Premier translations

POSTED BY: K
UPDATED: Saturday, September 22, 2007 10:39
VIEWED: 28000
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BILLIAM

Sunday, January 5, 2003 7:18 AM

Ok, dou gai si makes it pretty sure its "should die". As for individual words, here goes:

Ni ta ma de: ni (you) ta (he/his) ma (mother) de (adverb? representing posession) it doesn't make sense word by word (pretty much Chinese/Japanese is like that), but as a phrase, its colloquialism for mofo

Tian xia shuo you de ren: tian (sky) xia (down) shuo you de (all of) ren (people)
tian xia is a phrase for everything on earth, I guess I rushed the initial translation, but the meaning is about the same. Shuo you de is kind of hard to do word(character) by word. For example, shuo yi means "so he then...". "You" by itself means (have), like "wo you yi ge" (I have one).

dou gai si: dou is like (also/too) gai (should) si (die)

ANDELONG

Sunday, January 5, 2003 7:35 PM

Thanks again, Billiam. This is very helpful. Although it doesn't exactly match my resource, it gives me a launching point to understanding my efforts.

LUCHANAN

Monday, January 6, 2003 2:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by billiam:
it doesn't make sense word by word (pretty much Chinese/Japanese is like that)

Actually, most of the time when you translate ANY language into another word by word it won't make much sense at all.

Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.

GAHERIS

Wednesday, January 8, 2003 4:12 AM

"tian xia shuo you de ren dou gai si"

I know this has already been done but to clear it up even more, Chinese is broken between individual words and phrases. Words are the building blocks but phrases give true meaning. So here goes.

Tian: means sky. Self explanatory

xia: down, below, under. "Tian xia" together is "under the sky"

suo you: A phrase that is inseparable. "Everything" "you" is to have for those nitpickers.

de: A modifier which indicates that whatever is "everything" belongs to "Tian xia"

ren: People, person, man... in this case "People"

doh: All

gai: should, deserve to.

si: Die. "Gai si" is basically "should die"

"Sky below everything has people deserve to die."
to wit
"Everybody deserves to die"
or
"Everyone under the sky should die"

-Gaheris

ANDELONG

Wednesday, January 8, 2003 1:24 PM

Very helpful, Gaheris. Thank you!

I am trying to teach myself the language. Your analysis will help me to assimilate the concepts I have found in the text.

QUIXOTE13

Thursday, January 9, 2003 2:21 AM

Hello,

New to this list and to Firefly, but I'm so glad there's this thread. I'm unable to get captioning when I watch Firefly, so I'm having a difficult time translating what they're saying due to their accents and grammatical creativity.

So, as long as you guys are providing captioned attempts at romanization of the Mandarin, I'll do my best to translate.

Take care,

Quixote13

QUIXOTE13

Thursday, January 9, 2003 2:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by CharlieBlue:
"Xiao" means "little." I know it sounds odd to translate it to "little little sister," but that's basically what it meant, I think. She's his little meimei.

It probably makes more sense to think of "mei mei" as meaning "younger sister," so it's like "little younger sister." Merely using a diminutive to make something more dear, like saying "Johnny" instead of "John" or "Juanita" instead of "Juana."

Take care,

Quixote13

Read deeper. Read Shoto Press. www.shotopress.com

JASONZZZ

Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:33 PM

.

JASONZZZ

Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:34 PM

bi zui = close lips

it's a command to zip up the flaps.

Quote:
darkangelslayer wrote:
Mal says something like "bizui", I forgot where, but it means shut up.

GOTTADANCE

Wednesday, January 29, 2003 7:13 AM

My son has been studying and writing Japenese for 4 years. He has friands that speak Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian, but no Chinese. Your translations are very enlightening. Thank you.

GottaDance

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