Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202124  Introduction to Translation

Informative Text (Thai-English) Discussion

Translate the following into English.

ผลิตภัณฑ์ ที่มีชื่อเสียงที่สุดอย่างหนึ่งของไทยคือผ้าไหมไทย ซึ่งถือว่าเป็นผ้าไหมที่ดีที่สุดชนิดหนึ่งในโลก  ผ้าไหมไทยสามารถนำมาทำเป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ได้หลากหลาย ตั้งแต่เสื้อผ้า เนคไท ผ้าพันคอ และอื่น ๆ อีกมากมาย นักท่องเที่ยว โดยเฉพาะชาวยุโรปและชาวญี่ปุ่น มักนิยมซื้อเป็นของที่ระลึกเมื่อมาเที่ยวเมืองไทย  เพราะชอบที่มีสีสันสวยงามและ ราคาไม่แพง  นอกจากนี้  เสื้อผ้าไหมไทยยังดูแลรักษาได้ง่าย ไม่เหมือนผ้าไหมของจีนหรือฝรั่งเศสที่ต้องซักแห้งเท่านั้น

ผลิตภัณฑ์ ผ้าไหมส่วนใหญ่ในประเทศไทยผลิตในเชียงใหม่ แต่ฟาร์มเลี้ยงไหมขนาดใหญ่หลายแห่งตั้งอยู่ที่โคราชทางภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือของ ประเทศ  ผ้าไหมไทยมีคุณภาพสูงและมีสีสันสวยงามเนื่องจากเส้นไหมค่อนข้างหนาจึงทนการย้อมสีได้ ดี  ถึงแม้ว่าในปัจจุบัน ผ้าชนิดอื่นๆ ส่วนใหญ่จะทอโดยใช้เครื่องจักร ทำให้ควบคุมกระบวนการผลิตได้อย่างมีมาตรฐาน  แต่ผ้าไหมไทยส่วนมากยังคงทอด้วยมือตามกรรมวิธีดั้งเดิม

Reference

• "หลัก เกณฑ์การทับศัพท์," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• "หลัก เกณฑ์การทับศัพท์ภาษาอังกฤษ," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• "ชื่อ ประเทศ ดินแดน เขตการปกครอง และเมืองหลวง," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• "คำ ชี้แจงเรื่องกำหนดชื่อประเทศ ดินแดน เขตการปกครอง และเมืองหลวง," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• "คำ นำหน้าชื่อประเทศ," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• "หลัก เกณฑ์การ เว้นวรรค," ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน
• Sericulture

