Divinity and the Void in Chinese and Thai Translations of the Ainulindalë

Authors

Eric Reinders, Emory UniversityFollow

Abstract

This article treats Chinese and Thai translations of the opening lines of the Ainulinalë, not to evaluate their fidelity to the original, but to explore the surplus meanings inherent in those languages. From a close reading of the first line emerge several new variations, including a new reading of the name Eru in Chinese, and a changed linguistic register of the Thai version. In each case there is some attempt to resolve the paradox of Eru as primal deity and Tolkien’s use of lower-case “he”—which one would expect to be “He.” Lacking capital letters, the Chinese and Thai translators use lexical solutions to the typographic problem. The second half of the paper deals with Buddhist and Daoist meanings of terms used to translate Void, void (as noun) and void (as adjective).

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