Breaking Through A Bottleneck

By Fellow Initiate Xiang, Translation Group,
Taipei, Formosa

My first assignment was to listen to Master's English tapes and translate them into Chinese. Being born and raised on Chinese soil, this method of translation was a tough test for me. Although the result was not really ideal, I was finally accepted as a member of the translation group.

The greatest difficulty in translating from English into Chinese is that, if the English words were translated literally into Chinese, the sentences of the resulting article would not flow smoothly and be very wordy. It would be quite impossible for the readers to comprehend completely. Therefore, my usual practice was to translate literally, first composing the sentences, and then asking someone to read the article and pointing out any awkward parts. My working speed was slow due to the repeated corrections required.

Once, Hsihu Center suddenly assigned me fifteen full pages of typed scripts that were to be translated in two days. I was very worried because I could hardly find time to work at home. Usually, I used my spare time in the office to translate, and could only finish three to four pages of typed scripts at the most in two days. How could I manage to finish these fifteen pages? I could only pray for Master's help.

As a result, during my office hours over those two days, there were only one or two business transactions, and the people left immediately after each discussion. Therefore, I could work at full speed without interruption.

I was slow in the beginning. Gradually, after reading a sentence in English, a fluent and intact Chinese sentence would naturally appear in my mind. It would always be a good translation, and needed no further modification. In this way, I worked quickly and finished the translation on time.

After reading my work, the sister initiate who used to proofread my work was amazed by my great progress. Except for some typographical errors, there was almost nothing to be corrected. This experience made me realize Master's invisible blessing power.

After this experience, I broke through my previous difficult situation, and could translate directly without deviating from the original meaning!

I pray that Master will continue to bless all the members of the translation group, so that they can quickly and perfectly have translations closest to the original meaning for the fellow practitioners.