Discussion

• Idea vs. structure
• ผลิตภัณฑ์ที่มีชื่อเสียงที่สุดอย่างหนึ่งของไทยคือผ้าไหมไทย
• The product that is one of the most famous of Thailand is Thai silk cloth
• One of the most famous products of Thailand is Thai silk
• One of Thailand's best known products is its silk cloth
• ผ้าไหมไทยสามารถนำมาทำเป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ได้หลากหลาย
• Thai silk cloth can be made into many products
• Thai silk is made into various products
• Thai silk is used in making a variety of products
• Word choice
• มีชื่อเสียงที่สุด
• most famous
• most well-known
• best known
• ผ้า
• fabric
• cloth
• textile
• ทำเป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ได้หลากหลาย
• ...a variety of...
• ...many kinds of...
• ...many...
• เสื้อผ้า
• clothing
• clothes
• garments
• dresses
• shirts
• blouses
• tops and bottoms
• มักจะ
• like
• love
• enjoy
• frequently
• often
• regularly
• สีสันสวยงาม
• beautiful colors
• brilliant colors
• vibrant colors
• bold colors
• rich colors
• colorful
• นอกจากนี้
• Moreover
• In addition
• Additionally
• Furthermore
• Besides
• What's more
• ดูแลรักษาง่าย
• easy to care for
• easy to look after
• easy to maintain
• low maintenance
• ถึงแม้ว่า
• though
• although
• ในปัจจุบัน
• now
• ฟาร์มเลี้ยงไหม
• silk farm
• silkworm farm
• เส้นไหม
• thread
• strand
• filament
• silk
• yarn
• Text correction
  In cases where the source language is flawed, especially grammatically or logically, do you correct this in the target language when you translate? Consider the following cases.
• ผ้าไหมไทยสามารถนำมาทำเป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ได้หลาก หลายตั้งแต่เสื้อผ้า เนคไท ผ้าพันคอ และอื่น ๆ อีก มากมาย
• Thai silk can be made into many kinds of products from clothing, neckties, scarves, and much more. [Here, the translator keeps the wording of the Thai throughout.]
• Thai silk is used in a variety of products from clothing, neckties, to scarves, and many more. [This translation fills in the missing component in the construction "from...to" that shows a range.]
• Thai silk is used to make clothing, neckties, scarves, and others. [This translation attempts to eliminate the contradiction between the grammatical construction that indicates extremes of a range and the listing of items that does not show a wide range of products by not including "หลากหลาย" signaling variety, and "ตั้งแต่" introducing one end of the range]
• Thai silk is used to make shirts, neckties, scarves and more. [This translation attempts to resolve a couple of logic problems: 1) the list of products; "เสื้อผ้า" or clothing, would include neckties and scarves already as they are items of clothing; 2) ""]
• "from...to," Washington State University
  “From soup to nuts” makes sense because soup was the traditional first course in a formal meal, nuts the last. Similarly “from A to Z” makes sense because these are the first and last letters of the alphabet. But this construction which identifies the extremes of a spectrum or range is often improperly used when no such extremes are being identified, as in “She tried everything from penicillin to sulfa drugs.” These are not extremes, just examples of different sorts of drugs.
  
  Even worse is “he gave his daughter everything from a bicycle to lawn darts to a teddy bear.” A range can’t have more than two extremes. “He gave his daughter everything from paper dolls to a Cadillac” conveys the notion of a spectrum from very cheap to very expensive, and is fine. Often when people are tempted to use “from . . . to” they would be better off using a different expression, as, for example, in this sentence: “She tried all sorts of medicines, including penicillin and sulfa drugs.”
  
• 
  
• Cultural or local context
  Who is the audience/reader, and how much do they know about Thailand? How much contextual information should you give in the translation?
• Chiang Mai vs. Chiang Mai Province
  Simply saying เชียงใหม่ in the Thai text makes sense because all Thai readers would know it and that it is a province. In the English translation
• Korat
  Thai readers know that Korat is a common name for Nakon Ratchasima Province, but would an English reader?
• Expressions of quantity
• none
• few; not much of
• much of
• most; the majority of
• all; every
• Expressions of frequency
• never
• sometimes
• frequently; like to
• usually; regularly
• always
• Expressions of degree
• not at all
• only
• just
• a little
• somewhat
• well
• quite; so; a lot; very; really; right
• completely; entirely; totally
• [enough]
• considered vs. considered as
• Most vs. most of vs. most of the
• most + N
• Examples
• Most people are actually keeping to the rules (BBC)
• It is a place where most people know each other. (The Sunday Times)
• For most people the priority is to make sure their home is basically energy efficient. (The Sunday Times)
• most of + N
• Examples
• COVID-19: Case rates drop in most of England but admissions and mortality continue to rise (Sky News)
• Shops, restaurants and schools will be closed across most of Italy on Monday, with PM Mario Draghi warning of a "new wave" of the coronavirus outbreak. (BBC)
• Showing little attempt to enshrine her subjects with evidence of their great age, her quiet, naturally observed moments are essentially a spontaneous dialogue with her subjects, most of them women. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• most of the + N
• Examples
• Most of the people in Paisley lost somebody. (BBC)
• According to new statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 14% of British adults have never used the internet. [...] The ONS said that most of the people that haven't been online are elderly or disabled, but they pointed out that the number of people over 75 going on the internet is rising. (BBC)
• The logic behind using these cheap tests frequently, according to Mina, is that most of the people currently getting tested for COVID-19 either suspect they've been exposed — through a contact who tests positive — or they have symptoms. (CBC)
• Most of the area has been under some strict curbs on social contact since 31 July. (The Guardian)
• Most of England to enter two toughest tiers when lockdown is lifted (The Guardian)
  On Thursday Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is expected to say that most of the country will be placed into tiers 2 or 3, which imply significant restrictions on hospitality, after the national lockdown ends on 2 December.
• Phrasings, meaning and clarity
• ทำให้ควบคุมกระบวนการผลิตได้อย่างมีมาตรฐาน
• making it possible to control the manufacturing process in a standardized way [The emphasis is on control (of manufacturing).]
• enabling standardized production monitoring [The emphasis is on monitoring standards, that the monitoring adheres to standards.]
• standardizing production [= Machine weaving makes possible uniform and standard production.]
• False friends/cognates
• ยังคงทอด้วยมือตามกรรมวิธีดั้ง เดิม
• following the original way
• according to the old processes
• in the traditional method
• after age-old traditions

