tell, tale, teller, extant, classic, Pancatantra, Tellers of Tales

英美有這樣的傳統：請名家編選短篇小說。譬如說，1998年A. S. Byatt 編的 The Oxford Book of English Short Stories 等等。
1939年7月3日，胡適在美國買了毛姆 (W. Somerset Maugham)選的【短篇小說百篇】 (Tellers of Tales)。
(【 胡適日記】說是101篇？ 一千五百多頁)。短篇小說是胡先生的舊愛。或許還想再續前緣。
胡先生說，很喜歡毛姆寫的引論。
隔天，7月4日，看了幾篇，以後，可能事忙，就沒讀了。

Canadian Sinologist Timothy Brook discovered Vermeer when he fell off his bicycle in Delft during a university vacation. He paid homage at a slab on the floor of the Old Church, beneath which the painter is supposedly buried; to see the 35 extant paintings, however, he had to travel to galleries dispersed between Berlin and Manhattan.



tale
noun [C]
a story, especially one which might be invented or difficult to believe:
He told some fascinating tales about his life in India.
She told me/invented/concocted a tale about missing the bus to explain her lateness.
A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens' classic Yuletide tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge was first published in England (1843)

The Panchatantra - The Brahmin's Tale is from the oldest extant collection of fables in Sanskrit literature. Dating from the 4th century AD,

Panchatantra or Pancha Tantra

中文翻譯為《五卷書》Pancatantra--是古印度著名的寓言故事集。用梵文寫成，因有5捲而得名。現在流行有各種本子，最早的可能產生於公元前1世紀。流行較廣的本子為12世紀一耆那教和尚所編訂。

1. Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel?

By David Van Biema / New York and Tim McGirk / Jerusalem

A controversial relic suggests that the story of a messiah who died and rose after three days was extant three decades before the birth of Christ.

Definition

extant 
adjective FORMAL
describes something very old that is still existing:
We have some extant parish records from the sixteenth century.

cautionary tale noun [C]
a story which gives a warning:
Her story is a cautionary tale for women travelling alone.
Selling Your Laptop on eBay: A cautionary tale for anyone trying to unload a laptop in an online auction. (James A. Martin)

• fairy tale

"It took me four days to cover ninety miles. There was a road through the forest for the first twenty, but after that I had to travel by rowing boat from isolated farm to farm along the river Pasvik. Endless forest. Huge, dark firs for mile after mile after mile. The river as broad and silent as a lake in a fairy tale. Like a mirror unlooked-in since time began.


So, on that level, it's just a story. And it's not necessary to take the story on some of the more interesting, as you say, "metaphysical," what-is-the-meaning-of-life levels. But it's there, underneath it. You can follow it as a fairy tale. It's almost like Faust.

• folk tale
• old wives' tale
• 
  

tell-tale (PERSON) Show phonetics
noun [C] (US USUALLY tattletale, AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH dobber) DISAPPROVING
a person, especially a child, who secretly tells someone in authority, especially a teacher, that someone else has done something bad, often in order to cause trouble

• live to tell the tale
• tale of woe
• thereby hangs a tale

teller

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English tellere (“one who counts or enumerates; one who recounts or relates; teller”), equivalent to tell (verb) +‎ -er.

tell

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━━ n. 話, 物語; 告げ口, 悪口; うわさ話, うそ; 〔古〕 数; 総数.
tell its own tale　自明である.
tell tales (out of school)　告げ口する, 秘密を言いふらす; うそをつく.
Thereby hangs a tale.　それにはいささかわけがある.
tale・bearer, tale・teller　告げ口屋.
tale・bearing　a., n.
old wives' tale　たわいもない話［考え，迷信］.


classic
adj.

1. 1. Belonging to the highest rank or class.
   2. Serving as the established model or standard: a classic example of colonial architecture.
   3. Having lasting significance or worth; enduring.
2. 1. Adhering or conforming to established standards and principles: a classic piece of research.
   2. Of a well-known type; typical: a classic mistake.
3. Of or characteristic of the literature, art, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome; classical.
4. 1. Formal, refined, and restrained in style.
   2. Simple and harmonious; elegant: the classic cut of a suit; the classic lines of a clipper ship.
5. Having historical or literary associations: classic battlefields of the Civil War.

n.

