Oh heavens! What big endowment you have!

When I read My Paper, I normally pay attention to the "HELPDESK" column which is a translation of some words used in the report. This is sometimes useful and helpful for my own translation work.

However, I noticed many times that the translation are not necessary according to the use in context I was especially tickled by what appeared on January 6 page A17, in the report about Tiger Woods.

Writer Buzz Bissinger also revisits the embarrassing interview that Woods gave to GQ magazine in 1997, when he joked about lesbian sex and the endowments of black athletes.

The word "endowment" was picked for translation. The Chinese word provided was 天赋, literally "bestowed by Heaven". The Chinese word typically refers to some quality, especially talent, which someone is born with. In some ways, this is an accurate translation of "endowment". However, I wonder this actually help some Chinese reader to under its use in context.

In this case, endowment is not referring to any sporting talents of black athletes. It is actually an euphemism for the sexual organ, with the implication that it is big. In fact, I wonder if the person who picked the word for translation actually realized that or not (I would not have picked that word to avoid the complexities of pointing out the hidden meaning).

I had never heard of the Chinese word 天赋 being used in anyway that could have a connection to the sexual organ. It's another case of meaning lost in translation.