Monkeymind - "Mind-monkey" in English - Translations

Translations

English translations of Chinese xinyuan or Japanese shin'en commonly include "mind monkey", "monkey mind", and "monkey of the mind".

This first list (expanded from Carr 1993:179, Table 5 Chinese-English Translation Equivalents) compares how 11 bilingual Chinese dictionaries translate xinyuanyima 心猿意馬 and yimaxinyuan 意馬心猿.

• 【意馬心猿】 his will is like a horse's, and his heart like an ape's; inconstant and strong (A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Williams 1874)
• 【心猿意馬】 gibbon heart and horse ideas, – unsettled and wandering (A Chinese–English Dictionary, Giles 1919)
• 【心猿意馬】 irresolute; vacillating; fluctuating ... Inconstant; fickle in the mind (A Complete Chinese–English Dictionary, Tsang 1920, cf. next)
• 【意馬心猿】 Unsettled in mind; fluctuating; wavering in purpose (A Complete Chinese–English Dictionary)
• 【意馬心猿】The intents of the mind and heart are like the horse and ape – very difficult to bring under control; undecided (Zhonghua Han-Ying dacidian, Lu 1931, cf. next)
• 【心猿意馬】 Restless and unsettled (Zhonghua Han-Ying dacidian)
• 【心猿意馬】 the intents of the mind and heart are like the horse and the ape – very difficult to bring under control; undecided (Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary, Mathews 1943)
• 【心猿意馬】 cannot make up one's mind; indecision; procrastination (A New Practical Chinese- English Dictionary, Liang 1971)
• 【心猿意馬】 prone to outside attractions, temptations; in a restless and jumpy mood (Lin Yutang's Chinese–English Dictionary of Modern Usage 1972)
• 【心猿意馬】 restless and whimsical; fanciful and fickle; capricious (The Chinese–English Dictionary, Beijing 1979)
• 【心猿意馬】 in a restless and jumpy mood / capricious (A New Chinese–English Dictionary, Ding 1985)
• 【心猿意馬】 restless and whimsical; fanciful and fickle; capricious; when one meant gibbon, he thinks of a horse (A Modern Chinese–English Dictionary, Beijing 1988)
• 【心猿意馬】 ① capricious; restless ② indecisive (The ABC Chinese–English Dictionary, DeFrancis 1996, cf. next)
• 【意馬心猿】 indecisive; wavering (The ABC Chinese–English Dictionary)

Six of these 11 Chinese–English dictionaries enter only the common xinyuanyima "mind-monkey idea-horse," 2 only the reverse yimaxinyuan, and 3 enter both. Three translation equivalents give English "ape" rather than "gibbon" or "monkey" for yuan 猿, and "ape" sounds metaphorically stronger than "monkey." Note how several of these dictionaries have identical translations.

This second list (expanded from Carr 1993:179, Table 7 Japanese-English Translation Equivalents) compares how 9 bilingual Japanese dictionaries translate ibashin'en 意馬心猿, none enters shin'en'iba 心猿意馬.

• 【意馬心猿】 Clamorous demands of passion (Takenobu's Japanese–English Dictionary, Takenobu 1918)
• 【意馬心猿】 overmastering passion (A Standard Japanese–English Dictionary, Takehara 1924)
• 【意馬心猿】Passions hard of control; uncontrollable passions (Saito's Japanese–English Dictionary, Saito 1930)
• 【意馬心猿】Clamorous demands of passion; passions (Kenkyusha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, Takenobu 1931)
• 【意馬心猿】 clamorous demands of passion; passions; wild horses of passions and flighty monkeys of desires (Kenkyusha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, Katsumata 1954)
• 【意馬心猿】 uncontrollable passions (The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, Nelson 1974)
• 【意馬心猿】 clamorous demands of passion; (uncontrollable) passions (Kenkyusha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, Masuda 1974)
• 【意馬心猿】 (uncontrollable) passions (Japanese Character Dictionary, Spahn and Hadamitzky 1989)
• 【意馬心猿】 the clamorous demands of passion; (uncontrollable) passions (Kenkyusha's New Japanese–English Dictionary, Watanabe 2003)

All 9 Japanese–English dictionaries mention "passion" or "passions." Note how Saito's "uncontrollable passions" first appeared in 1930 and was copied into 6 other dictionaries. The 5 editions of Kenkyūsha's New Japanese–English Dictionary illustrate lexicographical modifications. Editors copied the "clamorous demands of passion" phrase from the 1st edition (Takenobu's … 1918) into all the subsequent versions. The 2nd (1931) first added "uncontrollable" to "passions," which was copied in later editions. The 3rd edition (1954) included a literal translation "wild horses of passions and flighty monkeys of desires", but this was omitted from the 4th (1974) and 5th (2003, which added the definite article "the").