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Chinese to English: Giant Elephants (published on the 1st issue of "Chinese Literature & Culture") General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Chinese 巨象穿过雨林。雨林纷纷倒伏。李生感觉到脚下的地惶惶摇晃，尘土如落在敲响的鼓面，窸窸窣窣滚成均匀的扇形，身后的茅草屋也在颤动，屋檐发霉的茅草箭镞一样纷纷射下，杂乱地落了一地。李生面向巨象，大张着嘴，目光呆滞，身子往后倾，两只手慌乱地滑动着，任何可以依靠的东西都没抓住。他完全被眼前的景象镇住，连逃跑的念头都忘了。那些大象真够大的，繁茂的雨林只有它们的膝盖高，如同杂乱的灌木丛。巨象们目光沉着，一步一步从山上下来，所到之处，上百年的大树猛烈摇晃，转瞬就倒了，拽出地面的根须足足有一间房子那么大。几十上百种鸟儿慌乱地飞起，盘旋在它们的腰际，斑斓的羽毛烁动着黄昏湿漉漉的阳光，鸣
叫淹没在它们石头一般沉重的脚步声中;还有一些没来得及飞的，被倒下的大树震得羽毛脱落，纷乱的羽毛浮在半空如五彩的迷雾。
李生嘴巴里啊啊着，一句话没说出。巨象渐渐逼近，他听到它们嘹亮的叫声了，看到它们门洞似的眼睛、粗糙厚实的皮肤上挂着的大颗绿色露珠了，领头的巨象脖颈上还驮着一个小小的红色包袱，若开在岩石间的一朵艳丽的虞美人。再近一些，待巨象们小旋风般的鼻息扑到脸上，他才看清，那不是什么包袱，而是一个披红雨衣的女人。他看不清她的脸，是披肩长发和苗条身段暴露了她。
一旦看清巨象驮着的是人，逃跑已来不及。巨象们加快步子，猛然撞上腐朽的茅屋，茅草受惊的鸟儿一样飞起，椽子和大梁嘎吱嘎吱响，李生眼瞅着巨象的脚掌黑夜似的压下，憋得紧紧的喉咙终于发出了声音，那是极其短促的一声:啊———
Translation - English Giant elephants were crossing the rain forest. Trees fell one after another. Li Sheng felt the ground under his feet shaking violently like a beating drum. Dust jumped and scattered out like a fan. Behind him a thatched cottage was also trembling, the musty straw on its eave shooting to the ground like arrows. Li Sheng faced the giant elephants, mouth wide open and eyes glazed. His body leaned backward, and his hands groped back and forth for something to hold on to but failed. Stupefied by the sight, he didn’t think about escape. The elephants were huge. The lush rain forest only reached their knees like untrimmed clumps of bushes. The elephants’ eyes were calm. They came down from the mountain. Trees over one hundred years old shook brutally and fell in a flash. Their roots, as big as a cottage, were pulled out from the earth. Hundreds of kinds of birds flew off in panic and hovered around the elephants’ sides. In the twilight, the birds’ colorful feathers glistened in the damp air. Their cries were drowned out by the steps of the elephants’ steps, heavy as stones. The feathers of those who failed to leave the trees in time were cast off by the vibration of the falling trees, and they floated in the air like a colorful mist.
Li Sheng tried to speak, but could not even make a sound. The elephants were approaching. Now he could hear their roars and see their deep, round eyes and the rough, thick skin on which big drops of green dew were hung. On the neck of the leading elephant was a tiny red parcel that was as bright as a corn poppy blooming between rocks. As they got closer with their breath spraying on his face like a whirlwind, he found it not a parcel but a woman draped in a red raincoat. He couldn’t see her face clearly. He only knew her to be a woman by her slim figure and her hair cast onto her shoulder.
It was now too late to escape. The elephants sped up their pace and smashed into the decaying thatched cottage. The straw on the cottage scattered everywhere like startled birds. The rafters and crossbeams squeaked. As Li Sheng watched the elephants’ feet falling down toward him as if a dark night were coming, his tight throat finally gave out an extremely short “Ah– .”
English to Chinese: THE EPHEMERA: AN EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE General field: Art/Literary
Source text - English You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately spent that happy day in the delightful garden and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the company.
We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose successive generations, we were told, were bred and expired within the day. I happened to see a living company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation. You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues. My too great application to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the little progress I have made in your charming language. I listened through curiosity to the discourse of these little creatures; but as they, in their national vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could make but little of their conversation. I found, however, by some broken expressions that I heard now and then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, one a cousin, the other a moscheto; in which dispute they spent their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a month. Happy people! thought I; you are certainly under a wise, just, and mild government, since you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections and imperfections of foreign music. I turned my head from them to an old gray-headed one, who was single on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much indebted for the most pleasing of all amusements, her delicious company and heavenly harmony.
