The Ballad of Mulan, a translation from my memory. Thread.

So, there are a bajillion translations out there already. I've been wondering how I'm going to contribute so I am wheeling out my one party trick of knowing the thing off by heart. I am translating this from my head.

It's an oral tradition, after all, so here it is as I I memorised it over a decade ago. I cannot promise it is the most accurate translation but it is the one I carry with me everywhere, in my head. Ballad in "quotations" and I will provide notes/musings as I go.

"Clack-clack swish clack-clack
Mulan weaves by the window
The loom is silence but for the sighing of the daughter.
'What weighs down your thoughts, my daughter? What memories stay your hand?'"

"'Last night I saw the summons, the Khan is counting all his soldiers.
The summons fill ten & two rolls, every roll with my father's name.
My father has no elder sons, Mulan has no older brothers,
but willing am I to buy a horse at market & henceforth take my father's place.'"

Quick interruption to call attention to the fact that a Khan is on the throne and that the thing she needs for military service is not a sword, but a horse. I have said before but Turkic Mulan is very much textually supported.

"From the eastern markets, a handsome horse.
From the western markets, a saddle.
From the southern markets, a bridle.
From the northern markets, a long whip.
At dawn I leave my father and my mother,
And sleep by the yellow river."

"I cannot hear them call for their daughter,
Only the rushing of the yellow river.
At dawn I depart from the yellow river,
And sleep by black hills,
I cannot hear them call for their daughter,
Only the shouting of the mountain riders."

Notes: I went for the unorthodox decision of putting this in first person instead of second. Poetry is.... lax about pronouns and obviously one is obliged to add some back in when translating (in fairness, I don't always, it makes my translations read weird tho).

"Ten thousand miles fly by, the mountains rush tumble onwards,
Sweat soaks into to her arming jacket,
Cold light shines upon her iron armour."

Note: I'm a little fuzzy on the first two lines, I remember the SOUNDS very well as I rattle through but the meaning is vague?

Note: I also decided on arming jack instead of gambeson, though again, because I'm not looking anything up, maybe it actually means armour? I'm rolling the sound in my mouth and they're not exactly common words.....

"After a hundred battles, generals die
After a full ten years, strong soldier return
Return to see the lord of heaven,
The lord of heaven sits in a brilliant hall
The rewards fill ten and two rolls,
The gifts number hundreds upon thousands."

Note: there's a poetic device where you begin the next line with the same words as you end the line on. The repetition makes it easier to remember. This bit is very sticky in my head for that reason. I tried to preserve that despite clunkiness. Think glad you came, the pop song.

"The Khan asks what I desire.
'Mulan does not need to be a secretary of the court,
Desires only to borrow the famed camel's thousand-mile stride
To bring is lost child home.'"

Note: lost is my artistic flourish. I wanted an extra syllable there. Due to doing this literally as I write this thread, this is very rough, but I still apparently care deeply about rhythm. Note also the camel making an appearance for again Turkic Mulan.

Note: yes, Mulan talks in the third person here about herself in my version, which is quite common in Chinese speech, even now, especially when talking to ppl of higher social status.

"The eastern door I fling open and sit upon the western bed,
I shed my warrior's clothes, and wear again the robes of long ago.
To the window I wind my hair into braids, to mirror I anoint my forehead with a petal."

Note: I rolled this around my head a lot but I thought the "my" warriors robes and the robes of long ago not being with a possessive important given the language of the original. Or how I read it. I'm 75% sure the last line refers to the drawing of floral beauty marks?

"I step out to meet my companions,
My companions are shocked and swoon,
Together we have fought for ten and two years
Not knowing Mulan was a woman."

"But the male rabbit thumps his leg when still,
The female rabbit has daintier eyes,
When the two run side by side,
Who can tell if I am male or female."

Note: I am doing the annoying "ten and two" thing because again rhythm? I feel like "twelve" just doesn't have the right ring to it. And I'm in a hurry.
Anyway, that's it. That's the whole ballad as it is in my head. I'm certain it's not 100% accurate.

But I thought it might be sort of fun to translate the version in my head, as I remember it, rather than from a printed text.

I end this ramble on emphasising how much this earliest version of Mulan differs from the version differs from the version that recurs in Chinese pop culture. It's striking how her warrior status is all about the horse and later the transformation is about armour. No swords.

Also note that she serves a Khan and not an emperor. She does also weave, something that forms the basis of a huge part of her character in later versions, I write more about her weaver aspects in this: https://medium.com/@nettlefish/warrior-and-weaver-the-many-legends-of-mulan-730ffa925b89?source=---------23------------------

I always go on abt Turkic Mulan in part because it was quite recently I realised that aspect, despite having the ballad literally in my head, it was one of the most wonderful, strange epiphanies to have because words/sounds that live in my head suddenly meant new, exciting things

OH GOD THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING I FORGOT A WHOLE VERSE I WILL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN

After she gets on the camel:

"My father and my mother hear of their daughter's return,
And go out to city to greet me.
My older sister hears of my return,
And clads herself in joyous red.
My little brother hears of my return,
And sharpens his knife against the pigs and goats."

Note: I love present tense, especially for old things that feel like they should be from long ago, I like the idea of trying to give an illusion of immediacy. It's happening NOW. So that's why I use it so much in my translations. It's not like literary chinese has tense.

Note: oh god, I'm so embarrassed. I loved the pigs and sheep line when I was a child. I cannot believe I forgot it completely. Note that sheep and goats are the same word. I went for goat on a whim.

Okay. Now I am done. For real.

Maybe the moral of the story is that mental libraries are not as good as one might think them to be? Such egg on my face.

This is more popular than I thought it would be, so assuming if you made it this far, yu might want more of me talking about Mulan, here is me again about horses: https://twitter.com/jeannette_ng/status/1149627371995062274?s=21