Inscrutability

Some years ago a small publisher brought out a book of mine called ‘Unscrewing the Inscrutable’. It was a collection of my English translations of poems from various languages, with the original on facing pages. Unsurprisingly, it disappeared without trace; I’m not even sure if I have a copy myself.

Anyway, it is usually the Chinese who are called ‘Inscrutable’, and I think that reputation may come in part from their insistence — at least on the labels and in the instruction books of products for the foreign market — in doing their own English translations. Many people have the quaint notion that if one knows a foreign language, one can translate a text into it. Translators themselves know that one can only produce a decent translation, or even one that makes sense, working from the foreign language into one’s native tongue. The portentous Confucianism of labels on Chinese products may be a translation artefact; quite possibly the original Chinese made good sense.

I mention this because the other day a friend gave me a disposable plastic cigarette lighter made in China. Here are the words of everyday wisdom printed on it:

THE INTRINSIC CHARACTER IMPLICATION OF “BRIEFNESS”
CAN GIVE BIRTH TO WISDOM.