My buddy Mike Skyped these to me:
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| My state is the only one with boobs. |
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| I'm going to have to confirm this translation. |
Friday, March 31, 2023
6 comments:
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I tossed the characters into Google Translate and it came up with: "The window is limited / Do not parabolic"
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what this is supposed to mean. 窗户 definitely means "window," and 限位 does mean "limited" in Chinese. The second line would seem to mean something like: "Do not (请勿) throw things (抛物) in the air (高空)." My best guess is that they are trying to tell people not to throw things out the window.
It's weird, though, because Google translate has gotten very good recently with the new deep learning AI. It seems odd that this would be so off.
Anyway, I have no idea where they got the translation in the photo, because there are no characters that come anywhere close to resembling "shit" or "god." But I don't actually read modern Chinese, so who knows what the kids are saying these days.
Yeah, I was telling Mike that I didn't see a character for "god" anywhere. What would the single character for "shit" be? In Sino-Korean, isn't there the phrase 대변 (大便)?
ReplyDeleteYou did all my research for me! Not much I can add, except maybe a character-by-character breakdown with the help of Naver Dictionary (hanja) and Google Translate:
ReplyDelete窗 창 (chang) window
户 호 (ho) hole (window hole = window)
已 이 (ee) already, too much (adverbial marker?)
限 한 (han) limit, restrict (제한)
位 위 (wi) location, place (limit-place = limit?)
请 청 (cheong) ask/request, like 요청하다, I guess
勿 물 (mul) not (request-not = request that you not)
高 고 (go) high
空 공 (gong) air, emptiness (the high air = the air?)
抛 포 (po) throw
物 물 (mul) things (as in 물건)
Maybe a Chinese "translator" understood enough about slangy English to know that Americans use the word "shit" to mean almost anything, including "things," as in the sentence, "Yeah, just throw your shit in the trunk of my car, and we'll get going."
The "like a god" part is impossible to figure out. Where on earth did that come from? It's the part that makes the whole thing comical, but there's nothing in the Chinese text to justify that adverbial phrase.
So, yeah—"[We] request that [you] not throw things [through] the window and into the air"...?
Also possible is that this was a disgruntled or exhauseted translator who knew that his client would not catch on and just wanted to have a laugh. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteOnly the Shadow knows.
ReplyDeleteIt disappoints me greatly that the sign is only admonishing one not to throw stuff out the window. The vision of people floating in the air above a busy street just shitting on people like Superman after a bad bout of Taco Bell amuses me greatly.
ReplyDelete