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155Translation - Chinese simplified-English - 如果生活是一种欺骗,

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Category Poetry - Arts / Creation / Imagination

Title
如果生活是一种欺骗,
Text
Submitted by pluiepoco
Source language: Chinese simplified

如果生活是一种欺骗,
请不要揭穿。
如果生活是个梦,
请让我永远不要醒来。
但是我怕,
我怕
我怕生活是个噩梦,
让我惊醒,
一身冷汗。

Title
If life is a kind of fraud
Translation
English

Translated by pluiepoco
Target language: English

If life is a kind of fraud,
please don't tell me the truth.
If life is a dream,
please let me never wake up.
But I'm afraid,
I'm afraid
I'm afraid that life is a nightmare,
and that shocks me awake,
my whole body covered in cold sweat.
Validated by IanMegill2 - 26 September 2007 13:27





Last messages

Author
Message

26 September 2007 09:27

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
Hi pluiepoco,

Doesn't your
that frightens me
mean
that shocks me awake
? (i.e. surprises me and wakes me up)?

---(Ian's version)---

If life is a kind of fraud,
please don't tell me the truth.
If life is a dream,
please let me never wake up.
But I'm afraid,
I'm afraid
I'm afraid that life is a nightmare,
and that shocks me awake
my whole body covered in cold sweat.

---(End)---

Hmm... Isn't that a more accurate translation of your poem? Of course, it's your poem, so you can translate it any way you want, but usually we try to be as accurate as possible when translating things?

26 September 2007 09:43

pluiepoco
Number of messages: 1263
Yes, thanks Ianmegill, I agree with you, your translation is more accurate.

There are two points I diverted from the original text:

1. Don't wake up--- sleep forever
2. wake up with fear-- frighten.

But I was very curious and surprised that Damelo had made the perfect translations in Spanish and portuguese versus my Chinese original text. So I asked, if he knew Chinese. He did not reply.

If he did not know Chinese, then this phenomenon indicates that my English translation can have more affulent space for imagination, and this kind of supplumental imagination helps one understand the surface meaning of the poem, as well as the indepth meaning of it, what is more, one can translate it into another foreign language that is so agreeable to the original one. That is unbelievable, but that is true.

I don't know German, so Maybe german expert translated word by word from my poor english version, and might be a little different from the Chinese text. But it is only a guess, maybe he did the same work as Damelo.

26 September 2007 10:04

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
I'm sure there are many non-Chinese in the world who can read Chinese, not just me!

So, do I correct your English version and then give you your own points back, with no rating? Is that a good idea?

26 September 2007 10:15

pluiepoco
Number of messages: 1263
中国人天不怕地不怕,就怕老外说中国话.

Ok, good idea.

26 September 2007 10:20

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
真的ma?

26 September 2007 10:21

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
Original version before last edit, for reference:

If life is a lie,
please don't explode it.
If life is a dream,
I wish I sleep for ever.
But I am afraid,
afraid
afraid that life is a nightmare,
that frightens me,
into cold sweat.