![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Mine All Mine: Notes on Translation
Nov. 4th, 2024 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
douqiThere's a deceptively simple phrase in Chinese that I've always thought would be very tricky to translate well (I think this of quite a number of Chinese phrases, but let's just focus on this one for now). The phrase is 我的人 (pinyin: wo de ren), very literally 'my person'. Google Translate renders this as 'my person', and so does DeepL. DeepL also offers 'my man' as an alternative. Neither of these is a particularly good all-round translation, especially 'my person', for the reasons set out below. In fact there is probably no good all-round translation for the term.
The context in which 我的人 is most frequently seen is this. Someone in a position of relative power sees (or hears of) someone else, to whom they stand in a superior+protective position, being mistreated by a third party. This can be a senior police officer seeing a subordinate/apprentice being roughed up by thugs; a mob boss seeing a henchman getting beaten up by members of a rival gang; possibly a CEO seeing one of their staff being bullied by a business competitor. In such cases, the person in the position of relative power typically exclaims, 'How dare they touch 我的人!' before proceeding to rain down the appropriate form of hell on the transgressor (or at least, attempt to). It can also be used in a possessive-romantic context, such as when a CEO goes into a bar and sees their attractive new PA (whom they're trying very hard not to crush on) being harassed by some lowlife. In this case, the CEO yells 'How dare you harass 我的人!' and sends the lowlife packing, thus progressing the romance to the next stage.
( Read more... )
The context in which 我的人 is most frequently seen is this. Someone in a position of relative power sees (or hears of) someone else, to whom they stand in a superior+protective position, being mistreated by a third party. This can be a senior police officer seeing a subordinate/apprentice being roughed up by thugs; a mob boss seeing a henchman getting beaten up by members of a rival gang; possibly a CEO seeing one of their staff being bullied by a business competitor. In such cases, the person in the position of relative power typically exclaims, 'How dare they touch 我的人!' before proceeding to rain down the appropriate form of hell on the transgressor (or at least, attempt to). It can also be used in a possessive-romantic context, such as when a CEO goes into a bar and sees their attractive new PA (whom they're trying very hard not to crush on) being harassed by some lowlife. In this case, the CEO yells 'How dare you harass 我的人!' and sends the lowlife packing, thus progressing the romance to the next stage.
( Read more... )
