ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

I have read a review of the movie "Atonement" recently.  I can't remember where I read it but it aroused my curiosity of the book.  I decided to pick it up from our local library.  Luckily, I was able to find a copy of it without trouble.  It took me almost an entire weekend of reading to finish the book. 

Ian McEwan's novel “Atonement” is beautiful and wrenching, brilliant and enthralling, psychologically penetrating, and elegantly written with metaphors and insight into human characters and struggle.  The novel’s theme surrounds guilt, truth, justice, honesty, innocence, punishment and atonement.  It is gorgeously detailed in its depiction of love, shame, morality, racism, snobbery, cowardice, redemption and life's ironies with scenes full of emotional deluge. It explores and examines the impossibility of absolution, the complexity of human consciousness, the staggering implications of lies, the harm of innocence and ignorance, and the profound impact of imagination and misunderstanding.

A couple of days ago, our company issued a social media policy.  In that it stated, the easiest ways to remain in compliance when using social media sites are: (1) not to identify the company as your employer, (2) not to use social media to do business or communicate about work, and (3) not to provide any information about the company or its brands.  In addition, to help avoid regulatory issues, consider qualifying opinions with appropriate disclaimers such as: “The views expressed are mine only and do not represent the views of my employer or anyone else”. 

My company is a public company in a high-profile industry regulated by the SEC and FINRA.  I know that I have not discussed any work-related topics.  Wouldn't you hate to talk about work outside of work, since we've all spent too much time working already? 

英翻中: 稅收法: 稅表準備  Tax preparation:  Circular 230 and Internal Revenue Code § 6694

I am not a tax specialist nor do I have a degree in taxation.  Below is just my attempt to translate the meaning of a statement regarding tax practitioner around tax preparation.  My Chinese is not good so the translation may sound awful.     

I have always been so absent and scattered minded.  I wonder when I will become totally vacant minded.  What remains in my memory are fragments of images, vague and elusive, buried deep in strata of my mind.  All I hear and see are cloudy reveries, blurry faces and murky voices.    Could it have anything to do with the places I have lived which scatter all over the world?  Could it be because the constant changes throughout my life that allow nothing to stay still in my mind?  I have attended four primary schools and two junior high schools.  Maybe the many people I encountered cause my struggle with faces and names.  On the other hand, could it be because people are all passersby in my life, too insignificant to capture my attention?  When I thought of those who left a dent in my memory in my youth, I can only think of very few.  My best girlfriend in first grade, a boy in my 5th grade class who was moving to the US about the same time I was moving abroad, two girls from my 7th grade class and three boys from my 9th grade class.  How did I remember those three boys?  I have to confess that I have always been too naïve to fall in love.  It was not because I was going through puberty but because of their nicknames. 

Whatever damages time might have brought to my memory, the future seems vivid.  I have finally found a way to fight against it.  Whatever future turns into past, in my verse, my memory perpetuates.

My daughter was counting the houses as we drove by last weekend.  She told me that there was a green house.  She meant the house in green.  I asked them if they knew the other meaning of a green house.  My son said “leprechaun house”.  Wow!  That wasn’t an answer I was expecting.  How interesting!  Kids are full of imagination.  Anyway, I told them it is a house where we can grow greens and plants throughout the year even in cold weather.  I have been writing some poems inspired by my kids.  I thought that maybe I can compile them into a memoir, something that they can look back at the old days as they grow up.      

A leprechaun house -  A poem inspired by my kids

Again, like my past translation, this is not a word-for-word translation, but rather an attempt to capture the essence of the original verse as much as possible.  Since my understanding of the Chinese literature is very limited, I often look up interpretation from others.  My translation of this poem is based on interpretation from the following sites.  http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/3/10/9/c15028.htm

http://blog.cnyes.com/My/ivy912ivy912/article198881

http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1009042502298

This is not a word-for-word translation, but rather an attempt to capture the essence of the original verse as much as possible in minimal wording.  My translation of this verse is based on my limited understanding of the Chinese language.  As I translate this song, I struggle to convey the essence of the verse:  道是無晴還有晴 

唐朝劉禹錫《竹枝詞》
楊柳青青江水平，聞郎江上唱歌聲。

A Collection of Elisa English’s Poetry and Translation   (Elisa English 詩集與翻譯 )

Elisa English's poetry

1. Are you Happy?
2. My Gratitude
3. My Two Little Silly Geese
4. Snow is Falling
5. Gone with the Wind
6. Memories live on
7. Something out of Nothing
8. Can you say it for sure - Another Alphabet Poem
9. A Mother's Love
10. An Alphabet Poem (I)
11. MOTHER
12. Let the Secret be Told
13. To Tell or Not to Tell
14.  Sound or a Coyote's Howl
15. Life is Tough
16. Formosa, My Love
17. A Little Girl Inside Me
18. Is Winter Going Away
19. My Scattered Mind
20. A Leprechaun House
21. A Beauty out of this World
22. Winter Boy
23. This is not how she is built up for
24. No Way In
25. As Cunning As a Fox
26. A Phantom in the Past
27. The Subject of Love
28. Please Stop Peeping into my World
29. Life is Full of Joy
30. Skeleton Crossing
31. Little Pussy Cat
32. How can I Describe Mine Love to Thee
33. Much Ado about Nothing
34. Love Dialogue & Poetry
35. My Sorrow for the Taiwanese People – Typhoon Morakot
36. Laurie, My Love
37. The Meaning of Love (2)
38. The Meaning of Love (1)
39. Our Scandalous Love (2)
40. Our Scandalous Love (1)
41. M和H開頭的情話, MINGHAN字母當每句句首的短詩

Our Scandalous Love

With love our weakness (is) exposed

The Meaning of Love