{"id":931,"date":"2011-08-07T15:35:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T19:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=931"},"modified":"2011-08-07T15:55:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T19:55:06","slug":"proverbs-six-of-one-half-dozen-of-the-other-%e8%ab%ba%e8%aa%9e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/proverbs-six-of-one-half-dozen-of-the-other-%e8%ab%ba%e8%aa%9e\/","title":{"rendered":"Proverbs: Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other (\u8afa\u8a9e)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Proverbs or \u8afa\u8a9e (y\u00e0ny\u016d)\u00a0provide invaluable insight into understanding both a language and a culture. They are a window into the very history and nature of language. Our euphemisms, insults, lessons and catch-phrases are all part of the immense dialogues that have progressed and lasted for decades, centuries, (and in Chinese’s case) millennium. Count the number of times a proverb, idiom or axiom is brought up in your day to day. Tons of times, right? It’s just part of who we are as people. We like to ad variety, wisdom and spice to what we say.<\/p>\n

Today I was talking to a native Taiwanese person, and reflecting upon the intense heat, said: “It’s hotter than Hades, today”, to which I received a blank stare. “Hades? What? What means that?” he responded. “\u4eca\u5929\u7684\u5929\u6c14\u5f88\u70ed\u201c I quickly responded in Chinese (Today’s weather is hot). “Oh oh”, he smiled, finally getting it. “\u5929\u6c14\u8ba9\u4f60\u89c9\u5f97\u7740\u6025\u7684” (zh\u00e1oj\u00ed de) or “The weather has you all hot and bothered”. Was that translation right, or was he making a Chinglish proverb? I thought it over, and then harked back on all the times I tried to turn a English proverb into a Chinese one…almost always without success. Why? Because our lexicons are vastly different, and as a result, the way we “turn” phrases reflects that discrepancy.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most proverbs don’t directly translate from Chinese to English and vice versa, although the logic behind them makes sense once you understand the background. The english proverb, “Kill two birds with one stone” does have an exact Chinese equivalent: \u4e00\u77f3\u4e8c\u9e1f (y\u00ecsh\u00ed’\u00e8rni\u01ceo), literally “one stone, two birds”, but is more commonly replaced with \u4e00\u4e3e\u4e24\u5f97 (y\u00ecj\u01d4li\u01cengd\u00e9) which literally means accomplish two actions in one.<\/p>\n

Aside from this example, however, there really aren’t too many direct translations within the proverb arena. The reasons for this are simple: different societies and culture, different languages, and a different time frame to establish a language. English is a dynamic language, that is a motley crue of latin, romance languages, nordic\/germanic and in the last century has been heavily influenced by immigration populations. Yet with Chinese, many of the idioms that we use today are either remnants from centuries ago, developed in different dynasties and regions, specific to what Chinese people were seeing and dealing with, or those quotes from the little red “Mao” book. Some are archaic, some are hilarious, but one this is for sure, they don’t translate both ways. If you’re an English speaker, just think of it as this: “Six of one, half dozen of the other” or to put it in Chinese \u201d\u5c3d\u7ba1\u5982\u6b64\u201c \uff08j\u01d0ngu\u01cen r\u00fac\u01d0)–it’s all the same.<\/p>\n