久違了的上海，卻只能匆匆留了一會。
多虧臨時換了"同行同事"，「認識」了四位地道新朋友。
一下飛機，因為有「傷殘人士」同行，過關等等都異常順利，當地地勤人員一直送到的士站。上了的士，一路還算順利，還以為可以避免了塞車的命運，因在大陸，高速上走六十的龜速多的是，但剛過了機場地區沒多久，卻遇上「高速公路堵車」。
折騰了一個小時左右，終於到了我們下榻的飯店，名為「東湖飯店」，活像回到上世紀四十年代，一座在「上海灘」會出現的「中國式西方大公寓」，當然跟和平飯店又有不一樣的感覺。
剛放下行李，同事的朋友已熱情的在等我們吃飯，吃了一頓很好吃的上海菜，飯店格調很好，我有印象在雜誌上有看過他的介紹，果然很不錯呢。
除了那位熱情的朋友外，他還另外請了一位女生一起來，說是他的同事。不知道是不是他的「對象」？還是為了我這位女生帶一個伴吧？因為我們還去了上海的 PUB 喔。(不是 CLUBBING 啦)
飯後，回飯店一回，開會！！厲害吧！我們都很敬業喔，先把工作做好再去玩的喔。
十一點鐘，出發到 PUB 去了。很不錯，跟香港(基本上是中環、銅鑼灣跟西貢的，其他的我也沒去過)的沒很大的差別，只是酒比較便宜，BUDWEISER 都只不過是 RMB15。
上海晚上很冷，雖然預知了十度，但還是很冷，因為我只有一件 POLO 跟一件 SUIT JACKET。
這一次都沒辦法去「新天地」那邊品嘗好吃又劃算的西餐，唯有等下一次吧。
基本上，這就是我這一次在上海僅餘的FREE TIME......
Monday, April 23, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Mozart's Letters (about the Translation)
(moved here)
last nite we had a presentation on "Mozart's Letters"...
personally i think it's quite hard... not only 'coz the so-called English original is already a Translated Text... but also the languages Mozart used and the word-play he had... it might be easier to translate from German (and also some Italian and French as i know... ) to English but it would be totally different if putting it in the Chinese context.
one excerpt my classmate showed is as follows:
"So if you want to send a reply to me from that town of Augsburg yonder, you see, then write at once, the sooner the better, so that I may be sure to receive your letter, or else if I'm gone I'll have the bad luck, instead of a letter to get some muck. Muck! -Muck! - Ah, muck! Oh, sweet word! Muck! Chuck! That too 'is fine. Muck, chuck!-muck!-suck-oh, charmante! muck, suck! That's what I like! Muck, chuck and suck! Chuck muck and suck muck"
Attention was paid to the three words: muck, chuck and suck...
The Chinese version reads: 糞蛆、垃圾、污泥... which was criticized as almost 'total failure'... first of all... the rhyme's lost... the meaning's not the same... and so and so... but this raised another question... does the English convey the original German meaning? or the English itself already altered "something" to make the... say... rhyme and filthy context vivid in English? Prof. Tung said we had no way to check the German and to compare it... and since German and English are from the same root... the words, she supposed, the choice of English words... such as the rhyme and the meanings should be able to reflect the German 'spirit'... but it wouold be too difficult for translating them into Chinese... can's note: Total Agree! Prof. Tung added that the Chinese translation itself did not seem right... though they're all talking about dirty things but the degree or nature of that dirty things may not be comparable... and this differs from the English version...
As I'm too interested in this, I checked the German Original!!!! It reads:
wenn sie mir also wolln antworten, aus der stadt Augsburg dorten, so schreiben sie mir baldt, damit ich den brief erhalt, sonst wenn ich etwa schon bin weck, bekomme ich statt eincn brief einen dreck. dreck! - - dreck! - o dreck! - o süsses wort! - dreck! - schmeck! - auch schön! - dreck, schmeck! - dreck! - leck - o charmante! - dreck, leck! - das freüet mich! - dreck, schmeck und leck! - schmeck dreck, und leck dreck!
Brilliant!!!! The three words are: dreck, schmeck, leck... The first and last one are correct but not the middle one.
