抬高身价:bid up one's price; boost one's social status;
作者：Owen - 2000/11/02 17:58:05 ***
关于“鲜”，请看汉英以前的讨论。
作者：古月 - 2000/11/02 18:13:10 ***
华东人 “译”(translate)与“释”(interpret) Mon Oct 4 22:08:21 1998
中文里讲“味道很鲜”的“鲜”字如何翻？
我觉得，各种不同文化所特有的感受不一定要“译”(translate)，但可以“释”(interpret)。吃到中国菜感到鲜时，不妨教老外说个中文词“Shian!”然后教他向莫名其妙的其他老外做个解释，“Meaning? It tastes natural MSG!”有好多东西都是这样的。日本的“鱼生”叫“Sashimi”，当然谁都知道那是“raw fish”。吃Sashimi用的“芥末”叫“Wasabi”，那叫英文吗？不知道这日文字还真买不来这玩艺儿。所以这种东西，不用翻，知道如何解释就行了。翻译真功夫不是在这种小意思上显示出来的。仅供参考。
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挑战 照您的意思，是不是翻不了的就别翻？ Mon Oct 4 22:32:11 1998
那“洁癖”俺翻不了，那就教老外“jipi”就成喽？
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华东人 要看两种文化有无相互参照之处。 Mon Oct 4 23:18:25 1998
如有，那彼此的表达法相互对等就叫“译”，如没有，就只能“音译”加解释。因为对方文化中确实没有的东西，哪能找出对等表达？同样的例子多着呢。日本的柔道，韩国的“跆拳道”都算这俩国家的“国粹”，还有中国的“功夫”等，都有民族特征，到了外国，其特有名称都是用的“音译”。要当好“Judo”的国际裁判，欧美人也得学会喊“一本”并知道是啥意思。“marshal arts”只是个统称，各国的武术有各国的特点，用一个“marshal arts ”统吃各派不是可取的翻译法。
华东人 In what sense? This is just a generic term... Mon Oct 5 12:32:39 1998
"Tasty" is just a generic term that the inquirer is not prepared to take. He wants the specific meaning of “鲜”to be brought out. You may wish to say "tasty with MSG flavor". That will more or less capture the sense of "鲜". But still, it's interpretation. The best way to deal with it is to transliterate it into "Shian" and make it into the English dictionary defined as "tasty with MSG flavor".
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FZ Well ... Mon Oct 5 13:07:20 1998
While it is possible to make "Shian" into English vocabulary, "tasty" as far as food is concerned is usually associated with something that tastes not just good but also has a special zap to it. So in English it is as close to "Shian" as I can think of. Mind you, mainland Chinese is not quite the mainstream in North Ameraica. People from TW and HK don't use "Shian" exactly the same way, or the word sounds differently. How do you plan to tacke the problem?
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华东人 That's easy... Mon Oct 5 13:37:36 1998
The word "鲜" should be treated as it is. Just as the entry for "wasabi" has a tiny "Jap." attached to it, you may wish to attach a "Mandarin" sign to "shian" followed by its definition "tasty with MSG flavor". As for other dialects, if they can gain the same level of circulation, they'll also get their own entries. As the question now posed by the inquirer concerns a Mandarin word only, I can only offer him advice how to teach English-speakers a Chinese loan word, taking into account the history of other loan words. As for the influence of other dialects, it's only a matter of strength of a particular dialect. "Tea", for example, is a loan word from Cantonese, I presume? Because of the strength of its influence, even Mainlanders use it as taken for granted, although, in Thailand, "cha" is used by the Thai's to refer to the same thing. Quite a paradox, isn't it?
************************************* vivian TEA and other loan words Wed Oct 7 03:06:54 1998
Tea, as matter of fact, is a word from Amoy vernacular(also know as "taiwanese" in america),cantonese people pronounce "tea" as "char" too. The reason for pronunciation difference is because in ancient times, english people got their tea from "silk road on sea", and the starting point for that silk road is in fujian province. In russia or any other countries who got their first tea import from land transportation, tea is pronounced as "char". (intriguing enough, char is a english slang word for "tea".) Other loan words from chinese: wok(cantonese), guanxi(mandarin),silk(cantonese).....
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Thanks for correction and detailed information! /O by 华东人 , Wed Oct 7 03:45