About Somerset Maugham<The paintde veil > and its Chinese translation

Link of this video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Jp4y1471k 、

highly recommended to visit

Maugham's book is actually about Hegelian dialectics: as a result, the Chinese version became "The Veil" \ "Colored Veil" --? ? ? !

The protagonist crosses three stages

• Aesthetic stage: engage in extramarital affairs (all kinds of sensual desires and impulses - the protagonist's is a forbidden pleasure (rebellion) - "you Walter is not holy"
• Ethical stage: restrain her lust - want her husband to forgive her - his husband is dying - the husband finally said: it was the dog who died

This sentence actually refers to: Goldsmith's "Elegy" A good man saves a dog, and the dog who only wants to satisfy his own desires bites the good man and the spectators swore the dog - and also swore the good man: Greater than himself, but admitting his own inferiority We may be the spectator: do not believe that Walter forgives Cady (the hero) Walter: "It was the dog that died" The dog is innocent - the dog is desire - but it Destined to Die: Even though Desire is innocence only against false ethics and morals and does not accommodate and accept the dog of Desire - goodness cannot be true goodness

Desire seems to bite the soul and conscience - but there's nothing wrong with desire, it's just a process: in the end it's the dog that will disappear - Walter actually forgives the protagonist

• From the aesthetic stage to the ethical stage, what is needed is to accept one's own desires
• And it falls into hypocrisy: thinks itself holy and imagines that Walther has not forgiven himself: isn't this the "spectator" - it's just a metaphysical escape from it

The real good is not as the opposite of evil, not as a metaphysical grasper to give up all kinds of desire impulses in the aesthetic stage

• The final stage: the realization that ethics is a desire in itself, no different from those of pleasure—equal
• There is no good or evil at all
• So there is no metaphysical world behind the veil of The paintde veil - there is no real world of pure goodness - this veil is painted, and you can imagine the dimension behind it

It is this appearance, this veil, that supports the transcendent dimension - but this transcendent dimension does not exist! ! !

• Unless the protagonist sees his husband as a scumbag (or a jealous person) - "but that's the case", his cheating can only be pleasing - otherwise he will collapse
• "I'm going to fight you varta - I'm holier than you - you just don't forgive me, humiliate me, you hypocritical masculinity"

The real mistake lies in believing that there is some higher and greater spirit behind desires The real mistake lies in seeing through a painted veil the mystery that does not exist

• The dialectic of desire here is all about imagining a great dimension - then tainting it for pleasure - I make people of that dimension inferior to me

Really entering the transcendental dimension does not mean turning away from desire, imagining that transcendental dimension, violating prohibitions

• but to realize that they are equal, there is no difference, there is no good or evil

No heaven exists, maybe this city is heaven itself

• The holiness is in everything - why find another dimension of holiness: desire is innocent - let the dog bite you and desire the dog will eventually die: reconciliation

But the last paragraph of the Chinese version is compared to the English version - castrated

It's all uncertain ,life and whatever is come to me , but I enter upon it with light and buoyant heart .It's a confused ,but vaguely I **discern a pattern,**and i see before me an inexhaustible richness , the mystery and the strangeness of everything ,compassion and charity , the Way and the wayfarer,and perhaps in the end ——God

• ^This is the third stage^ But what about the Chinese version? ? ? ?

https://www.notion.so/Vaults-74a863b626a74876b2ced681e2a79715#77e14accd3b54a3b9ae92bff1f44454d

Chinese becomes a lengthy lyrical paragraph that doesn't appear

Outrageous - shouting outrageous, filling in how much there is no content at all - The way is exactly the road that has no destination - you don't need to embrace the metaphysical world, you just need to embrace the current world full of possibilities - stitched back an open thing

veil

• Don't lift the veil and let it be known that there is no metaphysical dimension - don't go after such a thing - may get you into a vicious circle: get pleasure by violating prohibitions - so you are perverted
• Attempts to lift the curtain have wiped out the duality of imitation and truth

This is written by Mizuko himself

What is behind the painted veil ?? - The lost painting The lost painting

The painting of the veil is lost as well For there never exist such a difference between veil and painting As well as which between painting and reality

By the way, at the end, the problem with this translation is that there are two versions of his movie. The second version seems to be castrated, but I don’t know if it was Maugham himself.