Showing posts with label chinese translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese translation. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

第一章 桃园三结义



Each paragraph has a corresponding comic drawing to it, which I'm not going to scan. To get the text from the book in was a relatively simple process, the pen scanner is a big help. It takes about 5 seconds to scan each paragraph, you then proofread it after each chapter. Since Indy is going to spend only 10-15 min each weekday, it may take her 2 weeks to finish each chapter. Yes, I also spend time with her to make suggestions and corrections. I'll update this post when I get around to it.

第一章 桃园三结义
Chapter One: Three Sworn Brothers in the Peach Garden

东汉末年,汉灵帝刘宏腐败无能,整天不理朝政,只知道吃喝玩乐。他非常信任宦官,致使宦官专权,天下大乱,终于爆发了历史上有名的黄巾起义。
It was the last years of the Eastern Han dynasty,Emperor Ling of Han,Liu Hong, was useless incompetent moronic fool,he didn't care for the state affairs,and all he did was eat, drink, and party.He trusted his eunuchs very much,which caused the eunuchs to monopolize power to govern the country,everything was a mess, finally a famous group of rebels, the Yellow Bandanas, started.

起义军的首领是巨鹿郡的张角、张宝、张梁兄弟三人。他们率领四五十万黄巾军,所向披靡,杀得官军望风而逃。
The leaders of this rebellion were Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang of JuLuJun.They led a group of forty to fifty thousand Yellow Bandanas,ever triumphant,even the royal troops fled with their tail between their legs.

汉灵帝命各地加强防守。幽州太守刘焉担心自己兵少,于是出榜招募士兵。
The emperor ordered more reinforcements from every place.The governor of YouZhou, Liu Yan, worried that he didn't have enough soldiers,so he posted recruitment announcements.

榜文在涿县张贴时,引来无数人观看。有个肩背草鞋的人进城也看到了榜文
While the enlistment was posted in ZhuoXian,it attracted many different people.There was one man who carried some straw shoes saw this poster.

他是中山靖王刘胜的后代,叫刘备,因家里贫穷,靠贩卖草鞋、织草席为生
He was the descendant of the Prince Jing of ZhongShan, Liu Sheng. Liu Bei was his name,and because his family was poor,he sold straw shoes and weaved straw mats for a living.

看完榜文,刘备不由得叹了一口气。忽然背后有人大声和他搭起了腔:“大丈夫不为国家出力,叹什么气?”
After he saw the announcement,Liu Bei sighed loudly.Suddenly the guy behind him and started hollering loudly, "Men should help the country,why are you sighing?"

此人身高八尺,黑脸膛,络腮胡子。刘备忙问他姓名。那人说自己叫张飞,字翼德。“我一直想建功立业,幸会英雄!”。
The man was eight feet tall (in the old days, 1 ft=23cm),with a dark skin tone,and a beard from ear to ear. Liu Bei hurriedly asked for his name.That man said his name was Zhang Fei,and his friends called him Yi De."I've always thought of helping the country, becoming a hero! and am so very fortunate to meeting a hero like one such as yourself!"

他们志向相投,便去酒馆继续商谈。不久,有一大汉推着一辆车在店门口停下。
Their ambitions were the same,so they went to a pub to talk.Soon after,a big man pushing a cart stopped in front of the pub.

这人身高九尺,胸前长须飘飘,面如红枣,丹凤眼,卧蚕眉。刘备见他相貌不凡,便邀他一起喝酒。那人说自己叫关羽,字云长,见了榜文,特来参军。
This man was nine feet tall,and had a big long beard hanging on the front of his chest,his face was a red date,and had red phoenix eyes,with silkworm like eyebrows.when Liu Bei saw his extraordinary looks,he invited him for a drink.The man said his name was Guan Yu,and his friends called him Yun Chang and saw the announcement,and came especially to enlist.

刘备说:“今日幸会二位英雄,干杯!”。 三人谈得投机,于是约定酒后一起到张飞庄上商谈如何报效国家。
Liu Bei said,"Today I have a very good fortune to meet you two heroes,CHEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The three soon became very good friends,and decided that after drinking they would go to Zhang Fei's house and discuss how to repay the country.

张飞说:“我庄后有座桃园,明天我们在园中祭拜天地,结为兄弟,共图大事。我们兄弟齐心协力、必能成就大事。” 刘备说:“如此甚好。”
Zhang Fei said, "There's a peach garden behind my house,tomorrow we can go there and pay our repects to the heaven and earth,and swear to become brothers,and go on many great adventures together.We brothers must concentrate on our efforts to accomplishing great achievments."Liu Bei said, "Amen."

第二天,三人在桃园盟誓,结为兄弟。刘备做了大哥,关羽是二弟,张飞是三弟。
The second day,The three men sat in the peach garden,and became brothers.Liu Bei was the Big Brother,Guan Yu was the middle brother,Zhang Fei was the little brother.

三人招募勇士,备好兵器。刘备使剑,关羽使青龙偃月刀,张飞使丈八蛇矛。
The three brothers enlisted warriors,and prepared the weapons.Liu Bei used a sword,Guan Yu wielded the Long Green-dragon-halting-Moon Broadsword,while Zhang Fei used the Long Serpent Spear.

