# Translate this (Chinese?) writing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559 "2016-08-02T16:45:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/21 "2016-08-05T02:59:34Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I grew up speaking Chinese (but didn’t get very good at it). I do know this language is not modern/colloquial. Bits and pieces of it make sense, so either it’s deliberately archaic or just poorly translated… I don’t know enough to say. > > 情況來得是人性的 (the situation here is human nature) > 像晴房中的飛鳥 (like a bird in a clear room) > 我比自己想像一般 (i’m more normal than i thought) > 超然超出里中的 (beyond the transcendent/supernatural) > ?行屍走肉的人物 (??? zombie characters) I agree with Reply’s… reply. The quoted translation seems really fanciful to me. That could very well be the intended meaning, but I would not have derived that from the text. ---
**Author:** ![Anarcho\_Liberalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Anarcho\_Liberalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anarcho_Liberalist)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/22 "2016-08-05T16:47:05Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > I agree with Reply’s… reply. > > The quoted translation seems really fanciful to me. That could very well be the intended meaning, but I would not have derived that from the text. You are assuming the Chinese text was there first. I doubt that, until someone can confirm that it’s a traditional poem or something like that. Since it’s from an American scifi production it seems more likely that the screenwriters came up with the ‘translation’ first and then asked the first Chinese American they could find to write it up in Chinese characters. (The restaurant around the corner?) ---
**Author:** ![Anarcho\_Liberalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Anarcho\_Liberalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anarcho_Liberalist)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/23 "2016-08-05T17:10:59Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Whenever I come across some foreign language used as a prop in a movie, I typically post a question here if I can’t find an answer already posted online–just to see whether there was an attempt to have the writing somewhat meaningful to the plot or whether it might translate to something like ‘Meaningless writing–Yankee never know difference.’ Cool. So did you ever catch any leg pulling of that sort? I know for a fact that a tasteless game among my people (Dutch) is to provide some swear word when for instance a waiter in some tourist location abroad wants to know how to say ‘good morning’ or whatever in our language. Im not sure if Chinese share that sense of ‘humour’ I heard that Edward James Olmos’ character in Blade Runner (Gaff?) used a Hungarian profanity, but that may have been an intended joke. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/24 "2016-08-05T17:19:47Z")
He probably used [Monty Python’s Hungarian-English phrasebook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6D1YI-41ao). –Mark ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/25 "2016-08-05T17:34:39Z")
> [@Anarcho\_Liberalist](#): > > Cool. So did you ever catch any leg pulling of that sort? . . . . No jokes so far. Most of them have been somewhat close to the rendered translation, although a few (like this one) took a lot of artistic license. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/26 "2016-08-05T19:48:05Z")
> [@Anarcho\_Liberalist](#): > > You are assuming the Chinese text was there first. I doubt that, until someone can confirm that it’s a traditional poem or something like that. Since it’s from an American scifi production it seems more likely that the screenwriters came up with the ‘translation’ first and then asked the first Chinese American they could find to write it up in Chinese characters. (The restaurant around the corner?) I think that’s what we both meant, that the eloquent English was butchered in translation into Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559/27 "2016-08-05T21:25:48Z")
> [@Anarcho\_Liberalist](#): > > Cool. So did you ever catch any leg pulling of that sort? There was a story last year about precisely that on a mainstream TV show - I think it was \*Homeland \*? Basically your basic “american spies fight brown terrorists” show. For scenes set in the middle east they asked for Arabic/Urdu graffiti, and their hired help obliged with gems like “this show is racist”, “Homeland is a joke except it’s not funny”, “the reality is nothing like this” and so on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-this-chinese-writing/761559.md?page=1)