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David Shen wrote:

Steve,

That sounds like the kind of thing from 浩然's《艳阳天》, lively though.
You are right, impossible in many ways. Jokes become nonsense and exhilarations in one culture seem ludicrous in another.

Back to the 辣妹子 video above, although the accompanying members of the orchestra seem to be working very hard, I think they are much more at ease with Beethoven or Tchaikovsky. They may have to re-tune all the instruments after she finishes, if they are not damaged.

pkchan wrote:

Dave, and Steve, I'm afraid we have to do some re-tuning or fine-tuning, otherwise 周丹，chance, PL, etc and etc will ...... 或做個低頭漢算了。

[Edited at 2007-05-29 15:50]

pkchan wrote:
Dave, and Steve, I'm afraid we have to do some re-tuning or fine-tuning, otherwise 周丹，chance, PL, 阿慶嫂， etc and etc will ...... 或做個低頭漢算了。

[Edited at 2007-05-29 15:57]

wherestip wrote:




Thanks, David. I truly doubt any of us was that serious to start out with, including Yueyin himself. Some things are so culture-specific, that it takes more than a language transform to get the meaning across.

IMHO, there are situations where an attempt of a literal translation would only leave the audience of a different culture going "huh?". There's simply too much cultural background to be conveyed in one or two short sentences without having to resort to footnotes.



[Edited at 2007-05-29 17:09]

David Shen wrote:

So here is another comment for the last picture: The 金花(or金龙) on her T-shirt reminds me of an article I was translating just last month, mentioning bound-feet or 3-inch golden lilies (三寸金莲) and it is such a contrast to the tough girls pictured here. Happy for the freedom Chinese females have gained since my grandma's time, but something that they used to have has been lost when they gained what they have now. I remember trying to buy a suitable pair for my grandma while being a student in Hangzhou and only the 边福茂 Shoe Store still carried those in the late 1970s.

Yueyin Sun wrote:

是"You must pay the prices for the most delicious meals you have” and ”The most delicious meals don’t come cheap”。不懂中国国情的外国人可别以为她们是serial killers。:D 辣妹子当然就是指那些跑到全国各地创业的勤劳、直爽的四川妹子或湖南妹子，外国人也可别以为“辣妹子”就像我们这儿Hooters餐馆具有魔鬼身材的waitresses。要看魔鬼身材，那就上别处去！

wherestip wrote:

Now I understand -- 宰人 must have been a term coined after my time in China to mean to overcharge in a transaction.

wherestip wrote:

Actually, I should have put two and two together. I do remember you guys talking about being charged or being paid 多少多少刀. At the time I thought to myself, "hmm, what a nice way to refer to money"

http://www.proz.com/post/551156#551156

Tingting Huang wrote:

好的餐馆一个月也能近4000刀呢。比翻译来得容易。

Yueyin Sun wrote:

刀 & 仙

I guess the character 刀 Tingting used above means USD.

When I came to the United States on business for the first time in 1980’s, I visited China Town in SFO. In a grocery store, I had hard time to figure out what 仙 meant when I looked at the price tag, e.g., 49 仙/磅. I asked the clerk, "what is 仙?" He said 仙就是‘仙’嘛! I was still puzzled. A few seconds later, I suddenly realized that he was trying to say "仙就是cent嘛!"

wherestip wrote:

I was wondering about the 仙字 when I saw redred's post about fighting over a few 仙

wherestip wrote:

I was wondering about the 仙字 when I saw redred's post about fighting over a few 仙