12-22-2010 16:18 BJT
BY CHARLIE CUSTER (葛亚辉)
English-speaking residents of Beijing's immense Chaoyang district have, for years now, been amused by its English slogan: "Civilized Chaoyang, magnificent with me." But according to this article in the Global Times, Chaoyang's civilized, magnificent days are numbered (at least in English). The district government is planning to eliminate the English translation from billboards, on the grounds that it is confusing and makes it sound like the other districts of Beijing are barbaric.
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The English, or perhaps Chinglish, that's kept Chaoyang foreigners chuckling comes from the Chinese motto of Chaoyang, which is "文明朝阳，精彩有我” . And we have to admit, it's a pretty hard phrase to translate into English without sounding awkward. Wénmíng does mean civilized, more or less, and jīngcǎi means exciting or magnificent. The idea behind the Chinese motto is that Chaoyang is a classy, cultured, and exciting place, and that we're all a part of that. But it doesn't really come across in the translation.
Still, the government translators could have done worse. "Civilized Chaoyang, magnificent with me" sounds fantastic compared to the stuff automatic translators spit out when I ran the Chinese motto through them for kicks. Here are the results:
Google Translate suggests: "Civilization sun, with my wonderful."
Google loses points all over the board here. They've turned wénmíng into a noun (it isn't one in this Chinese sentence) and they apparently don't know that Chaoyang is a place name. As for "with my wonderful," it doesn't really make any sense. On the other hand, the whole thing sounds kind of cool, an an abstract sort of way... C-.
Babelfish suggests: "Civilized Chaoyang, has me splendidly."
It's impressive that an online translation service managed to render the first half of Chaoyang's motto in the exact same way the government did, but the second half is less elegant. "Has me splendidly" might be interpreted as "the city has captured my imagination," but it also sounds a little like the speaker has been kidnapped. B.
Bing.com suggests: "Civilization I Chaoyang, wonderful."
I guess if you're not going to bother translating the sentiment, you might as well just throw all the buzzwords in together at random, and see what comes out. I would give this an F, but maybe Bing prefers Dadaist translations. Or maybe it's meant to be ironic.
According to the Global Times article, some foreigners are complaining that as an international city, Beijing's districts should have English mottoes, too. That's all well and good, but you try translating "文明朝阳，精彩有我" into natural-sounding English. If you come up with something good, let us know. Until then, stay magnificent.
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