I finished lunch, hurried to the teachers’ office in the Boys School, and prepared to begin teaching the AP-Chinese class. Suddenly a dark-skinned man, in his thirties, appeared in front of me. He asked me very politely, “Could you...please...help me translate these few sentences?” and handed me a piece of paper. I was in haste and answered, “...Sorry, not now, how about giving me one or two days?” (hinting that I could help him after I finished my teaching).
When the class was over, he was out of sight, and could not be found. I told myself, “You were not in a hurry, why bother to hurry?” I brought the piece of paper the dark-skinned man had given me into the Tathagata Monastery and laid it aside.
After I finished a whole day's monastic schedule and retired into my quarters, I opened the paper, read it, and thought, "My goodness, just three sentences?! That being the case, I could have done it much earlier rather than waiting this late into the night. If you were here, I could give you the translation in five minutes."
I finished the translation and started to savor these three sentences, “Mmm, very meaningful, axiom-like, and pithy...” I asked myself, “Isn’t it the case that all these three sentences reflect the same principles as our cultivation? I can even use the three sentences in teaching my students.”
What are these sentences? They are as follows:
1) Focus is the discipline of deep concentration to achieve a clear understanding
of a fixed subject.
2) Discipline is something you practice over and over and over.
3) As the twig bends, the tree inclines.
It was on Monday that this layperson approached me and it wasn’t until Thursday that he reappeared in the Great Dining Hall. I gave him the translation while he was eating and hurried to my Chinese class, in the same manner as I did on Monday, without having a chance to sit down to have a chat with him.
Later I heard from the Dharma Master that he is from a Caribbean country called Trinidad and Tobago. He had been to Taiwan and had hence developed a sincere interest in Chinese culture and Buddhism. This time he and his wife brought their four year-old son to see our schools because he was thinking of sending the son to attend our schools once he meets the age requirement. He, himself, is a martial art coach, and had some catchphrases or adages written on the outside wall of his martial art stadium.
Since he loves learning Chinese and also has some Chinese-speaking students, he had been thinking about putting these sentences into Chinese so as to have a more powerful impact on these students. So, there he was, and when he approached me, he must have thought, “Today I am going to catch someone, and ask him to help me translate these sentences.” By sheer coincidence, I was caught.
It seems I only had a nodding acquaintance with him, but his three sentences gave me a slight jolt too: I must discipline myself and be vigilant.
As far as the translation is concerned, I am just “casting out a brick” in order to “draw forth a jade.” Hopefully those greatly virtuous ones can help me improve the translation.
p.s.I am not actually 100% satisfied with the translation of the first sentence, yet at the present time, I cannot find a better one.
那位居士是星期一來問我，直到星期四他才在大齋堂出現；我將中文翻譯呈給正忙於吃飯的他，然後又是匆匆忙忙地上課去了。