A Buddhist monk orders a hot dog from a streetside vendor. The vendor asks him what he wants on the hot dog. The monk says, “Make me one with everything.”
The vendor, hardly amused, gives him the hot dog. The monk gives the vendor a $20, but the vendor does nothing. The monk asks, “Where’s my change?” and the vendor says “Change comes from within.”
How would I translate both of those punchlines into Chinese? (Yes, I’m well aware that the punchline cannot have that double entendre in Chinese.) Bonus points if it has a Buddhist connotation.
As you stated yourself, you know that a Chinese translation of the punchline wouldn’t have the double meaning that it has in English. That itself makes a “translation” pointless. What you need instead is an explanation.
What’s the purpose of your request?
Except in the rare instance that a double-entendre is the same in English as it is in Chinese (e.g. the MRT sign “拉自己一把! Get a grip!”), if you want to explain a double meaning to a Chinese person, what you’d need is two translations of the punchline: one for each meaning.
That said, here’s my non-native attempt at translating the Buddhist sense of “Make me one with everything”: “請使我與萬物成一體”.
The other meaning could be translated as “全部配料都要”.
The purpose of my request is that I’m teaching my students a few corny puns. They were able to get the “eats shoots and leaves” one when I explained the alternate meaning of shoots beforehand.
The 零 in this case is the double entendre for 零錢 (change/coins) and 歸零 (“reset to zero”, which is the Buddhist belief of emptying oneself and starting from a clean slate). Not the most faithful translation, but it may work.
The second punchline is a bit forced with the 硬幣/硬逼 pun and isn’t quite a faithful translation, but I tried. Perhaps the real joke here is that the monk is eating a hot dog.
