Bureaus Exclusive

City solicits English translation of couplet

By Guo Anfei and Zhang Xintong (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-06-21 22:18

Kunming, in Southwest China’s Yunnan, launched a solicitation activity to translate the couplet of Daguanlou Mansion from Chinese to English.

"In order to improve the external image of Kunming, display the rich cultural heritage of the spring city, build Kunming into an international influenced Pan-Asia cultural city and facilitate the communication with Southeast Asia, South Asia and the globe, we are soliciting great English translation of the couplet of Kunming Daguanlou Mansion from all social sectors," Cai Zhiyue, the director of Network Information Office of Kunming Government said.

Cai added, in the future they would like to use this activity to translate things into French, Vietnamese and Burmese.

Participants can choose to translate the whole couplet, only translate one paragraph or one sentence. The awards were classified into three categories. For the whole translation, the first prize for is RMB10,000; the second prize given to four winners is RMB5,000; the third prize given to ten winners is RMB2,000. For the paragraph translation, the first prize is RMB2,000; the bonus for each of the four second prize winners is RMB1,200; the bonus for each of the ten third prize winners is RMB800. For sentence translation, the first prize is RMB1,000; each of the four second prize winners will get RMB800; each of the ten third prize winners will get RMB500.

"It was too hard to translate this long couplet for me. I decided to fully use this summer holiday to try to translate this couplet of Daguanlou Mansion," Said Li Xiaolu, a junior from the Foreign Language Department of Yunnan University.

When celebrity Sun Ranweng went to the Daguanlou Mansion in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), he wrote a 180-word couplet. The first scroll of the couplet describes the Kunming scenery and the second line of the couplet narrates the history of Yunnan.

It is understood that this translation solicitation activity began on May 5, 2011 and will end on December 5, 2011. Contributors can email to kmswx@sina.cn. The written translation can be sent to Room 348 of Municipal Administrative Center Building 7 on Chuntong Road of Kunming Chenggong New Area by post. The postcode is 650500.