1. An artist, author, or work generally considered to be of the highest rank or excellence, especially one of enduring significance.
2. A work recognized as definitive in its field.
3. 1. A literary work of ancient Greece or Rome.
   2. classics The languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Used with the.
   3. One that is of the highest rank or class: The car was a classic of automotive design.
4. A typical or traditional example.
5. Informal. A superior or unusual example of its kind: The reason he gave for being late was a classic.
6. A traditional event, especially a major sporting event that is held annually: a golf classic.

IN BRIEF: Having a formal style that is simple, neat, and balanced. Also: Famous because it is typical and has become a tradition.

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. — Italo Calvino.

「凡是對東京歷史有興趣的人，非看美籍日本文學專家Edward Seidensticker寫的《東京．下町．山手》和《東京起來》兩本書不可。但是，書中一句話，叫我這個老東京非常吃驚。老日本通寫道：東京新宿以西是文化沙漠，既看不到傳統日本文化又找不到西方高級文化，除了酒和色以外，就是一無所有。….. Seidensticker的兩本書在一九八三年以及九二年問世。後來，新宿以西建設了西方高級文化之府幾所：例如，新國立劇場、TOKYO OPERA CITY、府中森藝術劇場等。然而，即使在二十年以前，恐怕大部分東京人不肯同意美國日本通的說法，因為自從二十世紀初，東京的文化前衛始終在新宿以西。 ……」

如果你是＜Simon University＞ 的Seidensticker的忠實讀者，而且記性很好，或許知道此「美國人日本通」是日本文學的名翻譯家，尤其以川端康成作品和＜源氏物語＞（The Tale of Genji ）馳名。我們舉過大江先生的諾貝爾獎演講中對於川端康成標題的歧義之處理。

最近google scholar很方便，你想列舉他的作品，彈指間就完成了（希望再幾年也收入「萬國學者作品總匯」，完成全球化大業）。 我這回拜此工具之賜才知道他近年還有一本回憶錄 Tokyo Central: A Memoir (Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press, 2002 ) 和論「翻譯技巧」之文收入J Biguenet, R Schulte 主編的The Craft of Translation (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1989)； 論文Chiefly on translating the genji (The Journal of Japanese Studies)。
前google scholar前兩頁標題大要。

日本：
Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake - E Seidensticker , Charles E. Tuttle, 1991 《東京起來》【hc：《東京新興起：1923年大地震之後再興記》】

Low City, High City: Tokyo From Edo to the Earthquake, 1867-1923 《東京．下町．山手》- E Seidensticke Middlesex, New York: Knopf, 1983 /UK: Penguin, 1985

Japan EG Seidensticker Time-Life, 1968 這本不是台灣翻譯的『早期日本』

Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture -DH Shively, C Blacker - Princeton University Press, 1971

This Country Japan, EG Seidensticker Kodansha, 1984
Showa: The Japan of Hirohito -C Gluck, SR Graubard Norton, 1992
----
日本古典文學：Key Words

源氏物語　　　 The tale of Genji
平安時代　　　 Heian Period
日本文化　　　 The culture of Japan
光源氏　　　 Genji The Shining Prince
紫式部　　　 Lady Murasaki Shikibu
源氏物語の概略　　　Summary of the tale of Genji
http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/genji/homepage.html

The Tale of Genji (Everyman's Library, No.108) Murasaki Shikibu (著), Edward G. Seidensticker (譯))

Genji Days - E Seidensticker New York: Kodansha International, 1983 （翻譯 ＜源氏物語＞日紀感言整理。）

【舉個例，第97頁10月7日周六 整天早上和前午都在翻譯Hotaru…..Yes, the treatment of Genji is distinctly ambiguous, ironical, one might wish to say; and there is an interesting foretaste of Niou. …（foretaste noun [S] 1. 【事】 先嚐,試食;預嚐到的滋味;預示,前兆,徵象）】

The Gossamer Years: A Diary by a Noblewoman of Heian Japan, EG Seidensticker -Tuttle, 1964