Dreck, a noun, usu. meaning is mud or muckiness.Leck, a noun, meaning 'leakage' or 'seepage' BUT it is also a slang or colloquial bad language. It acts as a VERB in 'Leck mich am Arsch!' meaning 'Kiss my ass'(or similar meaning). This 'bad' phrase once appeared in Mozart's song and thus I think 'Leck' here should be a verb. That is, personally I think the word 'suck' the translator used is referring to its 'verb' meaning instead of noun, as appears in the Chinese translation.For the middle word, it spells "schmeck" which is wrong. Possible answers may be "schneck", an Austrian langauge meaning slug; or "schmeckt", singular verb form for "to taste" (so far as I know, it is related to food! e.g. The tea tastes good). So I think it is possible that the word 'chuck' the translator used may also refer to the verb form instead of the noun form (as my classmate showed the class).
In fact the last "sentence" gives us clue that schmeck and leck (or chuck and suck) are probably verbs based on basic grammar... if two nouns go together... the first one is describing / giving further explanation to the second one... e.g. Music Class = a class of music... thus the suggestion of "verb forms" follows the context more reasonably than the suggestion of "noun forms" as translated in the Chinese version.This may be another Translation Issue. The German original here only helps us to (maybe) understand more or get a closer meaning to the author. But simply from the English version, we can indeed discover the 'verb' and 'noun' issues especially when having a deeper look at the author or the author's other works (issues like little formal education, rude, relationship with father, family, etc.).The Chinese translation here failed to convey the meaning and taste of the source text not just because the choice of words are awkward as we discussed but the translator also failed to taste the real bit of Mozart.
Try thinking the three words again in "Muck (noun), Chuck (verb! or replace it with the German original [let's take it as 'taste']), Suck (verb!)" and probably you can better understand what Mozart's playing with his cousin, the one whom he might have once felt in love with.
Very nice indeed... naughty but witty...
last nite we had a presentation on "Mozart's Letters"...
personally i think it's quite hard... not only 'coz the so-called English original is already a Translated Text... but also the languages Mozart used and the word-play he had... it might be easier to translate from German (and also some Italian and French as i know... ) to English but it would be totally different if putting it in the Chinese context.
one excerpt my classmate showed is as follows:
"So if you want to send a reply to me from that town of Augsburg yonder, you see, then write at once, the sooner the better, so that I may be sure to receive your letter, or else if I'm gone I'll have the bad luck, instead of a letter to get some muck. Muck! -Muck! - Ah, muck! Oh, sweet word! Muck! Chuck! That too 'is fine. Muck, chuck!-muck!-suck-oh, charmante! muck, suck! That's what I like! Muck, chuck and suck! Chuck muck and suck muck"
Attention was paid to the three words: muck, chuck and suck...
The Chinese version reads: 糞蛆、垃圾、污泥... which was criticized as almost 'total failure'... first of all... the rhyme's lost... the meaning's not the same... and so and so... but this raised another question... does the English convey the original German meaning? or the English itself already altered "something" to make the... say... rhyme and filthy context vivid in English? Prof. Tung said we had no way to check the German and to compare it... and since German and English are from the same root... the words, she supposed, the choice of English words... such as the rhyme and the meanings should be able to reflect the German 'spirit'... but it wouold be too difficult for translating them into Chinese... can's note: Total Agree! Prof. Tung added that the Chinese translation itself did not seem right... though they're all talking about dirty things but the degree or nature of that dirty things may not be comparable... and this differs from the English version...
As I'm too interested in this, I checked the German Original!!!! It reads:
wenn sie mir also wolln antworten, aus der stadt Augsburg dorten, so schreiben sie mir baldt, damit ich den brief erhalt, sonst wenn ich etwa schon bin weck, bekomme ich statt eincn brief einen dreck. dreck! - - dreck! - o dreck! - o süsses wort! - dreck! - schmeck! - auch schön! - dreck, schmeck! - dreck! - leck - o charmante! - dreck, leck! - das freüet mich! - dreck, schmeck und leck! - schmeck dreck, und leck dreck!
Brilliant!!!! The three words are: dreck, schmeck, leck... The first and last one are correct but not the middle one.
Dreck, a noun, usu. meaning is mud or muckiness.Leck, a noun, meaning 'leakage' or 'seepage' BUT it is also a slang or colloquial bad language. It acts as a VERB in 'Leck mich am Arsch!' meaning 'Kiss my ass'(or similar meaning). This 'bad' phrase once appeared in Mozart's song and thus I think 'Leck' here should be a verb. That is, personally I think the word 'suck' the translator used is referring to its 'verb' meaning instead of noun, as appears in the Chinese translation.For the middle word, it spells "schmeck" which is wrong. Possible answers may be "schneck", an Austrian langauge meaning slug; or "schmeckt", singular verb form for "to taste" (so far as I know, it is related to food! e.g. The tea tastes good). So I think it is possible that the word 'chuck' the translator used may also refer to the verb form instead of the noun form (as my classmate showed the class).
