Freelance
Translators' Manifesto
Small in number and little heard of
We’re freelancers working in soho
Like the proud hussars at very long since
We’re equipped with a single mount and a lance
We’re loath to be bound up by somebody
Because we’re warriors longing for liberty
We’re the best among all players
so we always perform solo
In this great world of the Internet
We roam, explore and struggle
Holding a sharpest nutcracker in hand
We dare to engage tasks the most impossible
Like Don Quixote reborn in this new age
We challenge every invincible and unconquerable
People often ask where we are going
From here we go, and that's our motto.
-- translated by Charcoal Grandpa (Ralph Lu)
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Who is Ralph Lu? （or Charcoal Grandpa）
Thanks to his more than two decades' experience of and exposure
to international environment in general and going to ports in the
USA for hundreds of times in particular, Ralph Lu truly knows how
to translate things from Chinese into an authentic English in a
most proper and smooth way - and vice versa, of course. During his
life-long career on the sea as a lonely sailor, he always loved
to read any and every papers obtainable and readable, and study
them insatiably. After saying his once-and-for-all farewell to the
roaring sea at three years ago, Ralph Lu had immediately plunged
into another ocean to surf and explore for numerous things noble
and interesting. The new ocean is in fact the great Internet, and
the new boat he had embarked this time was called "translation".
He had appointed himself as the master of this brand-new ship which
he had built up with his bare hands, and determined to command and
steer her to the splendid shore - a destination he'd never reached
in the previous water...
Written on 14th Feb. 2004
in Shanghai by Ralph_Lu
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