Some Mistakes in Lyrics Translation

[shawnchong]

Hey all, I'm new here, and haven't browsed around much - but I've noticed a few mistakes in the Lyrics Translation section:

For his album: 8 Dimensions

半島鐵盒
ban dao tie he
Music Box, not 'Iron Box of an Island'

Many people in Chinese don't even know what the heck 'ban dao tie he' is, much less in translation. I also know that the album's old, and that many sites accept the mistaken translation - but I still thought I'd point it out here, at least. The song specifically refers to those music boxes that have a metal comb, whose teeth are plucked by a metal cylinder with raised dots on it, spinning around and around.

Regarding the translation for 七里香, qi li ziang, Orange Jasmine - it should be Jasmine Orange.

Oh... and I don't mean to say that jakinni's translation is no good - some parts just have mistakes, but some parts are really good translation work.

So... for some lyrics changes:

窗外的麻雀 在電線桿上多嘴
chuang wai de ma que / zai dian xian gan shang duo zui
The sparrow outside the window is being noisy on the electrical wire

Sparrow outside the window. On the electric pole are more sparrows.

妳說這一句 很有夏天的感覺
ni shuo zhe yi ju / hen you xia tian de gan jue
You say that this sentence has a lot of that summer feeling

You say this sentence. "It really feels like summer."

初戀的香味就這樣被我們尋回
chu lian de xiang wei jiu zhe yang bei wo men xun hui
The fragrance of first love was rediscovered by us just like that

I especially like this translation. :-)

幾句是非 也無法將我的熱情冷卻
ji ju shi fei / ye wu fa jiang wo de re qing leng que
A few words of dispute, cannot cool my warmth

A few words of dispute, cannot extinguish my passion.

Oh well, that's all I have to say for now.

-Shawn

[wackycashew]

This would have been better addressed through a PM to jayx8318x (http://www.jay-chou.net/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=3) as stated at the top of the lyrics page to PM Karen with all lyrics corrections. :wink2:

Regarding "ban dao tie he", I guess the "mistaken" translation has been commonly accepted probably because either people didn't know the real meaning or maybe "music box" just didn't do justice to the translation of the title, much like the detail you went into describing it. :happy:

As for Common Jasmine Orange, it is noted on the lyrics page that that is the album title but more commonly, it's referred to simply as Orange Jasmine. =)

For the rest you mentioned, I have to disagree with the first one. I might replace "noisy" with "chatty" and make the sentence plural (i.e. The sparrows outside the window are...), but not "more sparrows". The second one, I think jakinni's translation is fine though yours is good as well. For the last one, I guess "extinguish my passion" might sound better than "cool my warmth" though the latter is also ok. :-)