Translation help please!

[DrWatson]

I trying to understand a passage from a Chinese folk tales book I have. The text is below. Note that 王質 is the main character of the story.

於是王質放下砍柴的工作，拿著斧頭，一邊砍除路上的野草，一邊往深山裏面去．

于是王质放下砍柴的工作，拿着斧头，一边砍除路上的野草，一边往深山里面去。

I'm having trouble understanding 拿著斧頭 and 砍除. Does this passage mean something to the extent of the following:

"Thus Wang Zhi put down his woodcutting work, held his axe, and while cutting at the weeds alone the side of the raod, progressed into the deep mountains."

Any help would be great appreciated. Thank you!

Edited September 16, 2008 at 08:39 AM by roddy
minor layout issue with quote tags

[HashiriKata]

拿著斧頭 here means "he took his axe"; and 砍除 "got rid of (by cutting)".

Your translation is fine, just needs a bit of polishing.

[DrWatson]

Thanks for your help!

[HashiriKata]

My try, just to see if it helps:

於是王質放下砍柴的工作，拿著斧頭，一邊砍除路上的野草，一邊往深山裏面去．

"Thus Wangzhi stopped chopping wood. With axe in hand he went into the mountain, clearing the vegetation that got in his way as he went."

Edited September 16, 2008 at 04:29 PM by HashiriKata

[Hanlink]

拿著斧頭 literally means 'holding axe'. In English, you need to supply the rest, so you could say, 'with his axe', 'with axe in hand', 'holding his axe', etc. etc., whichever seems most smooth. 砍除, on the other hand, means 'chop [and] get rid of', so when you translate, you need to get that idea; 'clear' as suggested by HarshiriKata works well.