Day 2
Thurs. Mar. 23
Discuss ad slogan translations
Guess-the-genre exercise
Share observations on English-language museum placards
Share questions about “Ad”
Homework:
➤ translate Chinese museum placard into English
First, read your classmates’ observations on the English museum placards on SharePoint. Notice in particular observations that are relevant to style (not content) — what kind of English is appropriate to use in this genre? (What kinds of words appear often? What kinds of words don’t appear at all? Are there any particular words, or sentence structures, that are used frequently? etc.)
You might also want to reread the examples of museum placards to get the style of them “in your head.” (Try reading them out loud! That will help you internalize how they sound and feel.)
Then, translate the text of the museum placard below into English. Bear in mind the function of a museum placard — to be read by a museum-goer while looking at the artifact.
灯作卧羊形。羊首微扬，双角卷曲，身躯浑圆。羊尊背部与身躯分铸，于羊颈后置活纽，臀上安提纽，可将羊背向上翻开，平放于羊头上作为灯盘。羊尊腹腔中空，当灯放置不同时，可将灯盘内燃余灯油由小流嘴倾入腹腔。出土时腹腔内残留有白色沉淀物，经化验有油脂成分，当为燃料。汉代以羊为母题的文物很多，如羊头金饰、塑像画像、含“羊”字的铭文铜镜，主要取其和美吉祥之意。汉代诗歌中更有 “金羊载耀，作明以续” 的称颂。
Upload your translations to Sakai. Note the deadline — please complete this by 7pm China time on Tuesday (1 hour before class starts.)
➤ TRANSLATE English MUSEUM PLACARD INTO Chinese
Privately, I will send you the text of an English-language museum placard. Please read the instructions I provide about the purpose of this translation, and translate the text accordingly, adopting a style of Chinese appropriate for a museum placard.
(I’m sending this to you privately because not everybody will be translating the same text. Please don’t share your text with your classmates, for reasons I’ll explain next class; I’d like this to be kept secret.)
Submit this assignment on Sakai as well. Note the deadline — please complete this by 7pm China time on Tuesday (1 hour before class starts.)
➤ Find an informant and ask them a question about “Ad” by Kenneth Fearing
Find an informant — somebody who you think would understand Kenneth Fearing’s “Ad” better than you do, i.e. probably a native or near-native English speaker — and ask them any questions you have about the poem that you feel you need answered in order to understand this poem well enough to translate it.
Then, on this shared document, please add at least one comment (批注) sharing something you learned from your informant that you think would help you (and your classmates) translate this poem more effectively. Make the comment be about a specific word, phrase, or sentence, rather than about the poem as the whole. (If you don’t have any specific questions, try translating the poem before talking to your informant, and you will almost certainly discover some!)
In your comment, please note who your informant was, what your question was, and what your informant told you about the word, phrase, or sentence.
➤ Supplementary reading
If you would like to read something a bit more theoretical about the topics we’re encountering in this class, I recommend reading Chapter 6 (“Native Command: Is Your Language Really Yours?”) and Chapter 7 (“Meaning is No Simple Thing”) in David Bellos’ book Is That a Fish in Your Ear?.
Chapter 6 discusses what it means to be a “native speaker” of a language and the implications of that for translation. Chapter 7 discusses the nature of meaning and its relationship with genre — one of our key concepts in this class.
Feel free to read the Chinese translation provided, but be warned! It is not always accurate. Bonus points to anyone who spots an error in a chapter title!)
(Note: Readings for this class are suggested, not strictly required. I provide them for your interest and enlightenment; I will not be checking whether you read them.)
