From the top left, going clockwise.
1) 这根竹子不错, 有滋味有嚼头 还不塞牙, 俺很喜欢
Zhè gēn zhúzi bùcuò, yǒu zīwèi yǒu jiáotou, hái bù sāiyá, ǎn hěn xǐhuan
This bamboo’s great, it’s got flavour and it’s tasty, and it doesn’t get stuck between your teeth. I like it.
2) 我cool吗?没有眼袋吗?
Wǒ cool ma? méiyǒu yǎn dài ma?
Am I cool? Any bags under my eyes?
3) 有谁带纸巾吗?
Yǒu shuí dài zhǐjīn ma?
Has anyone got a tissue? (Kleenex, of course, translate ’tissue’ as ‘Kleenex’)
and finally and favouritely
4)这就叫‘个性‘,我特意把头发弄成白色的, 怎么样, 够朋克吧?
Zhè jiù jiào ‘gèxìng‘,wǒ tèyì bǎ tóufa nòngchéng báisè de, zěnmeyàng? gòu péngkè ba?
Now this is ‘style’ – I dyed my hair white, what do you think. Punk enough for you?
I’m not too sure about the translation of the last one, particularly the bit about dyed hair, as 特意 just didn’t make it into the translation, and 弄成 and dyed aren’t the same thing. Still pretty punk though . . .
The image is from one of those free postcard / ad things you find round and about. I hereby promise to stamp, address and post the postcard to anyone who can come up with the best alternative translation to my above efforts . . .
how about ‘I deliberately did my hair white’?
Comment by Prince Roy — 10/28/2004 @ 1:50 am
hahahaha
Comment by saya — 11/9/2004 @ 9:02 pm
有嚼头=it’s chewy or it’s got texture.
I went out my way to whiten my hair.
Comment by Gin — 11/11/2004 @ 12:15 am
The use of an1 here is very interesting. It’s the character used for the Japanese masculine “ore” == “I”. Is this Japanese influence?
Comment by Rachel — 1/13/2005 @ 8:43 am