#malsays

Mal calls the cow buyers liars (Episode 5, "Safe" 10:52)

Chinese: 废话 (fèihuà)

Translation: Nonsense.

Context: Mal and the crew go to Jiangyin to sell their smuggled cows. They meet at the arranged spot with the buyers, who express dissatisfaction with the looks of the cows. They say the cows are scrawny, and Mal objects.

Usage: Fei means "wasted" and hua means "speech," so together it means "an unnecessary, nonsensical, or incorrect statement." You could use it to reprove somebody like Mal does here, though you could also use feihua in more playful, joking situations or for more sarcastic purposes. Like if you say to a pregnant friend on line at McDonalds, "You sure you want to eat here? It looks like you're packing on some weight there," she could sarcastically respond, "Feihua" to mean something like "Isn't that obvious?" or "Don't waste your breath" or "No shit, Sherlock" (if she doesn't knock you out first). Said on its own here as Mal does, it's a mild expletive meaning "Rubbish."

Execution: Mal does a reasonable job pronouncing it. Does well with the tone on fei but the hua doesn't fall as sharply. Even so, overall, it's one of Mal's better performances thus far.

Mal calls the duel with Atherton "stupid" (Ep4, "Shindig" 34:55)

Chinese: 愚笨的 (yúbèn de)

Translation: foolish 

Context: After Mal unintentionally challenges Atherton, a master swordsman, to a duel, he is sequestered for the night. Inara comes to check in on Mal and give him some pointers on how to fight. Mal calls Inara a "whore" and they get into an argument, with Mal expressing disgust at the situation.

Usage: Yup, that's how you use yuben de. Yuben on its own is an adjective that can mean "stupid," as in "lacking sense" or "clumsy." De generally indicates possession (我的书 means "My book"), but can also be used to link adjectives to the noun they modify, though it can often be omitted since it's obvious and redundant. But some things sound better with the de between them: yuben is one of them.

Execution: Not bad at all!!! For Mal, could this be a breakout moment, after which he'll realize that Chinese characters shouldn't be treated as words (all of which are pronounced in the same fourth tone) and start to link connected syllables together? Tune in next week and find out...

Mal says "Just our luck" (Ep3, "Bushwhacked" 15:38)

Chinese: 真倒霉 (zhēn dǎoméi)

Translation: What bad luck

Context: Mal and some of the crew board the abandoned ship to see what happened. Everyone seems to have just disappeared. However, when Mal discovers  corpses strung up in a room, he realizes that it was likely a Reaver attack. 

Usage: Zhen means "really," and daomei is "bad luck." I probably wouldn't call the potential for being raped and having my flesh eaten to be just "bad luck" (Oh, manic unhumans might be aboard this ship? Just some bad luck, we can deal...), but I guess this another example of our captain being cool as can be. 

Execution: Dang, Mal sounds pretty badass saying this. And what's better, it actually sounds like Chinese! Tones are flukey, but applause for this performance especially compared to his previous ones.

Mal orders a drink (Ep2, "The Train Job" 1:48)

Chinese: 请再来一杯五加皮 (Qǐng zài lái yī bēi Ng-gaa-pei)

Translation: Give me another glass of Wujiapi.

Context: It's Independence Day in some backwater bar. A local makes a toast to the Alliance victory. When the local goes to the bar, Mal deliberately gets up to order another drink as well. He beckons the bartender and asks for another glass.

Usage: Qing zai lai is pretty standard ordering for drinks and food. It literally means "please another come" but the politeness is just a formality. In a bar context, it's translated more like "Gimme another!" What's most notable here is 五加皮 is not pronounced Wǔjiāpí as you would expect it to be in Mandarin, but Ng-gaa-pei (see pronunciation below)--the Cantonese pronunciation of the words. Cantonese--the Chinese dialect of Hong Kong kung-fu movies and the primary spoken language of many Chinatowns across North America to this day--apparently has been integrated in some ways with the Mandarin Chinese of the future. What 五加皮 is, I have no idea, but apparently it's some herbal wine.