In fact the last "sentence" gives us clue that schmeck and leck (or chuck and suck) are probably verbs based on basic grammar... if two nouns go together... the first one is describing / giving further explanation to the second one... e.g. Music Class = a class of music... thus the suggestion of "verb forms" follows the context more reasonably than the suggestion of "noun forms" as translated in the Chinese version.This may be another Translation Issue. The German original here only helps us to (maybe) understand more or get a closer meaning to the author. But simply from the English version, we can indeed discover the 'verb' and 'noun' issues especially when having a deeper look at the author or the author's other works (issues like little formal education, rude, relationship with father, family, etc.).The Chinese translation here failed to convey the meaning and taste of the source text not just because the choice of words are awkward as we discussed but the translator also failed to taste the real bit of Mozart.
Try thinking the three words again in "Muck (noun), Chuck (verb! or replace it with the German original [let's take it as 'taste']), Suck (verb!)" and probably you can better understand what Mozart's playing with his cousin, the one whom he might have once felt in love with.
Very nice indeed... naughty but witty...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
back from shanghai
i'm back! but not from a vacation!!
this year's easter overlapped with our ching ming festival n thus could go no where...
n unfortunately... a business trip "touched the edge" of my holiday!! >< n i'm not yet told of any compensation leave... probably no... it would indeed be possibly... poor me...
after the so-called five days' holiday.... i'm even more tired than before!!!!
first day of the holiday: went for a "spa" treatment... not really a spa :P just a massage section... n is part of 'chinese medical treatment'... then had lunch with mum n aunties... after that went for a hair treatment... both color n treatment... another three hours (almost!)... then shopped for the kids' "bon bon" with mum... when back home... it's already half six!!
second day of the holiday: had a long sleep till 10!!! yoga... n at the same time watching japanese tv drama.. :P lunch... shopped with mum.. tried to find a suitable vast but failed... then went to Taikoo shing for the movie "sunshine" with tim... great show i think... at least i think 真田広之 is very cool... though not that much acting... :P home for dinner as i needed more time for packing things! :P
third day of the holiday: early departure! got the 8:40am ship(?) / ferry (?) to Zhuhai... arrived there at ~10:00am... 'poorly' we're the 1st arriving there so we went to "yum cha"... went to visit my great grand mother at the age of 96... she couldn't recognise us this year.. last year she was sleeping when we were there... the year before last... she recognised me as my mum... set off to the... wht should it be called? it's neither a graveyard nor a cemetery... but a place for hosting the passed-away's ashes... set off at around 12:00noon... after a series of chinese customs... we finished the 'ceremony' and had lunch at 1:30pm... a very long lunch that we proabbly finished at around 3:30pm... then we went to Zhongshan... in fact there's no point for us to go to Zhongshan... as we should be in Macau the day after... but why? 'coz my uncle's going to give us a ride to Macau n he had bought a 'villa' (as called by himself) in Zhongshan... :P dinner with relatives (we drove from Zhuhai to Zhongshan together! :P) n dunno why finally still a quite late sleep...
fourth day of the holiday: early departure again!!! set off at 8:30am... n arrived Macau at 10:00am... had breakfast nearby... then WAITED!!! at home... wait for what? my youngest uncle n his family.... anyway... we went to the graveyard... n various temples... n carried out all the customs... n... we MISSED LUNCH TIME!!! so after all the stuff... we went for the egg tarts and cakes and lemonades and yoghurt!!! a "NOT GOOD" dinner.... don't follow those guides... we booked our 'usual' restaurant not early enough... n thus cannot make a table early.... n then we tried to find another restaurant nearby by looking at those guidebooks... n then find a really.... not-good-at-all one... so we decided not going back anymore... went to the pier quite early... at around half eight... but waited inside the pier for hours!! 'coz our tickets were at 1:30am...
fifth day of the holiday: day set off for SH.... long time haven't been to SH... but unfortunately my schedule's too tight that i didn't have much time spend on leisure! had a hair shampoo in the salon... then had lunch with mum n steve... then rushed to the airport! flied to SH n really poorly my boss got his ankle hurt n was in a wheelchair... n thus... as the other guy was holding all the luggages... i was the one taking after the wheelchair!!!
