PoJ: Things That Got Lost In Translation
For Chinese speakers, this next bit is obvious, but I never really know what the experience is like for others when watching this show. For instance, is it clear to those watching with English subs that within Xie Zheng’s Blood Cavalry, there’s a pattern to the names of the generals?
Xie Wu literally means “Xie Five”, Xie Qi = Xie Seven, and Xie Jiu = Xie Nine.
And when Xie Zheng was in Lin’an, he'd mentioned to Xie Wu and Xie Qi that Xie Yi and Xie San had sacrificed their lives to help him escape during the ambush.
Xie Yi = Xie One
Xie San = Xie Three
In other words, when Xie Zheng was ambushed at the start and lost Xie Yi and Xie San, he wasn’t just mourning the loss of some of his Blood Cavalry but specifically the two most senior ranking soldiers he had, the ones he’d worked with most closely.
By extension, we see Xie Wu being Xie Zheng’s right hand man in the show only because he was promoted to it following the death of Xie Yi (presumably the most senior ranking of the Blood Cavalry). This could potentially also explain why Xie Wu sometimes makes these hilarious gaffes and says things before his brain fully processes them - he’s new to this role and didn’t actually have that much face time with his boss previously. (At least, that’s how I choose to interpret it)
This brings me to a broader point: sometimes I wonder about how the PoJ viewing experience differs between people depending on the language we experience it in. There’re definitely notable differences between the Chinese and English version. eg. In episode 1, when Xie Zheng wakes and first meets Changyu, according to the English subs he asks “where am I?” but what he actually said was 「此乃何地」 which is a very elevated/elegant way of asking “where is this place?”
The minute you hear this as a Chinese speaker you understand one thing: this guy’s a highborn. Commoners don’t talk like that. Then when Changyu asks for his name he replies 「在下言正」. Though the subtitles translates this to “My name is Yan Zheng”, the original line is actually a particularly respectful and educated way of introducing one self, something you’re more likely to hear in a palace. Suspicion confirmed: this guy ain’t no ordinary Joe.
All this adds intrigue to his character but the implication is lost in translation because there’s no full English equivalent of what he actually said. There are loads of these little instances in the show that reveal a lot about the characters and their relationship to each other, etc.
There’s also a Thai dubbing and I’m sure the translators would’ve had to take a few creative liberties when translating, just like when they were coming up with the English subs. In doing so, did they create notable differences in interpretation of various scenes? How does that affect the story we understand? In short, I do sometimes wonder if we’re all getting slightly different stories because of linguistic differences.
