Un oiseau qui meurt as translated in 'The Little Prince', |
The expression un oiseau qui meurt ('a dying bird'), despite its utter simplicity in French, is translated in many different ways in Chinese.
The grammar is easy enough. Meurt is the present tense (2nd person) of the verb mourir 'to die'. In French, the present tense covers a broader range of situations than the English present tense. Specifically, un oiseau qui meurt, literally 'a bird which dies', can indicate an action that is in the process of taking place. English would normally use the present progressive, namely, 'a bird which is dying'.
You will notice, however, that none of the four English-language translators use 'a bird which is dying'. They all use 'a dying bird'.
| Original | ||
| qui meurt | (a bird) 'which dies' | 1 |
| English | ||
| dying | (a) dying (bird) | 4 |
That's because, as a matter of written style, it's much more succinct and elegant to put it that way in English. (Couldn't French use the equivalent expression un oiseau mourant? Well, yes, but this is much less common than un oiseau qui meurt, and there are subtleties of meaning that I am unqualified to touch upon).
The real problem comes in translating un oiseau qui meurt ('a dying bird') into Chinese.
Grammars of Mandarin Chinese, at least those written for the layman, will tell you that the 'present progressive' (English 'is dying'), can be expressed in a couple of ways:
正在死 zhèng zài sǐ
死着 sǐ-zhe
Theoretically, the two can be used together (正在死着 zhèng zài sǐ-zhe) and the whole thing can be further emphasised by adding 呢 ne: 正在死着呢 zhèng zài sǐ-zhe ne. I will leave the acceptability of these forms to native speakers to judge. The fact is, however, that only one translator actually uses any of these forms in translating un oiseau qui meurt.
There are several reasons for this, both grammatical and stylistic.
1. Grammatical nature of the verb 死 sǐ 'to die:
Chinese tends not to treat the verb 死 sǐ 'to die' as a process that takes place over a period of time. Instead, 死 sǐ is something that happens instantaneously. Therefore, a person who is 'dying' is conceptually not a person who is in the process of dying, but a person who is 'about to die', or who is on 'on the brink of death'. In purely colloquial speech, 'He is dying' is likely to be expressed as 他快要死了 tā kuài yào sǐ le 'he is about to die'.
2. The nature of qui meurt as an attributive form:
In French, the predicative form le oiseau meurt is transformed into a relative clause with an attributive function: un oiseau qui meurt. As we saw above, English prefers an attributive participle ('a dying bird'). I've put these in a table below, with the Chinese colloquial form 'about to die' transformed into an attributive. The gloss underneath shows roughly what each version means.
| Predicative | Attributive | |
| French | le oiseau meurt 'the bird dies' |
un oiseau qui meurt 'a bird which dies' |
| English | the bird is dying | a dying bird |
| Chinese | 鸟快要死了 niǎo kuài yào sǐ le 'the bird will soon die' |
快要死的鸟 kuài yào sǐ de niǎo 'a soon will die (particle) bird' |
Unfortunately, as you can see, verbal attributive expressions in Chinese are not always the most elegant of constructions. This causes many Chinese translators to grope around for more elegant structures, including nouns, to place in attributive position.
3. Stylistics
Finally, 快要死了 kuài yào sǐ le 'is soon to die' is a pretty bald, everyday expression that is not totally suited to the medium of fine writing. It is in the nature of Chinese style to try to find more literary or elegant expressions to substitute for mundane or everyday language.
As a result, Chinese translators come up a rich variety of expressions to translate the simple French relative clause qui meurt, or in the case of those translating from Katherine Woods' English, the attributive present participle 'dying'. (The source of translation is shown in the tables below).
