Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr
Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr
Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang
Characters & Other Reference Index
(Updates and links are under the cut)
His name was Duan Ling.
He used to be nothing more than an illegitimate child with humble beginnings.
As a child he had his fill of neglect and torment until a mysterious man named Lang Junxia took him away from the Duans.
Lang Junxia fed him, put him in school, and made him a new home.
Lang Junxia told him that when the peach trees blossom his dad would come get him.
Then his dad really did come.
He was far more impressive than Duan Ling imagined, far more dashing, far more omnipotent.
It turned out that Duan Ling wasn’t a bastard whose paternal lineage was in question after all.
In his veins flowed the most noble Han imperial blood,
and the empire was supposed to belong to him.
But in troubled times, with the beacons of war lit in all four corners of the world,
his dad said everyone had a destiny that befit them,
and their destiny was the way of benevolent rule,
that was why they could never remain content with their little corner of he world.
They were destined … to carry the enmity of an invaded empire, to bear the pain of losing their homeland; to live as the self required.
As of last week (probably), I’ve subtitled 12 solid hours of weilan fanvids. That’s 192 of them. That’s … way more fanvids than I ever expected to sub. Actually I was surprised I ever got to 100. Though I’m separated from the c-fandom by The Great Firewall, sometimes people jump the wall and carry screenshots of what I do back to the other side, and aside from making it accessible to the international fandom, apparently it has the added benefit of making the vidders quite happy.
At first I was like — what? And then I realised OF COURSE if someone translated my fics I’d be ecstatic. Haha. I’m slow.
Things have slowed down some, since 1) it has been > 6 months since Guardian aired, so the vidding side of the fandom is producing less these days 2) my attention is divided, since I’m dedicating 90% of my translation time to help make the rest of the episodes of SCI 謎案集 accessible.
But meanwhile, if you have 12 hours to spare, here’s the playlist.
This was my 2018 year end translation project. The text is a classic, and it seems appropriate for the first day of the new year. Bai Yu did a reading of this for 榜樣閱讀 (Example Reading), and I'll put together an abridged version of just the part he read and post it to the group later, but here's the whole thing.
Chinese character count: 3721
English translation word count: 3193 words
如果你是从nodezero微博推荐来的，我的微博用戶名就是foxghost狐鬼，英文问题或者评论可以发私信。(I may write back in English 因为我打字很慢。。。)
I like being alive; life is like this, so brimming with delight.
I like the sunshine in winter, the way it unfolds in the hazy fog of dawn. I like that portion of mild and distant serenity; I like that light and heat given without clamour. Come noon, the playground is full of people leisurely sitting, sunning; that primal and genuine imagery always manages to profoundly touch my heart.
I like to tread narrow mountain footpaths in the spring breeze, with strawberries solicitously, diligently blooming and clustering with fruit like red lanterns all along the way. I like raising my head to see the sharp points of young buds on the tree tops; the youngest and most tender yellow green blushing with a hint of innocent pink, as if preparing to offer something, to present something. That poise so weak and yet overflowing with life would often teach me some of the most beautiful truths in its wordlessness.
( Read more... )Link to original on Faith2018 (Click on his name on the left side to get to his page, with the full length vid — 5 minutes 22 seconds)
Brought to my attention via this tumblr post
Hello! I’m Bai Yu.
In the first half of this year, the question I was asked the most was, “The drama has become popular, but not the actor; what are your feelings about that?” And in the latter half it was, “After becoming explosively popular, had the state of your mind undergone any changes?” It makes me think of a principle imparted to us by the teachers when I was at central acting academy — “To act, one must first learn to act with integrity.” This is something I have always believed in without a doubt, and it is the most fitting answer I have for these questions.
( Read more... )No real spoilers in this one, just fluff and crack.
[TN: the other extras are here, you may want to check out #4 for notes on names.]
Original Chinese character count: 4363
English Translation + notes word count: 4042
Translation notes for the Guardian Fan-song 一令長安 / A Writ of Lasting Peace, novel excerpts included as well as credit at the end, do take a look at that — like a lot of great fan productions, it was made by an army of fans.
Link to song profile on music163 (leave comments here)
Link to song profile on 5sing (has fanart)
Art FMV on bilibili
Drama FMV on bilibili
For the novel lines, I made notes, but for the lyrics, I’m putting down my initial ‘meaning’ draft and the full sentences I constructed from them.
