枭逢鸠 The Owl meets the pigeon (my English Translation)
枭逢鸠 The Owl meets the pigeon (my English Translation)
I just purchased a second hand book of 50 classical chinese stories translated into modern chinese.I'm translated the first into english and would like your thoughts on the translation and any comments I would like to have.
Shao Yuan (说苑) is a collection of writings put together by Liu Xiang (刘向) around 17 BC during the Western Han Dynasty (西汉)I'd appreciate your comments,and if you would like to see more of the stories as I try to translate them.
This is an initial translation and I hope to refine it,improving the English,but for now I just want to know if I capture the meaning and if you have any thoughts about what Chinese would think reading this story...
I did not do the modern chinese translation and base my English translation on it.If you have any comments on the modern Chinese translation I'd also be interested to know.
I include the Classical Chinese and modern chinese versions with my english version:
The owl meets the pigeon
Classical Chinese:
第一颗
枭逢鸠 - 说苑
枭逢鸠,鸠日:[子将安之?]枭日:[我将东徒.]鸠日:[何故?]枭日:[乡人皆恶我鸣,以故东徒.]鸠日:[子能
更鸣可矣;不能更鸣,东徒,犹恶子之声.]
Modern Chinese:
第一颗
枭逢鸠
猫头鹰遇见了斑鸠,斑鸠说:[你要到那裏去?]猫头鹰说:[我要搬到东面去.].斑鸠说:[为甚麽缘故呢?] 猫头鹰说:[村裏的人都讨厌我叫的声音,为了这个缘故,我要搬到东面去.]斑鸠说:[你要是能改变了叫的声音,那就好了; 要是不能改变叫的声音,就是搬到东面去,人还是讨厌你的声音的.]
The Owl meets the pigeon
English Translation by Malcolm (陈天歌)
The owl met the pigeon and the pigeon said "Where are you going?" The owl replied:"I must move to the east." The pigeon said “Really,what is the reason?" The owl replied "The village people all dislike the sound I make,therefore I must move to the East." The pigeon then said "You must change the sound you make to one that is good; if you go the east,the people there will also dislike your sound."
"As villagers here hate my sound a lot,I must move east." then P said "It would be more pragmatic to chance your voice initiatively than eschew your problems by escaping,if not,you would move again an...