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余 功
今天介紹一本X字首的名著。憑標題的一句，各位猜到是哪本小說嗎？是《西遊記》（Xi Y卻u Ji，英文常譯作Journey to the West），作者是吳承恩（Wu, Cheng'en，約1500-1582）。
原來很多朋友都不知道「孫悟空」（Sun Wu-k'ung）一名的由來。我們今天便詳細了解一下，並請各位細心欣賞英文如何翻譯。這兒採用著名的Anthony C Yu（余國藩）譯本。
「孫」合嬰兒之本論
話說美猴王求道於一位祖師。祖師想為他起個姓名，便笑道：「你身軀雖是鄙陋，卻像個食松果的猢猻。我與你就身上取個姓氏（Though your features are not the most attractive, you do resemble a monkey(hu-sun) that feeds on pine seeds. This gives me the idea of deriving your surname from your appearance），意思教你姓『猢』。猢字去了個獸旁，乃是個古月。古者，老也；月者，陰也。老陰不能化育（I intended to call you by the name ‘Hu.’ Now, when the accompanying animal radical is dropped from this word, what's left is a compound made up of the two characters, ku and y泉eh. Ku means aged and y泉eh means female, but an aged female cannot reproduce），教你姓『猻』倒好。猻字去了獸旁，乃是個子系。子者，兒男也；系者，嬰細也，正合嬰兒之本論。教你姓『孫』罷（Therefore, it is better to give you the surname of ‘Sun.’ When the accompanying animal radical is dropped from this word, we have the compound tz�u and hsi. Tz�u means a boy and hsi means a baby, so that the name exactly accords with the Doctrine of the Baby. So your surname will be‘Sun’）。」
祖師續道：「我門中有十二個字，分派起名，……乃廣、大、智、慧、真、如、性、海、穎、悟、圓、覺十二字（Within my tradition are twelve characters which have been used to name the pupils according to their divisions.... They are wide(kuang), great(ta), wise(chih), intelligence(hui), true(ch鐹n), conforming(ju), nature(hsing), sea(hai), sharp(ying), wake-to(wu), complete(y泉an), and awakening(ch泉eh)）。
「悟」乃第十輩法名
排到你，正當『悟』字。與你起個法名叫做『孫悟空』，好麼（Your ranks falls precisely on the word ‘wake-to’(wu). You will hence be given the religious name ‘Wake-to Vacuity’ (wu-k'ung). All right）？」猴王笑道：「好！好！好！自今就叫做孫悟空也。」（"Splendid! Splendid!" said the Monkey King, laughing; "henceforth I shall be called Sun Wu-k'ung."）以後，各位可以自豪地闡釋美猴王為何叫孫悟空了—甚至用英文解說也可以。
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