Premier translations

POSTED BY: K
UPDATED: Saturday, September 22, 2007 10:39
VIEWED: 28026
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K

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 4:47 AM

Can anyone translate for the prmire episode? One in particular . . . Mal calles Kaylee xiao mei mei. I know mei mei means little sister, but what does xiao mei mei mean. Just curious. Thanks in advance.

THATGIRLISABEL

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 5:04 AM

I figured he was calling her "my little sister" or something. But I dunno.

Oh wait I got one. When Wash tells Kaylee to go dark, she says "Shi" or something (how she pronounced it sounded way different that how the closed captioning spelled it), which means "Yes."

I'm a big help I know.

--
Them's fightin' words.

CHARLIEBLUE

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 8:10 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by K:
Can anyone translate for the prmire episode? One in particular . . . Mal calles Kaylee xiao mei mei. I know mei mei means little sister, but what does xiao mei mei mean. Just curious. Thanks in advance.

"Xiao" means "little." I know it sounds odd to translate it to "little little sister," but that's basically what it meant, I think. She's his little meimei.

_
"HoYay! Academy. Where every exam is an oral exam."

ANDELONG

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 7:29 PM

Does anyone know what Wash said to Zoe as they were heading out on their respective assignments off ship? I can't provide any phonetic clues because my VCR messed up just at that moment. Zoe replied "we will".

ande long

DARKANGELSLAYER

Tuesday, December 24, 2002 10:28 PM

Mal says something like "bizui", I forgot where, but it means shut up.

THATGIRLISABEL

Wednesday, December 25, 2002 12:38 PM

Yeah, the mean old man tells them all to shut up more than once.

First time I think, was when they first pop open the goods they took from the derelict ship in the teaser, and Wash is arguing with Jayne.

Second time is when Simon's telling them all about how he got River out of the Academy, and after a bit Mal says that if Kaylee doesn't make it, Simon and sis are goners, too. Everyone's arguing about murder and the like, until Mal says it again, only there are 2 (I think) other words attatched to the sentence. The script over at BuffyScripts.net says it means "Shut the fuck up" or "Everyone shut the hell up now" or something. Don't recall.

I do know that the chatter screeches to a halt like my set of bald All-Terrains.

---
Them's fightin' words

THATGIRLISABEL

Thursday, December 26, 2002 4:11 AM

Oh wait, another one.

The script says that Wash tells Zoe to watch her back, in Chinese. Seems like what he says is longer, there are quite a few words, but until I learn the language for myself, I'll never know.

And Mal says a few more things, don't rightly recall where, but the script says stuff like:

MAL
(Chinese)
Fuck me blind!

That boy's got one hell of a mouth on him. lol

---
Them's fightin' words

ANDELONG

Sunday, December 29, 2002 6:26 PM

Mal and Wash on the bridge discussing the signal transmitted to the "nearest Alliance vessel". Mal says "Ni ta ma de. Tianxia shuoyoude ren. Gou Gaisi."

I followed the link someone left to the buffyscripts.net site, but I don't believe their translation is pure. Can anyone translate the above comments with accuracy?

BILLIAM

Wednesday, January 1, 2003 4:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by andelong:
Mal and Wash on the bridge discussing the signal transmitted to the "nearest Alliance vessel". Mal says "Ni ta ma de. Tianxia shuoyoude ren. Gou Gaisi."

I followed the link someone left to the buffyscripts.net site, but I don't believe their translation is pure. Can anyone translate the above comments with accuracy?

Ni ta ma de: pretty much means motherf**ker!

Tian xia shuo you de ren: all the universe's people

gou gai si: should die (not sure about this one)

ANDELONG

Sunday, January 5, 2003 5:51 AM

Thank you for your response, Billiam. I was wondering if you would share what the individual words mean? Which word, for instance, is universe. My resource lists "yuzhou" for that word. I am interested in that level of analysis if you, or anyone else, would be willing to provide it.

Oh, and I mis-quoted the second to the last word in the sentence. It was dou, not gou. Thank you!

