General Discussion - Chinese versus Australian idioms
Who has the best line in idioms? I am going to lose hands-down, but it could be fun. My inspiration is a book called 'On the smell of an oily rag' by Ouyang Yu, a Chinese perspective on translation challenges, written in English (if that makes sense.) The description 'poison pen' comes to mind (- 中文怎么说?) but it is wonderful stuff - I will share some from time to time,if there is any interest.
A Chinese proverb goes: 一百遮十丑 yi bai zhe shi chou (one white covers up ten uglinesses.) This is juxtaposed with an equally dodgy Australian saying: two Wongs do not make a white, which the author re-transates into Chinese as 两个黄和一个白不一样。
Tags: idioms, Australian vernacular,
Posted by bodawei August 23, 2009 in the Group General Discussion.
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