Translation and Language 翻译与语言
四不像：当「四」成为不可译之物的代名词Four Failed Likenesses — When 四不像 Becomes the Word for the Unclassifiable English At seven in the evening on a patch of open concrete between two tower blocks, forty people are facing the same direction and moving in the same…
四世同堂不是「Four Generations Under One Roof」：被一个介词抹去的堂 Four Generations, Not Under One Roof — What English Cannot Carry Out of 四世同堂 English It is four in the afternoon in the main room of a north-China house. Light comes in through the south…
四的双面：为什么中文里「四」谐音「死」，却又有「四季平安」 The Number That Is Both Omen and Blessing – Why 四 Sounds Like Death, Yet Means 四季平安 English In the lift of a residential building in a Chinese city, the buttons read 1, 2, 3, 3A, 5. The fourth…
四方误译：East, South, West, North 不是「东南西北」 Four Directions, Four Fates — Why “East, South, West, North” Is Not 东南西北 English You are standing at an intersection in a city you do not know. Your phone says: Head north on Chang’an Street…