有人建议“龙”不应该翻译成 dragon，而要用loong

最近拜读了华东师范大学传播学院教师黄佶的论文，使我有机会了解了一下大陆知识分子的思想动态。

黄佶的论文摘要：
“龙” 不应该翻译成 dragon。Dragon 的本意是凶残的有翼巨兽、恶魔、悍妇等。中国人在外国人面前自称 dragon，是自我妖魔化。“龙”也不应该翻译成 long。Long 的英文发音不是“龙”，而是“狼”，这不是真正的音译。“龙”应该翻译成 loong，它的发音和“龙”相近，在英文中本来就是“龙”字的音译，如著名武术家李小龙的英文名字是“Lee Siu Loong”。有些西方人也把龙称为 loong。Loong 的两个“O”字母象龙的两只眼睛，loong 使人联想到 long(长)，所以它也是一个象形文字，和汉字特色相通。而 long 在形象上是独眼龙。本文归纳了龙和 Dragon 之间最重要的五个差别，并尝试着给出了“Loong”的英文解释。

“龙”是中华民族的象征，在中译英时，“龙”被翻译成 Dragon。但是在英文中，dragon 是邪恶的有翼怪物，还有“凶暴的人，悍妇”等含义。在图画中，dragon 的身躯庞大笨拙，颜色是黑灰色的，长着巨大的翅膀，口中吐火，吞噬人和动物，非常丑陋恐怖，和中国的龙完全两样。 中国人在西方人面前自称“Dragon”或“Descendants of the Dragon”（龙的传人（后裔）)，西方人当然要把中国人看成是恶魔和坏人了。所以我们再也不能把“龙”翻译成“Dragon”了！ 建议今后也不要再把英文单词 dragon 翻译成中文的“龙”，可以对它进行音译，如“得拉根”，解释是：“西方神话中凶恶的带翼巨兽”。

我有话说：
用loong 来翻译“龙”的想法有创意。我听到过龙由蛇变的说。我的柬埔寨翻译曾经告诉我，在柬埔寨语里没有“龙”一词，他们称龙为“大蛇”。好像中国西 南少数民族也有这种说法。中华民族最早的图腾是蛇。在中国古代传说中，龙与蛇关系非常密切，比如被认为是华夏远祖的伏羲与女娲，在《山海经》中就被描绘成 人首龙身和人首蛇身。中国 现存文物中很多汉唐壁画、画像石、砖刻和绢画，都有关于伏羲与女娲龙蛇相配的图画。龙与蛇密不可分，但龙和蛇的区别是，蛇是真实的爬行动物，而龙是想象出 来到 的，是吸收多种动物的特征而组合出来的。我很怕蛇。蒙古草原上有蛇，看到了会让我毛孔悚然，穿蒙古马靴就有防蛇攻击的作用。

我 不赞同中国人继续把腾飞的愿望寄托于“龙”这样一个古老图腾上。我感到龙所代表的权威是皇权和凌驾百姓之上的骄横，与以法治国和以人为本的方针相 悖。如果中国人需要以崭新的面貌和心态让世界再次认识自己，可以思考新的代表符号。我看憨态可亲的大熊猫挺讨人喜欢的，很具亲和力，不妨考虑大熊猫。不过 我也见过大熊猫发飙，抢游客的衣服，把游客吓得失魂落魄的样子。

我 认为在这样一个英文字上发挥，意义不大，未必能对提升中国人的形象起到积极的作用。重要的是，在提升风范大国民的自尊、自信和安全感时，应该把工作重 点放在继续改善全体百姓的生 活水平，发展教育和科技上。一个人人富足的，有法律保障的，科学进步的国度才是最令人羡慕和向往的。

我给大陆的汽车爱好者泼冷水了

我常常听到大陆的朋友说如何向往拥有一辆自己的汽车，这辈子也算潇洒走一回了。我 还记得自己拥有第一辆汽车时的感觉。现在回想起来，它就像一个初恋的情人一样，感觉好极了。我的第一辆汽车虽然是个二手车，别人都不拿它当回事儿，可我还 是小心奕奕的，平时停车都选在远离别人汽车的地方，生怕被别人把我的车碰坏。周末还喜欢擦车洗车，比骆驼祥子得到第一辆黄包车还兴奋。

