Lu Posted October 30, 2014 at 10:49 AM Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 at 10:49 AM In the book I'm currently translating, a range of people is fired. One of them, a mayor, is very surprised and has no idea how that has come about. Then, 待了解,才知道前不久市里创建[big project]时,他一句话传达下去,错中出错,把一个在市政府门口静坐的妇女给关进了拘留所。 I translated this approximately as 'Eventually, he learned that it was because of a remark of his, when the city government had recently been working on realising [big project]. That remark had been passed on from one government body to the next. Mistake had been added on mistake, and a woman who had been holding a sit-in in front of the city hall had been locked up in jail.' I thought this was correct (I changed a bit here and there for stylistic reasons), but there is also an English translation, which is so different that now I'm not sure. My questions: - does 错中出错 mean 'mistake upon mistake, more mistakes are added to the first mistake [with a bad result]'? Or something else? - am I right that 传达下来 here means his remark is passed from one 机构 to the next, and so on? This is what happened in a previous chapter, but the English translates it rather differently here. - Is my translation largely correct (apart from stylistic changes)? Thanks for any help. This is from a short chapter that's giving me a lot more trouble than it should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted October 30, 2014 at 04:22 PM Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 at 04:22 PM Is it possible that it is a typo? We usually say 忙中出錯 or 忙中有錯. That would make more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted October 30, 2014 at 09:17 PM Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 at 09:17 PM It's probably not a typo, this author does that kind of thing a lot, so that sounds like the clue I've been hoping for. And 忙中出错 means 'in his haste he overlooked something/made a mistake' right? Thank you, that should help a lot in resolving this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted November 4, 2014 at 11:10 AM Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 at 11:10 AM Could you use Chinese whispers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted November 4, 2014 at 11:50 AM Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 at 11:50 AM I now translated it as 'Bij die fout was een fout gemaakt' ('A mistake was made with that mistake'). Which does justice to the style I think, and gets the meaning across alright. This book is easy to read but really hard to translate well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.