Thursday, June 09, 2005

Public security II



Found in 成都 Chengdu in western 四川 Sichuan province.

6Comments:

At 12:37 PM, Anonymous leng wrote ...

有困,难找警察。^^
纪先生请翻译一下。

 
At 6:51 PM, Blogger olr — 纪韶融 wrote ...

In the same spirit probably like this:

Ask for help when police comes.

Thanks, Leng.

 
At 12:04 PM, Anonymous leng wrote ...

这是一个关于中国标语的笑话。

本来是:“人民有困难,找警察。”
意思是:如果你遇到困难,call 110,警察马上就到。

但是中国的某些标语经常写在大门两边,比如这句话有8个字,那么大门左边写4个,右边写4个,平均分配。
这样就产生了另一种意思:“人民有困,难找警察。”
意思是:如果你遇到困难,要么call 110时line is busy,要么警察可能在play cards,也可能做其他事,反正一时半会儿是到不了你身边的。或者更严重的是,你因为得罪官员而遇到困难,警察是不会帮你出头的。

现在来对比一下这两句:
“人民有困难,找警察。”
“人民有困,难找警察。”
第一句中,“困难”是noun。
第二句中,“困”是noun,意思就是“困难”;而“难”是adverb,意思是difficult,hard。

这个是汉语中,由于“断句”的方法不同,而产生的歧义。类似的故事都很经典的。^^

 
At 10:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous wrote ...

I think the correct translation is actually:

"Seek help from police when you need."

And is not:

"Ask for help when police comes."

 
At 8:03 AM, Anonymous SHAWN wrote ...

today see you in the TV,and I find here, my English is Chinglish, wish make friend with you!
can you send me you email address?
my email:sjj0258@hotmail.com


SHAWN

 
At 5:27 PM, Blogger nana wrote ...

maybe your chinese was still rusty back then. :) I thought the translation was quite proper and also in the spirit of the original slogan.

 

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