Dear Mr. Threorem:

I have no training in arts at all. I am a gradute of electrical & computer engineering. My reading of a poem is mainly to understand its exact meaning but not its rhythm or symmetry. I appreciate your efforts in proposing a criterion for comparing the differences between two different langues. But the comparison between two different languages is quite different from the comparison between two different logical statements. It is a complex issue, I would rather leave it to a specialist in linguistics.

Now let us come back to the translation of the verse. I must admit that I admire your competence/professionalism in translation of the English poems that are difficult to me. This was the exact reason that I chose a simple one to translate for the purpose of making my point: a person who was trained in engineering might have a totally different understanding of the same verse as an art student was reading. This is exactly one of the challenges facing the issue of language comparison. But, when you read a mathematical equation or a law of physics, you must get the same meaning as what a mathematician or physicist will get, whatever profession you may be in, if you want to get the meaning correctly.

1. When I read the sentence "They f u ck you up, your mum and dad.", I can
never accept that a person translates the word "f u ck up" into "操大",
whether the person is a professor or a plumber. The word "操大" conveys
the meaning of sexual intercouse in Chinese, but the meaning of "f u ck
up" in the English verse has notthing to do with sex. This kind of controversy
will never happen in math or physics. Your criterion is suitable to the
disciplines of exact science or engineerring, but not to something that
contains too much ambiguity.

2. "And add some extra, just for you." was translated by you as "燼上添花
糟更糟。". The word "extra" here means an extra fault according to the context.
How could it be translated into something positive as some flower?

3. "And half at one another's throats." was put into "互掐脖子，背後捅刀
". The word "互掐脖子，背後捅刀" conveys the meaning of violent fighting
for one's life, in actuality, however, the English verse was talking about
the petty quarrelling between a pair of lovely-married couples.

4. "It deepens like a coastal shelf." was translated into "越挖越深如海溝。
". Translating "a coastal shelf" into 海溝 is too far away from the actual
meaning. 海溝 is formed by the movement of the Earth crust, but not by any
digging.

There have already been 4 controversies in such a short verse, how can you
compare the advantages and disadvantages between the entire Chinese and
English languages that are so huge? How long would it take and How many
people would you need to get the job done?