The tiger is good and is connected to courage, vigour and decisiveness. In the Nanzhao Kingdom, only those brave soldiers who have brilliant achievements in war can wear tiger skins as the symbol of power and bravery. In earlier times, the tiger was also a symbol of a Bai tribe. One legend tells it like this: “a great flood took place in Bai history. At that time there were two young children, the brother named Ahpudi and the sister named Ahyidi. When the flood came, their parents hid them in a big calabash dropping from the sky. The calabash floated on the waves for several days and nights. Then the water subsided, the brother and the sister came out of the calabash, but found there were no other people in the world. They had to marry each other when they grew up. And the wife gave birth to seven daughters, who grew to be seven beautiful women. One day, a tiger with white flowers on his back came to their house, and threatened the parents to give him one of the daughters to be his wife. The elder sisters dared not to be the tiger's wife. Only the youngest daughter accepted this marriage to prevent any harm coming to her parents. And so Bai people regard the tiger as one of their ancestors.”10
But the white tiger is usually associated with superstitious belief in Bai culture. The spirit of the white tiger is thought to bring quarrels and misfortunes especially danger in childbirth.
To the English, and to most westerners, “the king of the beasts” is the lion. The lion enjoys high prestige, as can be see from such expression_r_r_rs “regal as a lion”, or “ majestic as a lion”. And in Bai and Chinese culture, the tiger shares that same prestige.
5.4 Different or the same associations of some birds and animals
To Bai people, the bat possesses only positive qualities. It is a symbol of good fortune, well-being , happiness and blessing. The reason for such associations is probably because the name of the creature is pronounced the same as the word ‘福’. Bai people borrowed it from Chinese. An art style Chinese character ’寿’ with a flying bat at each corner of the character is a traditional design on the front of a Bai’s coffin.
However, the bat is usually associated with negative qualities in the west: “As blind as a bat”, “as crazy as a bat”, “to be a bit batty”, “to have bats in the belfry”, are typical expression_r_r_rs of the negative associations, and may be even worse. A bat can indicate an ugly woman or a prostitute, and the mention of the bat often evokes the image of an ugly, sinister, blood-sucking creature. This may possibly be because of the vampire bat. The emotions aroused among English-speaking people are similar to those that the dreaded owl arouses among Chinese: fright and revulsion. Crows, owls and magpies: In Bai culture, the crow has generally been regarded as an unlucky bird. It is connected with witchcraft or ill luck. It is said that crows flying near the windows of a house foretell death, and bad news would come to the person who heard the cry of the crows around him. Meanwhile, the Bai people associated the owl with death, and were greatly afraid if they heard an owl crying on the roof of their house. However, it is said in some parts of the UK that hearing an owl calling as a baby is born is an omen that this child will have a life blessed with much joy.
To Bai people, the magpie is a propitious bird. It is believed that sighting a magpie will bring good luck; if magpies are flying and singing around a house, some happy message or things will happen to the family soon. The connotation of the magpie for westerners is just like that of the crow and the owl to the Bai people. But the crow doesn’t have any negative associations for westerners.
Cat, spider, mouse: these common creatures are often to be found in Bai people's houses. For the cat, people shared the same connotation both in Bai culture and in western culture. In both cultures, people believe that “a cat has nine lives”. In ancient Egypt the cat was held so sacred that it is said whoever killed a cat, even by accident, was punished by death. Meanwhile, in Bai society, people mustn't kill a cat, if that was done, the punishment would come upon the doer. But there's no such figurative use, “she is a cat” (means an evil hearted or spiteful woman) in Bai culture.
People also have the same attitude to spiders in both cultures, but different to the mice. Bai people believe the spider is a spiritual insect thought to contain the souls of human beings. Spiders can bring misfortune and it is very unlucky to kill one. There is a rhyme in English that says ‘those who wish to live and thrive must let the spider be alive’.
Even though mice bring damage to household goods and clothes and steal food Bai people still respect them. An old custom is to spread some rice at the corners of the house for the mice to eat on New Year's Eve. It is said in Bai legends, the mouse stole the grain seeds from the heaven and gave them to humans, then there were crops, and rice, wheat, corn and grain. And a white mouse is believed to bring luck to people. It is said the white mouse can show people the treasure underground. However, the mouse always related with death in the western culture. If a mouse utters a squeak by a person who is sick in bed death is said to follow, white mice seen running in a house where someone is ill also foretells death. Both in Bai and western culture, the martin is a harbinger of good luck. It is especially lucky if martins build their nest near to your home, but be warned that bad luck awaits those who interfere with a martin’s nest.
Albatrosses and seagulls are said to host the souls of dead sailors in western culture. It is, therefore, said to be very unlucky to kill a seagull or an albatross. Seagulls seen deep inland indicate rough weather out at sea. But there is no such vehicle, nor connotations in Bai culture, because Bai people live in inland areas far away from the sea, and albatrosses and seagulls are hardly ever seen there.
5.5 Associations of some plants in the two cultures
Plants have many connotations in Bai culture: Bai people look on the cypress as holy wood, as a kind of ever-green plant, they are often be seen around the Bai temples. Bai people like to burn small pieces of cypress on the altar before Buddha and their native gods, the Benzhu, or before their ancestors’ tablets, and it is said that the sweet smell will please the gods and ancestors.
Flower and willows are often the symbol of love affairs in Bai songs; in fact a flower and willow song is actually a love song. The flower and willow disease always indicates venereal disease.
Flowers certainly stand for the youth and beauty of a woman, and willow is said to be the symbol of life and human's reproductive energy. But Bai people also use willow shoots to express their feelings to their dead ancestors by putting willow shoots on their tombs. Here willow has another connotation the same as the olive branch, blessing the soul of their dead ancestors with peace.
In Raosanling, a sacrificial ceremony for good weather and harvest in the coming year, the willow branch and calabash are the lucky objects.
In Bai folk songs about love, these lines are often heard.
Bai English
Hol yind hhex Flower and willow (oh my darling)
Gaip yond hhex pei suanl dad hol Soft willow shoots touch the peach petals
Baifmat peib jienx'anx A handsome horse should have a shining saddle
Jit nox bopdanl pei sopyo Peony matches ‘soyo’ on the earth
Heinl nox sanlxinl pei baipdot And the bright stars around the big dipper
in the sky.
A Bai person may say, “My love is a fine maiden with a face the colour of peach blossom and the figure of a bean shoot”, because peach blossom and bean shoot are more familiar to a Bai people. But an Englishman might say “My love is like a red, red rose”.
6. Idioms and proverbs in the two languages
“Idioms and proverbs are the gems of a language. They are well-known set phrases of short sentences, expressing supposed truth, wisdom of moral lessons. As they are formed in the long process of a language and therefore cover the culture of the people who use the language.”11
Both in English and Bai, there are abundant idioms and proverbs with individual cultural characters, they are the gems of each language. Here I would like to list some of them from swearwords to idioms and proverbs. Swearwords in a language are also related to the culture, someone has said even swearwords in Bai are beautiful.
6.1 Swear-words
When a grandmother is displeased with a naughty grandson's mischievous actions, she may say in Bai, “Aip qiainxdax!” meaning one should be cut by a knife a thousand times for punishment, or “Juainlfan-loddanl!”, meaning you should be sent to jail, with a cangue on your shoulder and be sent to a very remote place abroad, or the tiger will carry and bite you. This expression_r_r_r is related with the criminals in the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644). In those days, some criminals were sent to Yunnan from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other inland provinces. To keep these criminals from escaping on the way, a kind of yoke called in Bai a ‘gail’ (cangue) was carried on their shoulders, to fix the hands and neck in it, later these criminals got married with the native women there, and melted into Bai and other nationalities in Yunnan. And the curse “juainlfan-loddanl” somewhat reflects that period of history. But an English-speaking grandma may threaten a child with the “bogeyman” in the same situation, meaning an evil spirit might come and get you. When any foolish action is performed by a man, a similar expression_r_r_r both in Bai and English would be used to swear at him: ‘You big shit!’
And the most vicious swearword to curse one's enemy or express hatred to others in Bai is, “Baipgua-sotheinl”, die in the open air and have your skeleton exposed to the elements, which means no-one buries your corpse. In Bai culture it is lucky to die in the family hall with the relatives caring for you, a ‘natural' death. And this Bai swearword curses somebody to die in the open air and die young without any descendants. This is the most vicious swearword in Bai. Instead of this, in English people would use swearwords such as, “God damn you!” or ”Go to hell” and so on to curse their enemies or express their hatred. And these swearwords are always related to the westerners' religious beliefs.
6.2 Idioms
Bai idioms and proverbs come from the Bai people's life and work, and are closely related with the environment around them, even the animals, the plants and the natural phenomena can be the subjects of Bai idioms and proverbs. They are the treasured experience from the Bai ancestors, the products of their wisdom. Proverbs are always good lessons for the following generations, and they're always beautiful in form. Metaphor and simile are the two common figures of speech used in Bai idioms, Bai people always like to use the phenomena of nature and life they experienced or observed to express some deeper meanings. So Bai idioms are worthy to think about, and we always get something valuable from them. In translation, we should try our best to keep the forms and figures of speech of the source language (SL) keeping the beauty and native character of the Bai idioms, but also must pay attention to the westerners accepting psychology and expression_r_r_ral habits to get to the perfect cultural communication. Therefore how to keep enough quantity of cultural information of SL in transferring process, meanwhile the transferring efficient of the cultural formation in SL idioms. This is the key problem in translation.
The conversation of the Bai people is full of artistic quality. For example, when a Bai farmer goes to the fields to water his crops, and he meets another farmer coming from the water reservoir, and he asks “ How much water is there in the ditch?” The answer may be “water like the cattle fighting” that means plenty of water there and you can get your crops watered easily, “water like yoke” means the stream of water is as wide as a yoke and you’ll need some time to get your crops watered, or “water like a rice field eel” means there is little water running in the ditch, and the farmer knows that it's hard to get his crops watered right now, then he goes home and comes back to water his crops another day.
When two old Bai friends have to part with each other, one may say “Yinxiai zexbil zetsei genx”, “the days are as dense as the leaves in the tree”. In Bai language, that means they still have a lot of time to spend with each other, and that speaker hopes to see his friend once more. Another Bai phrase “Gelxuix hul lil yind xilxil”, means “even a little cool water given by another, a ‘thanks’ should be on your lips.” It teaches people not to forget any favour from others.
“Idioms and proverbs can reflect vividly a nation's geography, history, its people's life experience, social views, thinking and concepts.”12 Idioms and proverbs in both English and Bai possess some similarity in meaning and culture, but most of time, they display dissimilarity. To study them well, we should pay more attention to their cultural background besides the surface meanings of the expression_r_r_rs.
6.3 Proverbs
A lot of proverbs both in Bai and English come from life and nature, some of them are similar in meaning , but different in vehicles, because the objects in the environment of the two nations are so different. To try to find an English proverb coinciding with that in the Bai language is a good way to translate this kind of proverbs, and people like the translation to be done like this for easier communication, but you may take the risk of losing the image from Bai language.
The Bai proverb: Atsua geinp kvx, sanlsua geinp so'piail lil gainl means once you have been in contact with a snake, one is still frightened of seeing a snake-like rope three years later. In English, we can easily find one similar both in vehicle and meaning: “once bitten, twice shy”.
At zvnd wapqi jiainkol duap means one hoe cannot dig a well. Hoe here means the action of digging so striking the earth once cannot produce a well. This proverb tells the truth, one can't be successful without hard work. And in English, people also have a proverb with a similar meaning “Rome wasn't built in a day”, and is accepted both by Chinese and westerners. Bindtvnlsei nox lai xuizhul means pouring some water on taro leaves (water will pour off and won’t be absorbed). It is a proverb always used to scold a slow learner by a teacher in Bai society. But the saying, ”It goes in one ear and out the other” is more popular both in Chinese and English-speaking countries. Vnldel het zex v`ded means a loach in the fish trap, indicates a person who is very active, a trouble maker, disturbing others (e.g. in school). And there are several English proverbs like this, “a bad apple spoils the whole barrel ”, “a bull in a china shop”, “ black sheep of the family”. And the other examples like, Hanlcetzix gedqi zil yosainl hox lil xianlkex which means when the radishes are sold, the doctor can rest. Radishes are good for you. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” in English is a good match for this with a similar meaning. Athot dvnl zex gvlcet saind means every family has a sour pickle pot. This Bai proverb and “every house has its skeleton in the cupboard” in English both indicate the ugly affairs in each house. The proverb, Ge`nod neid het maip anlnil means buy a cat in a leather bag and the English proverb “buy a pig in a poke”, are another pair with a similar meaning, but different vehicles. Both indicate purchasing something or agreeing to something without first having an opportunity to judge its value or all the relevant facts.
Some Bai proverbs are so different both in meaning, culture and vehicles from English, and there are no equivalents in English, it's hard to find any ready-made English proverbs to match these Bai proverbs. So a word for word translation, and free translation must be used, or making some changes in form to avoid losing the cultural information. Sometimes, a little explanation is necessary. To keep the culture and meaning as much as possible, we may lose the beauty of a proverb in linguistic forms or sound. Trying to keep the cultural information from source language as much as possible, as well the beauty in forms, is the key problem. It needs many techniques to deal with the problem in translation.
The Bai proverb Hhodsuanl nox holxiol ganl mot mai zet alnil nox holxiol gonl mot gai svx means it's unnecessary to teach a monkey to climb the tree, and a cat to catch mice. It's better to use word for word translation, for such natural facts like a monkey climbing the tree, and ‘a cat catches the mice’, are familiar to the people from two kinds of cultural society, surely we can also use a ready-made English proverb to express the same meaning like, “Teach your grandmother to suck eggs”. But different vehicles make it lose the image in the first language.
