{"id":44732,"date":"2019-10-19T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=44732"},"modified":"2019-10-19T07:39:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T12:39:00","slug":"revlon-in-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=44732","title":{"rendered":"\"Revlon\" in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

We've been through a lot of atrocious Chinglish (check the archives under \"Lost in translation\"), so we should acknowledge, and even revel in, translational equivalents that are outstandingly good.<\/p>\n

It suddenly occurs to me that the Chinese translation of the American cosmetic brand Revlon is\u00a0so beautiful that it deserves to be highlighted here:<\/p>\n

l\u00f9 hu\u00e1 n\u00f3ng <\/span>\u9732\u83ef\u6fc3 (\"dew [that is] splendid [and] dense\")<\/p>\n

On the one hand, \"Luhuanong\" serves as a sound transcription of \"Revlon\".\u00a0 On the other\u00a0hand, the translation of these three syllables provides an apt meaning for the brand name.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These three characters come from the end of the second line of this celebrated quatrain by the Tang poet Li Bo<\/a> (701-762):<\/p>\n

Title:<\/p>\n

Q\u012bng P\u00edng Di\u00e0o S\u0101n Sh\u01d2u Q\u00ed Y\u012b<\/p>\n

\u6e05\u5e73\u8abf\u4e09\u9996\u5176\u4e00<\/p>\n

[pure] [peace] [tune] [three] [poem] ['s] [one]<\/p>\n

Song of Purity and Peace, 1 of 3<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Y\u00fan xi\u01ceng y\u012bshang hu\u0101 xi\u01ceng r\u00f3ng<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u96f2\u60f3\u8863\u88f3\u82b1\u60f3\u5bb9<\/span><\/p>\n

[cloud] [think of] [clothes] [garments] [flowers] [think of] [countenance]<\/span><\/p>\n

Clouds, one thinks of her clothes; flowers, one thinks of her countenance;<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ch\u016bnf\u0113ng f\u00fa k\u01cen l\u00f9 hu\u00e1 n\u00f3ng<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u6625\u98a8\u62c2\u6abb\u9732\u83ef\u6fc3\u3002<\/span><\/p>\n

[spring] [wind] [brush away] [balustrade] [dew] [splendid] [dense]<\/span><\/p>\n

the spring wind sweeps dew from her balustrade, splendid and dense.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ru\u00f2f\u0113i q\u00fan y\u00f9sh\u0101n t\u00f3u ji\u00e0n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u82e5\u975e\u7fa4\u7389\u5c71\u982d\u898b<\/span><\/p>\n

[if] [not] [group] [jade] [mountain] [top] [see]<\/span><\/p>\n

If not seen at the peak of the Jade Mountain,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hu\u00ec xi\u00e0ng y\u00e1o t\u00e1i yu\u00e8 xi\u00e0 f\u00e9ng.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u6703\u5411\u7464\u81fa\u6708\u4e0b\u9022\u3002<\/span><\/p>\n

[will] [to] [gemstone] [terrace] [moon] [under] [encounter]<\/span><\/p>\n

then she will be encountered under the moon on the gemstone terrace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tr. Hugh Grigg<\/a><\/p>\n

In this instance, Revlon's advertising agency certainly earned its salt.<\/p>\n

[Thanks to Yijie Zhang]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We've been through a lot of atrocious Chinglish (check the archives under \"Lost in translation\"), so we should acknowledge, and even revel in, translational equivalents that are outstandingly good. It suddenly occurs to me that the Chinese translation of the American cosmetic brand Revlon is\u00a0so beautiful that it deserves to be highlighted here: l\u00f9 hu\u00e1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,34,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-found-in-translation","category-language-and-advertising","category-language-and-literature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44732"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44745,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44732\/revisions\/44745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}