"It was," said he, "the opinion of learned philosophers of our race, who lived and flourished long before my time, that this vast world, the Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than eighteen hours; and I think there was some foundation for that opinion, since, by the apparent motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently declined considerably towards the ocean at the end of our earth, it must then finish its course, be extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness, necessarily producing universal death and destruction. I have lived seven of those hours, a great age, being no less than four hundred and twenty minutes of time. How very few of us continue so long! I have seen generations born, flourish, and expire. My present friends are the children and grandchildren of the friends of my youth, who are now, alas, no more! And I must soon follow them; for, by the course of nature, though still in health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labor in amassing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What the political struggles I have been engaged in for the good of my compatriot inhabitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies for the benefit of our race in general! for in politics what can laws do without morals? Our present race of ephemeræ will in a course of minutes become corrupt, like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as wretched. And in philosophy how small our progress! Alas! Art is long, and life is short! My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name they say I shall leave behind me; and they tell me I have lived long enough to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an ephemera who no longer exists? And what will become of all history in the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly, shall come to its end and be buried in universal ruin?"
To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good lady ephemeræ, and now and then a kind smile and a tune from the ever amiable Brillante.
Translation - Chinese 亲爱的朋友，前不久我们一起在卓丽磨坊公园怡人的花园里和可爱的伙伴们度过了愉快的一天。或许你还记得，散步途中，我在你们后面停留了一会。
我们曾无数次看过一种小飞虫的残骸，这种小虫叫蜉蝣。正如我们听说的，这种虫成长、死亡都在一天内发生。那天我恰好在一片叶子上看见几只活的蜉蝣，似是在聊天。你知道的，我能够听懂所有低等动物的语言。我一定是太过痴迷于研究它们的语言了，不然怎么会总是对你迷人的话语不得要领呢？我带着好奇心倾听这些小生物的对话；但是它们生性活泼，一开口就是三四句话连着说，我几乎完全听不懂它们在说什么。不过，从时不时听到的只言片语中，我了解到，它们正热火朝天地争论两个外国音乐家的优点，一位叫“表亲”，另外那位叫“蚊子”；这些虫子无时无刻不在唇枪舌战中，好像毫不在乎生命的短暂，仿佛坚信自己有一整个月的生命。多快乐啊！我这样想。你们一定是生活在一个明智、公平、温和的政府之下，对于公共问题没有任何不满，也不存在任何关于外国音乐家的优缺点之外的争论。我转过头，看到另外一片叶子上有一只灰头的老蜉蝣在独自说话。我被他的自言自语逗笑了，故执笔记录下来，望博得美人一笑，多亏有你的细心陪伴，温柔对待，我才得以享受到这世界上最愉悦的事情。
他说：“早在我出生之前，我们蜉蝣一族有一群博学的哲学家，他们很是活跃。在他们看来，这个广袤的世界——卓丽磨坊公园——本身存在的时间不超过十八个小时；我认为这个观点有道理，很明显，那个赋予大自然一切生命的大发光体在移动，在我活着的这段时间，它明显已经落向地球尽头的海洋那一端，接下来它必将走完全程，消失在围绕着我们的水域里面，世界将变得冰冷而黑暗，而世上的一切必将遭遇死亡和毁灭。我已经活过了这十八个小时中的七个小时，真是伟大的年龄，整整四百二十分钟的时间呢。有几个蜉蝣能活这么久呢！我看着几代蜉蝣出生、成长、死亡。我现在的朋友都是我年轻时的朋友的孩子和孙子，而我那些老朋友啊，呜呼哀哉，他们都不在了！再过不了多久，我也要随他们而去了；此乃天命啊，虽然我还硬朗，但顶多也只能多活七八分钟了。我是为什么要辛辛苦苦费工夫在这片叶子上收集蜜露呢，我都要享受不到了呀！为了我们这一树丛的同胞，我这一生经历过多少政治斗争！为了我们整个族群的利益，我又耗了多少精力在哲学研究上面！在政治方面，如果没有道德约束，单靠法律又有什么用呢？现在只消几分钟，我们蜉蝣族内就能发生腐败，就像其他树丛或者过去的树丛里面发生的一样，最后只能以不幸收尾。我们在哲学上前进的步伐太小了！唉！艺术永存，而生命转瞬即逝！我的朋友会安慰我，说我将留下身后名；会告诉我，我这一生已经够长，这既是大自然的奇迹，也是光荣事。可是名誉对于一只不复存在的蜉蝣来说又有什么意义呢？而世界，整个卓丽磨坊公园，都将灭亡，将埋藏在宇宙的废墟之下，那这十八个小时的历史又有何意义呢？
对我来说，多年苦苦追求并没有给我带来任何实在的快乐，幸好我还知道不时反思自己那与人为善的漫长一生，幸好我还能偶尔同优秀的蜉蝣女士进行理智的谈话，幸好能够时而看到我的女神布理朗特女士那温暖的微笑，听到她那永远动人的声音。
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Master's degree - Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
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Years of experience: 9. Registered at ProZ.com: Jul 2019. Became a member: Dec 2022.
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I have over 8 years' experience in translation. Currently, I'm a freelance translator specializing in the fields of academic translation, particularly in humanities & social sciences, game translation, and marketing translation.
Keywords: Chinese-English, MA in translation studies, art, literature, culture, TV, drama, film, journalism, tourism. See more.Chinese-English, MA in translation studies, art, literature, culture, TV, drama, film, journalism, tourism, travel. See less.
Member since Dec '22
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