You Knew It Was Comming: War Stories Translations

POSTED BY: LivingImpaired
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 14:25
VIEWED: 20559
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LIVINGIMPAIRED

Saturday, December 7, 2002 2:08 AM

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to start the translation thread for the latest episode. So? What were they saying. I am paticularly interested in “Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou doh sai-jin wuh dhu pee-goo!”

________________

Wanna meat the real me?

FFFAN

Saturday, December 7, 2002 2:38 AM

"dhu pee-goo" sounds like "pig's ass" to me...

Other dialogue from the closed captions:

1) Simon: Whoa! "Mei-mei" how you doing?

mei mei = little sister

2) Mal: "Fang-tzang fong-kwong duh zie."

fong-kwong duh = giving off light(?)

3) Mal: Hey, I let that "niou-se" trick of yours slide because this is a milk run. But when I go on a mission, I'm taking Zoe and that's the drill.

niou = urine
se = shit

4) Mal: Yeah, the stuff legends are... "Tzao-gao!"
(gunshots fired)
Wash: Now I'm learning about scary.

tzao-gao = oh crap!

5) Mal: There's plenty of orders of mine that she didn't obey.
Wash: Name one!
Mal: She married you!
(Niska walks in)
Mal: "Tah-mah-duh hwun-dan."

According to the official script at the Firefly website, that last line was supposed to mean "mother-humping son of a b*tch."

6) Book: Huh choo-sheng tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!

KLAUREL

Saturday, December 7, 2002 2:44 AM

This is total and utter hell. I still haven't figured it all out.

Tai-kong = ?

suo-yo duh = everything

shing-chiou doh = we wanted to say

sai-jin = was about

wuh dhu pee-goo = my ass

I am totally confused with the "Tai-Kong"

KLAUREL

Saturday, December 7, 2002 2:51 AM

"Tzao-gao!"

Equivalent of "We have a problem" or, perhaps, OH S***.

And I am going to stop here. I have repeated the words so much, I am losing the Chinese syntax!

GAHERIS

Saturday, December 7, 2002 3:09 AM

Tai-kong =Space maybe? As in "Tai-kong chuan" space ship.

Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou doh sai-jin wuh dhu pee-goo

"Everything in space is stuffed up my @$$"

That's my best guess.

-Gaheris

LUCHANAN

Sunday, December 8, 2002 2:11 AM

“Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou doh sai-jin wuh dhu pee-goo!”

Taikong suoyou de xingqiu dou sai jin wo de pigu

Oh my gosh, as I was typing it in Hanyu Pinyin, I realized what he said.

Pretty much, Wash said "Stuff all the planets in the universe into my @$$"

taikong = space

suoyou de = all of (something)

xingqiu = planet

dou = all

sai jin = stuff into

wo de = my

pigu = @$$

---

Oops, I didn't notice someone has already translated.

BOBKNAPTOR

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 12:46 AM

hehehe. That's hysterical! is that what Wash said during his fight with Zoe?

______________
Mal: Did you tell her?

HAKEN

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 12:56 AM

I can't help but think that Firefly would have been more hilarious if instead of Mandarin they spoke Cantonese.

Seriously, some of this stuff has "say it in Cantonese" on it.

For instance:

PiGu is boring when compared to the Cantonese equivalent of SiFut or SiFutLoung

LUCHANAN

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 1:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Haken:
I can't help but think that Firefly would have been more hilarious if instead of Mandarin they spoke Cantonese.

Seriously, some of this stuff has "say it in Cantonese" on it.

For instance:

PiGu is boring when compared to the Cantonese equivalent of SiFut or SiFutLoung

I agree. I'm a native Mandarin speaker but picked up some Cantonese from my friends. Cantonese, like all the southern Chinese dialects, tend to be more slangish, therefore allowing expressions to be much funnier than Mandarin. Mandarin is a bit too formal for most of the stuff said on Firefly. But then again, if they spoke Cantonese, I wouldn't understand much

Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.

