(13-02-2026, 03:48 PM)MHTamdgidi_(Behrooz) wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.“sir, I want you to copy this exactly as it is, so that I can show precisely what the book contains for research and university/publishing purposes if needed, since ultimately someone has to rely on the original text to benefit from it; but since I can understand oral Chinese, if you don’t mind, as you are scribing a copy for me, please read it aloud. This way, I can, at the same time you are scribing, write my translation of it in my own language; yes, there will be some terms and names that are just Chinese, and I have to study further their equivalents in my European context, so I will transliterate them directly, but words such as “it is used for this or that” are things I can just translate in my own language.” So, I will just transliterate in my own European (or whatever) language the Chinese words I don’t have equivalents for, while most will be in my own translated language. This way, I kiss two birds at the same time; I will have my translation and the original precise copy.
When presented in that way, of course it sounds outlandish. But for it to be outlandish you have assumed that they completely understand oral chinese (they may know, say 50% of words). You also assume that there are any chinese speakers in europe at this time, is that reasonable? How many european scholars in the 1400s knew any chinese? How many people could he show a chinese manuscript to in europe that would understand it?
What is more likely (in my opinion) is that he went to any literate chinese person (while in china) and said: "I have acquired this book of medicine, could you read it for me slowly? I will write down what you say onto the page phonetically, and I can accurately translate it later"
Your assertion that you can just easily translate, on the go, as someone reads to you seems pretty unlikely to me. What about homophones? Would a foreigner be able to ascertain such context as he hears it? Sometimes the same word, with the same meaning changes forms depending on context. What about word order, too?
Imagine a foreigner wanted to transcribe english this way, and the person says "He knew that he has two of them, which is two too many". Try doing that as its being spoken. Later on it may be possible based on context. So, the text may be something like: "He new that he has to of them, which is to to many", which is quite correctable, although tedious.