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DebryC
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Name: Deborah
Birthday: 3/25/1988
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading...
Singing...
Picking up random new skills...
Anything that will keep me amused.
Expertise: Perhaps it is finding joy in the little things in life, or maybe my ability to be completely blind to what's going on around me... who am I kidding, it's to climb trees!
Occupation: Student (for the rest of my wa
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
12/14/2003
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| How interesting to look back on this blog and realize the years that have gone by. In one sense, this was inevitable. I should have ended this blog when I became a college student. Instead, it lived on in a strange sort of limbo land where it didn't get updated except for the rare instances I was back home in Irvine.
Well, very soon a new year is going to start, and I'll open up a new blog then. It may be Xanga, it may be Blogger, it may be just my own website. Regardless, I wave a fond farewell to this blog, to the memories, to the introduction to HTML coding, to the silly little eprops that no one ever paid attention to.
To those who still stumble across this little corner of cyberspace, thank you for reading, and see you soon at a new address! I enjoy keeping in touch with you guys.
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| I shivered as I wandered through the Spectrum tonight, dressed in a
summer dress with no warm hoodie to cuddle up in. I had forgotten that
Irvine gets cold. I wonder what else has been forgotten.
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| Wang Keqin, one of the most influential investigative journalists in China, gave a presentation at Princeton today. He is a very charismatic speaker with many life experiences to share. Nicknamed the "Iron Pen" for his revealing reporting that has led to such progress as anti-graft laws and a greater attention to civil rights, he fights for social justice and better government. Unfortunately I will not be discussing the contents of his lecture in this note, which were fascinating, because another issue became painfully clear to me during this lecture. That is, too much is lost in translation.
The translator assigned to this lecture by the State Department was, to say it very kindly, terrible. She was not only slow and inaccurate, requiring Rose Tang, a visiting professor of journalism, to translate key terms such as "muckraking" and even "iron bar", she was not faithful to her role. Instead of being the conduit of information, the state department translator offered her own opinions over and against what Wang Keqin had to say. I was appalled by the lack of professionalism on her part. If she is any reflection on the State Department's ability to ensure clear communicationtranslations between China and the United States, then I worry for future China-US relations. How can we have open relations when we don't understand each other?
I do see today's experience, though, as a good reminder of the importance of translation and of communication cross cultures. It's such a influential factor in many aspects of our lives, translation. For example, very few study religious texts in their original language and yet base their beliefs on the Bible, the Koran, the Torah. My question is, how can we possibly know that the interpretation of these texts are accurate? Just by reading my Chinese-English bible, I see discrepencies between the two versions.
Yes, translation in this increasingly globalized world will be the source of much misinformation, frustration, amusement, and growth. I just hope to see more of the latter and less of the former.
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| I just wanted to share the lyrics to Hymn 332 The Love of God. It's one of my favorite's, and I've been craving it for the longest but hadn't been able to find it. Then just now, in the midst of the mess that is two PS, one paper, and one test, I happened to stumble across the recording from NYTS 2006. It really lifted my spirits and I hope it can lift yours too.
The Love of God
Lyrics and Music by Frederick M. Lehman
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child he reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints' and angels' song.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God's love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam's race --
The saints' and angels' song.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints' and angels' song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill,
And ev'ry man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Tho' stretched from sky to sky.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints' and angels' song.
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| I have a couple of friends with whom I keep in long, involved email contact with because 1. They're really far away and 2. For some reason they keep on replying. Today I read through the 60+ emails I have with one friend in particular, and I realized just how much I had changed since we first started emailing a little over a year ago. When I wrote those emails, they were meant for someone else to read, but when I read them today, I felt as if my former self had written them for my current self. My emails covered such major transition periods in my life: turning eighteen, returning home from Italy and finding myself in an environment where things were not quite how I remembered them, going off to Princeton and experiencing first semeseter-hood. They covered the everyday as well! Spending time with family, with friends, traveling with SYA, not sleeping... I'm amazed by how peppy I was, how much I LIKE reading what the old me wrote. The memories that to me now are fading were for my old self present day, the little child in me active and hyper. Little details that I have since forgotten were clearly significant enough to be written about then, little things that make me happy to reminisce about today. So as I grow older, I just hope that in the future I'll be able to look back upon this year's emails with the same sort of satisfaction. Seeing my growth and glad in where I've gone. | | |
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