HAKEN

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 2:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by luchanan:
Mandarin is a bit too formal for most of the stuff said on Firefly. But then again, if they spoke Cantonese, I wouldn't understand much

Yeah. I think unless you're a native Cantonese speaker, it'll be hard for outsiders to understand. Just to provide an example for the masses:

English word: Crazy
Standard Cantonese: ChiSin, which translates to sticking lines (short circuit).
Cantonese slang: ChiMaGun, which translates to sticky Maxi-Pads.

Basically, Catonese speakers like to play with words and phrases a lot since meaning many times are derived from context and not actual meaning of the words or phrase themselves.

Though I have no idea who came up with the above phrase for crazy, it's widely used and is heard in movies and tv shows a lot.

I don't think there is a Mandarin equivalent. Is there?

GAHERIS

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 2:17 AM

Mandarin is a much more...archaic language and though there IS slang it usually involves talking about animals in the like when insults abound. It's also a bit stiffer than Cantonese so though multiple meanings abound, few puns of that sort are common. The one example I remember is usually used w hen teaching non-chinese Mandarin how "I want to ask you" with a slight inflection change can be I want to kiss you. I'm sure that there are slang like that which exist but I can't think of any at the moment.
-Gaheris

RHEA

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 3:28 AM

From what I understand, Joss thought he was getting Cantonese and didn't realize right away it was Mandrarin. Search me if I know where I read it, though - somewhere they were talking about the lady who's been doing the translations for the show.

Now that I think about it, I think it's buried somewhere in the "Ask Joss and Cheryl" thread at the official board.

LIVINGIMPAIRED

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 4:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Rhea:
From what I understand, Joss thought he was getting Cantonese and didn't realize right away it was Mandrarin. Search me if I know where I read it, though - somewhere they were talking about the lady who's been doing the translations for the show.

Now that I think about it, I think it's buried somewhere in the "Ask Joss and Cheryl" thread at the official board.

It's from an official video interview on the official website.

________________

Am I in trouble? I didn't do it! And if I did, it was an accident.

JASONZZZ

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:08 PM

I don't know,

PiGu = Fart Drum

sounds pretty funny to me...

Quote:
Originally posted by Haken:
I can't help but think that Firefly would have been more hilarious if instead of Mandarin they spoke Cantonese.

Seriously, some of this stuff has "say it in Cantonese" on it.

For instance:

PiGu is boring when compared to the Cantonese equivalent of SiFut or SiFutLoung

SAINTOFCHEESE

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:35 PM

okay. so what did Book say?

~*Saint of Cheese*~

GAHERIS

Tuesday, December 10, 2002 11:21 PM

What did Book say? Context is "When did I ever ask what the captain thought."
His chinese was "Everything in space is stuffed up my @$$" Basically he's saying bullshit to Zoe's comment and setting up for his own. Possibly an "and" before the comment is warranted as in "The captain..." "And everything in space is..." but that's arguable.

-Gaheris

SAINTOFCHEESE

Wednesday, December 11, 2002 2:47 AM

no. not wash...Book.
Book: Huh choo-sheng tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!

I didn't see that anyone translated it. Maybe i'm being stupid.

~*Saint of Cheese*~

RHEA

Wednesday, December 11, 2002 3:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bobknaptor:
hehehe. That's hysterical! is that what Wash said during his fight with Zoe?

______________
Mal: Did you tell her?

Yes. LOL!

You know you're in trouble when your man sneers "Lambie toes" at you during a fight!

YOSHI

Monday, December 16, 2002 4:29 AM

Luchanan:

It would be of great use if someone would make a little website with a translator from Cantonese to English. If a fan could type in the English equivalents that are given in the captions of the show, it could give an approximate translation. I undertand that Cantonese is a very tonal language, and that translation is not simple.

I use a machine-translation website frequently for some European languages and it is OK. It also has a Chinese-to-English translator, but I do not know what dialect it uses. Below is the link. What do you think of this site? Do you feel that it gives and accurate translation?

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

Thank you, Luchanan

What does your by-line mean?

