“I bow in repentance of any misdeeds lived and discerning, more or less, this world.”
This is #51 out of a series of 108 daily Buddhist affirmations that I am attempting to translate with my hands tied behind my back (well not really that, but I’m deliberately not seeking out translations on the internet, using only dictionary and grammar).
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49. 나만을 생각하여 산과 바다를 더럽히며 살아 온 어리석음을 참회하며 절합니다.
“I bow in repentance of all the stupidity which comes alive to dirty the mountains and the sea [by] thinking of only myself.”
50. 나만을 생각하여 꽃과 나무를 함부로 자르는 어리석음을 참회하며 절합니다.
“I bow in repentance of all the stupidity which comes alive to cut trees and flowers randomly [by] thinking of only myself.”
51. 이 세상을 많고 적음으로 분별하며 살아온 죄를 참회하며 절합니다.
I would read this fifty-first affirmation as: “I bow in repentance of any misdeeds lived and discerning, more or less, this world.”
I’m not really comfortable with this translation. I may think of a revision, but it’s the best I can come up with, for now. I’m not liking the “more or less” (which is “많고 적음으로”) – literally, it might be “by means of being more and being less.” What (or who) is being more and less? The implied subject (I)? The discernment? The object (this world)? The living of the following clause? Well, anyway.
More or less.
