Hi, I’m a Taiwanese, and I’m translating stehphen King’s novel “Needful Things” into Chinese. The term “constipational right” appears, but I have no idea what it means. The definition dictionaries provide are not related to law. Can any one be kind enough to tell me what it might mean? Thank you very much.
Ok, I’ll bite. I really don’t believe that you are Taiwanese and you actually tried to look up that word, but just in case you are truthful I am willing to risk looking stupid to help you if you are sincere.
“Constipational” is a play on the word “constitutional,” which means having to do with the Constitution of the United States, which empowers our government and protects our God-given rights. Man-made rights are bogus and hinder justice, therefore, I made up the word constipational, which is based on constipation:
1. Difficult, incomplete, or infrequent evacuation of dry hardened feces from the bowels.
2. Obstruction; stultification.
I was poking fun at the “right” the man in this story was granted – the right to call his brother after he was arrested.
I hope that this is helpful, but I fully expect to get lambasted as a gullible dope.
Thank you very much, Willy. No, I’m not kidding, and I think that your disbelief is a kind of joke.
Here is the excerpt from the “Needful Things” by Stephen King.
“Norris Ridgewick arrived at the Sheriff’s Office in his street
clothes about ten minutes before the noon whistle blew at the mill. He
had the mid-shift, from twelve until nine p.m right through the
weekend, and that was just the way he liked it. Let somebody else
clean up the messes on the highways and byways of Castle County after
the bars closed at one o’clock; he could do it, had done it on many
occasions, but he almost always puked his guts. He sometimes puked his
guts even if the victims were up, walking around, and yelling that they
didn’t have to take any ****ing breathalyzer test, and that kind of
they knew their Constipational rights- Norris just had a stomach.
Sheila Brigham liked to tease him by saying he was like Deputy Andy on
that TV show Twin Peaks, but Norris knew he wasn’t.”
At first, I really thought that “consitpational rights” was a play of words, but then I looked it up on the google, and there were about 300 results that contained that term. So I guessed it was really a term of which I could find no definition.
Thank you very much for your detailed answer again. Because of your help (I’m sorry if you think yourself looking stupid), I know how to translate it into Chinese!
My son just bought this book a couple weeks ago, believe it or not.
I don’t think that it will translate well into Chinese. People make such plays on words as this only because of the similarity in spelling between
constitutional and
constipational. It’s mildly humorous at best in English, but it would be meaningless or confusing to try to translate it. I would be surprised if constitution and constipation were so similar in Chinese that a similar play on words would be possible, let alone desirable.
If I were you I would simply omit the word altogether. It is not essential to understanding the passage, and only lends modest assistance to building the character.
Dear Willy,
It’s just amazing that your son bought it a couple of weeks ago, because that’s really not a new book!
Yes, it is hard to translate play of words, and I’m not intending to do play of words in Chinese, but to translate its meaning, like “that **** constitutional rights.”
You’re right. It’s not important, but it’s this kind of little things that make the story interesting.
Thanks again for your kindness and help :D
And thanks for your best wishes,
It’s all in Chinese, but you can ask someone else to translate it for you.
But you can see the photos, and I did write a paragraph about my trip to Cambodia in English.
Gee Rachel, I feel like an international celebrity.
I can’t tell how to email you by looking at your blog. Where is the icon is for your email? If you want to describe to me where it is, or change it to English, I will contact you by email in case you want further help with translation issues.
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Hi, I’m a Taiwanese, and I’m translating stehphen King’s novel “Needful Things” into Chinese. The term “constipational right” appears, but I have no idea what it means. The definition dictionaries provide are not related to law. Can any one be kind enough to tell me what it might mean? Thank you very much.
Ok, I’ll bite. I really don’t believe that you are Taiwanese and you actually tried to look up that word, but just in case you are truthful I am willing to risk looking stupid to help you if you are sincere.
“Constipational” is a play on the word “constitutional,” which means having to do with the Constitution of the United States, which empowers our government and protects our God-given rights. Man-made rights are bogus and hinder justice, therefore, I made up the word constipational, which is based on constipation:
1. Difficult, incomplete, or infrequent evacuation of dry hardened feces from the bowels.
2. Obstruction; stultification.
I was poking fun at the “right” the man in this story was granted – the right to call his brother after he was arrested.
I hope that this is helpful, but I fully expect to get lambasted as a gullible dope.
Thank you very much, Willy. No, I’m not kidding, and I think that your disbelief is a kind of joke.
Here is the excerpt from the “Needful Things” by Stephen King.
“Norris Ridgewick arrived at the Sheriff’s Office in his street
clothes about ten minutes before the noon whistle blew at the mill. He
had the mid-shift, from twelve until nine p.m right through the
weekend, and that was just the way he liked it. Let somebody else
clean up the messes on the highways and byways of Castle County after
the bars closed at one o’clock; he could do it, had done it on many
occasions, but he almost always puked his guts. He sometimes puked his
guts even if the victims were up, walking around, and yelling that they
didn’t have to take any ****ing breathalyzer test, and that kind of
they knew their Constipational rights- Norris just had a stomach.
Sheila Brigham liked to tease him by saying he was like Deputy Andy on
that TV show Twin Peaks, but Norris knew he wasn’t.”
At first, I really thought that “consitpational rights” was a play of words, but then I looked it up on the google, and there were about 300 results that contained that term. So I guessed it was really a term of which I could find no definition.
Thank you very much for your detailed answer again. Because of your help (I’m sorry if you think yourself looking stupid), I know how to translate it into Chinese!
Best regards from Taiwan,
Rachel Wu
Dear Rachel,
My son just bought this book a couple weeks ago, believe it or not.
I don’t think that it will translate well into Chinese. People make such plays on words as this only because of the similarity in spelling between
constitutional and
constipational. It’s mildly humorous at best in English, but it would be meaningless or confusing to try to translate it. I would be surprised if constitution and constipation were so similar in Chinese that a similar play on words would be possible, let alone desirable.
If I were you I would simply omit the word altogether. It is not essential to understanding the passage, and only lends modest assistance to building the character.
Best wishes in your endeavor!
Dear Willy,
It’s just amazing that your son bought it a couple of weeks ago, because that’s really not a new book!
Yes, it is hard to translate play of words, and I’m not intending to do play of words in Chinese, but to translate its meaning, like “that **** constitutional rights.”
You’re right. It’s not important, but it’s this kind of little things that make the story interesting.
Thanks again for your kindness and help :D
And thanks for your best wishes,
May your son enjoy the story!
Rachel
Hi Willy,
I wrote something about our communication on my blog. The title is “That American doesn’t buy that I’m a Taiwanese.”
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/yinyin-lohas/article?mid=294&prev=-1&next=292
It’s all in Chinese, but you can ask someone else to translate it for you.
But you can see the photos, and I did write a paragraph about my trip to Cambodia in English.
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/yinyin-lohas/article?mid=34&prev=68&l=f&fid=12
Rachel
Gee Rachel, I feel like an international celebrity.
I can’t tell how to email you by looking at your blog. Where is the icon is for your email? If you want to describe to me where it is, or change it to English, I will contact you by email in case you want further help with translation issues.