Vocabulary

• use
• use to make
• use for
• use in
• clothing – เสื้อผ้า เครื่องนุ่งห่ม
• clothing (Lexico)
  mass noun
  Clothes collectively.
  ‘bring warm clothing and waterproofs’
• clothing (Merriam-Webster)
  garments in general; also: covering
• clothing (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)
  uncountable noun
  Clothing is the things that people wear.
  Ex.
  Some locals offered food and clothing to the refugees.
  What is your favourite item of clothing?
  Wear protective clothing.
  ...the clothing industry.
• clothes – เสื้อผ้า เครื่องแต่งกาย ชุด
• clothes (Lexico)
  plural noun
  1 Items worn to cover the body.
      ‘he stripped off his clothes’
  
  2 Bedclothes.
      ‘Rosie got into bed and pulled the clothes up to her nose’
• clothes (Merriam-Webster)
  1: clothing
  Ex. I need new clothes for the winter.
  2: bedclothes
  Ex. I have been awake ever since 5 and sooner, I fancy I had too much clothes over my stomach— Jane Austen
  3: all the cloth articles of personal and household use that can be washed
  Ex. I always wash clothes on Mondays.
• clothes (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)
  1. plural noun
  Clothes are the things that people wear, such as shirts, coats, trousers, and dresses.
  Ex.
  Moira walked upstairs to change her clothes.
  He dressed quickly in casual clothes.
  2.  See also plain-clothes
  adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
  Plain-clothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
  Ex. He was arrested by plain-clothes detectives as he walked through the customs hall.
• garment – เครื่องนุ่งห่ม อาภรณ์ ชุด เสื้อ กางเกง กระโปรง เสื้อผ้าสำเร็จรูป
• garment (Lexico)
  An item of clothing.
  ‘a windproof outer garment’
• garment (Merriam-Webster)
  an article of clothing
• garment (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)
  countable noun
  A garment is a piece of clothing; used especially in contexts where you are talking about the manufacture or sale of clothes.
  Ex. Many of the garments have the customers' name tags sewn into the linings.
• scarf; scarfs, scarves
• tourists
• sightseers
• visitors
• travelers/travellers
• holiday makers
• souvenir
• take care of
• care for
• maintain
• ค่อนข้างหนา
• relatively
• fairly
• somewhat
• on the [thick] side [a bit informal]

