it's damn cold, I had to turn on the engine, and to my surprise and dismay, I had a coolant problem again. guess I will have to get up a little earlier tomorrow morning to have it fixed then.
just now, Jane asked me to help her out with a translation, ( I used to like to dabble in translating ,thought it fun and exciting to put my language skills in practice ) not any more, while still skeptical about my willingness and ability, Jane sent the material over. at the very first glance,I knew it was over my head, I was not interested in ,nor was I capable of doing it. it was a highly scholastic essay, not only was my Chinese not up for it, also my limited English skills,or more accurate, my never-trained translation skills were not ready for a piece of this difficulty.
Jane has been probably upset, not that she believed that I was the right guy who could get the job done, but that it was way too much for herself, I don't know if she has anyone helping her out now.
I have thought about languages,particularly, the mother tongue,Chinese, and my second language,English; I have also thought about the two worlds, the Chinese world and the English world, in which the two most widely spoken human languages exist, yet for historical reasons, for cultural reasons, for political reasons, for economic reasons...... few two human languages have as wide a gap as Chinese and English do. there are areas one should never try to bridge.
sorry,jane, my dream of being a translator has long died, because I believed the best translation is not to translate. translation should be the last profession in the world. |
