Xinhua News girl talk (properly translated)

UPDATE: One of the images in the package of leaked emails was what appears to be a screen capture from either a text message or Blackberry direct message. It is putatively from (or perhaps to) Dechert, although his office refuses to comment further or confirm or deny he sent it.

It says, “I love you too. Seen you soon.”

Now, that’s a rather intimate greeting for someone with whom one has a innocent friendship.

In our last episode, I posted Google and Babelfish translations of an email included in the package leaked along with other messages sent by Conservative MP Bob Dechert to a Xinhua New Agency correspondent in Toronto.

Dechert, who is married, claimed the emails were merely “flirtatious” and his relationship with Xinhua’s Shi Rong, also married, was but an innocent friendship. The emails leaked out as the results of a domestic dispute — apparently at Shi’s end — he said in a statement.

That the parliamentary secretary to the foreign minister was flirting with a correspondent from the Chinese state press agency is apparently of little concern within the Harper government. The response from the Tories can be summarized thus, “Nothing to see here. Move along please.”  But I digress.

One of the messages in the package of leaked emails was apparently to Shi from the email address sheeking@163.com, which seems to belong to another Xinhua correspondent in Beijing named Qu Jing. I spoke to Qu briefly this morning, in my tourist Mandarin, and wasn’t able to understand much, other than her acknowledgement that she is a journalist “ji je” and friend (“peng yo”) of Shi’s.

The machine translations from Chinese of the “Old Fox” message were almost complete gibberish. Thanks to @I_Am_Chinadian on Twitter for providing a proper translation, with footnotes. If anyone disputes this translation or feels it is in any way inaccurate, please let me know.

The usual warnings here: There is no reference to Dechert in this email, so it is not possible to know if he was the “old fox” or “old man” being discussed.

Reply |新华社璩静 to me
show details 8:52 AM (14 hours ago)
from新华社璩静 <sheeking@163.com>
toRong Shi <shirong2011@gmail.com>

dateWed, Jun 16, 2010 at 8:52 AM
subject关于old fox
mailed-by163.com
hide details 8:52 AM (14 hours ago)

给你发了悄悄话[1],还是不放心有人看到,就赶紧删了。
[TRANSLATION] Sent you a private message, still wary someone would see it, so immediately deleted it.

关于老头,不要理他了。
[TRANSLATION] About the old man, don’t pay attention to him anymore.

完全理解你的感受。
[TRANSLATION] Completely understand your feelings.

原来万马[2]老头追我的时候,那一阵每天开个大路虎[3]把在分社大门口,和俺在玉皇山[4]下喝茶到半夜看他也没什么瞌睡的迹象,还会做些亲自给你挑个撒子礼物之类的鸟事,又能怎样的?
[TRANSLATION] As it turns out when the Wanma old man was trying to court me, during that period (he) was driving a Land Rover every day parked at the entrance of the branch office’s entrance, having tea with me at the foot of Yuhuang Hill until midnight and no sign of falling asleep, and did BS things like personally picking out a small gift, so what?

他付出越多,也要求就越多,如果你对他的热情和周至程度不及他的期望,他就会失望和失落,转至报复。
[TRANSLATION] The more he gives, the more he asks, if the enthusiasm and time together degree does not meet his expectation, he will be disappointed and lost, turns into revenge.

不过,在男人的思维里(除老刘外,因为你是他老婆,跟他身上的肉一样),但凡能挂上女朋友名头的都跟衣服一样,高兴了就穿穿,不高兴了就不穿,想多穿就多穿,想少穿就少穿,反正nothing to lose,家里的黄脸婆[5]已经过了哭闹上吊的阶段,全看爷心情,大不了觉得特别需要你了又一阵哄呗,反正女的都吃这套。
[TRANSLATION] Still, in men’s thinking (except Liu, because you are his wife, like a piece of his flesh), yet whoever can be labelled “girlfriend” are like clothes, worn when happy, not worn when unhappy, worn more often when feeling like it, worn less often when (not) feeling like it, nothing to lose after all, the old lady at home has already passed the three stages[6], totally depends on the man’s mood, no big deal if (he) feels like needing you then coaxes you, after all women all go for that.

可怜的就是女人,往往都会猜测人家的心理,option A option B,就像排列组合死的。[TRANSLATION] Women are the pitiful ones, often try to guess other people’s mind, it is either A or B, it’s like permutations and combinations[7].

