News from JMS
Welcome to our blog, where we plan to feature news, views and translation clues. Things like: did you know that English cats say ‘meow’, German moggies ‘miau’, French felines ‘miaou’, and Spanish Siamese ‘miau’. Pause for thought…
Richard III in Mandarin
One could be forgiven for thinking the link between Mandarin and Richard III is a stretch too far, but I was watching excerpts this weekend from the performance of the play in Mandarin (with English captions) by the National Theatre of China at the Globe Theatre in London last year. At the same time my colleague was on a history trip to Leicester, where the remains of this controversial king were uncovered. And last month an unusual coffin-in-a-coffin was unearthed at the same site. As she reports: There can’t be many kings of England with their very own appreciation society, but Richard III enjoys just that. Just attended a fascinating weekend in Leicester visiting sites associated with Richard, including the now famous car park, where his remains were found back in February beneath a piece of tarmac handily marked R. How spooky was that! Now it appears Alfred the Great might have been found, but in more conventional surroundings and without the added frisson of mysterious municipal markers hinting at the spot.
As Richard III said about transport issues at the Globe:
要一匹马！ 要一匹马！愿以王位许之！
‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’