Compact, patterned, dense, allusive, bitter, and humorous … translating a shunkouliu is a tall order. So why bother to try? Yet despite the odds, this barbed rhyme about New China’s old guard can be tailored into a pleasing and meaningful shape in a language completely unrelated to its original tongue. Here’s how it can be done, step by step.
Компактный, узорный, насыщенный, иносказательный, горький, юмористичный… Перевести такой shunkouliu – не фунт изюму. Зачем и пробовать? Но, несмотря на сложности, этот колкий стишок о старой гвардии Нового Китая можно перекроить в изящное и глубокомысленное произведение на языке, совершенно не родственном языку оригинала. Вот как это можно сделать, шаг за шагом.
And so I’d like you to note: Bellos’s “a tall order” is matched by Lobka’s “не фунт изюму“!
What’s “a tall order” mean in English anyway? Click here to read some English readers musing about the phrase.
And what’s “не фунт изюму” mean in Russian anyway? Click here to read in English what this Russian idiom (literally “no pound of raisins”) might mean.
Does a Russian translation of an English translation of the Chinese “shunkouliu” have more political ramifications?
What’s involved in translating translations that is more of a tall order than just translating an original?
What are the implications for Bible translation, especially passages that must be translations of translations?