在美国生活多年之后，再加上回国看到公路、停车、汽油、空气污染给人民带来的痛苦 和烦恼，我就开始确信：中国切勿走西方汽车发展的老路。中国政府应该严格控制国内汽车销售。大力发展地铁、公共汽车、轻轨电车，以及出租汽车行业，让每个 城市都形成自己完善的四通八达的公共交通网。上个星期CCTV4的“我有问题问总理”活动征集观众的问题。我以我上面的想法向温总理提问：中国政府有没有 决心或计划通过政府和市场两个手段严密管控中国国内的汽车增长数量，避免走西方汽车发展的老路？

我现在的城市是俄勒冈州波特兰市，以环保工作和措施出名。耐克公司和英特尔公司的 总部都设在这里。大陆经常派代表团来学习经验。我们这个城市的特点就是大力投资公共交通，重点建设公共汽车和轻轨电车，形成颇具规模的公共交通网。我进城 办事也常常使用公共交通。多年的努力，使这个城市的环境真正达到了山青水秀的境界。

从能源战略的角度看问题，中国不应该让国内汽车的增长数量失控。中国人是很聪明 的，为何要轻易增加自身对能源的消耗，陷入对能源的严重依赖，任由别人卡脖子和“勒索”的境地？从环保的角度看问题，中国的环保已经出了严重的问题，让汽 车数量大幅增长势必使这个问题更加恶化。难道中国的发展必须走这样一条别人已经走过，而且人家现在已经开始绞尽脑汁进行修正的老路吗？

听说大陆朋友无法访问我的网站了

昨天我从一位大陆的翻译朋友建军那里了解到，他无法进入我的网站访问了。经过查询，今天又得到另一位大陆翻译翔东的报告：情况属实。刚才又听到建军证实，他在大陆也无法登录我的Blog网站。台湾的翻译朋友文哲说，他还可以从台湾访问我的公司网站。看来只有大陆的朋友遇到了访问我网站的问题。究竟原因何在？让我百思不得其解。

经过大家的分析和研判，我明白了很多。我的确在两个月前，为我的网站换了寄存东家。原来的那家公司为 我服务了五年，从来没有过问题，只是服务价格越来越贵，我就换到美国Network Solutions公司，结果成本降了一半。但是万万没有想到讨了便宜之后会遭遇这样的尴尬和烦恼。Network Solutions公司是一家美国"老牌"网络服务公司，一定是触犯了大陆的什么忌讳。我会向该公司反映这个情况 的。这也让我想起了一个英文字"collateral"。现在我就好像是在一场战役中那个被无缘无故捎带进入去的牺牲品。死得不明不白，真比窦娥还冤！

但 愿这是个暂时的现象，或是一个误会，或是一个技术故障。希望大陆不要封锁我这样的网站。要搞革命斗争也要讲究一定的方式方法，区别对待。要学会团结大多 数， 打击一小撮。像我这样根红苗正的革命同志也被捎带列入重点封锁对象，于情于理都说不过去。现郑重提请有关部门的领导同志注意，深刻认识到这一问题的严重 性，及时纠正错误， 改进工作。希望大陆的父老乡亲们见谅了，我对现在的这种尴尬局面也感到实在无可奈何。

Blog with TongliUSA

Dear Friends,

Finally, I jumpped onto this blogging wagon and turned myself an instant blogger, and felt like a dream came true. I am having so much fun with it. Please come and Blog with me!

For the Neida 78 classmates, I am thinking to add those of you who are interested in blogging into my blogger list, so you would be able to post your writings right here. Let me know if you like that idea.

TongliUSA

Mr. Li and His Beautiful Interpreter

As an interpreter, it is always a nerve-racking job to interpret for a press conference, let alone the speaker is an important political figure. Have you ever being corrected by a speaker like that in front of the audiences? I agree that the speaker has the final interpretation power in terms of how his or her words should be interpreted. What if the translation that the speaker suggested or imposed on cannot top the translation you previously delivered? To fight with such a speaker, you are actually fighting a losing battle.

It happened to me once in the past. Lately, when I was watching the press conference on CCTV4, Mr. Li Zhaoxing did it to his interpreter. I found it was totally unnecessary. His interpreter was so beautiful and superb with her interpretation job. I was very impressed that China has such a wonderful interpreter. She was so professional and polite and simply let Mr. Li run over her. I think she was very smart, too. What could you really do in a situation like that? Keep mouth shut perhaps was the best solution.

