Soukie's Place

Making Sense of 12^th Century Philosophy

By Pavel Soukenik · May 10, 2011 · Filed under life and tagged: dogen, genjokoan, languages, translation

More than about philosophy, this article is about the thing I do to set my table: translations. I have avoided this topic because what I have to say is usually close to disclosing confidential facts about the company I work for and its customers.

Instead of talking about software giants of the 21^st century and how they go about ‘localizing’ their products, I am going to discuss translations of the famous 12^th century Japanese thinker Dōgen. His writing is characterized by elegant structures which often mix Chinese characters and quotations, and is notoriously difficult to translate.

Just as bad translations of software today impact the ‘usability’ of the products, inadequate renditions of Eihei Dōgen ruin the understanding of what he was trying to say. Let’s take a look at his Genjō Kōan, a famous essay which in most translations starts in a way that made me feel that Dōgen’s expositions are impenetrable, or completely nonsensical.

Typically, the opening paragraph in English reads something like this (don’t get scared):

When all dharmas are [seen as] the Buddha-Dharma, then there is delusion and realization, there is practice, there is life and there is death, there are buddhas and there are ordinary beings.
When the myriad dharmas are each not of the self, there is no delusion and no realization, no buddhas and no ordinary beings, no life and no death.
The Buddha’s truth is originally transcendent over abundance and scarcity, and so there is life and death, there is delusion and realization, there are beings and buddhas.
And though it is like this, it is only that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds while hated, flourish. (Tanahashi/Cross)

So first he says there are some things, then not, and then yes again? What is that thing about abundance and scarcity? And what do flowers and weeds have to do with any of this?

It wasn’t until I read a translation and discussion thereof by Bob Myers that I started to suspect that most translators got it wrong, and was compelled to turn to the original text to battle with the unfamiliar languages until I would see if it was indeed the case. Here is the same section as translated by Myers:

Viewing various things as Buddhistic things, then we have wisdom and we have practice, we have life and we have death, we have buddhas and we have sentient beings.
Stripping all things of their essence, we have no delusion and no satori, we have no buddhas and no sentient beings, we have no beginnings and no endings.
The way of the buddha inherently soars above such extravagance and austerity, uniting beginning and ending, uniting delusion and satori, uniting sentient being and buddha.
It is falling blossoms uniting love and sorrow, spreading weeds uniting indifference and dislike, nothing more.

Myers clearly differentiates between the first two sentences (introducing three pairs of things which exist or do not exist), and the third one with a different structure. His translation also links the ‘extravagance’ (‘abundance’ in previous translation) to the first statement, and the ‘austerity’ to the second one, implying that the ‘true way’ is superior to them.

Myers also notices that the sentence about flowers and weeds uses the same two-character compound structure employed in the third statement, and thus assumes that these are used to illustrate how this synthesis works.

Below, I made an attempt at adapting Myers’s translation into a more word-for-word interlinear form. Even if it does not make for a smooth reading, it shows that Dōgen’s point indeed was not as mystically unfathomable as it would seem:

諸法の佛法なる時節、すなはち
When various things are [viewed as] Buddhist teachings‘various things as Buddhist things’ was actually more literal than my adaptation but readers might fail to realize that ‘Buddha things’ is a phrase meaning ‘Buddhist teachings.’, then
迷悟あり、修行あり、生あり、死あり、諸佛あり、衆生あり。
there is delusion-enlightenmentWords connected with a dash represent two-character Chinese compounds. Here, Myers made a clever choice in using one word (‘wisdom’) not to interrupt the rhythm of six concepts as six nouns., there is practice, there is birthThe word for ‘birth’ means equally ‘life.’ I wanted to avoid cluttering the text with ‘birth/life.’ It can be very well rendered as ‘life’ depending on the context, especially here., there is death, there are buddhas, there are ordinary beings.
万法ともにわれにあらざる時節、、
When myriad‘myriad’ was chosen as it has the same meaning in English as the original, i.e. ‘ten thousand.’ things are stripped of their selves‘selves’ was preserved as the literary translation to maintain consistency when later the chapter speaks about the existence of a self.,
まどひなくさとりなく、諸佛なく衆生なく、生なく滅なし。
[there is] no confusion no understandingI chose ‘confusion’ and ‘understanding’ as literal translations to show these are Japanese words different from the Chinese characters for ‘delusion’ and ‘enlightenment’ used in other sentences., no buddhas no ordinary beings, no birth no perishing‘perishing’ is awkward but I wanted to distinguish this Chinese word from ‘death’ in the first occurrence where Japanese is used..
佛道もとより豐儉より跳出せるゆゑに、
The way of the Buddha inherently soars above [such] abundance and lack,
生滅あり、迷悟あり、生佛あり。
[so] there is birth-perishing, there is delusion-enlightenment, there is ordinary [being]-buddha.
しかもかくのごとくなりといへども、
If it can be said it’s like that,
花は愛惜にちり、草は棄嫌におふるのみなり。
it is the love-sorrow of falling blossoms, the indifference-dislike of spreading weeds, nothing more.

