[Excerpt] Four passages from “The Art of Love”

   
Friends who have read the old ver­sion of The Art of Lov­ing are curi­ous about the new trans­la­tion. I have copied a few para­graphs and shared them below:
 
   
The oppo­site of sym­bi­ot­ic union is mature love, which is the union of two beings with anoth­er while pre­serv­ing their own integri­ty and inde­pen­dence, their own indi­vid­u­al­i­ty. Human love is a pos­i­tive force that can break down the walls between peo­ple and unite them. Love can help peo­ple over­come lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion, while at the same time allow­ing them to remain true to them­selves, their integri­ty, and their true nature. In love, the strange phe­nom­e­non of two lives becom­ing one and yet remain­ing two enti­ties emerges. (The Art of Love, Shang­hai Trans­la­tion, 2008, p. 19)
 
   
Cre­ative peo­ple under­stand giv­ing com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent­ly. They believe that giv­ing is the high­est expres­sion of strength. It is pre­cise­ly through giv­ing that I expe­ri­ence my strength, my abun­dance, my vital­i­ty. Expe­ri­enc­ing the height­ened vital­i­ty fills me with joy. I feel vibrant and exhil­a­rat­ed. Giv­ing brings greater joy than receiv­ing, not because giv­ing is a sac­ri­fice, but because giv­ing express­es my vital­i­ty. (The Art of Lov­ing, Shang­hai Trans­la­tion, 2008, p. 21)
 
   
I think the trans­la­tion of “give” and “get” is very clear and clean. In Eng­lish, it should be “give and take”, which is a very basic word with Chris­t­ian inter­est.
The trans­la­tion of “Tree” as “Lov­ing Tree” is always regret­table, and the trans­la­tion of “Ded­i­ca­tion Tree” is too much. Inter­est­ing­ly, the “Shi” in Bud­dhist scrip­tures is sim­ply trans­lat­ed into Eng­lish as “give” or “giv­ing”.
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How­ev­er, the most impor­tant aspect of giv­ing is not mate­r­i­al things, but rather rela­tion­ships between peo­ple. What can a per­son tru­ly give to oth­ers? He can give the most pre­cious thing he pos­sess­es, a part of his life. This does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean sac­ri­fic­ing his life for oth­ers, but rather that he should give oth­ers what is alive with­in him. He should share his joy, inter­ests, under­stand­ing, knowl­edge, humor, and sorrow—in short, every­thing that is alive with­in him. Through giv­ing, he enrich­es oth­ers, and while enhanc­ing his own sense of life, he also enhances the oth­er per­son­’s sense of life. He does not give in order to receive, but through giv­ing, he inevitably awak­ens some­thing alive in the oth­er per­son. There­fore, giv­ing also involves mak­ing the recip­i­ent a giv­er, and both par­ties are filled with joy because of the awak­en­ing of a cer­tain inner life. In the act of giv­ing, some­thing new is born, and both giv­er and receiv­er are grate­ful for this new ener­gy. This is reflect­ed in love: with­out vital­i­ty, there is no abil­i­ty to cre­ate love. (The Art of Lov­ing, Shang­hai Trans­la­tion, 2008 edi­tion, p. 22)
 
   
Any­one who expe­ri­ences lone­li­ness inevitably expe­ri­ences fear. Lone­li­ness is, in fact, the root of every fear. Lone­li­ness means being dis­con­nect­ed from the out­side world, unable to unleash one’s pow­er, feel­ing help­less and unable to grasp the world, things, and peo­ple; it means the world over­whelms me, and I can only let it take its course. There­fore, lone­li­ness is the root of intense fear, and it also evokes feel­ings of shame and guilt. (The Art of Lov­ing, Shang­hai Trans­la­tion, 2008, p. 8)