Here is the sentence that Mr. Li had a problem with:

“山不在高，有仙则名，国不在大，热爱和平、主持公道就好。”

The lady interpreter: “A mountain, no matter how high it is , if it is blessed with the touch of divine, it would be well-known. A country, no matter how big it is, if it can uphold peace and justice in the world, it would be a good country.”

Then, Mr. Li made a quick and partial "correction": “What the matter of a mountain is not its height, what the matter of the country is not its size.”

As you see, Mr. Li’s version is an incomplete and partial translation. Personally, I found Mr. Li’s translation sounding awkward and lacking the style. It would be something that made the audiences wondered what he was trying to say here. Don’t take me wrong. I always admire Mr. Li’s work style in his line of work. His kick-butt attitude made me so proud to be a Chinese. But, I cannot applause to his English, especially this “correction” he made during his press conference. A translator friend of mine even asked "Would the former Premier Zhou also handle it the same way?"

With great interest, I translated this sentence myself. Here comes my version: “The height of a mountain does not matter. What matters is if there is an immortal dueling there. The size of a country does not matter. What matters is if this country can uphold peace and justice.”

What do you think?

Finally I decided to sell my condo and buy a house

I have been so busy with my translation business in the past three months. Now I got my Condo (Be careful. This word is different from Condom) all fixed, detail cleaned, and have kept it displaying like a "museum" for over a week now. It is really a pain in the butt to keep the house clean and tidy like a museum. This is because that I finally put my Condo on sale with the help of a real estate company.

One day I was talking on the phone and having dinner at the same time in my "office" room, I heard the strangers were talking in my living room. I knew my door was locked and why I heard someone talking. It turned out that a Realtor was showing the house to his customer and did not realize I, the owner, was in the room. It turned out he used the key in the Realtor lockbox. Thank goodness, I was decent at that moment. So far 8 buyers came and checked it out, there is no offer yet. I hope it will not drag too long. I am just looking for that one perfect buyer.

If everything goes well as planned, I should be able to move into my new dream house by the mid of May this year. It is a brand new house, 1,857 sq. feet, priced $285,000 with the upgraded interior. My current Condo is expected to be sold 20 days before the moving day and cover half of the mortgage of the new house. Now I will be really like an American, because everyone here carries a big house mortgage. Fortunately, mine is still less than most people.

I made this decision solely because a Chinese lady friend who was poor 2 years ago, but she made a smart decision to buy a house in a good neighborhood 2 year ago. Now the value of her house went up $60,000 on top of the price she paid her house. Her story inspired me, and I want to repeat her successful story. I hope the fortune will shine on me, a hardworking soul, eventually.

July 1, 2007: This is a side note I am adding one year later to the previous post. I have moved into my dream house for a year now. Everything has been fabulous. The feeling of being able to climb into the middle class in the American society has been very rewarding to my proportionated self-ego. I am still learning how to interact with my American neighbors. Some of them are very friendly and nice, and some are as cold as frozen fish. The most beautiful thing that upset them is that I am the youngest house owner on my block (well, the Bank still owns half of the house). I designed a greeting card with my new house as the center piece for the year of 2007, the Year of Pig, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Enjoy!

与时俱进，活出精彩

人到中年，时常有一种不名状的危机感。这种危机感，就我个人的情况来说，与家庭和事业的关系不大，反而更多是来自于自己对新鲜事物的接受程度，对新技术的了解和驾驭，以及对青出于蓝的后辈油然而生的敬畏。

我们放弃对时代的追求，就会被时代所淘汰。要与时俱进，活出精彩，就要对这个时代的人和事拥有及时的了解和敏锐的观察，并对新技术和新思想保持浓厚的兴趣。我是一个不满足现状的人，追求的就是与众不同。身居美国二十年，对身边的一切都充满着兴趣和激情。通过多年的观察和思考，对中美不同文化、社会，及制度都有了较多的了解，特别是对来自这两个社会人有了较深刻的认识。虽然还没有做到处处“以身相许”，但也有不少深入虎穴的亲身经历。衷心希望借此平台，就广泛的话题，与朋友们进行交流。让我们用活跃的思想，健康的心态拥抱明天，共同吸收永葆青春的营养元素。

乏味的生活，枯燥的工作，受他人支配的处境会让我感到恐惧。贫穷不可怕，因为智慧能致富；落后也不可怕，因为勇于进取，就有机会超越。不怕一无所有，只求曾经拥有，天马独来独往，潇洒人生漫游。这就是我对人生的态度。