Student Translation Project
HKBU TIIS 2022
Translators' NOTE
Inspiration from Dr Wu
We are so thankful and grateful for the help from the author who is willing to waste her time to solve our translation problems. During our translation process, we found that there were some parts we are not sure of their meaning. For example, in the original text "離開電梯時，他遠遠看見了和姐拿着水桶和抹布，正向他那邊的辦公室走" can be literally translated into "When he got into the lift, he saw Alana walking toward his office with a bucket and rag." However, imagining the scene, we were confused about whether Prof So can see Alana if he is getting to the lift because Prof So should see Alana when he gets out of the lift but not when getting in the lift in a normal situation. Yet, after the conversation with the author, she pointed out that there is no mistake in the text as the scenes take part in the real office of the university. Therefore, we choose to keep the translation in our final version.
Name & Cultural items translations
For the translation of the character name, we have considered various approaches and come out with many different translations of the name “和姐”.Initially, we adopted literal translation by translating “和姐” into “Wo Jie”, “Wally” or “Sister Wo”. However, translated phonologically may not sound natural in the target text and help the target readers to understand the character better. Although “Ms. Wo” could be a safe and possible translation, it could be slightly misleading and make readers associate the name with someone who has high social status. As Prof Wu mentioned that every name has a unique meaning and purpose, the word “和” means harmony in Chinese, therefore we tried to reproduce this meaning by translating “和姐” into “Harmony”.However, we think the meaning could be too explicit, so we choose to translate “和姐” into “Alana”, which is a common English name with the meaning of harmony in Hawaiian.
Difficulties of doing collaborative translations
A collaborative translation approach was used in this translation project in which the text was separated into 6 parts. Each translator is in charge of 1 part. As each translator has their own writing and translating style, maintaining the consistency of the translation became our major challenge in this project. For example, "元" was translated into "dollar" or "buck" and "鈔票" was translated into "note" or "bill" by different translators. These translations are all acceptable as they all related to the tone and British or American English differences. To maintain the consistency of the translation, our group need to proofread the whole translation work to find out the inconsistent part and correct it.
Reflections
Through the story, readers can see the complexity of humanity. There are many contradictions in one’s behaviors and thoughts that can coexist. Readers can also rethink the life they want and which characters they want to be or which type of life they want to live. It is an inspirational and interesting story that is worth reading again and again. Readers can have a new discovery every time after reading.
Acknowledgment
Last but not least, we would like to give special thanks to Dr Marija for giving professional advice on the translation project, and Dr Wu for granting us the English copyright of the Chinese short story 好心人.