Alternative translation of "言餘" in title 16:38 Oct 4, 2011
I found a short summary of the main theme indicated in the forewords written by 張賡, who was a very good friend of Aleni -《五十言餘》則如同交代遺言一般,張賡的序言說:「艾先生題曰言餘,寔點化人以言外之意乎?故先生西來,著書凡數萬言,總而歸之無言唯一天主」,此書內容不斷以今世的苦與來世的樂、今世的短暫與來世的永恆這種對照筆法,勸誡其追隨者今世刻苦以得來世的永福,由此看來,明末世局的轉變對艾儒略有很大的打擊。
Combined with the contents of this book, "proverb" is an excellent word for the translation of the title. However, as mentioned in 張賡's foreword, the last two words (言餘) in the title also suggested 言外之意, which means "meaning beyond words". So I would suggest to replace "& Relatives" with "& Beyond". |