其实啥都不用猜测,你就把他也当件衣服,想穿就穿,不想穿就不穿。
[TRANSLATION] Actually no need to guess anything, you just treat it like clothes, wear it if/when you want to, don’t wear it if/when you don’t want to.

关于你说的他让你狂等的破事,千万不要放在心上,我也经历过(俺另一个死党也经历过,比你严重1万呗,人家黎巴嫩、法国两边飞,关注事业和money,她睡在人家法国的townhouse里,那个望眼欲穿啊,一个电话能等一天,哎。
[TRANSLATION] About the sad tales you said (to me) about him making you going crazy, definitely don’t keep it in mind, I have also experienced it, my other very good friend has also experienced it, it was 10,000 times worse, the guy was flying between Lebanon and France, concerned about work/business and money, she slept in the guy’s townhouse in France, that wistfulness, (she) could wait an entire day for a telephone call, sigh.

NB她那个老头现在是黎巴嫩鸟屎国家的社工部长,改不了吃屎[8],不知又骗了多少mm[9])。
[TRANSLATION] NB[10]’s old man is now that BS country Lebanon’s Social Minister (or: Social Work Minister), still can’t change his old ways/habits, don’t know how many girls he has cheated.

所以,你还是要多找点其他事,他这个人扫到垃圾筐里去,他可配不上你,反正老李的事也搞定(这可不是钱能搞定的事),你也不算亏,就当年轻了一把。
[TRANSLATION] So, you’d better find something else more, sweep him into waste basket, he is not good enough for you, anyway the matter with Li is done (this is not something money can take care of), you did not really get the short end of the stick, just consider becoming quite a bit younger.

说到底,追根溯源还是谈少了,要是你以前搞个十个八个的,造成老油条[11]了,敏感度大大降低(当然,这样也没啥子意思)。
[TRANSLATION] Bottom line, after all is said and done this is nothing, if you had messed around with 8 or 10, you’d have become someone who is very cunning, (your) sensitivity level greatly decreased/lowered (of course, this is also boring).


[1]Can be either a SMS or IM

[2] 万马 (Wanma) could refer to Zhejiang Wanma Group

[3] 大路虎: What the SUV Land Rover is known as in China

[4]玉皇山Yuhuang Hill in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province

[5] 黄脸婆: Chinese slang equivalent to western men referring to their wife as “the old lady”

[6] Three stages of  traditional Chinese domestic arguments: crying, being noisy, threatening to hang oneself

[7] This one was impossible to translate as only the writer knew what she was referring to

[8] 吃屎=eat shit, short for “狗改不了吃屎的习惯” (dogs can’t change shit-eating habit), describing someone’s inability to change a bad habit or way of life

[9] MM in Chinese is abbreviation for “mei mei”, younger sister but also commonly used in reference to young females depending on tones of pronunciation

[10] NB could be reference to writer’s good friend or some Chinese expression abbreviated

[11]老油条: Chinese expression of one who is very cunning.

4 thoughts on “Xinhua News girl talk (properly translated)

  1. I dunno. I’m deeply anti-Conservative. I think they are ideologically destructive, and also deeply dishonest and corrupt, corroding the fabric of this country for their personal gain and the gain of a narrow group of financial and oil elites.
    But I find it hard to care about this. Really, so what? So he’s married and he was flirting with another married woman, or maybe having an affair with her. Whatever. Might be a bad business, but it’s his problem, his wife’s, this woman’s and her husband’s, not mine. If there were some indication that he had his hands on state secrets and was leaving them in her possession, like that other Conservative politician, now that would be something to get excited about.

    I suppose one might point out that the Conservatives are sanctimonious god-bothering moralists who would normally get big upset about such behaviour if it weren’t one of theirs doing it, and so their refusal to do so here is hypocritical. This is doubtless true, but I’m not a sanctimonious moralist so I don’t have to act like they normally would be just because they won’t. I don’t insist that someone fill that role.

  2. Purple Library Guy, you surprise me. Not that I’m surprised you don’t care if the married man is having an inappropriate relationship with this married woman–I don’t care about that either. However, he’s the parliamentary secretary for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He can’t not have access to things we’d rather China not find out (from us). She works at a news agency that is acknowledged to divulge otherwise-unknown things to the Chinese government–at best.

    Wikileaks is a problem, remember? How can that be a problem and this not be?

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