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Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Raining cats and dogs

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Word of the Buddha (Part 1) | Ajahn Brahm | 27 November 2016

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

And a good example of that is when people who come to Australia and English is not their first language where they have to try and translate things like it was raining cats and dogs and if they translate that word by word into their original home language they start laughing because of course to rain means to come down from the sky and it never happen that a cat and dog has fallen from the sky from a tree may be but not from the sky and if you do translate word for word you actually miss a lot of the meaning of what was meant to be conveyed

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 10:41 (to 11:23)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Translate 'raining cats and dogs' word for word, and people picture animals falling from the sky. Ajahn Brahm uses it to explain why he translates the Buddha's words phrase by phrase, so their meaning comes alive. Clinging to the letter can lose the heart. Listen for what is really meant.

In brief (our summary)

People whose first language is not English, translating 'it was raining cats and dogs' word for word into their home language, laugh because cats and dogs do not fall from the sky — showing why translating the suttas word-for-word misses the meaning.

Teaching point

Translate phrases and sentences, not isolated words, or the meaning is lost.

When this story may help

  • studying teachings
  • cross-cultural misunderstanding

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Word of the Buddha (Part 1) | Ajahn Brahm | 27 November 2016 · 2016-11-27 · ▶ watch from 10:41 to 11:23 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: Manual (volunteer) captions; occasional misspellings kept as is.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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