"The Lady in the Painting"

[xuechengfeng]

Has anybody read this? I'll just keep a running thread of some translations I may need help with because some sound funny to me, or I don't know the combinations yet. Hopefully you fine people can help!

父親母親也都過去了。

Is that just "Her father and mother have also gone"

[mph]

Read it 30 years ago.

父親母親也都過去了

Sadly it probably means...

Both father and mother have already passed on.

In other words they have died.

The dou1 都 here most likely means "already".

The 過去 guo4 qu5 means "pass on".

Myles

[xuechengfeng]

ahhhhhhhhhhh thank you, i'm sure i'll be back with more.

[skylee]

What is the name of this book in Chinese? 畫中仙?

[xuechengfeng]

I believe it is “畫兒上的美人”

by the way, what is the following character, i can't find it anywhere..

it's radical is the "mouth" radical + "dipper" radical (according to terms at www.unicode.org)

in case that isn't clear 口+科 (only the right side)

i'm assuming it has to do with name because it says..

從前有一個人﹐姓張﹐(....)大明。

i just would like to know the pinyin for it!!!!

[skylee]

jiao4 (called)

[xuechengfeng]

hmm that's what seemed to fit, i know jiao4, but only as 叫, i wasn't aware there is a variation of it.

thanks

[skylee]

Take a look at this explanation -> http://140.111.1.40/yitia/fra/fra00491.htm

This variant can also be found in 現代漢語辭典.

And the right side of 科 is 斗 (dou3).

[xuechengfeng]

Ok, maybe a little on these

他每天早上﹐在路上看看山﹐看看水﹐也有時候唱唱歌兒。

Would this be..

"Every morning, on route (to work) she sees mountains, water, and also has time to sing."

then 他們真是作工的時候作工﹐玩兒的時候玩兒。

"When they work they work, when they have fun they have fun."

可是張大明回到家里﹐有甚人都沒有﹐飯得自已作﹐家里的事情也得自已作。想跟人說話﹐可是沒有人聽。

"But Zhang Daming returns home and there is nobody there, she must cook by herself, and do family business by herself. She wishes to speak with people, but there's nobody to listen."

That's all the screw-ups for now

[mph]

xuechengfeng:

Seems pretty much correct to me...

By the way the orthodox Chinese chars look nice.

Does Columbus teach you fan2ti3ban3 or simplified?

mph

[roddy]

Could the first one be 'sometimes sings' rather than 'has time to sing'?

Second one is something like they work when they have work to do, and play when they have time to play – ie they do what they should, when they should.

Family business might be better as ‘housework’, though it’s maybe not broad enough.

Roddy

[Lu]

You also want to keep in mind that this Zhang Daming is a he, not a she. You can't really tell from the characters, but you'll see later in the story.

[roddy]

Ok Mr Xue, explain why you assumed someone who does the housework is a 'she' . . .

Roddy

[xuechengfeng]

不好意思

Actually, for some reason I automatically assumed when they titled it "Lady in the Painting," the lady was the actual character.

I guess I should have figured it out on the FIRST PAGE when I read 他沒有太太

[xuechengfeng]

I suppose if this were the main character, however, the confusion could be understood in the sentence 她沒有太太

[Shi Rui'en]

Haha. Nice picture. I watched her on the Olympics and thought how much I could be scared by seeing her in one of those dark alleys.

Anyways, I already read that book, and I remember most of it. And now that I'm back from China, I'll be glad to help again.

Ryan

[Altair]

Fellow students of Chinese might be interested to know that The Lady in the Painting is available on cassette with a Chinese transcription from www.audioforum.com. Here is a copy of their description:

The Lady in the Painting. Chinese folktale. Intermediate-level listening comprehension program. Requires knowledge of 300 characters. 2 audiocassettes (2 hr.) and 87-p. book, $49.50. Order #CH0F01

[xuechengfeng]

crap too bad i can't buy just the cassettes.

[xuechengfeng]

Haha. Nice picture. I watched her on the Olympics and thought how much I could be scared by seeing her in one of those dark alleys.

Anyways, I already read that book, and I remember most of it. And now that I'm back from China, I'll be glad to help again.

Ryan

你已經回來了嗎﹖中國怎麼樣﹖

[Skellig]

Hi, this is my first post.

I am also reading the book :"lady in the painting" and try to be able to remember the 300 characters. Although my chinese girlfriend helps me a lot (guess why I learn the language ) I found a nice way to be able to "read" the book and learn the characters I would like to share.

I highly recommend the free software http://wakan.manga.cz/

I made a list of the 300 characters used in the book from the character screen. Then I can simply look up the characters (search by radical or pinyin) and copy them in the editor screen. In this window the program recognizes the phrases, puts in pinyin and the translation. I can also convert to simplified characters and print out. That helps me a lot not only in being able to read the book on my own but also to learn the characters/phrases without posessing practical chinese reader.

I think the idea of the book is good, but I would like to have a version with simplified characters, pinyin and translation which I am able to create this way. Furthermore, there are some errors. Obviously (...girlfriend) it should be 他每天早上出去做工 instead of 作工 in the text. I was also confused by 呌 instead of 叫. The punctuation is also incorrect at some points.