SELKIE

Monday, December 16, 2002 7:34 AM

I was wondering what Mal said during the shuttle scene with Zoe and Wash when he said, "Well this is a fine {Chinese phrase} but I don't have time to unravel it!"

LUCHANAN

Monday, December 16, 2002 6:24 PM

Yoshi:

Actually I don't speak Cantonese :-)

I'm a Mandarin speaker and only picked up a little Cantonese here and there through friends.

The link you posted is to a website that translate into Simplified Chinese script, or Jiantizi.

A little history background here to clearn up confusion :-)

Historically, the Chinese language has seven major dialects, Mandarin being the only one in the north (north of the Yangtze river) and the six other in the south. However, the writing system for all Chinese dialects are the same, that's why they are refered to as "dialects" and not "languages" even though the pronounciation is as different as Spanish is to Italian. It wasn't until the 1950's that the Communists decided to develope the Jiantizi, a simplified form of Hanzi, or Chinese characters, as opposed to the traditional Fantizi. However, not ALL the characters were "simplified", only the more complicated ones, therefore, one who's accustomed to Fantizi can pretty much guess on Jiantizi base on context.

Anyway, so no matter what dialect you speak, you write the same way. Jiantizi is used on mainland China and Singapore. Fantizi is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most oversea Chinese. However, both Fantizi and Jiantizi are taught in many universities around the world.

Oh, by the way, "ni hao" is the standard Chinese greeting, kind of like "hello" and it literally means "you well". "wo shi" means I am, and Luchanan is just my nickname :-)

Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.

AE660

Wednesday, February 5, 2003 5:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by FFfan:

6) Book: Huh choo-sheng tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!

The short translation, I think, is "Mongrel scum!"

Here's the breakdown:

Huh = ?

choo-sheng = beast (In Mandarin, this is like saying 'vermin' in English)

tza-jiao duh = cross-bred (read: mongrel)

tzang-huo = cheap goods (read: hussy)

What's the context again?

LJC

Monday, March 3, 2003 2:30 AM

It's the insult Book let's loose with when Zoe gives Simon Mal's severed ear.

In terms of pinyin, I found chùsheng , but I'm having a hard time with "mongrel" and "cheap goods" (I'm being scary fanfic author, and literally going through the entire x chapter, desperately looking for the hanyu pinyin for a translation for my fic...). Help?

AE660

Monday, March 3, 2003 9:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by LJC:
In terms of pinyin, I found chùsheng , but I'm having a hard time with "mongrel" and "cheap goods" (I'm being scary fanfic author, and literally going through the entire x chapter, desperately looking for the hanyu pinyin for a translation for my fic...). Help?

Sorry, I don't know hanyu pinyin. I learned my Chinese in Taiwan back in the '70s. ^_^;

MARK

Friday, March 21, 2003 10:00 PM

Just a point of order...

Or interest...

Isn't it in Cantonese or Mandarin, or one of those eastern languages, that the translation for 'Coca Cola' is
"Bite the wax tadpole"?

Because THAT is what I call humour.

Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.

AE660

Monday, March 24, 2003 4:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
Just a point of order...

Or interest...

Isn't it in Cantonese or Mandarin, or one of those eastern languages, that the translation for 'Coca Cola' is
"Bite the wax tadpole"?

Because THAT is what I call humour.

This happened in China (as opposed to Hong Kong or Taiwan), so it was in Mandarin. I've never seen the translation they used, so I don't know if "Bite the wax tadpole" is correct.

I heard they've since changed the translation to the one used in HK and Taiwan: 可口可樂 (don't know if you can read this). This can be translated as "Delicious Cola," with 'cola' represented by characters that can mean "very happy."

Michael Liu

MARK

Monday, March 24, 2003 5:51 PM

Quote:
This happened in China (as opposed to Hong Kong or Taiwan), so it was in Mandarin. I've never seen the translation they used, so I don't know if "Bite the wax tadpole" is correct.