一令長安——鎮魂同人曲（劇情版）
A Writ of Lasting Peace - Guardian original fansong (plot version)
Just some lines that keep coming up in vids that I’m putting here for c&p purposes.
堪不破長久，
Can’t endure through permanence
看不透是非，
Can’t understand right and wrong
分不清善惡，
Can’t differentiate between good and evil
辯不明生死。
Can’t tell apart life and death
人心存污，
Men’s hearts harbour corruption,
常憂思而多苦，
often suffer from worry,
固怒而生怨，
hold grudges from anger,
盡可為不可為之事，
commit countless crimes they ought not.
唯不作惡三字，
Only the three words ‘do no harm’
乃天下大善，
is the greatest virtue under heaven,
可濟世鎮魂者，
and of those who can benefit mankind and subdue souls,
無他耳。
there is none other.
一約既定，萬山無阻。我答應過你，即便永世負重逆行，吾往矣。
A vow is set in stone
Ten thousand mountains can’t stand in my way
I made you a promise
Even if my burden is heavy and I walk an eternity alone
I would never go back on our agreement
– Shen Wei
So much poetic license under cut
( Read more... )This is because while there is a modern distinction between 綠 green and 藍 blue, in the past we had 青 / qing for ‘nature’s colour’. In any old text (and old words still used) it could mean, depending on context:
Also, 青衫 may read “green clothes,” but together and describing historical / mythical figures it just means “scholar’s robes,” where the word 青 means ‘young’ and the robes could be any colour. It describes the style, not the colour.
A line from Peach Blossom Debt:
青衫公子站起身，本仙君驚且喜，恍若東風拂過，三千桃樹，花開爛漫。
The young noble clad in scholar’s robes stands, and this immortal one is pleasantly surprised, as though the east wind chanced by and every brilliant flower on three thousand peach trees blossom.
So, a very important question — what colour are Kunlun’s robes? Chapter 68:
This post is made because I don’t want to wall of text on that Chinese names post.
As a translator, I like to normalise the usage of pinyin honorifics and titles the way Japanese honorifics and titles are normalised in anime/manga. If you’re familiar with anime/manga, I’m sure this list is familiar to you: -san -sama -kun -kaasan -niisan -neesan -sensei -senpai -chan -bucho -shacho. I see no reason at all why we can’t do the same with Chinese honorifics except for the easily translated occupational ones.
( Read more... )for long long hair, that is. Not really spoilerish if you already know the gist of the weilan first meeting, just fluff. for @surreality51
( Read more... )Warning: This is probably spoilery.
( Read more... )Warning(s): single use of a slur, lots of Buddhism, novel ending spoilers / explanation
[TN: the other extras are here, you may want to check out #4 for notes on names.]
Original Chinese character count: 3068
English Translation word count: 3058
Much thanks to @lady-eden for the final once-over.
So I tagged in that other post #I could go on and on about Shen Wei’s name, and so why not.
This is the exchange between Kunlun and Shen Wei, the first time they meet. (chapter 77, so mildly spoilerish. The more spoilery part, I hid under a cut.)
“You can’t speak? Impossible.” Kunlun Jun drapes shapelessly onto the large boulder, lifting a brow. “Got a name? What are you called?”
“… Wei.”
“Which Wei?”
“…Mountain ghost.”
“Mountain ghost?” Kunlun Jun stretches out over the boulder, lifting a brow, “Appropriate, but a bit weak. Look at this world: mountains and oceans joining one to the next, towering peaks linking in an unending chain. Why not add a few more strokes, make a Wei.”
[TN. 嵬, what the ghost king introduced himself as, means “rocky terrain.” 嵬 is written with the radical ‘mountain’ on top of ‘ghost’. 巍 means ‘towering’ and keeps both of the radicals of 嵬]
Now let’s move on to 沈 / Shen, for a moment.
( Read more... )for @lady-eden, or, Shen Wei’s explanation for why all his lies. EVERYTHING UNDER THE CUT IS A SPOILER.
( Read more... )Takes place “just more than a week” after the novel’s ending. Contains explanation for the ending. Also fluff.
Original Chinese character count: 3629
Translated word count: 3336
[TN. see extra 4’s notes for names.]
Much thanks to @lady-eden for the final once-over.
Or, the chapter that turns the ending of the Guardian drama into a happy ending. Translated for @lady-eden, to whom i recced 40eps of fluff and pain.
Original Chinese character count: 10201
translated word count: 9184
original text: https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv838549/
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandroot
