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I am planning to translate all of Sappho to Chinese. I wanted to start from Sappho Campbell 31 / Edmonds 2 (which is fragment theta there as well as here, theta being the Greek way of writing 9), and that requires me to translate "that man seems to me". As far as "that man seems", I can get:

那个人看起来 | Nà ge rén kànqǐlái,

or with 仿佛 | fǎngfú or even 显得 | xiânde (or other similar verbs like 似乎 | sìhu). But "to me"? The only thing I could think of was:

我觉得那个人看起来 | Wô juéde nà ge rén kànqîlái,

but for some reason I don't like this. So how do I translate that indirect object into Chinese?

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  • In case anyone is curious, I put the full translation in the post just now.
    – MickG
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:50

2 Answers 2

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  • "那个人看起来"(that man seems) is perfectly fine

  • You can omit "看起来" in "我觉得那个人看起来" and just write "我觉得那个人"

There are other choices:

  • 對我來說，那個人 ( to me, that man)
  • 在我看來，那個人 ( from my point of view, that man)
  • 我看那個人 ( I see that man/ that man, to me)
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  • Hey Tang, do you not believe in upvoting questions, only answering them?
    – Stumpy Joe Pete
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:05
  • Could I say 在我的看来? Basically, I'm thinking of how to continue the translation of the poem I mention in the post, and it goes on with a relative clause, so I'd start with 在我的看来，那个正在你 ／ 的旁边坐下，听你来说话 ／ 说得很甜蜜 的人看起来 ／ 就像上帝一样的。, which would be the whole first stanza, and a bit of the second one. Though thinking on it, that huge relative clause had probably better be avoided… but anyways, is 在我的看来 OK?
    – MickG
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:05
  • "Could I say 在我的看来?" -- no, you can't . 我 is the subject, 看 is the verb. '的' has no role between them. The correct structure: "在我看来, 那个正在你旁边坐下，听你来说话说得很甜蜜的人, 看起来就像上帝一样的。"
    – Tang Ho ♦
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:14
  • Actually, here is another translation: 在我看来，来坐在你／ 旁边而听 到你说话 ／ 说得甜蜜， 甜蜜得笑， ／ 让人仿佛跟上帝／ 一样。, which keeps the sentence overflowing into the second stanza. What do you think? English «Equal to the gods he seems to me, / That man who in front of you / Sits, and, near you, to you sweetly speaking / Listens, / And [sees you] lovably smiling».
    – MickG
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:14
  • OK, I'll just go with my alternate translation then.
    – MickG
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 21:15
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English «Equal to the gods he seems to me, / That man who in front of you / Sits, and, near you, to you sweetly speaking / Listens, / And [sees you] lovably smiling».

Chinese <那个男人--我心中的男神，他就站在你的眼前，然后慢慢靠近你，坐在你的身边说着甜言蜜语，聆听你的倾诉，看着你可爱迷人的微笑>

I try to make this translation for you. This is my understanding of the stanza. You can make reference.

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