An Annotated Translation
This book presents a previously unpublished historical translation of a Naxi manuscript by a Dutch missionary translator, alongside an ambitious new annotated translation providing near-unprecedented detail and information about the world’s last surviving “pictographic” script: Naxi dongba.
1.This is the most comprehensive translation of a Naxi text in English to appear for over half a century. By presenting a historically important translation manuscript for both the history of missionary translation in China and for Dutch sinology, this book allows modern audiences a chance to access the unique, semi-oral ritual tradition of the Naxi via detailed annotations. 2. The Naxi source manuscript, presented in high quality images, will be complemented by digital reconstructions of each section of the text, with each graph numbered to allow readers a fuller understanding of how such semi-oral texts are read, making it the first reader of the Naxi script to be produced in English. 3. Back-translation and comparative research has allowed for the recreation of an approximation of the original early twentieth century reading given to the original translator Elise Scharten by a Naxi ritual specialist.