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Sentence #814506

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Comments

mark1003 mark1003 April 16, 2013 April 16, 2013 at 6:24:19 PM UTC link Permalink

As a native english speaker, the english translation of this sentence makes no sense to me, and it seems to be different from the Chinese version. (Maybe you want to say "give up IN your vain pursuit"?)

FeuDRenais FeuDRenais April 16, 2013 April 16, 2013 at 8:11:55 PM UTC link Permalink

IMO, "give up your vain pursuit" is okay. Repeating "give up" also seems to be okay. Another way to render this would be "Give up! Give up your vain pursuit!" if the pause is longer, but the comma works if a short pause is meant, which seems to be the case here.

shanghainese shanghainese April 16, 2013 April 16, 2013 at 9:32:35 PM UTC link Permalink

This translation is a modified variant of
http://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-ha...B7%B2%E8%80%8C

I guess, James Legge was competent enough in English :)

FeuDRenais FeuDRenais April 16, 2013 April 16, 2013 at 9:49:21 PM UTC link Permalink

I admit that I am fully incompetent in classical Chinese, but can you really translate 已而 as "give up your vain pursuit"?

The latter carries quite a lot of meaning, while 已而 is just two characters... Is it a sort of classical 成语?

mark1003 mark1003 April 17, 2013 April 17, 2013 at 12:53:03 AM UTC link Permalink

Actually, looking at it again now, give up your vain pursuit seems okay, sorry about that

shanghainese shanghainese April 17, 2013 April 17, 2013 at 5:00:31 AM UTC link Permalink

成语 most probably not (supposing that the madman's song to Confucius, whence the quote, was not known proverbially). I was about to agree that Legge overdid it, but then I checked again the basic meanings of 已

http://old.zhonga.ru/character/cn/160709

The translation is justifiable. In the context of the notorious vagueness of classical Chinese))

shanghainese shanghainese April 17, 2013 April 17, 2013 at 5:04:35 AM UTC link Permalink

@mark1003 No problem :)

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License: CC BY 2.0 FR

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This sentence was initially added as a translation of sentence #814504已而,已而!.

Give up, give up your vain pursuit!

added by shanghainese, March 28, 2011

linked by shanghainese, March 28, 2011