One may even say that a materially exact translation is, in reality, a false one; the words we use in writing and speaking being mere technical signs by which we represent our ideas. For instance, the word "cathedral" will certainly not convey the same idea to two men, one of whom has only seen St. Paul's, and the other only Notre-Dame de Paris; for the first, cathedral means a dome; for the other it means two towers and a long ogival nave. Below the outward appearance of the words there lie so many different images that it is absolutely necessary to know the mentality of a nation in order to master its language. In fact, a true translation will be the one that, though sometimes materially inexact, will give the reader the same impression he would have if he were reading the original text.
Since I first went to China, in 1901, I have had many opportunities of acquainting myself with all the superstitions of the lower classes, with all the splendid mental and intellectual training of the learned. My experience has helped me to perceive what was hidden beneath the words; and in my translation I have sometimes supplied what the author only thought necessary to imply. In many places the translation is literal; in other places it is literary, it being impossible for a Western writer to retain all the long and useless talking, all the repetitions that Chinese writing and Chinese taste are equally fond of.
THE GHOST IN LOVE THE FRESCO THE DWARF HUNTERS THE CORPSE THE BLOOD DRINKER LOVE REWARDED THE WOMAN IN GREEN THE FAULT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES DECEIVING SHADOWS PEACEFUL-LIGHT HONG THE CURRIER AUTUMN-MOON THE PRINCESS NELUMBO THE TWO BROTHERS THE MARBLE ARCH THE DUTIFUL SON THROUGH MANY LIVES THE RIVER OF SORROWS THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND THE SPIRIT OF THE RIVER THE-DEVILS-OF-THE-OCEAN UNKNOWN DEVILS CHILDLESS THE PATCH OF LAMB'S SKIN LOVE'S-SLAVE THE LAUGHING GHOST
_Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisures_
On the 15th day of the First Moon, in the second year of the period of "Renewed Principles," the streets of the town of the Eastern Lake were thronged with people who were strolling about.
At the setting of the sun every shop was brightly lit up; processions of people moved hither and thither; strings of boys were carrying lanterns of every form and colour; whole families passed, every member of whom, young or old, small or big, was holding at the end of a thin bamboo the lighted image of a bird, an animal, or a flower.