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sid_guardian2019-04-21 10:44 pm
mecurtin) wrote in sid_guardian2019-04-21 10:44 pm
Entry tags:
Translating chengyu idioms
There is a scene where Zhao Yunlan says:
感恩戴德?
三跪九叩?
which are 2 classical Chinese idioms, chengyu.
solo's current translation:
Be indebted to you?
Kneel and kowtow?
- which is accurate, but doesn't convey the *flavor*. I don't know if anything could, in English: ZYL is using elevated, elegant language (sarcastically), quoting the classics as a scholar-gentleman would. Quoting Shakespeare is too dramatic, the King James Version too religious.
Or we could use solo's translations, and put a note up above, like "Quoting" or "Quoting Romance of the Three Kingdoms"?
Chengyu have got to be an ongoing headache in Chinese translation; what kinds of solutions do other translators use?
感恩戴德?
三跪九叩?
which are 2 classical Chinese idioms, chengyu.
solo's current translation:Be indebted to you?
Kneel and kowtow?
- which is accurate, but doesn't convey the *flavor*. I don't know if anything could, in English: ZYL is using elevated, elegant language (sarcastically), quoting the classics as a scholar-gentleman would. Quoting Shakespeare is too dramatic, the King James Version too religious.
Or we could use solo's translations, and put a note up above, like "Quoting" or "Quoting Romance of the Three Kingdoms"?
Chengyu have got to be an ongoing headache in Chinese translation; what kinds of solutions do other translators use?