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Reddit's /r/MenWritingWomen laughed at this awful-sounding description of a female character's appearance (original translation):

Her long and thin eyebrows, water-like eyes, tall and beautiful nose, pink and soft lips, perfect curve of the convex in front of her chest, and in addition, her snow-like white skin. It really made people’s heart bump loudly. Even if it was said that she was a descended fairy, it would be correct.

Particularly jarring is the use of "convex" to describe her breasts. It was translated from the Chinese (so there's some translation problems):

那修长的睫毛,那水润的眼眸,那高挺的琼鼻,那粉嫩的小嘴,那胸前凸起的完美弧度,再加上如雪一般的白皙肌肤,真的是美到让人砰砰心跳,说其是仙子下凡也不为过。

My own translation of this would be:

Those slender eyelashes, those watery eyes, that tall nose, that pink tender small mouth, that bosom which protrudes like perfect arcs, and additionally with skin as white as snow. It really is beautiful enough to cause a person's heart to beat *peng peng* and say that she is a descended fairy.

I'm finding this tricky since 凸起 means "to protrude" and "convex", and the 的 indicates it's used as an adjective. Maybe I'm adding a nice spin on this, and it really does say "convex".

Question: How would we more accurately translate 那胸前凸起的完美弧度?

(I reiterate, this question is about accurately translating this phrase, not making it sound nice. What does it say? not What should it say?)

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  • Maybe, "the perfect arc protruding from her chest". But I'm unsure if it's idiomatic English.
    – dan
    May 13, 2020 at 14:06

2 Answers 2

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那修长的睫毛,
Those slender eyelashes,
那水润的眼眸,
those doe-like eyes,
那高挺的琼鼻,
that exquisite straight nose
那粉嫩的小嘴,
those tender pink lips,
那胸前凸起的完美弧度,
the perfect curve of her ample bosom,
再加上如雪一般的白皙肌肤,
also her snow-white skin,
真的是美到让人砰砰心跳,
really amount to beauty which makes my heart pound,
说其是仙子下凡也不为过。
it is not an overstatement to say, she really resembles an immortal descended to our world.

也不为过: not too much to say, not an overstatement

Must be a lady-boy from Bankok!

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How would we more accurately translate 那胸前凸起的完美弧度?

Maybe not more accurately, but another contextual suggestion, like,

那胸前 = the bosom

凸起 = raised up

的完美弧度 = with a perfect curvature.

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