梟逢鳩 The Owl meets the pigeon (my English Translation)
I just purchased a second hand book of 50 classical chinese stories translated into modern chinese.I'm translated the first into english and would like your thoughts on the translation and any comments I would like to have.
Shao Yuan (說苑) is a collection of writings put together by Liu Xiang (劉向) around 17 BC during the Western Han Dynasty (西漢）I'd appreciate your comments,and if you would like to see more of the stories as I try to translate them.
This is an initial translation and I hope to refine it,improving the English,but for now I just want to know if I capture the meaning and if you have any thoughts about what Chinese would think reading this story...
I did not do the modern chinese translation and base my English translation on it.If you have any comments on the modern Chinese translation I'd also be interested to know.
I include the Classical Chinese and modern chinese versions with my english version:
The owl meets the pigeon
Classical Chinese:
第一顆
梟逢鳩 - 說苑
梟逢鳩,鳩日：[子將安之?]梟日：[我將東徒.]鳩日：[何故?]梟日：[鄉(xiāng)人皆惡我鳴,以故東徒.]鳩日：[子能
更鳴可矣；不能更鳴,東徒,猶惡子之聲.]
Modern Chinese:
第一顆
梟逢鳩
貓頭鷹遇見了斑鳩,斑鳩說:[你要到那裏去?]貓頭鷹說:[我要搬到東面去.].斑鳩說:[為甚麼緣故呢?] 貓頭鷹說:[村裏的人都討厭我叫的聲音,為了這個緣故,我要搬到東面去.]斑鳩說：[你要是能改變了叫的聲音,那就好了； 要是不能改變叫的聲音,就是搬到東面去,人還是討厭你的聲音的.]
The Owl meets the pigeon
English Translation by Malcolm (陳天歌）
The owl met the pigeon and the pigeon said "Where are you going?" The owl replied:"I must move to the east." The pigeon said “Really,what is the reason?" The owl replied "The village people all dislike the sound I make,therefore I must move to the East." The pigeon then said "You must change the sound you make to one that is good; if you go the east,the people there will also dislike your sound."