As you can see, the first sentence has six concepts introduced with “there is,” the second one six similar concepts introduced with “no,” and the third one has only three “there is” phrases introducing two-character compounds.

When some translations put an “and” between the nouns in the third sentence, and help the reader by logically grouping the items in the first two sentences into three pairs of “there is X and Y,” then the first and third statements end up almost the same, and what Dōgen said is completely lost in translation.

It follows that Dōgen’s mention of ‘abundance’ and ‘lack’ was most likely referring to raising above the first two world views, and not to an unrelated background from which the Buddhist religion sprang up.

And if that is the case, and all the sentences in the paragraph are closely connected, it also makes sense the closing statement was chosen to show that Dōgen’s argument is nothing outlandish: as we see around us, different characteristics such as indifference and dislike are embodied, unified, and (grammatically) compounded in one thing (spreading weeds), just as delusion and enlightenment are.

For many readers, the question might be: So what? To this I would say: Translating 12^th century Japanese is not as next to impossible as some make it appear, so it is quite worrisome that one of the most influential and prolific Japanese writers is not available in reliable translations. I think it has to do more with cultural preconceptions than with Japanese being unlike any other language — which is exactly what every language is.

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Gray Matter

By Pavel Soukenik · December 26, 2010 · Filed under entertainment and tagged: Gabriel Knight, games, Jane Jensen, review

After eleven years, there is a new adventure game by Jane Jensen who is best known for her Gabriel Knight Mystery series. Once again, the story is grounded in real locations and weaves facts with supernatural occurrences. The protagonists are obviously new – Sam, a street magician, and Dr Styles, a neurobiologist – and the chapters alternate between them just as we saw in Jensen’s two last full games.

Sam is after an illusive Deadulus Club for magicians while Dr Styles goes to extremes to prevent his memories from ever fading

Comparisons to Gabriel Knight are inevitable, and invariably inaccurate: I was sixteen when Jane’s first title, Sins of the Fathers, came out. Replaying that game is more like reliving the memories so it is hard to see whether I would be somewhat less captivated if it came out today.

The game that Gray Matter often reminded me of was Black Mirror (Posel smrti). Probably because both feature a brooding male protagonist living in an old house in England with a servant. Fortunately, here the comparison ends since Jensen’s work does not suffer from a bland, generic story or bad ending.

Presentation

Jensen never repeated the same technical presentation. Her three previous adventures were hand-painted 2D, full motion video and full 3D. This time, we have 3D models over pre-rendered backgrounds which has been a popular choice for the declining adventure genre.

Gray Matter does not reach the heights of art direction set by Benoît Sokal in Syberia but it is also nowhere near as tedious thanks to its sensible game design. (Syberia kept me going on the strength of seeing breathtaking scenes alone which is nice but insufficient.) The cut-scenes are not pre-rendered 3D scenes as would be expected but sparsely animated sketches that resemble a storyboard pre-viz. I did not mind this but wondered what the game would look like if it was all hand-drawn 2D.

Gray Matter is a very linear story. This is fine – it is just the way Jensen’s stories work – unless you come with expectations of any true branching à la Westwood’s Blade Runner, or a clever illusion of constant choices (which was seen in David Cage’s Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy, and later expanded in his Heavy Rain).

Reality vs. the game (photo by euratlas.com)

Music and Graphics

The first two Gabriel Knight games (also scored by Robert Holmes) had very prominent soundtracks. The music in Gray Matter is much less noticeable (except for the pieces with vocals), and overall feels appropriate and atmospheric.

One or two themes are rather close to the Gabriel Knight music and would be better suited if they were left for a potential sequel to those games. If you notice, it is a distraction rather than an enhancement. One piano piece used for Dr Styles reuses part of the melody of the title track to Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, and the climatic cut-scene recalls the theme heard during end credits of Sins of the Fathers.