一切备齐,三人率五百壮士投奔刘焉。刘焉是汉室宗亲,与刘备以叔侄相称。
Everything was set,The three brothers led an army of 500 to join LiuYan.Liu Yan was a royal relative,and was distantly related to Liu Bei, who called him "uncle."

从此,刘备、关羽、张飞率兵征战,杀得黄巾军四散溃逃,兄弟三人连立战功。很快,黄巾军被镇压了,刘备只被封为安喜县县尉的小官。
From this point on,Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei led the army to fight,and slaughtered the Yellow Bandanas and forced them to retreat,the brothers received many merits awarding their accomplishments.Very soon,the Yellow Bandana rebellion was crushed, but Liu Bei was only appointed as a police chief of AnXiXian.

不久,清廉的刘备因没钱贿赂督邮而遭陷害。“竟敢欺负我哥哥!”张飞气得找到督邮,将他一顿暴打。
Soon after,because Liu Bei was honest and didn't bribe the superintendent he became persecuted."Who dares to bully my big bro?!??!"Zhang Fei stormed angrily at the superintendent,and beat him up very badly.

定州太守知道后,命人捉拿刘备。刘备只好带着关羽、张飞投奔代州太守刘恢去了。
When the governor of DingZhou knew of this, he ordered him arrested.so Liu Bei had to bring Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to go to the governor Liu Hui of DaiZhou.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

A leaky pot

I was on vacation for a week, so Indigo got a break ;-). Anyway, here's one of her homework.

有一个男人从家里拿了一个罐子到市场上去卖。一个人看了一下对他说:“这罐是漏的。”“怎么可能呢?”他说,“我母亲一直用它装棉花,从没漏过。这罐子不漏。”

A man went to the bazaar to sell a jar. One person saw this and said to the man, "The jar has a leak." "How can that be?"the man asked, "My mother always stuffed it with cotton,and it never leaked. This jar doesn't leak."

Friday, October 5, 2007

Is the patient a sick person?

Indigo understood every word and every sentence of the joke, but it took a long time to understand why it was worth a chuckle or two. Why the "sick person" calls the nurse a "honeypie"? By the third time I explained to her why it was so. She said this joke was sick, hence she translated "病人" as a "sick person".

护士 看到 一 病人 在 病房 喝酒,就 走 过去 小声地 对 他 说:“不要 喝酒,小心 肝!”病人 微笑着 说:“那 就 不 喝 了,小 宝贝。”

The nurse saw a patient drinking beer in the hospital room, so she walked over to him and whispered, "Don't drink beer, be careful of your liver!" The sick person chuckled, thinking the nurse had said, "Sweety" and said (hey, what did you expect? he's drunk!), "Then I won't drink it any more, honeypie."

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Listen to my songs

This piece looked easy for her, she didn't quite get and .

某人很喜欢唱歌,但唱的不
入耳,人们一听到他唱歌,就远远的躲开了他。此人很苦恼。一天,他拿着一把刀拦住一个行人,并对他说:“你必须听我唱歌,否则我就杀了你。” 说完,他就唱了起来。他还没唱完,那行人就求他说:“你快杀了我吧!”

Da Man really liked to sing, but anyone who listened to his singing went deaf, so whenever they heard him sing, they would hitch a taxi and drive down to the south pole to escape. Da Man was very glum. One day, he stopped a passerby with a knife, and told him, "You have to listen to my singing, or else I'll kill you!" having said that, Da Man launched into a passionate, ear-splitting song. He wasn't even finished when the passerby pleaded, "Just hurry up and kill me!"

Thursday, September 27, 2007

买房子,送家具

Well, well, it looks like that we've got some work to do on this one. We'll come back to this one over the weekend. We had worked on this character before. It's time to review it with Indigo.

一家房地产商为推销房屋,打出“房子,送家具”的广告。某人买了一套新房,装饰后去家具。房产商:"你的家具在哪里?我们帮你送!"

A family wanted to rent their apartment, so they put the sign, "Selling House, Along with Furniture." When a person bought the apartment, the decorator brought the furniture over. decorator: where is your furniture? We'll help you send 'em over!"

Monday, September 24, 2007

What is 中日韩?

Here's a joke (from other site)

中日韩三国足球队主教练一起来到天堂,询问上帝各自的足球队什么时候才能得世界杯冠军,上帝说:韩国需要50年。韩国教练大哭起来:我是见不到了。上帝又说:日本需要100年。日本教练大哭起来:我是见不到了。中国教练连忙问:我们呢?上帝大哭起来:我是见不到了。

On her first try, she didn't quite understand 中日韩. She translated it as "In the middle of the day, 3 ...". After I explained that they are shorthands for China, Japan and Korea, she translated the joke as follows. In her Chinese recording, she did a great job to deliver the joke.

One day three head soccer coaches from China, Japan, and Korea went to the heaven altar place together. They wanted to ask God when their soccer teams would win the world cup. God said, "Korea will take fifty years." The Korean coach started to cry waterfalls, "I'm never gonna make it!!! "Japan will take 100 years." God continued. The Japanese coach started to cry as well, "I'm never gonna make it!!!!!" The Chinese coach quickly asked, "How about us?" "I'm never going to see it!!!" God burst out, crying uncontrollably.

ps.
I found many jokes from http://www.haha365.com/ are good material for learning Chinese.