沒事找事?

[Lu]

Another translation question, from a story by Bi Feiyu. The sentence:

 

要知道，村子里的人们过去都是依靠高音喇叭里的“最后一声”来判定时间的，但是，那是“北京时间”，你说说看，村里人要知道北京的时间做什么？这不就是没事找事么？

 

I had initially translated this 没事找事 as (approximately, the actual translation is in Dutch) 'that was nothing for them to concern themselves about', with an undertone of 'that was none of their business', but the translator editing my work suggests 'did they have to worry about that?' with more of a 'you shouldn't bother hard-working country folk with such trivialities' implication.

 

Does anyone know what would be better? What is implied in this sentence?

 

Thanks for any help!

[chinchillus]

没事找事 is a derogatory term, "to cause trouble purposely for something unnecessary".

 

In this sentence, to know the Beijing time is not necessary for the villagers at all, but "you" try to do something in order to make the villagers know the Beijing time. And "I" think this something is trouble and what "you" do is meaningless.

[Nathan Mao]

One way to think of this is "making a mountain out of a molehill".

[skylee]

I doubt #3 is right for the context of the text quoted in #1.

[Nathan Mao]

delete.

[Nathan Mao]

Thinking it over, I think it still works.

The villagers are taking something unimportant (Beijing time) and turning into something overly important (why should villagers care what Beijing time is?).

 

Google translate has it as "nothing good".

 

Personally, I've never heard it used as anything but "causing unnecessary trouble" or "making mountains out of molehills".  But it is certainly true that terms that are used the same way even 90% of the time can have a different meaning in a different context.

 

I guess I need a little more context, because all of China is on the same time (no time zones).  In any case, any village close enough to hear the last tone would see the sunrise/sunset at the same time as Beijing and so be on the same time no matter what.

 

Final analysis: I think the editing translator was adding additional meaning from context that isn't present in those four characters taken separately.

[Lu]

Thanks all for your suggestions.

 

Chincillus: so do you mean that it's more like 'telling those villagers Beijing time is unnecessarily bothering them', and that (in this sentence) the villagers themselves would rather not be bothered with it, as it is no use to them? Or rather that the villagers should be kept in the dark about Beijing time, as giving them too much knowledge will only cause trouble?

 

Nathan Mao: thanks for your ideas. I agree that it means 'cause unnecessary trouble', but do you think it's unnecessary trouble to the villagers themselves, or to the people in power (potentially)?

 

Skylee: what you do think?

[Nathan Mao]

@Lu,

Good question.  Usually it seems to mean the person causing trouble is causing it for someone else.  But in this case, it sure sounds like they are causing it for themselves.

 

Does the rest of the story indicate who is paying the price for this over-reliance on the last sound from the loudspeaker? (tweeter is what I get from "高音喇叭", but I'm not fully clear on what they are talking about, unless it is like our tornado sirens in the US, or something).

 

I think the Chinese are much more comfortable with context influencing the meaning than we are in English.  I had a native speaker teacher tell me that if he was watching a movie, he would only fully understand about 80% if they didn't have subtitles (due to homonyms and ambiguity).  I think he was exaggerating, but...

[Lu]

There is not much more context. Story takes place during (or perhaps shortly after) the Cultural Revolution, and this part is about how they used to rely on the loudspeaker for the time, until a little old man was brought to the village, who would ring the school bell every hour, so then they had their own time. This is just one sentence, the story goes on to talk about the old man. I presume the government is paying for the loudspeaker, but I don't think that resolves much, unfortunately.

[Nathan Mao]

Well, it seems like there wasn't much that was inconveniencing Beijing.  So I guess in this case, 没事找事 may mean that they were causing unnecessary problems for themselves by trying to live according to Beijing time when they could have lived in a Paradise of Timelessness, or something.

 

Thinking a little bit deeper, during the Cultural Revolution, everything was about Mao, and Beijing/Tiananmen was their spiritual center.  People/villages/leaders sometimes went overboard trying to be Proper Socialists.  The author may have been criticizing them for being so concerned about "Beijing" time that it interfered with the normal or traditional operating manner of the village?  Which fits perfectly with Chincillus' nuance.

[imron]

I think you are missing a bit of cultural context for the loudspeakers. Back in the day (and still today even in some small villages) there were speakers strung up at various locations around the village and hooked up to a PA system. The PA system would broadcast news, music, general information on health, government propaganda and more. Basically it was a village-wide radio station that you can't turn off (unless you are the guy in charge).

Based on the short sentence above. I'm guessing there was a requirement for these broadcasts to play a series of tones marking the time (much like you hear nowadays on the radio at the top of each hour - dee dee dee dee deeeeee).

Anyway perhaps the author is trying to say why would you (eg the central govt or whoever decided on the regulation) bother making it a requirement to let villagers know Beijing time, because what use is it to them.

[Nathan Mao]

It always comes down to culture, doesn't it? ;)

Your take makes sense.

[skylee]

Sorry, Edited - Re #7, I think it simply means that telling the villagers the Beijing time is unnecessary, i.e  多餘.

[Lu]

I know what the loudspeakers were and did, that wasn't really the issue. Perhaps I should have given more context to make clearer what my question was.

 

But as I understand from imron and skylee, it's not a matter of Beijing time being none of the villagers' business, but rather that it's no use to them and so there is no need to bother them with it. I have amended my translation accordingly. Thanks for the help!

[imron]

@lu my comment about the speakers was for Nathan Mao who mentioned in an earlier post he wasn't sure what they were.