法華玄贊義決 1.78

1.78

品有無中云五失三不易者，彌天釋道安云：譯胡為秦有五失本、三不易也。一者梵言盡倒（有云書倒，更勘），而使從秦，一失本也。二者梵經尚質，秦人好文，傳可眾心非文不合，二失本也。三者梵文委悉，至於歎詠丁寧反覆或四不嫌其煩，而今裁斥，三失本也。四者梵有義說只似亂辭，尋說向語亦無以異，或一千或五百刊而不存，四失本也。五者事已合成，將更傍及反勝前辭，已乃後說而悉除此，五失本也。然智逕三達之心覆面所演，聖必因時，時俗有異，而刪雅古以適於今，一不易也。愚智天隔，聖人叵階，乃欲以千代之上微言，傳使合百王之下末俗，二不易也。阿難出經去佛未遠，尊者大迦葉令五百六通迭察迭書，今離千年而近意量截，彼阿羅漢乃兢兢若此，此生死人而平平若是，豈將不知法者之猛乎？斯三不易也。涉茲五失、逕三不易，譯梵為秦，詎可不慎乎？

Regarding the presence or absence of chapters, what is said to be the five losses and three difficulties refers to what Shi Dao'an, [whose fame] filled heaven, said: "In translating from the barbarian language into Chinese, there are five losses of the original and three difficulties. First, Indic syntax is completely inverted (some say 'the writing is inverted'; inspect further), and making it conform to Chinese is the first loss of the original. Second, Indic sūtras prize unadorned simplicity, while the people of Qin favor literary embellishment; to transmit it so that it suits the minds of the multitude cannot be achieved without literary embellishment; this is the second loss of the original. Third, Indic texts are exhaustively detailed; when it comes to eulogizing and praising, they are earnest and repetitious, three or four times, not minding the prolixity; now they are pruned and expunged; this is the third loss of the original. Fourth, in Indic [texts] there are explanatory elaborations that merely resemble disordered speech; on examining what is expounded and the previous words, there is nothing different; whether a thousand or five hundred [words], they are excised and not retained; this is the fourth loss of the original. Fifth, when a matter is already completed, [the text] turns to address adjacent matters, which in turn surpasses the preceding words; having done so, it expounds it afterward, yet all this is eliminated; this is the fifth loss of the original. However, the mind whose wisdom passes through the three penetrations was expounded by the one whose tongue covered his face; the sage necessarily accommodates the times, yet the customs of the times differ; to prune the elegant and ancient to adapt to the present is the first difficulty. The foolish and the wise are separated by heaven; the sage cannot be scaled; yet wishing to transmit the subtle words from above a thousand generations to match the latter-day customs below a hundred kings is the second difficulty. When Ānanda brought forth the sūtras, he was not far removed from the Buddha; the Venerable Mahākāśyapa had five hundred [arhats] with the six supernormal powers examine and write them down by turns; now, separated by a thousand years, we measure and excise them with recent opinions; those arhats were apprehensive like that, yet these men of birth and death are so complacent like this; is this not the recklessness of those who do not know the Dharma? This is the third difficulty." Having traversed these five losses and passed through these three difficulties, in translating Indic into Chinese, how could one not be cautious?