Is the Chinese translation accurate?

[Kenny同志]

"With major metropolitan areas like New York, Boston, Miami and Philadelphia, the East Coast offers a mix of both tourists and residents drawn to these cities for the diverse selection of shopping, food and drink, and cultural experiences," said J. Jennings Moss, the site editor.

網站編輯J. Jennings Moss說:"東海岸有紐約、波士頓、邁阿密、費城這樣的大都市，各種商品琳琅滿目，吸引到這裏來購物的，不管是遊客還是當地居民，都可享受這裏的美食，還可體驗不同地方的文化.

Edited April 29, 2010 at 09:02 AM by kenny2006woo

[skylee]

The East Coast offers a mix of tourists and residents.

Perhaps -

網站編輯Jennings Moss說:"東海岸有紐約、波士頓、邁阿密、費城這樣的大都市，各種商品琳琅滿目，既有各色美食，又有多元文化，不論遊客還是居民都受吸引而來。“

Edited April 28, 2010 at 02:08 PM by skylee

[imron]

網站編輯Jennings Moss說

J. Jennings Moss

[Kenny同志]

Thanks Skylee and Imron. While retaining the exact meaning, the text can be rephrased as

"With major metropolitan areas like New York, Boston, Miami and Philadelphia, the East Coast offers food and drink, and cultural experiences to a mix of both tourists and residents drawn to these cities for the diverse selection of shopping." said J. Jennings Moss, the site editor.

Is this correct, Imron?

Edited April 29, 2010 at 09:35 AM by kenny2006woo

[skylee]

I thought you were translating the English text to Chinese. Do you mean you can suggest changes to the original text to suit the Chinese translation?

Oh and I have found another response to your translation on another website (it came up at the top of a google search) -> http://www.zftrans.com/bbs/read.php?tid=25634

BTW, IMHO your English version does not seem to have exactly the same meaning as the original. (sorry I am not imron, obviously.)

[Kenny同志]

No, I didn't mean to make any change to the meaning of the original. I reworded the text just to make the sentence structure clearer.

[skylee]

I think this is one of the tricky parts about translation - sometimes you can't convey the original meanings accurately in the translation. Sometimes the writer of the original might intentionally (or unintentionally) write vaguely so there can be different interpretation.

Late last year I had to coordinate the translation of a report. The original report looked fine in English. But after translation there were many parts that could be interpreted quite differently (e.g. use of a different Chinese adjective/description to make a criticism sound less or even not critical). And as I could not consult the writers because of one reason or another, it was a tough task. And I hate arguing with people.

[imron]

I think the meaning is similar, but not exact, with the difference mostly being the emphasis on what the East Coast is offering.

For example, ask yourself the question "What is the East Coast offering"?

In the first version, the East Coast is offering "a mix of both tourists and residents". It's emphasizing the demographic makeup of the people you will find there, who incidentally are attracted to the region for it's diverse shopping, food, drink and cultural experiences.

In the second version, the East Coast is offering "food and drink, and cultural experiences". It's emphasizing what the East Coast has to offer people, and then goes on to mention that this attracts both tourists and residents.

[Kenny同志]

"With major metropolitan areas like New York, Boston, Miami and Philadelphia, the East Coast offers a mix of both tourists and residents drawn to these cities for the diverse selection of shopping, food and drink, and cultural experiences," said J. Jennings Moss, the site editor.

Imron, thanks. But the whole sentence appears to me incomplete if interpreted this way.

In the first version, the East Coast is offering "a mix of both tourists and residents". It's emphasizing the demographic makeup of the people you will find there, who incidentally are attracted to the region for it's diverse shopping, food, drink and cultural experiences.

In that case, this part,

drawn to these cities for the diverse selection of shopping, food and drink, and cultural experiences

is supposed to modify a mix of both tourists and residents. So it is the same like "offer you", which in my view, must be followed by a noun or the phrase is incomplete. Am I right? The original doesn't grammatically make sense to me until

food and drink, and cultural experiences

serve as direct objects.

Edited May 1, 2010 at 12:04 AM by kenny2006woo