Translation, Chinese-style?

This is a translation of a New York Times article, which was translated by the Beijing Evening News and then retranslated by an enterprising blogger who noticed some differences between the Chinese meaning and the English meaning of the article. http://www.blackandwhitecat.org/2008/08/28/how-the-new-york-times-should-have-covered-the-olympics/ If that’s unclear, here’s what happened.

1. I suggest that you first read the original piece at the New York Times website. (The New York Times version)

2. This article was translated into Chinese by the Beijing Evening News as a “summary of foreign media” article; thus the “August 11 New York Times says” bit at the beginning. (If you can read any Chinese at all, you should look at this)

3. The translated Chinese version was retranslated into English by this blogger; this version is composed of the black and red text, with the gray struck-through text removed. (the blogger version)

I read pieces of the second one and I can speak for the authenticity of the blogger’s translation of the Chinese article into English; it looks fine to me. The translation from English to Chinese seems to have left out some ideas, however…

What do you think?

Some questions to keep in mind:

Do you think that the two articles express different things? Which one do you think is more accurate?

Is it possible to translate an article without losing (or adding) any meaning?

Do all languages have common ways of explaining things or are there major differences between languages and the ways in which they explain things?