"Typically Chinese" translations

[msittig]

daofeishi, absolutely agree on "fragrant" for 香, but I still use it anyway! Is there a better translation? 香 is such a Chinese word…

Same, but better, with 甜, where "sweet" fits the bill about 80% of the time.

[spruceblue]

quote:

林业厅机关干部? well... if it isn't 'forestry department officials', then what???

something about 厅. In the contemporary Chinese government hierarchy, 部>局>厅. I guess it's still ok to translate 厅 to department. but there may be a better one, which I don't know myself.

[leeyah]

部>局>厅

ministry > bureau> office (as in 办公厅 general affairs office) or even smaller but plain & simple unit perhaps?

But then we're still stuck with the cadres i.e. 干部 functionaries? leaders? How about forestry unit leaders?

[tooironic]

...thus demonstrate the complexities of translation. As always, we are stuck between being "faithful" to the source text ("cadre") or choosing a word which is more commonly understood in the target text ("official").

(My plug: This is why we need a translation studies forum: to answer these kinds of questions that go beyond translating as an academic/linguistic activity and which see words as having a number of potential translations depending on the communicative context.)