Elementary - Dumb Joke
michele
November 20, 2007, 09:49 AM posted in General Discussion
Jokes are never as funny when they have to be explained, and it’s likely that a joke in Chinese is going to need an explanation. But what about a joke where there’s really nothing to get? Not only do you not feel dumb, but you actually get smarter, because you learn all the Mandarin associated with a “cold joke” in this podcast.
michele
February 22, 2008, 02:57 PMDumb Joke – Una freddura
A: ehi, te ne racconto una divertente, ascolta.
B: va bene!
A: c’era un tale che assomigliava ad una cipolla, e così ogni giorno piangeva.
B: e allora?
A: è finita, non è divertente?
B: ah? è proprio una freddura.. non fa ridere per niente!
1 ehi, io dico una special(mente) divertente storiella da te ascoltare 2 ehi, ti racconto una storiella divertente da ascoltare. 3 ehi, te ne racconto una divertente, ascolta.
1 笑话 xiàohuà could also be translated in a context like this into barzelletta but here I do prefer storiella, that means “a short anecdotical or humorous story, tale.
Two more words about 给你听 gěinǐtīng: in this word-for-word translation has become da te ascoltare (byyouto_listen), but in my first rough idea sounded like dare tu ascolto (give (me) your listening, your attention). I guess it’s actually wrong, nevertheless, dammi ascolto, should be perfect, if only there should be a comma to divide it from the remaining part of sentence; anyhow, isn’t funny? Indeed, so I decided for the last version ascolta…
2 quite near to the Chinese, but already sounds good in Italian.
3 very short, quite free translated, but that’s the most natural speaking like. Here it’s missing笑话 xiàohuà, becoming implicit, but the sentence it’s perfectly understandable in the context of a dialogue between two friends like this. I should use that if I’d like to tell such a story.
va bene! 1 una persona assomiglia ad una cipolla, perciò egli tutti i giorni piange. 2 c’era un tale che assomigliava ad una cipolla, e così ogni giorno piangeva.
2 Like in English “there was” c’era (passato imperfetto) it is the typical beginning of a story, so everyone understands you’re going to tell something.
一个人 yīgerén has become un tale (fellow, someone, chap), typicall in the beginning of a funny story, and it sounds much more better than the literal una persona.
e allora?
è finita, non è divertente?
1 ah? davvero freddo. un punto anche non divertente. 2 ah? è proprio una freddura.. non fa ridere per niente!
1 冷 lěng first meaning is freddo, but here it’s especially good freddura, that exactly means such a kind of a “dumb joke”!! That’s the real point that convinced me to choose this lesson!!
2 Could also be suitable the fully literal una vera freddura, but for me sounds a little better the more free è proprio una freddura (proprio means “just”, or in Chinese something like就jiù).
I first decided to translate 一点也不好笑 yīdiǎnyěbù hǎoxiào into non è divertente neanche un po’, correct and quite near to the original, but, indeed, not that fluent.. much better, it really sounds natural speaking non fa ridere per niente!
Notice: in some sentence there are different numbered line of translation,
-the first is almost a word-by-word translation, only a virtual starting point, to look at the structure of the sentence, having nothing to do to with a real Italian form. -the second is a more free and, often, it’s already a pretty good one, -and in some cases, the third, offers the better Italian form, the one I’ve eventually chosen.
Where only one line is visible, without any number, is a quite litteral translation, but already well going, in my opionion.