Posted by Dave Thewlis on June 04, 2003 at 13:49:35 from 148.78.245.13 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Re: Shiver my Timbers posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on May 30, 2003 at 18:11:58:
I have always understood "Shiver my/your timbers" to refer to a person's own arms and legs, borrowed by association with shivering the timbers of a ship meaning to hit it hard enough to cause the fabric of the ship to quiver or shake.
So it's a nautical way of saying that something has affected one, or will affect somebody else, dramatically - probably but not necessarily physically. (In one book Nancy says to Peggy something along the lines of "I'll shiver your timbers for you!")
Idiomatic expressions simply don't translate literally. In a Spanish class once a student translated "A horse of another color" as "El caballo de otro color" and was informed by the teacher that the Spanish idiomatic equivalent was "This bone to another dog." I believe "Once in a blue moon" in Russian is "When the shrimp start to whistle."
So I agree with Andrew. Don't even try to translate the phrase but find an idiomatic equivalent in Chinese and simply use it, preferably one with a nautical flavor. That'd be my choice.