Wednesday, April 16, 2008

English into Chinese

I am trying to practice translating English pharases into Chinese. I welcome you to critique my translation, suggest a different translation, or leave me an English phrase to challenge my translation skill.

  • I swear to tell the truth, the whole true, and nothing but the truth.
  1. 我鄭重的宣誓,我必言無不實,言無不盡。
  • To err is human; to forgive, divine.
  1. 人非聖賢,孰能無過;倘能諒人,即屬聖賢。
  • The ultimate test of the impact of an individual or a group of individuals is two fold: whether the world they left is qualitatively different than that they inherited and what contribution they made to that change.
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  • We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. --- 1/1/1941; Franklin D. Roosevelt; the Depression still lingered, Hitler's threat was growing.
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  • We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but rather a habit. -- Aristotle
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  • Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. --William Shakespeare
  1. 有些人的偉大是天生的,有些是努力得來的,有些是時勢造成的.
  2. 有人天縱英名,有人創造時勢,有人是時勢所造。
  • Anyone who says they never had a chance never took a chance.
  1. 自認運氣不佳的人一定是從不冒險的。
  2. 從不冒險的人總是埋怨運氣不好。
  3. 從不冒險的人總是埋怨時不我與。
  • “The time to read is any time: It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness.”-- Holbrook Jackson
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  • “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -- Benjamin Franklin
  1. 你若情願放棄基本自由以求苟安,你就不配享有自由與平安。
  • "Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends." --Richard Bach
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  • “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” --- Charles Darwin
  1. 最能在生存競爭中脫穎而出的不是那最強悍的物種,也不是那最聰明的,而是那最能適應環境之變牽者。
  • "To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart." --from a poem by Wendell Berry. Challenge from jeffy.
  1. 眾人皆狂我獨醒令人心碎欲狂。

1 comment:

jeffy said...

How about the Mad Times tagline: "To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart." which is from a poem by Wendell Berry