Laozi on the inaction of Translation

      Professor Robinson first introduced several Taoist translation scholars, stressing their research fruit. Dinda L. Gorlée is a German translation scholar, who applied the semiotic thought of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) to the study of translation. Ritva Hartama-Heinonen is Dinda L. Gorlée student, and she dealt centrally with (and developed) Gorlée’s “abductive” theory of semiotranslation. She is known as the premier semiotic theorist of translation in Finland today, and one of the few in the world. Robinson also introduced his book Becoming a Translator. He mentioned the "syllogism" of becoming a translator:

      1.Intuition

      2.Experience (including three parts: the abduction, induction and deduction)

      3.Habit.

      Professor Robinson showed two charts of the details of the syllogism.The content was well organized, clear and concise. In three stages, a translator needs to guess, find background knowledge, check translations, get familiar with expertise in related fields, and ultimately doing translation will become his habit(similar to the inaction of Taoism).Till then the translation speed and quality will be greatly improved, and translators will fully enjoy the pleasure brought by doing translation.

      Robinson then talked about the comments of other scholars on his work. At last, he talked about "Laozi on Habit".

      Robinson’s amicable personality and profound knowledge of translation were much admired by the teaching stuff and students. After the lecture, Professor Robinson patiently answered the students' questions and took photos with students.