Chapter 36: The Parting of the Ways
Simplified Chinese (Mandarin: China) | ||
分道扬镳 Fēn-dào yáng-biāo |
分道扬镳
fēn-dào yáng-biāo
= 'go different ways, part company' (literally: 'divide' + 'road' + 'lift up' + 'bridle bit'). |
Parting of the Ways |
Traditional Chinese (Mandarin: Taiwan) | ||
分道揚鑣 Fēn-dào yáng-biāo |
分道揚鑣
fēn-dào yáng-biāo
= 'go different ways, part company' (literally: 'divide' + 'road' + 'lift up' + 'bridle bit'). |
Parting of the Ways |
Japanese | ||
決別 Ketsubetsu |
決別 ketsubetsu = 'parting, separation, farewell'. | The Parting |
Korean | ||
덤블도어의 사람들 Deombeuldoeo-ui salam-deul |
Dumbledore's People | |
Vietnamese (Chinese characters show etymology) | ||
Ngã ba đường | ngã ba đường = 'fork in the road, junction' (đường = 'road'). | The Fork in the Road |
Mongolian (new) | ||
Зам салсан нь Zam salsan n' |
зам zam = 'road'. салах salakh = 'separate, part' (-сан -san past tense). нь n' = 'about' (makes the preceding sentence into a noun). |
About Ways Parting |
The parting of the ways between those who are ready to fight Lord Voldemort and those who are not.
How is 'parting of the ways' translated?
- The Mainland and Taiwanese translators both hit upon the same translation,
分道揚鑣 (Trad.) / 分道扬镳 (Simpl.) fēn-dào
yáng-biāo,
a four-character Chinese expression that exactly describes 'the parting of the
ways'. The meaning is, literally, to 'take different roads and lift up the bridle
bit (as if to go)'. Chinese is full of similar short, snappy compounds from
its rich literary tradition.
- The Japanese translator uses 決別 ketsubetsu, a parting or farewell with the implication
that there is little likelihood of meeting again. The original characters for
this word are 訣別 ketsubetsu, still used in Chinese. Japanese character
reforms after WWII proscribed the use of the character 訣 ketsu 'parting', leading to the substitution of
決 ketsu
'decisive, definite'.
- The Vietnamese translator literally describes the 'parting of the ways'
as a 'fork in the road' (ngã ba đường).
- Mongolian uses a common structure found in titles of stories: a sentence (зам салсан zam salsan 'the ways parted') followed by the particle нь n', which was originally a reduced possessive pronoun meaning 'its, his, hers', but now serves to mark a topic ('about, on').
(Detailed notes on the chapter can be found at Harry Potter Lexicon)
⇚ Chapter 35 |