Links

Silkworm Silk Topics

• "Sericulture and Silk Craftsmanship of China," UNESCO
  Sericulture and silk craftsmanship of China, based in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces near Shanghai and Chengdu in Sichuan Province, have an ancient history. Traditionally an important role for women in the economy of rural regions, silk-making encompasses planting mulberry, raising silkworms, unreeling silk, making thread, and designing and weaving fabric. It has been handed down within families and through apprenticeship, with techniques often spreading within local groups. The life cycle of the silkworm was seen as representing the life, death and rebirth of human beings. In the ponds that dot the villages, silkworm waste is fed to fishes, while mud from the ponds fertilizes the mulberry trees, and the leaves in turn feed the silkworms. Near the beginning of the lunar year, silkworm farmers invite artisans into their homes to perform the story of the Goddess of the Silkworm, to ward off evil and ensure a bountiful harvest. Every April, female silkworm farmers adorn themselves with colourful flowers made of silk or paper and make harvest offerings as part of the Silkworm Flower festival. Silk touches the lives of rural Chinese in more material ways, too, in the form of the silk clothes, quilts, umbrellas, fans and flowers that punctuate everyday life.
• John R. Meyer, "Sericulture," Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University (2007)
  According to Chinese legend, silk was first discovered in 2640 BC by Xilingji (Hsi-ling-chi), the 14-year-old wife of China's third emperor, Huangdi (Huang-Ti).  One day, as she was making tea in the palace garden, Xilingji accidently dropped a silkworm cocoon into a cup of hot water and discovered that the silk fiber could be loosened and unwound.  By twisting together fibers from several cocoons, she made a thread that was strong enough to be woven into cloth.
  
  No one is certain how much of this delightful story is true, but the practice of sericulture (rearing silkworms for the production of raw silk) is certainly older than recorded history.  For centuries, it was the Chinese nobility's most closely guarded secret.  Only members of the royal family were permitted to wear garments made of silk.  But as the laws regulating sericulture were gradually relaxed, explorers and traders began to acquire enough samples of the fabric to create a demand for it in the West.  For a while, Persia became China's trading partner, buying silk and reselling it to the Europeans at exorbitant prices.  By the time the Han dynasty finally authorized direct trade with Europe (around 140 BC), there was an eager market for the fabric throughout most of the Roman Empire.  Despite constant danger from thieves, the Silk Road, a perilous overland trade route through Asia Minor, came to be a major cultural link between the two continents.
• "Sericulture," A Visual Sourcebook for Chinese Civilization, Washington University
  Producing silk was a lengthy, complex process. As show in the illustrations below, men took responsibility for the mulberry trees, growing the only food silkworms eat, but women were responsible for the critical task of feeding the leaves to the silkworms.  Silkworms do not spin cocoons on demand; timing and temperature have to be handled carefully, and during the month between hatching and spinning the cocoons have to be fed every few hours, day or night.  If properly coddled, the worms eventually spin cocoons for several days, each cocoon made up of a strand of silk several thousand feet long.  Over two thousand silkworms are needed to produce one pound of silk.
• Alexandra Dalferro, "Dalferro Seeks to Understand Silk Production in Thailand," Department of Anthropology, Cornell University (2017)
  Woven in the region for over 1,000 years, silks were traditionally key tributary gifts exchanged among kingdoms, bestowing rank and status and embodying political and social hierarchies. Although silk producers from different ethnic groups can be found across Thailand, ethnically Khmer weavers in Surin Province are renowned for their sericulture, weaving and natural dyeing skills. They consider their methods, patterns and associated rituals to be distinctly “Khmer,” and they work both within and outside of state frameworks to safeguard and transmit their knowledge about weaving and to earn a viable income from textile sales. In the process, they draw historical narratives and discourses of authenticity around the silks.
• Bernard Mauchamp, "Sericulture in Asia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow," GIS Asie
  [...] These fabulous fabrics became the basis of commercial exchanges with the same value as currency, opening trade routes (139 BC, Han's empire) towards areas west of China. It was the first sign of globalisation. These roads supported commercial, cultural and even religious exchanges. The exceptional character of those goods attracted heteroclite populations, diversifying the exchanges (gold, money, horses, new food products or alfalfa). The Silk Routes crossed the deserts, from oasis to oasis, or the mountains. In the East, the silk route started from Chiang' an (Xi' an) and, to the West, passed either north of the Caspian Sea and then north of the Black Sea, or south of the Caspian Sea towards Baghdad and then to Antioche. However, this road was not the one the silkworm traveled. The question of the origin of this fiber remains unknown.
  
