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How to understand "请勿复敢见矣" in 《孟子·公孙丑下》:

孟子去齐,宿于昼。有欲为王留行者,坐而言。不应,隐几而卧。客不悦曰:“弟子齐宿而后敢言,夫子卧而不听,请勿复敢见矣。”

曰:“坐!我明语子。昔者鲁缪公无人乎子思之侧,则不能安子思;泄柳、申详,无人乎缪公之侧,则不能安其身。子为长者虑,而不及子思,子绝长者乎?长者绝子乎?”

Someone translates "请勿复敢见矣" to "I do not dare to ask for meeting you anymore". It makes sense to me, but I don't get why it can be expressed in this way.

I think "请勿" means "please stop doing/ please do not", and "复敢见" is "dare to meet again". Therefore the natural interpretation would be "Please don't dare to meet again". I know it sounds very odd, so I am wondering what I have missed here?

2 Answers 2

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in classical chinese, "i" is rarely used. it's replaced by other character / word.

請勿復敢見矣 is "I do not dare to ask for meeting you anymore" (imo, this translation is a very good one)

請 - replaced "i"

勿 - do not

復 - anymore

敢 - dare to

見 - ask for meeting you

in the same sentence, 弟子齊宿而後敢言 is roughly:

i used to respect (you, mr 孟), therefore i dare to persuade

弟子 - literally "disciple", it replaced "i"

齊宿 - in 漢 dynasty, it was interpreted as "used to respect"¹

而後 - therefore

敢言 - dare to persuade

no "i", get it?

¹齊﹒敬也﹒宿﹒素也:

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This is from baidu, in more modern Chinese.

https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/139017464.html

客人很不高兴地说:“我是先一天斋戒沭浴后才敢跟您说话,先生睡卧而不听,今后再也不敢请求见您了。”

They put '请勿复敢见矣' as ',今后再也不敢请求见您了'

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  • "齊宿" translated as "先一天齋戒沐浴"? this baidu is xxx. btw, it should be "沐", not "沭". Nov 27, 2016 at 3:04
  • Good thing it is not my translation then! There must be a reliable source for Modern Chinese versions of these Old Chinese texts. Do you know one?
    – Gangosa
    Nov 27, 2016 at 4:13
  • modern chinese version? sorry lah, no. Nov 27, 2016 at 4:23

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