docs+skills: preserve speaker's voice (语气), not just tone
Reviewer feedback: translations must carry Master Jiqun's 语气, not only register. Add a 'Speaker's Voice (语气)' section to mpi-translation and expand check D3 in mpi-translation-review. Also note the idea of distilling his way of talk into a dedicated skill (docs/idea-jiqun-voice-skill.md).
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@@ -41,6 +41,40 @@ Quick-find in index: Thầy talks → `"Thích Nhất Hạnh"` + page ≤ 10; te
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4. **Voice**: Direct address ("you"), concrete images, and oral rhythm make Dharma land in English. Abstract noun chains (common in Chinese→English translationese) kill it.
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5. **Sutra quotes**: Use standard English Buddhist idiom. Check terse-idiom conventions (e.g., Diamond Sutra "lives" not "bodies").
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## Speaker's Voice (语气)
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Tone (register, formality) is not enough — preserve the speaker's 语气: the
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stance and manner carried by sentence mood. Reviewers have flagged translations
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that got the tone right but flattened the teacher's voice. 语气 lives in:
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- **Sentence mood.** Rhetorical questions stay questions ("幸福在哪里?" →
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"Where is happiness?", not "Happiness is nowhere to be found.").
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Exclamations and wonder stay exclamatory. Do not convert the speaker's
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questioning into declarations.
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- **First-person teacher asides.** 济群法师 often speaks in his own voice:
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"我经常说……", "我曾在讲座中多次谈到……", "由此我想到……". Keep the
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first person — do not flatten to "it is often said" or impersonal prose.
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These asides are how he establishes presence with the audience.
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- **Reasoning connectives.** His talks argue step by step: 可见, 所以说,
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事实上, 问题在于. Render the logical gait ("So it is clear that…", "That
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is why…", "In fact…") rather than dropping it — the reasoned,
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unhurried persuasion IS his voice.
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- **Inclusive address.** Default "we" for shared human condition, "you" when
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he turns to the listener. Do not drift into abstract third person ("one",
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"people") where the source speaks as teacher-to-audience.
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- **Everyday analogies, plainly told.** Rotting apples, leaking boats,
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teacups, face masks — keep the homely image concrete and unvarnished;
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do not upgrade it to literary language or explain it away.
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- **Gentle admonition, never scolding.** He points out folly with warmth and
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a little humor (the "有点烦" pop song, Mo Yan's dodge). Keep the lightness;
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avoid both sermonizing severity and jokey casualness.
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- **Measured authority.** Calm, composed, unhurried. No hype, no exclamation-
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point enthusiasm, no academic hedging ("arguably", "it could be said").
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Check: read a paragraph aloud as if delivering a talk to a lay audience. If it
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sounds like an essay, a lecture abstract, or a motivational speaker, the 语气
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has been lost.
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## Pitfalls
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### Pre-flight accuracy check
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