Informative Text (T-E) Discussion | Introduction to Translation

Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202124 Introduction to Translation

Informative Text (Thai-English) Discussion

The translations given on this page are neither comprehensive nor definitive. They are here to give you an idea of the range of possibilities and to spark discussion. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Translate the following into English.

กำแพงเมืองจีนเป็นหนึ่งในเจ็ดสิ่งมหัศจรรย์ของโลกยุค ใหม่ เชื่อกันว่ากำแพงเมืองจีนสร้างขึ้นเมื่อประมาณ 2,200 ปีก่อน ในสมัยของจิ๋นซีฮ่องเต้ จักรพรรดิองค์แรกแห่งราชวงศ์ฉิน แต่ที่จริงแล้ว มีหลักฐานชี้ว่าส่วนแรกของกำแพงแห่งนี้สร้างขึ้นในสมัยศตวรรษที่ 5 ก่อนคริสตกาล วัตถุประสงค์หลักในการสร้างกำแพงนี้คือ เพื่อป้องกันชายแดนทางตอนเหนือของอาณาจักรจีนจากการรุกรานของพวกชนเผ่าเร่ร่อน ต่างๆ กำแพงที่ยาว 8,800 กิโลเมตรนี้แบ่งออกเป็นหลายส่วนและสร้างขึ้นในหลายสมัย รวมแล้วใช้เวลาหลายร้อยปีจึงเสร็จสมบูรณ์ แรงงานที่ใช้ในการสร้างกำแพงเมืองจีนประกอบด้วยพวกชาวนา นักโทษ และทาส ซึ่งนับพันๆ คนต้องเสียชีวิตไปเพราะความเหน็ดเหนื่อยและความหิวโหย กล่าวกันว่าศพผู้เสียชีวิตก็จะถูกฝังอยู่ข้างใต้กำแพงนั่นเอง กำแพงเมืองจีนนับเป็นหนึ่งสิ่งก่อสร้างขนาดใหญ่ที่สุดในโลกอย่างหนึ่งที่มนุษย์สร้าง ขึ้น แต่คำกล่าวอ้างที่ว่ากำแพงนี้สามารถมองเห็นได้ด้วยตาเปล่าจากดวงจันทร์นั้นไม่เป็น ความจริง

Translation 1: Sample for Critique

The Great Wall of China is one of the new seven wonders of the world. It is believed to have been built around 2,200 years ago during the rule of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, but in fact there is evidence of the wall having been built in the fifth century B.C.E. The main reason for its construction was to fortify the northern borders of the empire against the invasion of various nomadic tribes. The Great Wall is about 20 feet wide and 25 feet high, with a length of some 5,000 miles, and took over ten years to build. Laborers forced to work on the wall consisted of farmers, convicts, and slaves. Many died in the process from exhaustion and hunger. It is said that their bodies were buried there under the wall. The Great Wall of China is considered to be one of the largest man-made constructions, though the claim that it can be seen with the naked eye from the moon is untrue.

Translation 2: Sample for Critique

The Great Wall of China is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is believed to have been built around 2,200 years ago during the rule of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, but in fact there is evidence of the wall having been built in 5 B.C.E. The main reason for the construction was to fortify the northern borders of the empire against the invasion of various nomadic tribes. The Great Wall is about 20 feet wide and 25 feet high, with a length of some 5,000 miles, and took over ten years to build. Laborers forced to work on the wall consisted of farmers, convicts, and slaves. Many died in the process from exhaustion and hunger. It is said that their bodies were buried there under the wall. The Great Wall of China is considered to be one of the largest man-made constructions, though the claim that it can be seen with the naked eye from the moon is not true.

Reference

Discussion

BC vs. BCE

BCE (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Thesaurus)
abbreviation for Before Common Era or Before Current Era or Before Christian Era: used when referring to a year before the birth of Jesus Christ when the Christian calendar starts counting years:
Celtic remains were found dating from as early as 1200 BCE.

Boris Johnson, "BC or BCE? The BBC's edict on how we date events is AD (absolute drivel)," The Telegraph, 26 Sep. 2011.

building dates

Vocabulary

The Seven Wonders of the World

Oliver Smith, "What are the seven wonders of the world?," The Telegraph, 16 Jul. 2017.
James Owen, "New 7 Wonders vs. Ancient 7 Wonders," National Geographic, 8 Jul. 2007.
[...] the "new seven wonders of the world" announced July 7 following a global poll to decide a new list of human-made marvels.

The winners were voted for by Internet and phone, American Idol style. The other six new wonders are the Colosseum in Rome, India's Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Jordan's ancient city of Petra, the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, and the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

The contest was organized by the New7Wonders Foundation—the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker and museum curator Bernard Weber—in order to "protect humankind's heritage across the globe." The foundation says the poll attracted almost a hundred million votes.

Yet the competition has proved controversial, drawing criticism from the United Nations' cultural organization UNESCO, which administers the World Heritage sites program
Veda Shastri, Guglielmo Mattioli and Kaitlyn Mullin, "The ‘New Seven Wonders of the World,’" The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2017.

exhaustion
man-made
to be seen with the naked eye

Links

General Information, History

China: A Country with a 5,000-year-long Civilization
"Great Wall of China," Encyclopædia Britannica
Early building
About the 7th century BCE the state of Chu started to construct a permanent defensive system. Known as the “Square Wall,” this fortification was situated in the northern part of the kingdom’s capital province. From the 6th to the 4th century other states followed Chu’s example.
Rossella Lorenzi, "Great Wall of China Twice as Long as Thought" (2012)
Malcolm Moore, "Great Wall of China's strength 'comes from sticky rice,'" The Telegraph, 30 May 2010.
Workers built the Ming dynasty sections of the Great Wall about 600 years ago by mixing together a paste of sticky rice flour and slaked lime, the standard ingredient in mortar, said Dr Zhang Bingjian.

The sticky rice mortar bound the bricks together so tightly that in many places weeds still cannot grow. However, there was widespread resentment against the Wall in the south of China because the Ming emperors requisitioned the southern rice harvest both to feed the workers on the Wall and to make the mortar.
Heather Whipps, "How One Chinese Emperor Changed the World," LiveScience (2008)
Following the Great Wall of China, EDSITEment
Brooke Larmer, "The Great Wall of China Is Under Siege," Smithsonian Magazine (2008)
International Friends of the Great Wall

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Last updated April 8, 2018