The pre-rendered backgrounds are very professional and have enough mood and character to them to avoid feeling sterile. The 3D characters, especially in terms of full-body animations and facial expressions, leave room for improvements.

Density and Depth

The game suffers from ‘sparseness’ that contradicts its title. Yes, Jane Jensen said Gray Matter was going to be aimed at a more mainstream audience, and I agree that making things digestible and playable is a good idea. But the game – mainly in the later parts – is not as easy as it seems. Where the reductions hit the hardest are the number of active items (hot spots) in individual locations and the number of possible actions (verbs).

Sacrificing a deeply implemented environment means that the number of conceivable actions in Gray Matter at any given moment is about four. In Sins of the Fathers, this was around fifty, and there were interesting responses even for unlikely verb-object combinations.

Gray Matter compresses examining and operating objects, performing magic tricks and using inventory items all into a single action (showing contextually what it is going to be). Granted, you still have to select the correct item from your inventory but the experience feels even more restricted than Jensen’s ‘full motion video’-based The Beast Within (which stands as the best FMV game to date).

There should have been at least an option to turn the magic tricks and inventory items into separate ‘verbs.’ This interface would be like Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Circle of Blood) with three ‘verbs’ on hot spots: look at, contextual action (take, move, open…), and using an inventory item (including the book of tricks).

Still, the game has depth. Imagine a scale starting with a bland story in a generic setting with archetypal characters and no history, which would extend to specific settings, well defined characters and events with deep background. On such a scale, Gray Matter beats everything I have seen in many years, while at the same time any Gabriel Knight game would score even higher.

Story and Puzzles

Gray Matter does not match the Agatha Christie-like sophistication that Jensen displayed in Blood of the Sacred. On a story design level, I felt the player is easily too much ahead in figuring out who the real culprit is. The problem isn’t that the protagonist maintains her own theory about what’s going on (which the player will consider almost certainly wrong). This player-protagonist tension is actually good. But the player should not guess all the answers too soon, and the protagonist should not stay too much behind.

Jensen did a great job with the puzzles (a hallmark of adventure games). She elegantly combines elements of leisure games (finding hidden clues, crossing out things on a list) with interactions with a close group of characters, and includes puzzles which form a larger, overarching problem.

The solutions are nicely hinted. For example, maybe halfway into the game, there is a piece of conversation which you might recall when facing the very last puzzle. With the environment and options being so sparse though, you don’t really need a hint. Such subtle hints just show Jensen has a good puzzle design ingrained in her work, and the same goes for memorable characters and building of suspense.

The magic tricks are a great device, and I was amazed by the inventiveness and number of tricks that were nicely integrated into the story. Was the mechanism a bit too simple? Yes. But splicing a recording of Dr Klingmann or scribbling a free-form coded message on a tomb in her previous games went too far in the other direction.

One suggestion how the ‘magic’ could have been more involving: Allow the player to study and practice the tricks; but when performing them, the player would trigger the actions (on a split screen) without the book visible and the luxury of pre-sequencing it. This would require the in-game animations to be done more thoroughly though.

Verdict

If it seems I complained a lot, bear in mind that this was a critique. Syberia, Black Mirror, A Vampyre Story and many other games would fare far worse. Gray Matter merits attention despite the oversimplified interface and underwhelming production values.

If a large publisher makes a smart move and puts a sizable budget into the production and distribution of the next Jane Jensen’s work, we could see something truly special. As things are, Jane could have authored Gray Matter as an interactive fiction in Inform 7 with minimal costs, the development time of seven months instead of seven years and we would still get most of what is great about it, including the music.

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Windows Phone 7

PCWorld Articles

• Windows Phone 7: Why It’s a Disaster for Microsoft
• Windows Phone 7 Riddled with Rookie Mistakes
• Windows Phone 7: Microsoft’s Disaster
• Windows Phone 7 Launch, Dwarfed by Android and iPhone, Looks to be a Dud
• Windows Phone 7 Era Begins, Really

Windows Phone 7

The good

• wireless sync that doesn’t lock the phone
• great keyboard experience
• notifications don’t stop you
• integration with cloud services
• Zune and Zune Pass (wake me up when iTunes compares)

The not-so-good

• no weekly calendar, or accepting ‘new time propositions’
• SharePoint hub not working in most setups
• no Dvorak keyboard
• no searching in the app list
• missing pivots to filter calls

Really bad?

• no copy paste (coming soon)
• no third party app multitasking*