I really, really love Google Translations today. It makes me laugh whenever I read it.
The original Chinese: 东风夜放花千树。更吹落、星如雨。宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。
The Google Translate: Dongfeng night put thousands of trees. More blown off, star rain. BMW car incense road. Phoenix flute sound, jade pot light turn, a night fish dragon dance.
The original Chinese: 蛾儿雪柳黄金缕。笑语盈盈暗香去。众里寻他千百度。蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处
The Google Translate: Moth children Xue Liu gold thread. Laughing Yingying fragrance to go. The public to find him thousands of Baidu. When I look back, that person is in, lights dim
The original lyrics as the following:
东风夜放花千树。更吹落、星如雨。宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。
蛾儿雪柳黄金缕。笑语盈盈暗香去。众里寻他千百度。蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处
by a poet 辛弃疾 （pinyin： Xin Qi Ji) of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋）
It was a really beautiful piece of lyrics for an ancient tune called “青玉案” (the literal translation: Blue Jade Table-top)。The actual title is “元夕” (the literal translation: the evening of the Lantern Festival).
The Lantern Festival is the 15th day from a Lunar New Year such as the Lunar New Year of 2017 falls on January 28, then the Lantern Festival should be on February 11, 2017。
The basic meaning of the lyrics are:
When the eastern wind blows in this evening, the fireworks look like trees with thousands of blooming flowers. The wind sweeps, the remanence of fireworks falls like stars. When valuable horses (not BMW, dear) carry carved wagons away, fragrances fill up along the roads. Phoenix-flute sounds are enchanting, jade pots are beaming and whirling, a whole night of goldfish and dragon dances.
Wearing fascinators of butterflies, snow-willows and golden strings, women chat and giggle scattering subtle scents. One tried to find the other, back and forth, countless times as if walking miles. Turning one’s head suddenly, the other person is standing in dim-lighted shadows.
I am not a good translator due to that my English is way too poor, more like Chiglish. I just do not like to see a beautiful Chinese poem became meaningless.
Here is the BMW joke: in the ancient Chinese literature, people often treasured their horse as a “bao ma”, meaning ‘a precious horse’ as your precious child is often nicknamed as “BAO BAO” in modern days. Unfortunately, in the modern China, a German brand of cars is nicknamed “bao ma”. That brand is BMW. So, our dear Google Translate directly translates “bao ma” to BMW, not G.T. translator’s fault.
Once again, The ancient Chinese poems and lyrics are too sophisticated and sensitive to be simply translated to other languages.