Much ado about nothing

zhong_bide
July 19, 2010, 04:39 AM posted in General Discussion

A teacher at one of my schools has asked me if I know where to find a Chinese translation of the Shakespearean play "Much Ado About Nothing".

I have searched but could only find a translation of the title.  Does anybody know if there is a whole play translation availble on the internet somewhere?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Profile picture
johnb
July 19, 2010, 08:33 AM

This looks to be it. Once you have the title in Chinese, a good bet is to Google it along with "全文" (full text) -- that's often how I find stuff. 

Hope this helps.

Profile picture
bababardwan

great tip johnb...thankyou...I'll have to remember that. ...and cool find [looks like you have to download it]

Profile picture
johnb

Glad to be of help. You don't have to download it, though... just click on the 第一章, 第二章, etc. links (they're not terribly easy to find amidst the annoying ads, unfortunately).

Profile picture
zhong_bide

Johnb: Thanks so much for finding this. The year 10's (15 year olds) are studying it in English this semester, and 2 chinese kids have just joined the class. How unlucky for them to get Shakespeare first up! Poor sods.

Profile picture
bababardwan

the Kenneth Branagh 1993 movie of this play is one of my all-time favourite movies. I've just searched the net and found subtitles in umpteen languages for it but alas so far none for Chinese. There are still lots of subtitles sites. I'm not sure if they could find a Chinese subtitled version they could order from China which may help.

Profile picture
orangina

I brought all 10 movies I own to China with me... that is one of them! Sadly, no Chinese subtitles.

Profile picture
bababardwan

ok, this will show you that at least there is such a thing as this film having subtitles:

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/medias/nmedia/18/36/14/15/18455665.jpg&imgrefurl=http://i.mtime.com/533383/blog/1459682/&usg=__7UYRAEERsgoRMhxOKxWSMUOCaco=&h=800&w=600&sz=78&hl=en&start=1&sig2=0pavi3ks2fZy98-6GYB4WQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=cJhEej4If8p0IM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25E6%2597%25A0%25E4%25BA%258B%25E7%2594%259F%25E9%259D%259E%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=Q51FTLDdK4G-sQPe14X_AQ

Profile picture
bababardwan
July 20, 2010, 01:12 PM

Profile picture
orangina

吖!做平静了我跳的心脏!

Profile picture
orangina

ok, So the title in Chinese is 都是男人惹的祸。Not what I would have chosen, but quite apt. I like it.

Profile picture
bababardwan

actually there some to be a couple of other titles as well:

抱得有情郎

还有:

无事生非

其实,我觉得最后的翻译是最好的

Profile picture
bababardwan

"吖!做平静了我跳的心脏!"

...意思在英语是“be still my beating heart" ,对吧?。。如果没错,为什么你写这样? 是因为你很激动看到中文字幕还是你喜欢谁的演员?

Profile picture
orangina

我同意。对我的看法,“抱得有情郎” entirely misses the point.

都是男人惹的祸 covers one story line well, but not the other so much. Which is probably why Shakespeare went with 无事生非。

Profile picture
bababardwan

呵呵,yeah