The Royal Shakespeare Company is to translate the entire works of the Bard into Mandarin as part of efforts to foster greater cultural ties with China.
Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced funding of £1.5m to pay for the project, which will also cover the translation of up to 14 important Chinese plays into English. (1, 2)
Cultures at a constant war.
No one can understand the other.
We just make sounds and agree on what they mean.
But do you need language to convey the messages of the soul?
Do you need literature to make someone see your self?
Can the essence of things be described in any words?
Chinese, English or Greek, it is the silence between words which provides the meaning.
Everything else is just toothpaste.
There is no term or concept which cannot be expressed in language.
Man thinks through his language – if something cannot be expressed, it cannot be thought.
If the silence between toothpaste has meaning, than only because of the toothpaste. 🙂