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 Ralph Lu |
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Who
is Ralph Lu? （or Charcoal Grandpa）
Thanks to his more than twenty years experience of and
exposure to the international environment of business
in general and going to ports of 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 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 then 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 by Ralph Lu
on 14th Feb. 2004 in Shanghai |
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