Un oiseau qui meurt as translated in 'The Little Prince',
Chinese versions

The expression un oiseau qui meurt ('a dying bird'), despite its simplicity in French, is translated in many different ways in Chinese.

Meurt is the present tense (3rd person) of the verb mourir 'to die'. Literally translated, the phrase becomes in English 'a bird which dies'. But the French present tense covers somewhat different ground from the English. Un oiseau qui meurt indicates an action that is in the process of taking place. The meaning is thus 'a bird which is in the process of dying', for which English would normally use the present progressive, namely, 'a bird which is dying'.

None of the five English-language translators actually use 'a bird which is dying'. Four use 'a dying bird'. One uses 'an injured bird dying of (gunshot wounds)'. As a matter of style, 'a dying bird' is more succinct and elegant in English than 'a bird which is dying'. (Could French also use the equivalent expression un oiseau mourant? Well, maybe, but un oiseau qui meurt is more common and probably more elegant, and there are subtleties of meaning and usage that I am not qualified 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 / 死著 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 anything like these forms (the form used is 正在死去 zhèng zài sǐ qù) in translating un oiseau qui meurt.

There are several reasons, both grammatical and stylistic, for avoiding a direct translation of the French or English originals:

1. Grammatical nature of the verb 死 sǐ 'to die:

Chinese tends to treat the verb 死 sǐ 'to die' as a change of state that takes place at a point in time, not a process that occurs over a period of time. Therefore, a person who is 'dying' is conceptually seen 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' might 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 clause:

In French, qui meurt 'which dies' is a relative clause with an attributive function, modifying the word un oiseau 'a bird'. As we saw above, English uses an attributive participle ('a dying bird'). But in Chinese this kind of structure is stylistically and grammatically more ungainly than in French or English.

It is not hard to see why Chinese translators would want to avoid this kind of expression.

3. Stylistics

Finally, 快要死了 kuài yào sǐ le 'is soon to die' is a bald, everyday expression not really suited to the medium of fine writing. Indeed, the verb 死 sǐ is almost unpleasant in its bluntness. It is in the nature of Chinese style to find more literary or elegant expressions as a substitute for mundane or everyday language.

Chinese translators come up with a rich variety of expressions to translate this expression. (The source of translation, French or English, is shown in the tables below).

The amazing variety of Chinese translations of qui meurt almost looks like a competition to see who can find the floweriest translation.