Here is a wonderful site for the international literature buff. The Chinese Text Initiative offers online versions of Chinese literary classics. These classics are presented in both Chinese, as well as accompanying English translations of the works. It is very much a work in progress, and not every Chinese work will yield a corresponding English translation. However, the 300 Tang Poems are a perfect reminder of how necessary a human translator is to render delicate and beautiful verse into another language.

Tags:Chinese | literature | translation

The delightful poem by Li Bai, Drinking Alone with the Moon reads in English:

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring...
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

Running the accompanying Big5 text through an online free translation tool gives us this for contemplation:

Between the flower a pot liquor, drinks alone without the intimate; Raises glass invites the bright moonlight, becomes three people to the shade. The month already relentlessly drinks, shade person along with my body; Temporarily accompanies the month the shade, takes delight must and the spring. My song month paces back and forth, I dance the shade in disorder; Awakes when with has sexual intercourse, after is drunk respectively disperses. Forever will tie heartlessly swims, time 邈 cloud Chinese.

It is certainly a more curious and perhaps bawdy piece when translated by a machine, but the human translation probably more accurately reflects the mood of the original author.

Most of the marketers and technical writers aren't producing poetry, but they all have very similar goals in mind for their target audiences, whether they are trying to associate pleasure with a product or service, or simply trying to educate an audience on the use of a product or service. We can see with this example of poetry how within the framework of a free or even second-rate translation, the end user could become quickly disconnected and frustrated, or worse, form a contradictory opinion on the nature of the subject at hand.