Dear Editor,

As your magazine comes with the English translation of its Chinese texts, I enjoy reading it as part of my academic pursuit in Chinese-English translation. I must first extend sincere thanks to your translators for presenting the reader with highly readable English texts.

In my bilingual reading, however, I noticed some improperly translated expressions that apparently failed to bring out the original meaning. In the first category, the English text reads all right and makes sense by itself. But when it is compared with the Chinese original, we found that the meaning is not at all what is carried in the source language. A typical case that exemplifies this category of improper translation can be singled out from "Patriot or Scaremonger?" (p.47, Vol. 19, No. 12, December 1994). In this case, “現在檯面上所能想得到的人”runs in the original, but is rendered as "a lot of people who are around now." Here too common a clich--"a lot of people who are around now"--has substituted for two units of meaning in Chinese. One is “檯面上的人”a Chinese colloquialism that literally refers to those "on the stage," but metaphorically public figures or officials. The other unit of meaning is “現在所能想得到的”--all those you can name now. The exact meaning of the Chinese expression is "all those public figures and officials you can name now." So the English translation not only limits the scope of people in question but, even worse, conceals their identity. This oversimplified translation has obviously distorted the Chinese author's idea when he is predicting who are the first to leave Taiwan in case of "an attack." In translating accounts on sensitive political topics, accuracy is above all required to avoid misunderstanding.

The second category of improper translation, although not as much misleading as the first one because its grammatically unassailable English makes no sense to the reader, also resulted from the translator's inability to comprehend the Chinese expressions. To illustrate this category, let's take a look at a sentence from "The Turmoil Over T-Day" (p. 44, Vol. 19, No. 12, December 1994). While the Chinese text reads

” 美國從來沒有和另一個核武國家在戰場 上 兵戎 相見 過

In the Chinese text, “ 在戰兵戎相見”is a euphemistic way of saying "to fight a battle or war against each other." Failing to see this, the translator just took the words at their face value and put them literally into English. In consequence, the euphemism is unwittingly copied only to render its English equivalent a meaningless sequence of words.

These tricky points I raised for discussion once again convince us that a good understanding of the original language is the basis for good translation. But at any measure, the translation of Sinorama is a strenuously demanding task given the magazine's faithful and detailed dedication to some unique features of Chinese culture. I am not denying the quality of the English translation of your magazine. On the contrary, I just want to add my bit to what has already been done excellently by your translators bridging the gap between Chinese and English.

Sincerely, Qishu Li, America

(Original letter in English)

Translators' Note: We would like to thank Mr. Li for his meticulous and thoughtful observations on our translations, although we disagree with his conclusion in the second case. It is a pleasure to discover serious and careful attention is paid to our work. We regretfully admit that, particularly due to constraints in time, occasional mistranslations are inevitable. We will work even harder to produce accurate translations, for only under the tutelage of our readers can our magazine continue to improve.