BILLIAM

Sunday, January 5, 2003 7:18 AM

Ok, dou gai si makes it pretty sure its "should die". As for individual words, here goes:

Ni ta ma de: ni (you) ta (he/his) ma (mother) de (adverb? representing posession) it doesn't make sense word by word (pretty much Chinese/Japanese is like that), but as a phrase, its colloquialism for mofo

Tian xia shuo you de ren: tian (sky) xia (down) shuo you de (all of) ren (people)
tian xia is a phrase for everything on earth, I guess I rushed the initial translation, but the meaning is about the same. Shuo you de is kind of hard to do word(character) by word. For example, shuo yi means "so he then...". "You" by itself means (have), like "wo you yi ge" (I have one).

dou gai si: dou is like (also/too) gai (should) si (die)

ANDELONG

Sunday, January 5, 2003 7:35 PM

Thanks again, Billiam. This is very helpful. Although it doesn't exactly match my resource, it gives me a launching point to understanding my efforts.

LUCHANAN

Monday, January 6, 2003 2:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by billiam:
it doesn't make sense word by word (pretty much Chinese/Japanese is like that)

Actually, most of the time when you translate ANY language into another word by word it won't make much sense at all.

Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.

GAHERIS

Wednesday, January 8, 2003 4:12 AM

"tian xia shuo you de ren dou gai si"

I know this has already been done but to clear it up even more, Chinese is broken between individual words and phrases. Words are the building blocks but phrases give true meaning. So here goes.

Tian: means sky. Self explanatory

xia: down, below, under. "Tian xia" together is "under the sky"

suo you: A phrase that is inseparable. "Everything" "you" is to have for those nitpickers.

de: A modifier which indicates that whatever is "everything" belongs to "Tian xia"

ren: People, person, man... in this case "People"

doh: All

gai: should, deserve to.

si: Die. "Gai si" is basically "should die"

"Sky below everything has people deserve to die."
to wit
"Everybody deserves to die"
or
"Everyone under the sky should die"

-Gaheris

ANDELONG

Wednesday, January 8, 2003 1:24 PM

Very helpful, Gaheris. Thank you!

I am trying to teach myself the language. Your analysis will help me to assimilate the concepts I have found in the text.

QUIXOTE13

Thursday, January 9, 2003 2:21 AM

Hello,

New to this list and to Firefly, but I'm so glad there's this thread. I'm unable to get captioning when I watch Firefly, so I'm having a difficult time translating what they're saying due to their accents and grammatical creativity.

So, as long as you guys are providing captioned attempts at romanization of the Mandarin, I'll do my best to translate.

Take care,

Quixote13

QUIXOTE13

Thursday, January 9, 2003 2:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by CharlieBlue:
"Xiao" means "little." I know it sounds odd to translate it to "little little sister," but that's basically what it meant, I think. She's his little meimei.

It probably makes more sense to think of "mei mei" as meaning "younger sister," so it's like "little younger sister." Merely using a diminutive to make something more dear, like saying "Johnny" instead of "John" or "Juanita" instead of "Juana."

Take care,

Quixote13

Read deeper. Read Shoto Press. www.shotopress.com

JASONZZZ

Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:33 PM

.

JASONZZZ

Thursday, January 9, 2003 10:34 PM

bi zui = close lips

it's a command to zip up the flaps.

Quote:
darkangelslayer wrote:
Mal says something like "bizui", I forgot where, but it means shut up.

GOTTADANCE

Wednesday, January 29, 2003 7:13 AM

My son has been studying and writing Japenese for 4 years. He has friands that speak Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian, but no Chinese. Your translations are very enlightening. Thank you.

GottaDance

NUVONIC

Saturday, July 14, 2007 7:02 PM

A good friend of mine is Chinese and offered this explanation to me:

"its kinda funny, in chinese we have this habbit of doubling our syllables to show familiarity/affection (its kind of a diminutive thing to show cuteness, kinda like chan). but actually, mei mei = xiao mei mei, just that xiao mei mei is emphasizing the fact that it's a younger sister. mei mei is more casual, you can call friends/girlfriends that."

So I think Mal calling Kaylee "xiao mei mei" instead of "mei mei" is to emphasize that he actually thinks of her as a little sister and not just as a friend.

FOLLOWMAL

Saturday, July 14, 2007 7:13 PM

I love seeing this old thread resurface and love love the discussion once again of Firefly, translations and the fact that Mal felt so much the older brother to Kaylee that he would call her that.

http://www.martinfirrell.com/supersecretthingy.html

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LYSSIAHBROWNCOAT

Saturday, September 22, 2007 10:39 AM

Anybody tell me how to type (not the symbols) "Oh my" and "Oh my god" in Chinese? I need to know.. plz help. Thanks.

[i heart jayne cobb]