SH trip's quite funny... though busy.... will post in another post!
this year's easter overlapped with our ching ming festival n thus could go no where...
n unfortunately... a business trip "touched the edge" of my holiday!! >< n i'm not yet told of any compensation leave... probably no... it would indeed be possibly... poor me...
after the so-called five days' holiday.... i'm even more tired than before!!!!
first day of the holiday: went for a "spa" treatment... not really a spa :P just a massage section... n is part of 'chinese medical treatment'... then had lunch with mum n aunties... after that went for a hair treatment... both color n treatment... another three hours (almost!)... then shopped for the kids' "bon bon" with mum... when back home... it's already half six!!
second day of the holiday: had a long sleep till 10!!! yoga... n at the same time watching japanese tv drama.. :P lunch... shopped with mum.. tried to find a suitable vast but failed... then went to Taikoo shing for the movie "sunshine" with tim... great show i think... at least i think 真田広之 is very cool... though not that much acting... :P home for dinner as i needed more time for packing things! :P
third day of the holiday: early departure! got the 8:40am ship(?) / ferry (?) to Zhuhai... arrived there at ~10:00am... 'poorly' we're the 1st arriving there so we went to "yum cha"... went to visit my great grand mother at the age of 96... she couldn't recognise us this year.. last year she was sleeping when we were there... the year before last... she recognised me as my mum... set off to the... wht should it be called? it's neither a graveyard nor a cemetery... but a place for hosting the passed-away's ashes... set off at around 12:00noon... after a series of chinese customs... we finished the 'ceremony' and had lunch at 1:30pm... a very long lunch that we proabbly finished at around 3:30pm... then we went to Zhongshan... in fact there's no point for us to go to Zhongshan... as we should be in Macau the day after... but why? 'coz my uncle's going to give us a ride to Macau n he had bought a 'villa' (as called by himself) in Zhongshan... :P dinner with relatives (we drove from Zhuhai to Zhongshan together! :P) n dunno why finally still a quite late sleep...
fourth day of the holiday: early departure again!!! set off at 8:30am... n arrived Macau at 10:00am... had breakfast nearby... then WAITED!!! at home... wait for what? my youngest uncle n his family.... anyway... we went to the graveyard... n various temples... n carried out all the customs... n... we MISSED LUNCH TIME!!! so after all the stuff... we went for the egg tarts and cakes and lemonades and yoghurt!!! a "NOT GOOD" dinner.... don't follow those guides... we booked our 'usual' restaurant not early enough... n thus cannot make a table early.... n then we tried to find another restaurant nearby by looking at those guidebooks... n then find a really.... not-good-at-all one... so we decided not going back anymore... went to the pier quite early... at around half eight... but waited inside the pier for hours!! 'coz our tickets were at 1:30am...
fifth day of the holiday: day set off for SH.... long time haven't been to SH... but unfortunately my schedule's too tight that i didn't have much time spend on leisure! had a hair shampoo in the salon... then had lunch with mum n steve... then rushed to the airport! flied to SH n really poorly my boss got his ankle hurt n was in a wheelchair... n thus... as the other guy was holding all the luggages... i was the one taking after the wheelchair!!!
SH trip's quite funny... though busy.... will post in another post!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
FINA World Championships (2)
(moved from elsewhere)
Japan got silver in Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay... sort of unbelievable... and even more... they just lagged Australia 0.23 seconds... though not that small... but smaller gap than what they led Russia!
Noticed anything wrong? probably you know it... USA was disqualified... the reason... Crocker jumped too fast... and further reason? 1) possibly (be more 'cautious' when using these two words: probably and possibly after watching the Pursuit of Happyness) not much practice in handover 2) probably they're behind Japan after the breaststroke... but indeed it isn't strange!! it's just a Heat and Hansen's 'sick'... but Kitajima's swimming hard!!
anyway, without the USA... sorry to say... the Final became more exciting and interesting to watch!! :P
Japan was in the 4th lane!!!! God!!! This lane seemed to have given the Japanese power to fight for the medals!
