有关三字经网上的四个英译本.
重贴声明：以前贴在
http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&id=15920&star=1#15920 其其它网页 by Yeti/TheYeti/theyeti.
There are four Internet-available English versions of the Sanzijiang I know of.
(1) 三字经译本爆笑板。网上很多。这是把性译是“sex” 来做笑话的译本。有创意。
(2) 被转载很多，但到没有说明出处，及译者是谁的板，
是 1910 年
Herbert Giles 所译。网上转来转去的，源出我个人网页
http://users.openface.ca/~dstephen/trimetric.htm (我如何知到？ 因为转载者把我原有的笔误也转了去。详情请看下文)
(3) 新板是 Professor Louis E. Smogor Jr.of the Depauw
Univ. U.S.A 所译：
http://raptor.depauw.edu/sanzijing/index.html(4)
http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/sanzijing.html (i)网页上有另外的一个译本。网页是 J.Lau 板权所有。不知是否译者。 (i) As brought to our attention by "smnall potato" at Han Ying
http://www.bilinguist.com/data/hy04/messages/134891.html以下是长篇大论的故事，不看也罢。大意是解释我如何在多年前无意中找到这译本。 及为何登上了我个人网页。 如何别人转载不说明是 Herbert Giles 所译。更有把它贴出来，加个【原创】字号。
请大家如转载三字经译本， 写明是 Herbert Giles , Professor Louis E. Smogor Jr. 或是 J.Lau 的各个不同译本) (2) 网上转来转去，源出何处?
Answer:
http://users.openface.ca/~dstephen/trimetric.htm***The one that is on the Web page now has imbedded "place of origin" URL in it. I am just fed up by people who copied it from the Web page without mentioning where they got it. Unfortunately, all the ones that are already in circulation on the Web have no such information in it. I am not too much concern about my web page not being mentioned. What I want is that the proper person (Herbert Giles) gets the credit for having done the work.***
(3) How do I know that? 我为何知道？
那是我的个人网页的一页。在大约 1969 年 (I am very slow in inputing Chinese characters. I am using NJStar communicator 南亟星 and Cantonese input, and have to look up the words one by one, so I am switching over to English.)
In around 1969, while rumaging through the stack at the University of Massachusetts library, I came across a thin and worn-out book with the title Trimetric, by Herbert Giles. It was the translation of 三字经. In 1969, photocopying was very expensive (25 cents U.S.$ per page in 1969 money. That's about $1.5 or 8 Yuan a page, in today's money.) Being a poor graduate student at that time, I can ill-afford photocopying the whole book. Instead I copied it down by hand. Needless to say, in my haste, I made several mistakes in the transcription. These mistakes later became the hallmark of my version of the transcription--that's is how I recognized my work. 当我手抄时，有些笔误。那些笔误后来便成了别人转贴不注明出处，或是当为自己所创的证明。(有些论坛，有”本文版权归为xxx论坛所有"之类的字。转了别人的东西，不说是转贴。再转出去，便变成了xxx论坛的本版)
Fast forward to 30 years later. While discussing certain points of translation on the Han Ying forum (汉英论坛), I brought up certain points about the Giles' translation and was encourage to put the whole text up，which I did.
When I typed in the text from my transcription, more mistakes were introduced. All the subsequent 转帖 text carried those mistakes. That is how I figure out they are all from the same source. 现在网上所有三字经的英文板，凡是有笔误的，这是出自我网页上的Herbert Giles 译本。
(4) I put it on the Web because I want to share this with people. But what I do not want to see is that people fail to specify that what they have is a 转贴。 Worse yet, some people try to pass the work as their own when asked if they are the translator. Some of these people are not just ordinary guys like you and me, but large high profile Web sites such as iselong, sohu, sina and so on.
(5) I mentioned before there is a second version. About 3 or 4 years ago, a professor at the Depauw University in the United States completed a new version. After putting it on the Web, he was surprise to find the Giles Version on my web page. We exchanged correspondence and put cross-reference in each other's web pages. (Update: Dec 25th 2005. I have just been alerted to the existence of a third version. See top of page.)
(6) A few months ago, another Orientalist in, I think, Norway, wrote me that he has the book and sent me a correction (in Unicode, instead of GB code) of the whole translation. I thank him and told him I will post it on my web page--of course I will follow the correct academic procedure of mentioning his contribution.
So, that's about the whole story. You probably have forgotten where the text is by now. It is at
http://users.openface.ca/~dstephen/trimetric.htm***The one that is on the Web page now has imbedded "place of origin" URL in it. I am just fed up by people who copied it from the Web page without mentioning where they got it. Unfortunately, all the ones that are already in circulation on the Web have no such information in it. I am not too much concern about my web page not being mentioned. What I want is that the proper person (Herbert Giles) gets the credit for having done the work.***
You will find, e.g. the following:
融四岁 能让梨 弟於长 宜先知
jung, at four years of age,
could yield the (bigger) pears.
and
长幼序 友与朋 君则敬 臣则忠
procedence(??) between elders and youngers, (probably : precedence )
The word Bigger is in parenthesis because when I copied the text down, I messed up that words and when I typed it in, I made a guess of what it was. All reprinted version on the Web has that, as well as the other mistakes and guesses on them.
(7) One last thing. Speaking of misrepresenting and all that. Another very popular "reprint" on the Web is the 300 Tang Poems. The "complete set" that were quoted was translated by Witter Bynner and the quotes are from the University of Virgina Web Site.
The same thing is happening. That set is being 转来转去 without mentioning whom the translator is. And some individuals, for whatever reason, will put it down as 原创. Some will neither put it down as 原创 or 转帖, but will not say a word when people ask "是你译的吗？“
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