| Chinese | Pronunciation | Meaning | F |
E |
? |
Total |
| 1. Using 垂 chuí | 5 |
9 |
1 |
15 |
||
| 垂死的 | chuísǐ de | 'dying, moribund' | 3 |
6 |
1 |
10 |
| 垂危的 | chuíwēi de | 'at last gasp' | 0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 生命垂危的 | shēngmìng chuíwēi de | 'at last gasp of life' | 2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
| These 15 translators use the words 垂死 chuísǐ and 垂危 chuíwēi, which incorporate the literary expression 垂 chuí 'approach, near, be close to'. This is much more elegant than saying 快要死 kuài yào sǐ. | ||||||
| 2. Using 濒 / 临 (bīn / lín) | 9 |
2 |
0 |
11 |
||
| 瀕臨死亡的 | bīnlín sǐwáng de | 'be close to death, verge on death' | 3 |
1 |
0
|
4 |
| 濒于死亡的 | bīn yú sǐwáng de | 'be on the brink of death' | 2
|
1 |
0 |
3 |
| 濒临于死亡的 | bīnlín yú sǐwáng de | 'be close to death, verge on death' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 瀕死的 | bīnsǐ de | 'moribund, dying' | 2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 临死的 | línsǐ de | 'facing death' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Another, only slightly less literary way of saying 'facing death' is to use 瀕臨 / 濒临 bīnlín 'facing, verging on'. Chinese generally prefers to use words in pairs, thus 瀕臨 + 死亡. Even where the single word 濒 is used, translators transform it into 濒 + 于 + 死亡, thus retaining a superficial 2+2 structure. (One translator uses 濒临于死亡, which can be analysed as 濒临 + 于 + 死亡, a 2 + 1 + 2 structure that respects the integrity of each pair.) A few translators take the option of using a single 2-character compound (瀕死 / 临死). This is even more succinct than the above. For some reason, these expressions are much more popular in translations from the original French. |
||||||
| 3. Using 奄奄 | 3 |
4 |
0 |
7 |
||
| 奄奄一息的 | yǎnyǎn yīxī | 'at one's last gasp, on one's last legs' | 2 |
4 |
0 |
6 |
| 奄奄待斃 | yǎnyǎn dàibì | 'on one's last legs' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 奄奄一息 is a fixed four-character expression meaning 'close to death', used by six translators. 奄奄待斃 is similar. | ||||||
| 4. Using 氣若遊絲 | 0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
||
| 氣若遊絲的 | qì ruó yóusī | 'spirit like gossamer' | 0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
| Two Taiwanese translators use this expression, a literary phrase describing the tenuousness of the bird's dying spirit. Both are translating from the English. | ||||||
| 5. Multiple forms (notably using 邊緣) | 1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
||
| 現正垂死邊緣奄奄待斃著 | xiàn zhèng chuísǐ biānyuán yǎnyǎn dàibī-zhe | 'now on the verge of dying on the point of dying' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 瀕臨垂死邊緣的 | bīnlín chuísǐ biānyuán de | 'verging on the brink of dying' | 0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| These two translators manage to stuff three or more expressions into attributive position. The first, in particular, is amazing for using 現 + 正 + 垂死 + 邊緣 + 奄奄待斃 + 著, which contains six different expressions ('now' 'progressive' 'verge of death' 'verge', 'close to death' 'progressive'). | ||||||
| 6. Future or progressive tense of 死, 死亡, 死去 | 4 |
2 |
0 |
6 |
||
| 将死之 | jiāng sǐ zhī | 'going to die' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 即将死亡的 | jí jiāng sǐwáng de | 'going to die' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 即将死去的 | jí jiāng sǐ qù de | 'going to die' | 0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 行将死去的 | xíng jiāng sǐ qù de | 'shortly to die' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 正在死去的 | zhèng zài sǐ qù de | 'dying' | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 就快要死了的 | jiù kuài yào sǐ le de | 'soon to die' | 0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| These translators don't try to find more elegant expressions meaning 'on the verge of death'; they all try to express the meaning as verbs meaning 'about to die' or 'going to die'. The translations are arranged from the most literary style at the top to most colloquial expression at the bottom. Use of 将, 即将, and 行将 for future tense is characteristic of the written language. 正在 (a pure progressive) and 就快要 are both more colloquial in style. | ||||||
| 7. Using 断气 instead of 死 | 0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
||
| 快要断气的 | kuài yào duàn qì de | 'soon to breathe one's last' | 0
|
1
|
0
|
1 |
| Although using the normal construction for 'soon to die', this translation uses 断气 dùan qì 'spirit snaps' instead of the pedestrian verb 死 sǐ 'to die'. | ||||||
| 8. Not expressed | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
||
| -- | -- | 1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
| One translator (working from the French) makes no mention of 'dying'. Instead, the little prince is simply likened to a 'bird that has been shot'. | ||||||
| Total | 23 |
21 |
1 |
45 |
||
|
F |
E |
? |
Total |
|||
The amazing variety of Chinese translations of qui meurt almost seems like a competition among translators to see who can capture the poetry of Saint-Exupéry's language in the most beautiful Chinese.
