Thank you @threeârings for the thorough and informative posts. I havenât really read the other translations so itâs fascinating to see the differences of interpretations and word choices and how they affect the reader. Iâd like to provide a translatorâs point of view on the hardships of conveying tone and interpreting the context.
First and foremost, every translation is a subjective interpretation. My translation follows my own understanding of the original text, of the characters, of the context. Thatâs one key aspect that makes Chinese so complex to translate, itâs a language that relies heavily on the ability to perceive the contextual clues in order to understand the implicit meaning.
Unlike English which is a more precise language, Chinese commonly expresses with a single word a wide range of meanings that can even be contradictory.
In chapter 111, while Wei Wuxian is begging for mercy during sex, he says âä˝ ĺ厳ďźä˝ 太ĺ厳äşâ. Thatâs the line that was translated as âyouâre too much, youâre way too muchâ (ExR) and something along the lines of âyouâre good, youâre too goodâ (chiaki_himura for the google doc) or âyouâre amazing, youâre the bestâ (myself). If you break down the sentence, the literal meaning is âyou are ĺ厳, you are too ĺ厳â. Itâs this word, ĺ厳, that is the source of divergence between the different translations. Here are the dictionary definitions given by MDBG:
So nine meanings and one noticeably different than the others. Itâs not like there is a consensus either, Fanyi Baidu doesnât even have that last one:
In a vacuum, these are all valid translations of the word. If you had only âä˝ ĺ厳â to go by, you could understand it as âyouâre merciless/harsh/unbearable/greatâ. Thatâs why when someone asks for help to translate a bit of Chinese, the first question thatâs going to be raised is âWhatâs the context?â The ability to understand the context is something that is honed by practising the language and canât be obtained from a glance at a dictionary. ĺ厳 is used fundamentally to convey a high degree of intensity. It can be negative if itâs about a personâs temperament or positive if itâs related to their skills. The positive meaning is also more frequent in everyday and colloquial speech, you can exclaim âĺ厳!â or âAwesome!â in praise of something or someone.
To me, it was in that positive sense that Wei Wuxian used the word within the context of that scene. He also used that same word a bit earlier when he was waxing lyrical about Lan Wangji, âHow can such a gorgeous beauty play the guqin so well, have such proper penmanship, possess such strong spiritual energy, be endowed with such high cultivation base and even be so ĺ厳 in bed?â. That one is pretty much unambiguous. Thereâs other instances of the word like for example in chapter 38 where itâs Lan Jingyi proclaiming that Hanguang-Jun is amazing. Hence my choice of translation.
Chinese language permits to use words in parsimony. Dropping the subject or the verb in a sentence is commonly done without that affecting the comprehension because itâs understandable from the context.
In writing, you can make oblique references and not expound on the action of who does what exactly. In chapter 111, Lan Wangji muffles Wei Wuxian to stop his teasing. It was alternatively translated as a kiss or a hand covering his mouth or left vague. The original Chinese is just that, he âblocked his mouthâ. (The audio drama makes it a kiss.)
Similarly, in the Taiwan extra, Wei Wuxian taunts Lan Wangji into using the silencing spell on him to prevent him from being overly rowdy during their nighttime activities. Lan Wangji then âsealsâ his mouth. As I was reading it for the first time, I thought that he did use the silencing spell but no, Wei Wuxian starts rambling again less than a paragraph later. I had missed the contextual clues that Lan Wangji had leant towards Wei Wuxian to seal his mouth, meaning that he had shut him up with a kiss again.
Iâm fairly certain that this kind of bare-bones and oblique descriptions wouldnât be ambiguous to the average Chinese reader with the intuitive linguistic and cultural awareness that can only be ingrained through immersion. (Iâm leaving aside cases of more figurative descriptions that are subject to interpretation) When translating in English, you would feel the need to overtranslate for the sake of clarity.
Tone not being conveyed properly and leading to misinterpretations is something thatâs been bothering me⌠Not only the playful banter from the sex scenes but also some forms of speech with sarcasm or rhetorical questions that I see taken at face value. For example, at one point, Wen Ning addresses Jin Ling by his courtesy name, Jin Rulan. Jin Ling snubs him and asks âWhoâs that?â. Heâs being scornful, he does know that itâs his own name but refuses to answer it. (Because it sounds too sissy according to MXTX. Yes, thatâs from the boy who named his dog Fairy. Though he probably also has complicated feelings over this courtesy name because of the person who chose it)
I try to pay special attention to the speech of the characters when I translate. Wei Wuxian is this voluble talker who frequently uses in Chinese sentence-final particles when he speaks. (Lan Wangji pretty much never does) These are Chinese characters that donât carry actual meanings but are used to express the speakerâs attitude and to nuance to what is stated. Some are used for emphasis, to make a statement obvious, to soften what is said, etc⌠Theyâre often left untranslated in English because there is seldom an equivalent so some information on the speakerâs intent ends up being lost.
These definitions donât even cover the whole range of expressiveness that can be conveyed with these particles, theyâre very versatile. When Wei Wuxian goes âLan Zhan aâ, it sounds much more enthusiastic than a normal âLan Zhanâ. Or surprised or flustered depending on the context.Â
Finally, Iâd also like to mention that there are clues in the bath scene in chapter 95 that Lan Wangji sobered up before the heavy petting. His speech pattern is different when drunk. But thatâs perhaps a discussion for another day. The audio drama also makes it clearer with the tone of his voice. I really canât recommend enough the audio drama, the voice acting adds so much to the comprehension of the original text with the intonations used. (Even though the audio drama isnât explicit, you can tell that Wei Wuxian is unabashedly teasing and is having the time of his life during their first time togetherâŚ)
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