Japanese Filter: Need Japanese Shunryu Suzuki quote

June 1, 2010 3:10 AM

Japanese Filter: Can anyone help me find the Japanese version of an English Shunryu Suzuki quote?

I found a great quote from Shunryu Suzuki here:
http://burritolingus.blogspot.com/2009/08/walking-through-fog.html

I'm interested in finding the (original?) Japanese version. You see, I work at a school in Taiwan where the students study English and Japanese and I'd like to make a poster out of the English and Japanese to share with the students.

Can anyone provide me with a link or the Japanese text? Thanks!

posted by MPenguin to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

If I'm not mistaken, it's from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and there is no original Japanese version. I gave my copy away or I'd try to look it up.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:15 AM on June 1, 2010

Yep. It's in Google books.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:19 AM on June 1, 2010

And in WikiQuote:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shunryu_Suzuki

The quote itself has traces of Japanese syntax and grammar still in it so it would be easy for a E-J translator to make a faithful rendition of the original.
posted by thesailor at 4:56 AM on June 1, 2010

Here's an amazon ｌｉｎｋ　ｔｏ the　J-version 禅へのいざない (zen e no izanai), or an Invitation to Zen. Can't seem to find any quotes online though, but wish I could...will be watching to see if anyone else can dig it up.
posted by ultrabuff at 7:22 AM on June 1, 2010

As far as I can tell, there is no Japanese version of this quote. However, there are plenty of translators who would be glad to make a suitable translation into Japanese (or even Chinese) for you.
posted by armage at 5:19 PM on June 1, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for clearing that up. I don't think its necessary to force a Japanese translation if the original is in English. Thanks for the help!
posted by MPenguin at 7:48 PM on June 1, 2010