Fun with Machine Translation
A paragraph from the 1st chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
思绪 -- sīxù -- thought
安慰 -- ānwèi -- comfort
牵连 -- qiānlián -- affect, embroil
哈欠 -- hāqian -- yawn
翻过 -- fān guò -- turn over
大错特错 -- dà cuò tè cuò -- big mistake, extrodinary mistake (seems to have the flavor of "when it rains it pours")
The google pinyin(handle zháo zhe by hand):
Here is the google translation:
Here is the adsotrans translation:
The original:
德思礼夫妇睡下了。德思礼太太很快就睡着了,德思礼先生却思绪万千。不过在他入睡前,最后一个想法使他感到安慰:却使波特一家真的被卷了进去,也没有理由牵连他和他太太。波特夫妇很清楚德思礼夫妇对他们和他们那样人的看法。他打了个哈欠,翻过身去。不会影响他们的。。。。Some good vocabulary:
他可是大错特错了。
思绪 -- sīxù -- thought
安慰 -- ānwèi -- comfort
牵连 -- qiānlián -- affect, embroil
哈欠 -- hāqian -- yawn
翻过 -- fān guò -- turn over
大错特错 -- dà cuò tè cuò -- big mistake, extrodinary mistake (seems to have the flavor of "when it rains it pours")
The google pinyin(handle zháo zhe by hand):
Désīlǐ fūfù shuì xià le. Désīlǐ tàitài hěn kuài jiù shuì zháo le, Désīlǐ xiānshēng què sīxù wànqiān. bùguò zài tā rùshuì qián, zuìhòu yīgè xiǎngfǎ shǐ tā gǎndào ānwèi: què shǐ Bōtè yījiā zhēn de bèi juǎn le jìnqù, yě méiyǒu lǐyóu qiānlián tā hé tā tàitài. Bōtè fūfù hěn qīngchu Désīlǐ fūfù duì tāmen hé tāmen nàyàng rén de kànfǎ. Tā dǎ le gè hāqian, fān guò shēn qù. Bù huì yǐngxiǎng tāmen de....
Tā kěshì dà cuò tè cuò le.
Here is the google translation:
Dursleys lie in it. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly, but a myriad of thoughts, Mr. Dursley. However, in his sleep before the final thought that he was consolation: while filling the Potters really got him, there is no reason to implicate him and his wife. Potters clear Dursleys as one of them and their views. He yawned and rolled over. Will not affect them. . . .
But he was wrong.
Here is the adsotrans translation:
Desigift wife to sleep. Desigift married woman very fast precisely to sleep, Desigift Mr. to retreat thought 1000. but at he to enter sleep in front of, last a way of thinking to make he to feel to comfort: however to make Potter 1 really to be rolled to enter, also not to be reason to embroil he and his married woman. Potter wife very clear Desigift wife they and their that kind's person point of view. he to dial yawn, to flip body to go. cannot to affect their....
he but to make a very serious mistake.
The original:
The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind.... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on -- he yawned and turned over -- it couldn't affect them ....
How very wrong he was.

2 Comments:
I wonder, is it a play on words, or whatever it would be called in Chinese, that the phrase 大错特错 refers to 波特?And if so, was using a phrase that used “特” a conscious choice on the part of the translator? What do native speakers think?
I really doubt this 特 here is a conscious choice on the part of the translator. 大错特错 is not so uncommon, though. But if it is, it is really a very clever wordplay. Way to spot it!
I don't have the Chinese copy, but 却使 should be 即使, I think.
Post a Comment
<< Home