A thread of Lil's CQL/MDZS translation notes!

*Translation is a slippery art, so these are not objective facts. These are literary interpretations.
*I do not work as a translator. I come bearing my 10 years of Chinese school & my training in literary analysis.

The last line of the MDZS novel! I usually see: "From then on, he could never move his eyes away again." I LOVE fan translators & appreciate this, but it's a bit too literal and mechanical for me.

There is a poetry in the lines I want to share: https://twitter.com/flowerofgusu/status/1276975767478431745?s=20

Part of my diverging translation of the last line is that the center of Wangxian is their autonomy--they both choose each other & construct a relationship that is all their own. I take issue with "could never" for that reason. "Move his eyes away" reads as perfunctory for me.

The detail of lotus roots in MDZS and its significance (particularly drawing from CQL scenes). Lotus roots have a poetic resonance in Chinese https://twitter.com/flowerofgusu/status/1217903257781075968?s=20

Wangxian.mp3 chorus pick-up from the Audio Drama: https://twitter.com/flowerofgusu/status/1235728913583804416?s=20

The valences of "Suibian": https://twitter.com/flowerofgusu/status/1272616808214740992?s=20

Netflix translates "这孩子...我生的" to "This child is my son" which is not WRONG post-resurrection (but A-Yuan's refugee family is still alive at this point...) & what WWX is actually saying is "This child...I gave birth to!" WWX is being an intentional gremlin.

He hasn't seen LWJ in a while and he is more than aware of their change in positions now--politically, financially, socially--so fooling around is one of the ways in which he knows he can establish intimacy with LWJ.

When LWJ calls WWX "无聊" Wúliáo, the usual translation is that he's calling him "boring." But 无聊 also means, perhaps more accurately in this context, "bored". LWJ is saying that WWX is idle--has nothing better to do than to act like silly.

An explanation of "Childe" in the WeTV subs: "Childe" is British Victorian literature trope of a medieval young nobleman or apprentice knight. The choice of this translation is HIGHLY literary & esoteric. I prefer the translation "Young Master," which is less confusing to most.

I’ve been seeing a lot of “Aiyo” and “Ayyo” in fics, which is super fine in terms of stylization! But proper pinyin would be “Aiyou” in case anyone wants to know

Contrary to the Netflix subtitles, WWX would never call JYL "Yanli." This would be outright rude of him to do. In modern AU fics, however, he would probably call her "Yanli Jiejie" or some equivalent of that (depending on the backstory). Even "Jie" would likely be too intimate.