• "The Silk Industry," PETA
• Ali D. Malay, et al., "Relationships between Physical Properties and Sequence in Silkwork Silks," Scientific Reports 6, 9 Jun. 2016.
  Abstract
  Silk has attracted widespread attention due to its superlative material properties and promising applications. However, the determinants behind the variations in material properties among different types of silk are not well understood. We analysed the physical properties of silk samples from a variety of silkmoth cocoons, including domesticated Bombyx mori varieties and several species from Saturniidae. Tensile deformation tests, thermal analyses and investigations on crystalline structure and orientation of the fibres were performed. [...]
   
  Introduction
  Silkmoth larvae construct cocoons out of silk fibres as a protective strategy against infection, physical injury and changes in temperature and humidity during the vulnerable stage of pupation1,2,3,4 and humans have utilized silk for millennia to produce textiles of great value and beauty. Recently, silk has also become a major area of study in the fields of materials science and biomedical engineering due to its remarkable strength, toughness, biocompatibility and biodegradability5. There have been numerous reports on the synthesis of silk-inspired materials, such as fibres, hydrogels and films, aimed toward the development of various applications that include tissue regeneration and sustained-release drug delivery systems. [...]
• Yong-woo Lee, "Characteristics of the Cocoon," Silk Reeling and Testing Manual, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin, no. 136, 1999.
• เดือนเพ็ญพร  ชัยภักดี, "การย้อมเส้นไหมสีธรรมชาติให้ได้คุณภาพ"
• เฉลิมพร ทองพูนและธีรพันธ์ มาจันทร์, "เอกสารและงานวิจัยที่เกี่ยวข้อง," "การพัฒนาสีย้อมธรรมชาติสำหรับฝ้ายและไหมจากส่วนเปลือกต้นกระท้อน,"  สถาบันวิจัยและพัฒนา, มหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏพิบูลสงคราม

Further Topics

• Courtney Miceli, "Spider Silk Is Five Times Stronger than Steel—Now, Scientiests Know Why," Science, 20 Nov. 2018.
  The next time you brush aside a spiderweb, you might want to meditate on its delicate strength—if human-size, it would be tough enough to snag a jetliner. Now, scientists know just how these silken strands get their power: through thousands of even smaller strands that stick together to form this critter’s clingy trap.
  
  To find out how most spider silk is five times stronger than steel, scientists analyzed the silk that venomous brown recluse spiders use to create their ground webs and hold their eggs, using an atomic force microscope. They found that each strand—which is 1000 times thinner than a human hair—is actually made up of thousands of nanostrands, only 20 millionths of a millimeter in diameter, they reported last month in ACS Macro Letters. Just like a tiny cable, each silk fiber is entirely composed of parallel nanostrands, which they measured to be at least 1 micron long. That may not sound very lengthy, but on a nanoscale, it’s at least 50 times as long as these fibers are wide—and researchers believe they could stretch even further. [...]
• "Spider Silk," School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
  Spider silk is incredibly tough and is stronger by weight than steel.  Quantitatively, spider silk is five times stronger than steel of the same diameter.  It has been suggested that a Boeing 747 could be stopped in flight by a single pencil-width strand and spider silk is almost as strong as Kevlar, the toughest man-made polymer.  It is finer than the human hair (most threads are a few microns in diameter) and is able to keep its strength below -40°C.  The toughest silk is the dragline silk from the Golden Orb-Weaving spider (Nephilia clavipes), so-called because it uses silk of a golden hue to make orb webs.
  
  Spider silk is also very elastic and capture silk (sticky silk for catching prey) remains unbroken after being stretched 2-4 times its original length.  Spider silk is tougher, more elastic and more waterproof than silkworm silk so it could have a much wider range of applications.

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Last updated April 7, 2021