So, a dear friend of mine needed my help with some translation. To be honest, when I found out it would involve translating Chinese to English, I wasn't that keen. However, I'm glad that I did it because it turned out to be quite possibly the most fun I've had in a while.
Thankfully, she didn't want me to translate some article for her. Instead, they were lyrics to a song. She would give me a line, and I'd translate it for her. Baby steps :) Here's the thing with Chinese characters. They. Are. Tiny! So even if you give me just a small paragraph, I immediately balk because it would easily contain more than 100 characters. (140characters limit on twitter? If I tweeted in Chinese I could easily tell a simple story!) So we compromised, and she gave me the first line.
After a few (hilarious) exchanges, we decided to tackle the chorus. I had already translated most of the lines, but I needed the complete chorus in order to see the big picture. See, the problem with the Chinese language is that it is so flowery and beautiful (when used correctly) and ladled with metaphors and imagery. You need everything to be able to put it into context and get the main idea.
Alright, enough talking, let's get down to business.
The next picture contains both versions of my translation/opinion. Please bear in mind that I was going all out and completely out-of-character. (My version of satire of the Malaysian English.) It was the epitome of how Rojak and Cina I could be.
Okay, so I know my opinion (even the not-troll one) probably didn't fully grasp what the guy was trying to express through his lyrics, but I wasn't taking it too seriously and out of all the languages I know, Chinese has been and still is a language that I rather dislike. (I kid you not, I once thanked my parents for "forcing" me to go to a Chinese school as a kid because I couldn't even imagine learning Chinese as a teenager, and my dad literally thanked god and told my mom he could finally die in peace. Apparently I was so anti-Chinese my parents were worried.)
I probably had too much fun trolling and butchering the lyrics, and I admit it might even be borderline disrespectful/rude, but I was just in it to have some harmless fun. So I apologize in advance if I've offended anyone. My friend and I had such a good laugh over this that we both agreed it was too good to not share with others (and hopefully make you laugh as well).
Anyway, my friend actually had a translation of the lyrics and it was provided by a lady who was going to teach English to Primary One students next year.
So we had a few more laughs over the lyrics before my friend paid me this compliment:
Made me super happy to receive that compliment :) (but then again, she probably isn't the best person to judge the quality of my translation, since she wouldn't know if it was actually on point or not. BUT I LOVE YOU FOR IT ANYWAY.)
This little exercise actually reminded me of my high school days, and I actually feel sad at the decline of my proficiency in Malay and Chinese (my written vocabulary has shrunk to embarrassingly astonishing levels).
There's just something beautiful about being fluent in multiple languages to the point that you're able to carry forward an abstract idea (even across cultures) when you translate something. Reading quality translated works give me a child-like glee.
So there you go. Hope you guys had a good laugh over this. I know I did!
