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Thread: Weird english translations of a wuxia name or term

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    Senior Member Ghaleon's Avatar
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    Default Weird english translations of a wuxia name or term

    What is the most weird/funny translation of a wuxia name or term?

    The most weird one for me is "Simon the Snowblower" - Sai Mun Chui Suet. When I first saw it I was like

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ganryu View Post
    What is the most weird/funny translation of a wuxia name or term?

    The most weird one for me is "Simon the Snowblower" - Sai Mun Chui Suet. When I first saw it I was like
    I found that one very amusing, too.

    In Chapter 1 of the English translation of Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber here in the translation forum, there's a Quanzhen sword maneuver translated as "Celestial Gentry Topping Apart". I want to take a look at the original Chinese text to see if I can figure out where that translation came from.

    EDIT: Your other thread about samurai in China reminded me of watching The Spirit of the Sword (the tv series based on Rinsing Flowers and Purifying Swords). In that series the English subtitles keep referring to the Japanese samurai's homeland as "Paradise". I'm not sure why. I've never heard anyone saying Ri4 ben3 guo2 as the country name, so perhaps they're using an older word for Japan.
    Last edited by sniffles; 01-15-09 at 02:34 PM.
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Senior Member PJ's Avatar
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    Wei Xiaobao as Wilson Bond
    忽见柳荫下两个小孩子在哀哀痛哭,瞧模样正是武敦儒、武修文兄弟。郭芙大声叫道:「喂,你们在干甚麽?」武 修文回头见是郭芙,哭道:「我们在哭,你不见麽?」

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    Yeah I saw that too.
    It was on the Stephen Chow movie version of it I think.

    They also translated Ao Bai (鳌拜) as O'Brien.

    I thought both were just wonderful!

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    Senior Member PJ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aventinus View Post
    They also translated Ao Bai (鳌拜) as O'Brien.
    Instant Classic!!
    忽见柳荫下两个小孩子在哀哀痛哭,瞧模样正是武敦儒、武修文兄弟。郭芙大声叫道:「喂,你们在干甚麽?」武 修文回头见是郭芙,哭道:「我们在哭,你不见麽?」

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    Senior Member flamer's Avatar
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    无往而不利 as cannot be put to a disadvantage...

    Sorry PJ.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sniffles View Post
    EDIT: Your other thread about samurai in China reminded me of watching The Spirit of the Sword (the tv series based on Rinsing Flowers and Purifying Swords). In that series the English subtitles keep referring to the Japanese samurai's homeland as "Paradise". I'm not sure why. I've never heard anyone saying Ri4 ben3 guo2 as the country name, so perhaps they're using an older word for Japan.
    Did 蓬萊 (fung loi / penglai) ever get used as another name for Japan (日本). That might be why they used "paradise" as a translation.

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    Senior Member PJ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by flamer View Post
    无往而不利 as cannot be put to a disadvantage...
    Nice!
    忽见柳荫下两个小孩子在哀哀痛哭,瞧模样正是武敦儒、武修文兄弟。郭芙大声叫道:「喂,你们在干甚麽?」武 修文回头见是郭芙,哭道:「我们在哭,你不见麽?」

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    Senior Member flamer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PJ View Post
    Nice!
    Indeed. In a thread named:

    Weird english translations of a wuxia name or term

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    In the English subs for Bi Xue Jian 2007, Qingqing's name is always translated as "Greeny".

    That leads me to a variation on this topic: Why do English subs sometimes translate names as approximations of their literal meanings, and other times leave them in pinyin? I don't understand it. In The Spirit of the Sword, Zhu'er's name is always translated as Pearl. She's the only character in the entire series whose name is handled this way; all the other character names are shown in pinyin. And in BXJ they translated several names besides Qingqing's, but other character names were left in pinyin. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, unless some names are just harder to translate easily into a one or two word phrase.
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    In Zhang Jizhong's TLBB 03, the Malaysian DVD edition named Ah Zi as "Purple". While it's not a bad literal translation, surely "Violet" would have been a nicer name?

    I also loved the ROCH translation which termed Yang Guo's "Ching Goon" into a green hat "Look Mou" =)

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    In the English fansubs for The Spirit of the Sword, the imperial "secret police" (I don't know the Chinese words) are referred to as the Gestapo.

    My husband and I found that pretty amusing, though I guess it's a pretty good choice to convey just how ruthless they are.
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Ganryu's thread about this movie just reminded me: My DVD copy of the Jet Li movie based on HSDS is titled Kung Fu Colt Master.
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Senior Member Ghaleon's Avatar
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    Yeah it is a major misspelling of "cult" on their part. The new english title is now "Evil Cult".

    In that movie, they also used interesting english names for some of the martial arts like Lunar scroll & Solar stance

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ganryu View Post
    Yeah it is a major misspelling of "cult" on their part. The new english title is now "Evil Cult".

    In that movie, they also used interesting english names for some of the martial arts like Lunar scroll & Solar stance
    I need to go watch that movie again.
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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    Jiang Hu - "The world of River and Lake"

    Ta Ma ... (the phrase for 'your mama') - "Tamardy!"

    Those are from the English translation of DoMD.

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    Senior Member sniffles's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Qin_Shu_Bao View Post
    Jiang Hu - "The world of River and Lake"
    I don't think that one is weird - just overly literal.

    The English subtitles for Chinese Paladin / Xian Jian Qi Xia Zhuan turned Xiaoyao into "Freeman", and Ah Qi into "Seven".
    你看这些云彩,聚了又散,散了又聚,人生离合也是一样。

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