Del lil hanlda fvl nox guit, baxmadkuanx da saim nox tio means a small basket rolling after a big basket, and an ugly dog jumping like a lion. To most westerners, both the dog and the lion are generally associated with pleasantness, as can be seen in such expression_r_r_rs ”Love me, love my dog”, “every dog has his day” and “regal as a lion”, “majestic as a lion”. Misunderstandings will arise in an English-speaking person’s mind: it's a good thing, a dog jumps with a lion as he may learn something from the lion, and that will make the dog better. But in Bai this proverb indicates those men who overestimate themselves and always like to follow the great ones imitating them. It’s just similar with the English proverb , “Don't put on airs and graces” tells people don’t take a job much above your ability, and be yourself in the situation.
A lot of Bai proverbs can be dealt with in translation by copying this way. V yond mox xuix met diainx fvp met diainx means rain falls from the eaves always on same spot, can be “Like father, like son” in English, father is the example of a son. Hhodsuanl juinxweinx nadhanl, hhodsuanl gaid ye`xiot means a monkey's face is ugly, but the monkey's flesh tastes good. And “Good quality under the ugly appearance” or “appearances can be deceptive” just shows the meaning behind the expression_r_r_r, something may be ugly but still very useful.
Dopzix-dopyvnx ganlcet pal, seitzix-seityvnx xin’ganlpia means, older son, older daughter: dry cabbage leaves, younger son, younger daughter: heart liver lungs. Here, “xin’ganpia” is something you cherish, also sweetheart. This proverb reflects the “young-caring” value in Bai culture. A custom still kept in Bai families is that a small part of the parents’ property is given to an older son or daughter and they are separated from the family and have to support themselves after marriage, meanwhile, the greater part of the property is given to a younger son or daughter, and the parents live with the younger son or daughter, and take care of them. We may translate this proverb into “The old sons and daughters are the wild berries in the parents eye, the little sons and daughters are the apple of their eye”. Half creation and half ready made.
Abna dant nox wap gai abna dant nox zo means where lives the eagle there he catches birds, or the eagle must find his food where he lives. If without a context, we should add a line after the original phrase ,“better to marry a local person than an outsider” to avoid any ambiguity for English-speaking people.
7. Conclusion
In this paper, we've talked much about Bai culture because “a language is always a part of a culture and the meaning of any text refers directly or indirectly to the corresponding culture” (Chinese Translators Journal 2000/5). Meanwhile the Bai language is a living language, it lives in the conversation of the Bai people, for it has historically had no writing system (the Bai words used here are from the newly created writing system). Bai culture is always transferred from the old generation to the young by telling Bai folk stories and songs. So we have few chances to observe the grammatical structure or any forms in writing in the Bai language study. At the same time, we can always get more information from the Bais’ living conversation and Bai folk stories and songs still living in the old men's talking and some folk artists' minds. So Bai culture is the key to break the codes behind its language phenomena and the bridge to get a good understanding of the Bai society and the people in it. We also talked about the cultural differences between the Bai and English-speaking people, and how the cultural turn can be successfully realized in translation in order to break down the blocks in cross-cultural communication. It is our hope that this study can help those learning the Bai language and its culture.
Notes:
1Yunnan, He Changyi, trans. (Kunming: Yunnan Educational press, 1999) p.173
2 Zhang Wenxun, ed, A History of Bai Literature (Kunming: Yunnan People’s Press,1983) p.14
3 A Brief History of the Bai Nationality (Kunming: Yunnan People’s Press, 1988) p.29.31
4 Zhang Meifang, English Chinese Translation Textbooks in China (Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Educational Press, 2001) p.28
5 Bao Huinan, Bao Ang. Chinese Culture and Chinese-English Translation (Beijing: Foreign Language Press,2004) p.182 ed, AW6
6 Zhang Xue, Studies on History of the Bai in Dali (Kunming: Yunnan People's Press, 1990) p. 25
7Yang Zhenggui, A cultural History of the Bai Nationality (Kunming: Yunnan Nationalities' Press, 2002) p. 198
8 Bao Huinan, Bao Ang. Chinese Culture and Chinese-English Translation. (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2004) p.182
9Li Hao, Dali Ancient Script (Kunming: Yunnan People's Press, 2002) p. 12
10 Zhang Xue, Studies on History of the Bai in Dali (Kunming : Yunnan People's Press,1990) p. 60.
11Xie Ming, The Field of Western Culture (Kunming: Yunnan University Press, 2001) p. 14
12 Ibid . p. 14
Bibliography
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Zhang Xue, Studies on History of the Bai in Dali, Kunming: Yunnan People's Press, 1990.
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