#pseudotranslation

One of my niche interests is to render Chinese lyrics into English, but specifically in a way that can be sung to the same tune. So, ah, pseudo-translation driven by a sing-along agenda, I guess? Musical localization? Linguistic filk? If someone knows the real term for this, please tell me so that I can stop staring blankly at people when they ask what my hobbies are

Anyway, 《无谅》 is very pretty—

Maybe I should backtrack. What is 《无谅》 (wú liàng - without forgiveness)? Well, it is the theme song of the 2020 Chinese short film 《无量》 (wú liàng - boundless). I encourage anyone interested in wuxia to give it a try. You can find an excellent translation here, courtesy of @pumpkinpaix

Anyway, 《无谅》 is very pretty, and my brain has been gently flirting with it for months. The result of this slow-burn courtship is shared below, for anyone interested in obscure cross-language karaoke

牀前明月光 疑是地上霜 舉頭望明月 低頭思故鄉

Bedside moonlit glow Coats the ground like snow. Upcast gaze to moon; Downcast thoughts of home.

李白 Li Bai (701–762 CE)

- - -

note 1 - moon day!!!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Here, have a moony little thing I made back in January 11, 2021 (and revisited in August 2022 to polish a bit).

note 2 - vibes

There is a gentle simplicity in the original poem that often doesn’t carry through in English translations. I did my best to capture the poem’s concision while remaining true to its themes and its basic structure (rhyme, meter, parallelism).

note 3 - adaptations

Note that this is the Ming Dynasty version of the famous Jing Ye Si by Li Bai. Some alternate versions may have:

1. 看月光 (viewing the moonlight) in the first line instead of 明月光 (the bright moonlight). In Chinese, I personally think the latter sounds nicer and more poetic.

2. 望山月 (gazing at the mountain-moon) in the third line instead of 望明月 (gazing at the bright moon). In Chinese, I think the former sounds more poetic; however, it is more costly in terms of English syllables. The former is also more lacking in self-insertion potential. What about all the people who want to project their childhood nostalgia but don’t live by any mountains? Grounding the poem in a specific geography can really break their immersion!

The alternate versions (看月光、望山月) tend to pre-date the Ming Dynasty version (example from the Song Dynasty linked below [1]) and are thus likely to be more faithful to the poem as originally written by Li Bai (who lived in the Tang Dynasty). But the far more popular Ming version is the one that is engraved in the hearts of Chinese schoolchildren everywhere.

- - -

[1] Example of an alternate version, compiled during the Song Dynasty by Guo Maoqian (郭茂倩):

Source 1: 《樂府詩集·卷九十·靜夜思》 Yuefu Poetry Collection: Scroll Ninety: Jing Ye Si