For the benefit of my non-Chinese readers, here’s a translation of what I wrote in my previous post ‘Rusty Chinese’.
“Today, I shall attempt to write in Chinese. I haven’t written in Chinese for a very long time, so do excuse me if it’s written very badly! Sydney’s weather is absolutely gorgeous (I used the idiom 风和日丽 to describe how good the weather was) with the warm sunny weather and clear blue skies! My mood is thus accordingly good!
I remember when writing Chinese compositions back in primary and secondary school, everyone always used “风和日丽” to describe the weather. It was as if that idiom was the only adjective that could be used to describe the weather. Haha.
Oops, time is tight and I don’t have time to write anymore as I have to rush off for school. Shall continue writing when I get back!”
Translated word-for-word, 风和日丽 (pronounced feng he re li) means ‘wind and day beautiful’.
I hope I did an ok job in translating. Translation is pretty challenging. It’s sometimes so difficult to translate all the different nuances in meaning. But I kinda enjoy translating. Hmm….maybe I’ll do a course in it in future…IF and WHEN I get my Mandarin up to scratch.
oh, just one more thing to add. It’s totally irrelevant to the topic, but I finally saw a kookabara today! I saw it as I was walking to the Pymble train station. It’s the first time I’ve managed to see a kookabara since I came to Sydney in Feb. So far, I’ve only managed to hear its characteristic ‘laugh’ but never seen it. It was standing at the side of the road, pecking at someone’s lawn. It’s such a cute bird. 🙂