Execution: *Head shake* The Mal Robot strikes again. His speech pattern is so totally normal in English, but once he hits the Chinese, his entire tone and rhythm shifts and he becomes this disembodied talking head excreting out syllables. Thank god he doesn't have to say anything too serious in Chinese thus far. No way we could take him seriously.

Mal says "Bizui" 3. (Ep1, "Serenity" 49:10)

Chinese: 你们都闭嘴！ (Nǐmen dōu bìzuǐ!)

Translation: Everybody shut up!

Context: Everyone sits around the common area table to discuss what's to be done with Dobson, the mole that they've captured. Some argue more drastic measures for dealing with him while others refuse to allow such violence. An argument breaks out and Mal tells everybody to shut up.

Usage: The third in our series of Mal bizui's in this episode. Literally, "shut mouth." Nimen = second person plural ("you all") and dou = "all"/"everybody."

Execution: Not too bad. It's understandable but the tones aren't quite right.

Mal says "Bizui" 2. (Ep1, "Serenity" 12:10)

Chinese: 闭嘴。 (Bìzuǐ.)

Translation: Be quiet.

Context: As Jayne and Wash bicker over Wash's role in the scavenged goods caper, Mal checks the underside of the contraband. They have the Alliance seal on them, making them harder to sell. Mal tells everyone to quiet down.

Usage: Bizui is typically translated as "shut up" but Mal's nonchalant tone makes this feel more like a "Be quiet."

Execution: The second of the three Mal bizui's in this episode, and the first that is understandable. A little sloppy on the tones, but definitely communicates the message.

Mal says "Bizui" 1 (Ep1, "Serenity" 7:20)

Chinese: 闭嘴。 (Bìzuǐ.)

Translation: Shut up.

Context: The Alliance chances upon Serenity as its swiping some abandoned goods in space. Zoe and Jayne start to chime in about how dangerous the situation is, but Mal cuts them off and tells Wash to shut down Serenity in the hopes of escaping detection.

Usage: It's slang that literally translates as "close your mouth." Perfect for all situations in which you want someone to stop talking.

Execution: This is the first of three "shut-up"s in this episode but Mal says it so fast that it's hard to hear clearly. The official close captions even transcribe it as "Excuse me," which is hardly the phrase for a captain like Mal to say in times like this. Though now the more times I hear it, it sorta does sound like "scuse me." 

Mal curses (Ep1, "Serenity" 36:45)

Chinese: 你他妈的，天下所有的人都该死。 (Nǐ tāmāde, tiānxià suǒyǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ.)

Translation: You motherfucker; everyone should die. 

Context: A mole (Dobson) boards Serenity as a passenger and contacts the Alliance about River. Wash says he may have scrambled the message, but he's not sure how much. It's certain that the Alliance is now aware of Serenity's position. Mal curses the situation.

Usage: As discussed before with tamade, it's an all purpose profanity that literally means "his mother" but when said spitefully or angrily becomes a slur that can be translated as "fuck" or "shit." To my ear, the Ni tamade sounds clunky (Ni means "you"), and I would've dropped the Ni. But I guess they intended for the swear to be specifically addressed at either the universe for bringing this upon him or at the Alliance directly. Tianxia literally means "under sky" but is typically translated as "all under heaven," a phrase typically associated with the Chinese emperor or Chinese territory. Here it intensifies suoyou ("everybody"), so that it ends up meaning everybody in the universe ought to die (si--though gaisi on its own is a light swear word like "damn it!" and usually stands on its own or as an adjective, making the usage here rather odd) for the shit Mal has to put up with.

Execution: I feel bad for Mal. All Inara has to say in this episode is meimei and qingjin. He gets stuck with this mouthful and has no chance. Feel free to compare with the pronunciation below. But perhaps what's more off about the clip is not the pronunciation, but the flow. There are none of the natural pauses and breaths after tamade, tianxia, and ren. It's just a jumble of syllables that Mal is robotically spitting out rather than words with meanings that he's trying to communicate.