Translation can be found everywhere in our
daily life. Have you noticed street name is also a part of translation? Though street
names are short, we can also learn a lot from translation of them. Let’s see some
street names in Chinese and English.
First, ‘路’and ‘道’ are not only translation of ‘road’. Here are some wordings which
also mean ‘路’and ‘道’’.
1.
Avenue: the word is used when
there are trees beside the roads. (e.g. Tat Chee Avenue達之道)
2.
Crescent: it describes roads in
a curved shape. (e.g. Essex Crescent雅息士道)
3.
Incline: it tells the roads are
inclined. (e.g. Jat’s Incline扎山道)
4.
Drive (e.g. Cotton Tree Road 紅綿路)
Similar to ‘路’, ‘道’ and ‘大道’, ‘街’and ‘徑’ do not only mean ‘street’ and ‘path’. For example, the word ‘path’
is translated into ‘街’and ‘徑’. ‘Steps’, ‘alley’,
‘rise’ and so on are translated into ‘街’. From English
street names, we can have basic understanding of features of streets. Yet, we
can hardly find difference among streets from Chinese street names because they
are similar.
Here is some interesting translation.
1.
Hammer Hill Road 斧山道
Hammer does not mean ‘斧’. It means ‘鎚’. The word ‘Axe’ means ‘斧’.
2.
Public Square Street 眾坊街
Public Square Street used to be ‘公眾四方街’. This
is an example of literal translation. However, the real meaning of ‘public
square’ is ‘plaza’. The new translation眾坊街 is much more
suitable.
3.
Power Street 大強街
The word ‘power’ should mean electric power because there was a
power station. But again, the translator used literal translation and did not
consider the environment so the ‘power’ was translated into ‘強’ which usually refers to strength.
4.
Lion Rock Road獅子石道
Lion Rock means ‘獅子山’, but ‘Rock’ was
translated into ‘石’ directly.
Do you have any other ideas about street names? Or do you think they
are good translation?
Sources: http://hk-place.com/view.php?id=307
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