I heard they've since changed the translation to the one used in HK and Taiwan: 可口可樂 (don't know if you can read this). This can be translated as "Delicious Cola," with 'cola' represented by characters that can mean "very happy".

Given that it's called Coca Cola because, originally, it contained an extract of the Coca plant (A.K.A Cocaine!) I think 'Delicious Very Happy' is an interesting choice.

But 'Bite the Wax Tadpole' was funnier.

Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.

KAYTHRYN

Monday, March 24, 2003 6:35 PM

You know what, I remember reading this in the news papers. It was an article on funny translations. Cocoa cola was "bite the wax tad pole" and in Africa, Gerber baby food read something like "Caucasian baby in a jar". Yummy.

-------------------------------------
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Albert Einstein

CHANNAIN

Thursday, March 27, 2003 8:12 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by luchanan:
The link you posted is to a website that translate into Simplified Chinese script, or Jiantizi.

ni hao, luchanan - :)

so my question would be this: is this link adequate for those of us who only speak one language lousily to translate English into Chinese for purposes of writing? i mean i like making the fluent speakers giggle when i use a really awful accent to phonetically murder words, but it gets old after awhile. and if it isn't even close to adequate, would you happen to know of a link that is? if you don't it's all shiny because i'm always open to a book-shopping opportunity.

thanks for the history lesson.

"I'm still flyin'...that's enough." ~ Mal

IGNORD

Saturday, April 12, 2003 12:23 AM

Fang-tzang fong-kwong duh zie

Fang-tzang is most likely a name.
瘋狂的 yeh= Fan-tzang is crazy (ye is used to add emphasis and imply doubt)

Where can one read the original Chinese?

CHRISTHECYNIC

Friday, May 30, 2003 12:54 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
[B
Given that it's called Coca Cola because, originally, it contained an extract of the Coca plant (A.K.A Cocaine!) I think 'Delicious Very Happy' is an interesting choice.

But 'Bite the Wax Tadpole' was funnier.

In fact it still contains extract from the Coca plant, this is apraently out of habit because when it goes through it's filtering process (i.e. no more cocaine) it loses anything it might add.

No one ever seems to care about the Kola in Coca Cola, everyone is hung up on the Coca.

SERENITYVALLEY

Friday, May 30, 2003 3:30 PM

Quote:
I was wondering what Mal said during the shuttle scene with Zoe and Wash when he said, "Well this is a fine {Chinese phrase} but I don't have time to unravel it!"

Yeah, what WAS that? I was all confused because that didn't make sense.

"Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?" -Wash
"I told him to sit down," -Simon

FLYINGVIKING

Thursday, February 5, 2004 1:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kaythryn:
and in Africa, Gerber baby food read something like "Caucasian baby in a jar". Yummy.

Actually, it was the picture on the jar. In S.Africa, because so many people were illiterate, cans/jars of food showed a picture of the contents.

The can for Gerber showed a smiling plump white kid

ADEPTUS

Friday, February 6, 2004 8:40 PM

Fireflywiki has some translations for this episode: http://www.average-bear.com/wiki/index.php/WarStories

Does anyone know what the deal with that site is? None of the links on the pages work, you have to Google over to the section you want, and if you want to change sections you have to Google to it again.

[Edit: Nevermind, I found the real link - http://www.fireflywiki.org/index.php/HomePage]

No power in the 'verse can stop me.

SERENITYNOW

Wednesday, February 18, 2004 2:25 PM

Hey, I just found a Beijing dialect dictionary and bought it immediatly. It's really funny! I think Mandarin is so static because it's basically a common language that's been emasculated by political correctness, while regional dialects tend to have more flavor--the only regional phrase I knew in Beijing was "xie cai" (cut vegetables), which sort of meant "get out of here!"

Anyway, it's not anywhere near the playfulness of Cantonese (not that I speak Yueyu, but I'm learning)--but we shouldn't discount it entirely.

(I'm apparently tipsy from some Taiwan shaoshu minzu de baijiu I just bought, so if I don't make sense, that's why.)

http://dryope.typepad.com/superfly/