Shownotes Transcript
Hi there.
It's time for an all-new episode of News Bites.
I'm Jacob Ingram.
And I'm Paz Bueno.
In today's news: A publishing house in Taiwan crowdfunds a Chinese translation, and a man unearths the UK's largest golden nugget.
And in today's Tasty Tidbit: Yellow metal.
Stay tuned for those stories, coming up next.
「魔戒」新譯本集資逾500萬 翻譯版本引討論 New Translations for Lord of the Rings
Fly, you fools!
It's time to talk about "Lord of the Rings" again.
You remember what that is, right?
It's the classic novel by British author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Tolkien has been called the "father" of modern fantasy (現代奇幻小說).
"Lord of the Rings" is considered his "magnum opus (代表作)".
That's a fancy word meaning "great work" or "masterpiece".
It can be used to describe an artist or author's greatest work.
The book was first translated into Chinese in 1978.
The translation took several years to complete.
Since then, it's been updated and revised to accommodate different dialects and readerships.
The most familiar and circulated version in Taiwan was the translation by Zhu Xue-heng (朱學恆).
It's over 20 years old.
Now it seems another Chinese version of the novel is on the way!
Recently, a Taiwanese publishing house (出版社) launched a crowdfunding campaign (群眾集資) for a new Chinese translation not only of Lord of the Rings, but also "the Hobbit" too, which is the prequel to Lord of the Rings.
最近台灣一家出版社發起群眾集資，想要重新翻譯著名的小說魔戒和它的前傳哈比人歷險記。
The publishing house raised over 5 million NT!
But why do we need a new translation?
Well, an experienced translator said languages don't stay the same forever.
They change over time.
Take English for example.
The English spoken 100 years ago isn't the same as the English we speak today. 一百年前的英文跟現代英文有點不同。
For example, words like "internet," "smartphone," or "selfie" didn't exist a hundred years ago because those things weren't around yet.
Another example is the word "awful".
It used to mean "filled with awe".
「Awful」這個詞兒原本的意思是「充滿敬畏」。
Oh, I get it!
"Awe" and "full".
Full of awe!
Yeah, but now "awful" means "terrible" or "horrible".
So if you say "I feel awful", that's not good.
The Chinese language is also changing.
To demonstrate this, all you have to do is read an old book, like "the Travels of Lao Can" (老殘遊記). In fact, let's read a passage from that book right now. 我們來看看老殘遊記是怎麼寫的吧。
看此風景，今兒日出是看不著的了。天風海水，能移我情，即使看不著日出，此行亦不為辜負。
No one talks like that anymore, right?
In any case, the Chinese used in the Lord of the Rings translations is considered a little bit out of date.
So who will be doing the translating?
Someone called Li Han (李函).
He has a master's degree from the University of Glasgow.
The publishing house expects the translation to launch next March!
故障的金屬探測器找到 英格蘭最大金塊 The UK's Biggest Golden Nugget Found with Faulty Detector
Now, it's time to travel to England for this next story.
A guy called Richard Brock went on a treasure hunt, and quite literally "struck gold"!
Oh really?
What happened?
Richard is a hobbyist treasure hunter.
He goes from place to place with his metal detector.
For 35 years, he has been looking for treasure.
So how do treasure hunters look for treasure?
They use metal detectors.
These devices can find metallic objects hidden underground or underwater (地下或是水裡).
Users sweep them over the ground or along surfaces.
It emits a beeping noise (會發出嗶嗶叫的聲音) when it detects metal, like this…
Recently, Richard Brock went to Shropshire.
Shropshire is located in the West Midlands of England, near the border with Wales.
There he joined up with other treasure hunters.
Things weren't looking so good for Richard at the start.
Not only did he arrive late, his metal detector was faulty (故障的).
To make matters worse, everyone else had up-to-date equipment.
Sounds like he was all set for a bad day, right?
But soon after he started his search, guess what he found?
A golden nugget!
But this was not just any golden nugget!
It was large, weighing 64.8 grams (公克)!
In fact, it was the largest golden nugget ever found in the UK on record!
It's been named "Hiro's Nugget", but there doesn't seem to be any information on why it's called that?
In any case, the golden nugget has been valued at over 30,000 pounds.
That's over 1.2 million NT!
A golden nugget is basically a chunk of gold.
They're usually very small, and look like golden stones.
No one knows how "Hiro's Nugget" ended up in Shropshire.
Some speculate (猜測) the site where it was found used to have a railway going through it.
Maybe the nugget fell off an old mine cart while in transit (運輸過程中)?
There has to be lots of treasure out there, waiting to be discovered.
Remember to keep an eye out and who knows, you might just find a shiny piece of treasure on your next adventure!
So in today's News Bites,
A publishing house in Taiwan launched a crowdfunding campaign for a new Chinese translation of "Lord of the Rings".
It raised over 5 million NT!
"Lord of the Rings" is one of the most popular fantasy stories of all time.
The current translations are considered outdated, prompting the need for a fresh rendition.
Translator Li Han will handle the new translation, which is expected to launch next March.
And,
Richard Brock, a hobbyist treasure hunter, found the largest golden nugget ever discovered in the UK.
He found it in Shropshire, England, using a faulty metal detector.
The nugget is named "Hiro's Nugget," and it's worth over 1.2 million NT!
It is speculated to have been lost from a railway that used to pass through the area.
趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit
And in today's Tasty Tidbit,
Did you know that gold is the only yellow metal?
But gold is not just special because of its color.
It is also very valuable and has been important for a long time.
Gold doesn't get rusty or dirty.
That's why people use gold to make jewelry.
They can make very pretty things with it that will last a long time!
And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!
If you have a fun fact, a joke or interesting news story you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty tidbit to [email protected], and you might hear it at the end of an episode.
We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!