Jul 17, 2011 08:15
13 yrs ago
Chinese term
在未成氣候前
Non-PRO
Chinese to English
Other
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Three Kingdoms
Context:
黃巾賊不過是群鳥合之眾的群聚,在未成氣候前,必須加以殲滅.
I'm translating something that's basically a telling of the Three Kingdoms period and got stuck at this phrase. Apparently 未成氣候 on its own can mean "a dud"? And according to NJ Star 成氣候 means "to make good". Neither of those make any sense in this sentence though from what I get. With my understanding, the general gist of the sentence is that since the Yellow Scarves flock together like birds, then its best to get rid of them before....and this is where the phrase comes in and I'm not sure what I should put.
Any help appreciated :)
黃巾賊不過是群鳥合之眾的群聚,在未成氣候前,必須加以殲滅.
I'm translating something that's basically a telling of the Three Kingdoms period and got stuck at this phrase. Apparently 未成氣候 on its own can mean "a dud"? And according to NJ Star 成氣候 means "to make good". Neither of those make any sense in this sentence though from what I get. With my understanding, the general gist of the sentence is that since the Yellow Scarves flock together like birds, then its best to get rid of them before....and this is where the phrase comes in and I'm not sure what I should put.
Any help appreciated :)
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 +2 | before it becomes a threat |
lin_vmi
|
| 5 +1 | before it gets full-fledged |
Shouguang Cao
|
| 4 | Before its prevailing |
Sherwin Zhou
|
| 3 | before it became a full-blown phenomenon |
pkchan
|
Proposed translations
+2
1 hr
Selected
before it becomes a threat
before it formulates into a serious situation (or, in such case, a threat)
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
4 mins
before it gets full-fledged
成气候 get full-fledged , get strong enough
8 hrs
before it became a full-blown phenomenon
my suggestion.
16 hrs
Sherwin Zhou
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Before its prevailing
"在未成氣候前" is correspondent to "Before its prevailing"; and Lin_vmi's "before it becomes a threat" is also an exact version.
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