Post History
The term is 妖精, which can be translated into English as "fairy", "elf", "goblin". As noted, the Japanese literature uses 妖精 to describe the European fairy. The English translation of 白骨精 in 西游记 (Jo...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T09:44:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/38666 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Double U
·
2019-12-08T09:44:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
The term is [妖精](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A6%96%E7%B2%BE), which can be translated into English as "fairy", "elf", "goblin". As noted, the Japanese literature uses 妖精 to describe the European fairy. The English translation of 白骨精 in 西游记 (Journey to the West) is "white bone demon". So, this word can be translated into English as fairy, elf, goblin, or demon. Let's say an author is writing a fantasy story in Chinese first, using terms that are understood in a Chinese society. Then, the same author translates his/her own story into English and faces a problem. Which term should 妖精 be translated into (fairy, elf, goblin, or demon)? Or are the differences between the terms negligible, so the author can just pick a random one and go with it?
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-09-04T03:57:39Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 19