Quote:
Hugh Beyer wrote:
Anybody got opinions about where to go to find more reliable translations of O-Sensei's stuff?
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I think you will find that Prof Stevens has pretty well cornered the market. Apart from translations made by Stan Pranin for
Aiki News /
Aikido Journal, and the Bieris for the bilingual edition of
Budo Renshu, there is nothing else (in English, that is: there might well be translations in French and German).
Thus, if there are any who are dissatisfied with the translations of Prof Stevens, they have little choice but to do the spadework themselves and make their own, as I believe your own teacher has done, and as I have done for my own
Aikiweb columns.
Anyway, the Japanese text of the passage quoted by Joe Curran in an earlier post (#52) has never been published. So, in accordance with Chris Li's suggestion in Post #55, here is the text, transcribed exactly as it appears on Page 9 of the 『武道 』 manual (the only difference being that my computer's dictionary, and Jun's too, does not include the older ways of writing some Chinese characters):
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第二 準 備 動 作
（一）構
氣勢ニヲ充實シ足ヲ六方ニ開キ半身入身合氣ノ姿勢ヲ以テ敵ニ對ス（第一圖）
總テ構ハ時、位置、土地ノ高低、其ノ時ノ勢等ニ因リ惟神ニ起ルモノニシテ常ニ構ハ心ニアルモノトス
足ノ踏ミ方ニハ外六方、内六方及外巴、内巴アリ練習ノ際ニ傅授ス
注意
練習ノ際シテハ敵ノ構、敵トノ間合ヲ考ヘ左或ハ右ノ構ヲ用フ動作ノ終リシ時兩足ハ常ニ六方ニ開キアル如ク練磨スル要ス
敵ニ正對スルハ隙多キヲ以テ不利トス
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The translation by Prof Stevens appears on p. 39, as Mr Curran has stated, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned the commentary on the
Budo manual published by Stan Pranin. The discussion of the Japanese text quoted above occurs on pp. 34 and 35 and includes another photograph of Morihei Ueshiba.