#1 英语的“食色，性也”以及“白马非马”
回国后做了海蛇（“蛇”在粤语里表示懒，散漫的意思），无所事事之余，只好泡书。离家去广州图书馆的路程，于我来讲，有上这车，下那车之遥，所以每跑一趟，故意找些“诸子”或“斯基”较为耐读一点的文字，只为图个清心过日子。
哈！在广图外文部，竟然有本“Mencius”。自问也是算个孔孟之徒，幸亏没读作“门修斯”。急忙翻到那一页求解，Appetite for food and sex is nature。
书的作者是D. C. Lau，Penguin Classics出版，非泛泛之作。读书后，做了一点googling，才知道作者是刘殿爵，香港中文大学终身教授，曾任国语文学系主任多年。早在50年代，刘老先生已是英国伦敦大学亚非研究院的中国哲学教授。
不过，Appetite for food and sex is nature在感觉上太过直白，欠缺古韵。为求多一点信雅达，找到了另一个名字，Bryan W. Van Norden，为纽约瓦萨学院（Vassar College）东亚系哲学系教授，正Caucasian是也。从网上资料所知，不少国学典籍的英译都是出自于此公的手笔，或由经他审核。
通过他的网页，读到了他另一篇《白马论》中的“白马非马”英译文字：
Can it be that a white horse is not a horse?（白马非马，可乎？）
Advocate: It can.（赞同者：可）
Objector: How?（反对者：何哉？）
Advocate: "Horse" is that by means of which one names the shape. "White" is that by means of which one names the color. What names the color is not what names the shape. Hence, I say that a white horse is not a horse.（赞同者：马者，所以命形也。白者，所以命色也。命色者，非命形也，故曰白马非马。）
Objector: If there are white horses, one cannot say that there are no horses. If one cannot say that there are no horses, doesn't that mean that there are horses? For there to be white horses is for there to be horses. How could it be that the white ones are not horses?（反对者：有白马，不可谓无马也。不可谓无马者，非马也？有白马为有马，白之非马，何也？）
Advocate: If one wants a horse, that extends to a yellow or black horse. But if one wants a white horse, that does not extend to a yellow or black horse. Suppose that a white horse were a horse. Then what one wants [in the two cases] would be the same. If what one wants were the same, then a white [horse] would not differ from a horse. If what one wants does not differ, then how is it that a yellow or black horse is sometimes acceptable and sometimes unacceptable? It is clear that acceptable and unacceptable are mutually contrary. Hence, yellow and black horses are the same [in that, if there are yellow or black horses], one can respond that there are horses, but one cannot respond that there are white horses. Thus, it is evident that a white horse is not a horse. （赞同者：求马，黄、黑马皆可致。求白马，黄、黑马不可致。使白马乃马也，是所求一也，所求一者，白者不异马也。所求不异，如黄、黑马有可有不可，何也？可与不可其相非明。故黄、黑马一也，而可以应有马，而不可以应有白马，是白马之非马审矣。）
“白马非马”是战国时代的一个故事。说的是赵国食客公孙龙骑着一匹白马到秦国去，时因赵国马瘟虐肆，秦国封关防疫。到了函谷关，秦国官吏不许。于是，公孙龙就提出了“白马非马”命题，凭着三寸不烂之舌，一番雄辩把守关的弄得瞠目结舌，无法解答。最终，还是让公孙龙和那匹“非马”混过了关。
读完了Mencius，仍然不解疑问：“食色，性也”就是Appetite for food and sex is nature那么简单？诸位，有何高见？请赐教。
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