Here’s a site with speeches from various conventions & conferences translated to Chinese and other languages by volunteers, a sample one, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/chi_hans/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html Under About this talk, on the right, click on Open interactive transcript to see the speech in Chinese. Click on any part of the speech to hear it in English, pretty neat!
Speech Translations
November 19, 2009 at 12:28 pm (Language, Translation, commercial, culture, learning)
Weekly Quota
September 24, 2009 at 12:24 pm (Translation)
The librarians wrote back, their answers are as I expected, there’s no readings for work-in-progress and these events are usually held for authors and not translators. Guess it’s not a priority, need to finish more of the book right now. I need to do 1 & 1/2 page per week to finish on time, gulp.
Library book reading
September 8, 2009 at 11:13 am (Translation)
Tags: book, promotion, wip
I wrote to the librarian online about reading my book-in-progress, not sure if anything not published will get such opportunies, we’ll see.
Translation in Progress
September 3, 2009 at 3:21 pm (Translation)
Bit by bit, am getting closer to my goal of finishing the novel. Now I’m up to Chapter 14. Gotta remember “It’s a marathon, not a race.”
Which Poem Translation is Better?
August 18, 2009 at 5:14 pm (Translation)
Tags: Poem Translation
a fun post from a forum… Each version is accurate, style is definitely the defining factor here. Classical or whimsical, you pick.
原文：
A king sat on the rocky brow
Which looks on sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
And men in nations;—all were his!
He counted them at break of day—
And when the sun set, where were they?
——Byron: The Isles of Greece
苏曼殊译作：
名王踞岩石，
雄视萨拉滨。
船师列千艘，
率土皆其民。
晨朝大点兵，
至暮无复存。
——拜伦《哀希腊》
胡适译作：
彼高崖何巉岩兮，
俯视萨拉米之滨；
有名王尝踞坐其巅兮，
临大海而点兵。
千樯兮照海，
列舰兮百里。
朝点兵兮，何纷纷兮，
日之入兮，无复存兮！
——拜伦《哀希腊》
查良铮译作：
一个国王高高坐在石山顶，
了望着萨拉密挺立于海外；
千万只船舶在山下靠停，
还有多少队伍全由他统率！
他在天亮时把他们数了数，
但日落的时候他们都在何处？
网友译作：
一个国王站崖上，
看着萨拉米海旁；
战舰士兵列成行，
早上点名晚死光。
强大的google版:
国王坐在岩石额头
看起来海上出生的萨拉米斯;
和船舶，由成千上万，奠定下文
和男子在联合国; —都是他的！
他计算了他们在休息的一天—
当太阳，在那里他们？
Forgive “恕”
May 31, 2009 at 6:38 pm (Language, Translation, learning, musings)
Tags: chinese
A thought-provoking essay on what forgiving really means: In Chinese, the word forgive is made of two characters meaning “as ” or “such as” and “heart.” Maybe to forgive someone, we really gotta look into our heart.
Good Translation on WWD’s Chinese Edition
May 19, 2009 at 5:08 pm (Language, Translation, commercial, learning)
Tags: Translation
I really like how easy it is to switch between the English and Chinese versions, what a great way to learn translation and both languages. Check it out.
The article below wasn’t able to use the title pun from the English version in Chinese, which works out in the end, imho forced puns are better left out.
穿上 Lim 的服装外出：Phillip Lim 推出三款产品
Phillip Lim 充满乐观。他说，“我们并不担心经济状况。虽然一切并非完美无暇，但在这些时候已经做到了尽可能的完美。”
Lim 的积极态度得到了一些强劲数字的支持。据 Lim 介绍，2008 年的批发总额超过 4,000 万美元，预计 2009 年将在此基础上增长 15%。
与此同时，今年秋季的亚洲销售较 2008 年秋季增长 40%，欧洲则增长了 110%。仅在意大利，这一系列就新增了 32 家零售客户。
Out on a Lim: Phillip Lim’s Three Product Launches
Phillip Lim is optimistic. “We’re not fearful of the economy,” he says. “Not everything is perfect, but in these times, it’s as perfect as it can be.”
Some strong numbers back up Lim’s positive attitude. Wholesale figures for 2008 totaled more than $40 million, according to Lim, with projections for 2009 upping that by 15 percent.
Meanwhile, sales in Asia grew by 40 percent this fall over fall 2008, and in Europe, 110 percent. In Italy alone, the line picked up 32 new retail accounts.
Source: http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/out-on-a-lim-phillip-lims-three-product-launches-2132774
New Literature in Translation: Five Spice Street
April 14, 2009 at 1:40 pm (Language, Translation, literature)
Zeping Chen’s translation of Can Xue’s Five Spice Street just came out, can’t wait to get it!
Five Spice Street cover
Why do readers think writers have to be beautiful too?
April 11, 2009 at 9:42 pm (Language, culture, literature, musings)
A popular thread on Tianya (China’s biggest intenet forum) reveals what some supposedly beautiful writers really look like. Many commenters claim to be totally disillusioned and disappointed.
In a related note, does beauty grarantee happiness? Many people seem to assume that if a woman was attractive, she wouldn’t be left alone long enough to gain the necessary focus for her writing. Therefore, an unattractive woman would be so miserable and alone that she can channel her bitterness into brillant words?
One comment that caught my eye:
“这也是好事。写作某种程度上是慢性自杀，能拥有尘世幸福的话，大部分人是不愿意受那份罪的。这也许也是不少人成名之后，创作力就式微了的原因吧。”
Translated:
“This might be a good thing. Writing is a form of extended suicide in a way, so if someone could be happy in life, most wouldn’t want to suffer to write instead. This may be why many writers lose their creative genius after gaining fame.”
A bit morbid perhaps? Also somewhat true. Writing is a kind of extraction of life. When you’re enjoying a good life where every desire is fulfilled, the lack of yearning takes away some of the longing necessary for distilling good writing.
Language Needs to Change to Survive
March 22, 2009 at 11:04 am (Translation)
Tags: change, chinese, classic, Language, Tokharoi, tradition, Translation
Online Chinese has evolved a lot in the last few years, some might even say the language has “degraded” due to people’s tendency to abbreviate and modify for convenience and clever puns. I know I often get frustrated at how much the impeccable and classical style of traditional Chinese has been simplified to suit the online world’s need for speed and teenagers’ text-messaging temperaments.
Yesterday, while reading the memoir by highly-admired translation scholar Ji Xianlin (季羡林), I had a change of heart. He wrote of learning Tokharoi (吐火罗语) from an aging mentor, and what a honor it was, as the language was only known to a few people even back then. Mr. Ji is now 99 years old, should he pass away, would the language be lost along with him?
I had to google the name to even know which continent Tokharoi was from. Saddened by how Wikipedia calls it “extinct,” I’m reminded of how it’s much better to have a language that changes (however horrifyingly to language conservationists) and thrives, than to have a language fall into beautiful but frozen obscurity.
