Thank you @threeārings for the thorough and informative posts. I havenāt really read the other translations so itās fascinating to see the differences of interpretations and word choices and how they affect the reader.Ā Iād like to provide a translatorās 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. Thatās one key aspect that makes Chinese so complex to translate, itās 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 saysĀ āä½ å害ļ¼ä½ å¤Ŗå害äŗā. Thatās the line that was translated asĀ āyouāre too much, youāre way too muchā (ExR) and something along the lines ofĀ āyouāre good, youāre too goodā (chiaki_himura for the google doc) orĀ āyouāre amazing, youāre the bestā (myself). If you break down the sentence, the literal meaning isĀ āyou are å害, you are too å害ā.Ā Itās this word,Ā å害, that is the source of divergence between the different translations.Ā Here areĀ the dictionary definitions given by MDBG:
So nine meanings and one noticeably different than the others. Itās not like there is a consensus either,Ā Fanyi Baidu doesnāt even have that last one:
In a vacuum, these are all valid translations of the word. If you had onlyĀ āä½ å害ā to go by, you could understand it asĀ āyouāre merciless/harsh/unbearable/greatā. Thatās why when someone asks for help to translate a bit of Chinese, the first question thatās going to be raised isĀ āWhatās the context?ā The ability to understand the context is something that is honed by practising the language and canāt be obtained from a glance at a dictionary.Ā å害 is used fundamentally to convey a high degree of intensity. It can be negative if itās about a personās temperament or positive if itās related to their skills. The positive meaning is also more frequent in everyday and colloquial speech, you can exclaimĀ āå害!ā or āAwesome!āĀ 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,Ā āHow 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 å害Ā in bed?ā. That one is pretty much unambiguous. Thereās otherĀ instances of the word like for example in chapter 38 where itās 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 itāsĀ 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, heĀ āblocked his mouthā. (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 āsealsā 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.
Iām fairly certain that this kind of bare-bones and oblique descriptions wouldnāt be ambiguous to theĀ average Chinese reader with the intuitive linguistic and cultural awareness that can only be ingrained through immersion. (Iām 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 thatās been bothering meā¦ 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.Ā For example, at one point, Wen Ning addresses Jin Ling by his courtesy name, Jin Rulan. Jin Ling snubs him and asksĀ āWhoās that?ā. Heās being scornful, he does know that itās his own name but refuses to answer it. (Because it sounds too sissy according to MXTX. Yes, thatās 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 donāt carry actual meanings but are used to express the speakerās attitude and to nuance to what is stated. Some are used for emphasis, to make a statement obvious, to soften what is said, etcā¦ Theyāre often left untranslated in English because there is seldom an equivalent so some information on the speakerās intent ends up being lost.
These definitions donāt even cover the whole range of expressiveness that can be conveyed with these particles, theyāre very versatile. WhenĀ Wei Wuxian goes āLan Zhan aā, it sounds much more enthusiastic than a normal āLan Zhanā. Or surprised or flustered depending on the context.Ā
Finally, Iād 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 thatās perhaps a discussion for another day. The audio drama also makes it clearer with the tone of his voice. I really canāt 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 isnāt explicit, you can tell that Wei Wuxian is unabashedly teasing and is having the time of his life during their first time togetherā¦)
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