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中文挑战

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Initially I tried to make this back into a Chinese haiku but failed. I needed more than 5-7-5 syllables for the translation.

This thick armored skin

这层厚盔甲皮

You think it's ugly, but it

你觉得它难看, 可是它

guards my fragile heart

保护着我脆弱的心脏

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@jkhsu: I didn't even try to make the Chinese translation a haiku. That just sounds impossibly difficult.

I think 盔甲 suggests "suit of armor", since 盔 means helmet, but it's not exactly wrong.

I believe 心脏 refers to the heart as an organ. Again, not exactly wrong, but just 心 would retain the ambiguity of the original.

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@feihong: Thanks for the input. Some thoughts:

For "armored skin" what would be your suggested translation?

For 心脏: I chose 心脏 because I thought the poem was describing the heart as the physical organ. Why would a "thick armored ugly skin" protect a metaphysical heart? The only thing I can think of is if the term "thick skinned" was mentioned which might create that ambiguity. However, I can't see how how "thick armored skin" equates to "thick skinned". I guess if you just take the term "fragile heart" alone, it could refer to either.

I asked my native speaker friend and she said that if I kept it as just "心", it would most likely mean the metaphysical heart and not the physical heart. Anyways, that's why I went with 心脏 instead. I'm sure there are other interpretations but just giving you my reasoning.

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Do I need to know something about Godzilla to figure out the bonus? The picture is also really tiny so I'm not sure if there are details in there I need to know.

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