Morita's start was good... at least lead for a while... finished the fourth... 54.76 fine.. his norm... (i didn't remember his exact result in Athens.. but probably he's not working out his best in this whole event) then Kitajima had a real wonderful performance... not even picked up the 1st position.. but he finished at 59.23!!!!!! in fact broke the 100m breaststroke CR already! And just a 0.1s lag the WR! If he swam this in his individuals, he should have got one more Gold! Then it came to Yamamoto... another great guy... as steve said, 'i remember his face 'coz he had stepped on the "medallist's stairs" in other international games before!' He said in a news that he kept telling himself to swim hard to 'defense' the 1st position for his teammate! He did it in 51.9, his best time in this event. Same as Kitajima, if he swam like this in his Individuals, he might have chance to fight for a medal, which he should have enough 'power' to fight for one but dunno what happened to his Heats.
Anyway, I guess the Freestyle swimmer also worked very hard... we all witnessed how he became the 2nd then the 3rd... and almost the 4th... even the commentary said that Japan might lose the medal even their first three swimmers did a good job...
but somehow... that freestyle guy just got some 'force' and 'power' to swim!! and caught up the Russia! and even 'invading' the Aussie!
Finally from the TV... it's quite unbelievable that the Aussie and Japan almost touched together (you know... from TV.. bare eye can't distinguish too small differences)...
Only 0.23s lagged the Aussie... and that's why... the King of Breaststroke... steve said he really swam like a frog... :P Kitajima-san said they are 'swimming' toward Beijing! btw... they broke the Japanese record...
just wonder if China can hv some result in swimming too? the Japanese and Korean Asian game medallists have some performances.. at least some.. like entering the Finals... where's ours? besides the Women's Team and Wu Peng?
anyway.... looking forward to Beijing!!! ^_^
P.S. mushroom's asking me to join her as a volunteer... i plan to do so too... just worrying if we r qualified.. as i know... they require 'sports background' ppl....
Japan got silver in Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay... sort of unbelievable... and even more... they just lagged Australia 0.23 seconds... though not that small... but smaller gap than what they led Russia!
Noticed anything wrong? probably you know it... USA was disqualified... the reason... Crocker jumped too fast... and further reason? 1) possibly (be more 'cautious' when using these two words: probably and possibly after watching the Pursuit of Happyness) not much practice in handover 2) probably they're behind Japan after the breaststroke... but indeed it isn't strange!! it's just a Heat and Hansen's 'sick'... but Kitajima's swimming hard!!
anyway, without the USA... sorry to say... the Final became more exciting and interesting to watch!! :P
Japan was in the 4th lane!!!! God!!! This lane seemed to have given the Japanese power to fight for the medals!
Morita's start was good... at least lead for a while... finished the fourth... 54.76 fine.. his norm... (i didn't remember his exact result in Athens.. but probably he's not working out his best in this whole event) then Kitajima had a real wonderful performance... not even picked up the 1st position.. but he finished at 59.23!!!!!! in fact broke the 100m breaststroke CR already! And just a 0.1s lag the WR! If he swam this in his individuals, he should have got one more Gold! Then it came to Yamamoto... another great guy... as steve said, 'i remember his face 'coz he had stepped on the "medallist's stairs" in other international games before!' He said in a news that he kept telling himself to swim hard to 'defense' the 1st position for his teammate! He did it in 51.9, his best time in this event. Same as Kitajima, if he swam like this in his Individuals, he might have chance to fight for a medal, which he should have enough 'power' to fight for one but dunno what happened to his Heats.
Anyway, I guess the Freestyle swimmer also worked very hard... we all witnessed how he became the 2nd then the 3rd... and almost the 4th... even the commentary said that Japan might lose the medal even their first three swimmers did a good job...
but somehow... that freestyle guy just got some 'force' and 'power' to swim!! and caught up the Russia! and even 'invading' the Aussie!
Finally from the TV... it's quite unbelievable that the Aussie and Japan almost touched together (you know... from TV.. bare eye can't distinguish too small differences)...
Only 0.23s lagged the Aussie... and that's why... the King of Breaststroke... steve said he really swam like a frog... :P Kitajima-san said they are 'swimming' toward Beijing! btw... they broke the Japanese record...
just wonder if China can hv some result in swimming too? the Japanese and Korean Asian game medallists have some performances.. at least some.. like entering the Finals... where's ours? besides the Women's Team and Wu Peng?
anyway.... looking forward to Beijing!!! ^_^
P.S. mushroom's asking me to join her as a volunteer... i plan to do so too... just worrying if we r qualified.. as i know... they require 'sports background' ppl....
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