Help translating a sentence

[Don_Horhe]

I have the following sentence in on of my textbooks and although I think I do get the meaning, I have no idea how to translate the part in bold into idiomatic English (or idiomatic Bulgarian for that matter ).

人类的身体结构就是为步行设计的，直立行走是猿进化到人的革命性标志。

[Kenny同志]

人类的身体结构就是为步行设计的，直立行走是猿进化到人的革命性标志。

The structure of human body is uniquely designed for upright walking which revolutionarily marked that we were no longer chimps.

The original expression is unscientific, for the structure of human body is clearly not designed exclusively for our walking upright. So I think it can be refined hmm, as

人类的身体结构适合直立行走，这是猿进化成人的标志。

My translation also seems questionable for the same reason.

Hope someone can post a better one.

Edited October 21, 2009 at 10:55 AM by kenny2006woo

[fanglu]

This is quite difficult because of the awkward use of evolution and revolution together.

My attempt:

The structure of the human body is designed for walking. Walking upright is a symbol of the massive evolutionary leap in the development of humans from apes.

I have tried to deal with this by inserting the words 'massive [...] leap' which I think captures the idea of 革命性 and avoids the use of 'revolutionary'.

[James Johnston]

The original sentence is horrible. The combination of revolution and evolution is unfortunate, but typical of Marxist historiography in which all of human history is a revolutionary struggle. However, 'revolutionary' also has a more colloquial and hyperbolic meaning of 'new in an exciting way'.

I'm not sure of the full connotations of 设计 but if translated as 'design', then I think it really shouldn't be used in combination with 'evolution'.

I'd go with this translation, but it's probably 'better' than the original Chinese:

The morphology and physiology of the human body are ideally suited to bipedalism, a revolutionary characteristic which marked the evolution of humans from apes.

'morphology and physiology' is perhaps a bit technical. It might be easier just to stick with 'structure'.

Edited October 20, 2009 at 02:07 PM by James Johnston

[Don_Horhe]

Thanks a lot! It makes sense now, knowing that 革命性 can be used the way James pointed out. This was my initial try at it, with 革命性 untranslated:

人类的身体结构就是为步行设计的，直立行走是猿进化到人的革命性标志。

The structure of the human body is designed for walking, and walking upright is a 革命性 indication of the evolution of humans from apes.

Edit

For those that might be curious, the original text is called 发现步行之美 by a certain 赵源民.

[fanglu]

I'm not sure of the full connotations of 设计 but if translated as 'design', then I think it really shouldn't be used in combination with 'evolution'.

Yes, it carries unfortunate political connotations in some places.

[animal world]

I'm not sure of the full connotations of 设计 but if translated as 'design', then I think it really shouldn't be used in combination with 'evolution'.

That's all good and well for followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster but i could imagine some right-wingers cringing and translating this as "intelligent design."

[buanryoh]

人类的身体结构就是为步行设计的，直立行走是猿进化到人的革命性标志。

The human body was designed to walk upright - marking a revolutionary step in evolution from ape to man.

Edited October 21, 2009 at 07:54 AM by buanryoh