| Change log entry 76376 | |
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| Processed by: | richwarm (2022-11-24 01:48:25 GMT) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 72252 - submitted by 'makelan59' >> "Nice and warm" provides an excellent but all too rare example of an idiomatic English equivalent for the adjective + (doubled) onomatopoeic vivifier type of construction. It is not, however, universally applicable. At http://hanying.odict.net/zh-tw/translate/d4d/70ed-4e4e-4e4e.html we can see that simply "hot" is given as another translation for 熱乎乎. "Very hot/very warm" is surely the safest basic definition, and students and translators should learn that the 乎乎 type of post-adjectival construction acts as an onomatopoeic amplifier of the meaning of the adjective, making it more vivid, depending on the meaning of the adjective itself in context. A one-fits-all dictionary definition may be impossible. A range of possibilities should be provided, including "safe" basic definitions - for off the shelf use, so to speak - and if possible others that attempt to convey or at least suggest the "feeling" that the (doubled) suffixes suggest. I have tried to do this with "palpably" and "distinctly", as the sense 乎乎 adds to 熱 is that one can feel the heat coming off the object in question. On that point, the nature and/or circumstance of that object may be pertinent to translation of the phrase in context. For example, a radiator belting out heat may be 熱乎乎, but while this makes the room "nice and warm", the radiator itself might be better described as "hot hot hot!" and had better not be touched! Then there is "piping hot" for food and drink. Note that of these two, the latter has a 'good' meaning like "nice and warm", the former not necessarily so. This brings me to the example that brought me here. In Cui Jian's "一塊紅布" there is the line "I can feel that you have blood on you, because your hands are [熱乎乎]." Even in context this is highly ambiguous, perhaps internally so. The Voice's emotions towards whatever is Red (etc ) in the song are highly mixed. Here, the hands so indeed appear pleasantly warm in some sense, in spite of the terror of the blood.... ---------------------------------- Editor: 1) I'm going for something more succinct, but I'll add a figurative sense: 形容親熱、心情興奮激動。[例]看到久違的師長，心裡都〜的。 Ex: 说：“今后你们就是俺自家人了，不要见外”，一句话说得我们心里都热呼呼的。 2) "nice and warm" is inappropriate for a case like this: 随后想到再也见不到二喜，他呜呜地哭了，小脸蛋贴在我脖子上，热乎乎的眼泪在我胸口流， "Afterward, when he realized that he wouldn't see Erxi again, he began to cry. His little face pressed against my neck, and warm tears dripped on my chest." So I'm reducing it to just "warm". |
| Diff: |
- 熱乎乎 热乎乎 [re4 hu1 hu1] /nice and warm/ # + 熱乎乎 热乎乎 [re4 hu1 hu1] /hot/very hot/warm/very warm/distinctly hot/palpably warm/nice and warm/hot hot hot!/piping hot/ + 熱乎乎 热乎乎 [re4 hu1 hu1] /warm; (of food) piping hot/(fig.) roused to warm feelings/ |