had
learned of ancient Marshallese custom into the 81 sayings. At that time, I actually typed them out
on typing paper with a standard type-writer.
I never actually entered them into a computer to make a digital copy. Now that I have retired
from my work as a Medical and Courtroom Interpreter, I have begun to digitize the last of my
remaining copies of the first 40 transliterations into Marshallese and then back into English line
by line.
The result, not unlike the work of the original Gate Keeper, represents the common tongue of the
Marshallese people that I worked with in the Peace Corps almost 50 years ago. At the time I first
started, I had always planned to finish my work on the Tao Te Ching, but never got around to it
until now. The texts were chosen at random so many will have to be done over, but today I only
have a few of the dozen translations of the Tao Te Ching I had at the time I first started the work
to transliterate them into Marshallese. I have also, over the years, improved greatly as a translator
with over 46 years of experience under by belt.
So then, what you find in my work today, are new transliterations, which represent the first 40
that I had accomplished, and I will have to go out and purchase all the various translations I used
back in the day to do the rest of the work. Who knows when I will finish this project. I look
forward to the duty I feel to incorporate some of the wisdom of the ancient Marshallese people
by transliterating Lao Tzu's Wisdom as written down by the Gate Keeper so long ago in China.
The end result is very interesting.
So I guess that in my own way, I also am a modern day Gate Keeper myself, to the wisdom of
both the Ancient custom of the Marshallese people and the even more ancient wisdom of Lao
Tzu and the Tao Te Ching. (The Way Of Life)
Mahalo,
Keola Malalo `O Ka Anuenue 2014
I will keep you informed of my progress at digitizing the original work I did in 1973 as well as
the 41 sayings that I will do now that I am retired. Confucius always said that a man should not
write down anything until he was in his 70's, because not until that time would his true adult
nature have come to full maturity. I am pushing 66 years old now, and perhaps it is not too soon
for me to begin. Let's call this my Draft Copy of a final work to be done by the time I am
seventy years old.
#2
Rej kwalok ar
Mkitkit ilo wnmanlok.
Aitok im kadu,
Rej kwalok jun jok in ar ukukdk jen dron.
Utej im Et,
Rej kwalok Kark ko ar iben dron.
Ej bk wt mour in
Ilo an walok tok.
#3
# 4
Ej kmtl Bwd.
Ej kamelele Bwok,
# 5
n ro rej jele,
Ejelok tokjen armij ro.
In this existence,
There are people who live and those who die.
Rja lok,
Melele ko ilo Bru!
Encourage more,
The meanings of the heart.
# 6
Kto eo an Ll in,
Ej jeikik ion Ll,
Ilo ar kallimjeke,
Ej jun Ll in, eban jmlok!
As we examine it,
It is a world, which will not end.
# 7
Is in a way in which,
One will become higher only.
# 9
In true honesty,
Also emerge a man?
Meram en Lowa,
Jen Meram wt in Ran.
Ewor an Ia,
Ewor an Eaab.
Jejjej eo an Armij,
Ekar kwalok Kabojoj!
Renaj kar,
Lukun jele nukwi.
They would
Truly know how to look after their relatives.
Forget Learning
And seek only wisdom.
Can we look at
Good and Bad?
a wt, ij ber,
Ilo Mutok en an Kijiek eo.
I alone, I am,
In the darkness surrounding the fire.
a wt,
Ijab kanan jibark lok Jabrewt!
I alone,
I dont want to strive for anything!
Mkjkj eo an,
Ej, an Aenmmon ilo bar jun Iien.
It's quickness,
Is it's quietness at some other time.