悟 is the plain word for awakening, the coming-to-understand the Zen records set against delusion. Blyth carries it through his prose as the untranslated Japanese sound “satori”, the enlightenment-word left in Japanese where the dictionary attests it in English.
The confrontation
The dictionary's band
Attested band verbatim from the dictionary entry 悟
- awakening
- to awaken
- to realize
Entry Explanation (verbatim)
Awakening is the coming-to-understand that Zen records contrast with delusion and test by what changes in the awakened person's words and conduct.
Blyth knew better
Corroboration: the band is the entry's own, the word stays Japanese
The dictionary attests 悟 in English, awakening, to awaken, to realize, and the compounds carry the same reading, 大徹大悟 and 悟道 both englished as awakening. The sense is fully available to Blyth, who writes of enlightenment freely; what he does not do is render the word. He carries 悟 as the Japanese “satori” through the volume's prose, so the pivot-word of the whole tradition reaches the English reader as a Japanese term of art rather than the English one the dictionary attests.
The literal reading
悟 is the ordinary graph for waking up to how things are, the turn the records set against 迷, delusion. The Platform Sutra states it at the hinge of Huineng's story: 迷時師度，悟了自度, when deluded the master delivers you, once awakened you deliver yourself. The dictionary attests the word in English, awakening, and its compounds read the same way. It is a common verb, not a proper noun.
The alteration
Blyth does not mistranslate 悟; he declines to translate it. Throughout the history he keeps the awakening-word as the Japanese “satori,” a sound rather than the English the dictionary attests. Because 悟 is a Chinese graph with an attested English reading, the untranslated transliteration falls outside the band, the same move as “Mu” for 無 and “Kwatz!” for 喝. The cost is quiet but real: a reader learns to treat awakening as a special Japanese state, “satori,” set apart from the plain English coming-to-understand that the Chinese word actually names. The word that the whole book turns toward is the one word the book leaves in another language.