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Mandarin Translation help | ||
Tags: Translation | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5145 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 1 of 7 16 October 2010 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Hi
I'd really appreciate some help from Mandarin speakers. I've recently been learning the song - Beijing welcomes you, from the 2008 olympics and there are some parts I just can't quite get. I don't understand how certain parts were translated in the way they were. So here are the lines I have problems with, I've put in capital letters the words that are confusing for me either in terms of translation or meaning. In some cases I understand every word in the sentence but it doesn't help my understanding of the meaning or translation. Please help me if you can?? Line 2 - 气息改变情味不变，茶香飘满情谊。刘欢 With the fragrance of tea, it smells different. But it feels great, full of friendship. Qi xi GAI BIAN QING WEI BU BIAN, cha xiang tiao man qing yi. Line 4 - 拥抱过就有了默契，你就会爱上这里。孙燕姿 -Stefanie Sun After a big hug, you'll feel close with us. And surely you will love this place. Yong bao guo jiu YOU LE MO QI, ni jiu hui ai shang zhe li. Line 7 - 我家种着万年青，开放每段传奇。韩红 We cultivate CHINESE EVER GREEN IN THE GARDEN. All the time, it is producing a new legend. Wo jia zhong ZHE WAN NIAN QING, kai fang mei duan chuan qi. Line 12 - 流动中的魅力，充满着朝气。任贤齐-Richie Ren Its charm in ever changing is full of life. Liu dong zhong de mei li, chong man zhe chao qi. Line 16 - 岁月绽放青春笑容，迎接这个日期。韦唯 5000-year-old CHINA is flashing a youthful smile, waiting for the day. Sui yue zhan fang qing chun xiao rong, ying jie zhe ge ri qi. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Cetacea Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie United States booh.com Joined 5120 days ago 80 posts - 163 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Arabic (Yemeni), Arabic (Written) Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 17 October 2010 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Poems are especially hard to translate. Even native speakers need some hints to understand the symbolic meanings. My Chinese is not that great, but I'll give it a try. Others please feel free to correct me.
The literal translation would be: The atmosphere (air or smell) changes but the essence (feeling) doesn't change, the fragrance of tea floats in the air, full of friendship. A more poetic translation would be: the fragrance of the tea fills the air and carries the friendship.
YOU LE MO QI - there is silent mutual understanding
The first half of the sentence means "we have evergreen tree planted in our house(garden). Wan Nian Qing is the Chinese name for any type of evergreen with longivity, and the phrase literally means a tree that stays green for ten thousand years. Think bristlecone pine.
My best guess: the ever changing charm is full of life.
China is not mentioned here, but is implied. It's very common in a Chinese poem to omit the subject if it is known, and start the verse with verbs or adjectives describing the omitted subject. Edited by Cetacea on 17 October 2010 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5145 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 3 of 7 17 October 2010 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Thanks for your help Cetacea, I appreciate it and hopefully I get it now.
Quote: Line 12 - 流动中的魅力，充满着朝气。任贤齐-Richie Ren Its charm in ever changing is full of life. Liu dong zhong de mei li, chong man zhe chao qi. Where is the question? Sorry I meant that I don't really understand the translation of line 12 at all, only some words. Doesn't help that the English isn't correct. So would you say then that this is quite a poetic song? Is the language modern? Thanks again Steve 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5145 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 4 of 7 17 October 2010 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Oh, and do you or does anybody else have any suggestions for good Chinese songs that use modern vocabulary and are not too complicated?
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| Cetacea Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie United States booh.com Joined 5120 days ago 80 posts - 163 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Arabic (Yemeni), Arabic (Written) Studies: French | Message 5 of 7 17 October 2010 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
My best guess: the ever changing charm is full of life.
The language is modern, but it's quite poetic.
Personally I'm not convinced that songs are the best way to learn a language for a number of reasons - background music making it hard to hear the words clearly, poetic language not being used in daily conversations, etc. But if music is what gets you interested, why not. Here are some songs I found on YouTube: 1.Gan Lan Shu - The lyrics were written by a late Taiwanese writer San Mao using modern and easy to understand language. The first half of the song has vocal only, and the singer's Mandarin is VERY good without the usual southern accent. By the way, if you are looking for something easy to read, I highly recommend San Mao's short stories. Here is another version with subtitles. The lyrics in simplified Chinese: 不要问我从那里来, 我的故乡在远方 为什么流浪, 流浪远方, 流浪 为了天空飞翔的小鸟, 为了山间轻流的小溪, 为了宽阔的草原, 流浪远方流浪 还有, 还有, 为了梦中的橄榄树, 橄榄树 不要问我从那里来, 我的故乡在远方 为什么流浪, 为什么流浪远方 为了我梦中的橄榄树 2. Here is the soundtrack of Red Dust written in modern but poetic language that is quite hard to understand even for native speakers without seeing the movie. 起初不经意的你, 和少年不经世的我 红尘中的情缘, 只因那生命匆匆不语的胶着 想是人世间的错, 或前世流传的因果 终生的所有, 也不惜获取刹那阴阳的交流 来易来 去难去 数十载的人世游 分易分 聚难聚 爱与恨的千古愁 本应属于你的心 它依然护紧我胸口 为只为那尘世转变的面孔后的翻云覆雨手 于是不愿走的你 要告别已不见的我 至今世间仍有隐约的耳语 跟随我俩的传说 滚滚红尘里有隐约的耳语 跟随我俩的传说 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5145 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 6 of 7 18 October 2010 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Thanks for all the tips Cetacea.
I don't usually use songs so much for learning languages but with Mandarin the language doesn't feel alive in me because of a lack of interaction with natives, so in this case songs help to make the language come to life a bit more for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6378 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 7 of 7 19 October 2010 at 6:41am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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There was a thread on this not too long ago: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=22860&PN=1
The dangerous part of learning Mandarin from music is that music doesn't take the tones into account. Thus, it could be bad for your tones unless you've already got them down. Use responsibly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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