Translation
Dec 15th, 2006 by Michael Max
Reading and translation are two completely different skills.
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If only translation were as easy as the multiple choice test of ordering off a Chinese menu.
As simple as translating words, and having the grammar and meaning neatly tag along.
As logical as math with it’s A+B=C.
No….translation is not just about words, it’s about how you string all together to make meaning.
In Chinese, “only just because for the readers of this book add a little relaxed the feeling only”. Poured correctly into English becomes “it’s written this way as an attempt at levity”. You must wrangle “Chinese wives, to let their husbands not become fat don’t serve desert” into “To keep their husbands thin, Chinese wives don’t serve desert”.
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Turns out the technical details of translating Chinese medicine is not so difficult. It’s clean and precise. But, the book I’m working on is conversational in tone. And there are times that to get the meaning right, wildly different ways of speaking are required. Oddly enough, when the Chinese portion of my brain is engaged, the English portion suffers. I long for the day when I can float between the worlds of English and Chinese like a fish.
