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I translate Chinese text into English. I also check other people’s translations. Here’s a funny one.
I was reading the Chinese version of Edward O. Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning work, The Diversity of Life.
The Chinese version says “groups of cows mercilessly browsing and bouncing because yellow sticky soil has been exposed in the green grass.” What Wilson actually wrote is “cattle browsed in remorseless heat bouncing off the yellow clay”.
The Chinese version didn’t understand the heat was bouncing, not the cows. The translators even had a theory that the yellow soil caused the bouncing. Whoa, I want what they’re having.
The translation of the whole book was such a disaster that it was virtually unreadable.
The message is …
Kevin McCready
1.
Richard | April 6, 2009 at 5:46 am
Martina says,
‘can we see the Chinese text’.
2.
kmccready | April 7, 2009 at 12:43 am
Published as a separate post today. Thanks for asking.
3.
Len | April 15, 2009 at 2:02 am
I suppose you read the book back to front or was it the Englsih version.
You write “Edward O. Wilson’ in English and not in Chinese “Wilson O. Edward”
So these groupie cows with clay feet were in heat. So the mud sticks to their feet. That is some feat. They are in yellow peril of meeting a bull. just thought I would bounce that one off the wall.