Prior to further translation and analysis, I thought it was some ordinary love song. Apparently, I think this is a requiem, with a lot of themes on missing a dead loved one.
青山温润方知临门雨意 The blue mountains gently realize the signs of approaching rain arriving at the door 小炉温入浓甜香气 The water furnace warms into a dense, sweet fragrance 炊烟借片檐瓦白墙挂起 The joyful smoke borrows a slice of verge tile to be hung up on the white wall 恍然云下曲水白溪 In a flash, beneath the clouds sings a white stream of water
赊三两相思红玉缀青衣 To credit three taels* [is] yearning with lovesickness for the woman servant* decorated in red jade (青衣 literally means “blue clothes” but in Classical Chinese it refers to a woman servant.) 糯香漫溢方寸院邸 The fragrance of a glutinous cereal overflows through several square inches* of the mansion courtyard (方寸 can also mean “heart and mind”, so it would be referring to the heart and mind of a high official.) 春湖吹皱满怀多情心意 The spring lake blows with wrinkles, full of tenderness and affection 斟开隆冬雪末 不曾停息 Pouring open the end of the midwinter snow, never stopping to rest.
曾几青山长堤 Ever since who knows how many blue mountains have risen 万般颜色都不敌 With every manifold of color, [it] can never beat 一味碎金稻米 落笔染醉意 Stubbornly, [even with] broken gold pieces and rice paddies, [I] the pen, washing [it] with broken feelings 舟前浓墨伞底 In front of the boat, at the bottom of a dark-ink umbrella 此身烟雨也漂离 Your figure falls away from the misty rain 刹那岁月何夕 云去无痕迹 Slaughtering those years and countless sunsets, with the clouds leaving without a trace
择几片明前龙芽方称意 Just when [I] satisfactorily selected a few slices of dragon shoots before All Souls’ Day* (明前 refers to “before Festival of Pure Brightness (清明节)”, the Chinese counterpart of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day or Day of the Dead.) 沏开热汤氤氲眸底 [And] infused boiling water to enshroud* the base of the pupils of my eyes (氤氲 can also mean generative forces of heaven and earth.) 不解柔肠百转如何别离 Not understanding how my numerously changing tender feelings* could never leave (柔肠 literally means “soft intestine or gut”, hence “tender feelings”.) 又是渡口寒烟 才知故里 Once again, it’s the winter mist crossing that I know that I am home
曾几青山长堤 Ever since who knows how many blue mountains have risen 万般颜色都不敌 With every manifold of color, [it] can never beat 一味碎金稻米 落笔染醉意 Stubbornly, [even with] broken gold pieces and rice paddies, [I] the pen, washing [it] with broken feelings 舟前浓墨伞底 In front of the boat, at the bottom of a dark-ink umbrella 此身烟雨也漂离 Your figure falls away from the misty rain 刹那岁月何夕 云去无痕迹 Slaughtering those years and countless sunsets, with the clouds leaving without a trace
白龙一点茶气 The white dragon lights up the scent of tea 思绪千字难提笔 [I] think of a thousand words, having difficulty to raise my pen 石巷青苔依稀 记四时痕迹 The stone-laded alley with moss is dimly visible, noting the vestiges of the four seasons 又起小炉新泥 Again, another small furnace is molded anew 烹透青艾圆糯米 Brewing thoroughly a blue mugwort rounded glutinous rice 一抔隆冬雪末 温热开雨季 Taking up the end of the midwinter snow in both hands, humidly opening the rainy season 执伞叩问 Grasping the umbrella, making inquiries 可否是归期 Can this be [your] date of return?
(糯米 can mean glutinous or sticky rice; but in this song, it seems to reference some sticky feelings.)
闻笛声 独惆怅 云深夜未央 Hearing the sound of the bamboo flute, [I’m] alone feeling melancholic, with the deep clouds and night unending. 是与非 都过往 醒来了 怎能当梦一场 Right and wrong have gone past; waking up, how could [I] treat it as a dream? 红尘中 毁誉得失如何去量 In this world of mortals[1], honor and defamation, successes and losses – how do we measure them? 萧萧血热刀锋凉 Drizzling and pattering blood is hot, [yet] the edge of the knife is cold. 山高水远 As high as the mountains and as far as the waters, 又闻琴响 I hear again the sound of the [your] strings[2] 陈情未绝 卧荻花月如霜 With the tune of the flute (these old feelings) [3] not yet severed, [I] lie down and capture the moon blossoming like frost 煮一壶生死悲欢 祭少年郎 明月依旧何来怅惘 Cooking a jar of life, death, sadness, and happiness as a memorial ceremony for [my] early youth, how could the bright moon be as distracted as before? 不如潇潇洒洒 历遍风和浪 Why [don’t I] naturally and unrestrainedly, experience all these winds and waves? 天涯一曲共悠扬 At the edge of the horizon, [our] melody jointly ensembles.
穿万水 过千山 路尽人茫茫 Crossing through ten thousand seas and going past thousands of mountains, at the end of the road [I see] people boundless and indistinct 是与非 都过往 醒来了 就当它梦一场 Right and wrong have gone past; waking up, how could [I] treat it as a dream? 红尘中 毁誉得失如何去量 In this world of mortals[1], honor and defamation, successes and losses – how do we measure them? 萧萧血热刀锋凉 Drizzling and pattering blood is hot, [yet] the edge of the knife is cold. 山高水远 As high as the mountains and as far as the waters, 又闻琴响 I hear again the sound of the [your] strings[2] 陈情未绝 笑世事多无常 With the tune of the flute (these old feelings) [3] not yet severed, [I] laugh at how the things of this world are ephemeral 煮一壶生死悲欢 祭少年郎 明月依旧何来怅惘 Cooking a jar of life, death, sadness, and happiness as a memorial ceremony for [my] early youth, how could the bright moon be as distracted as before? 不如坦坦荡荡 历遍风和浪 Why [don’t I] open-heartedly experience all these winds and waves? 天涯一曲共悠扬 At the edge of the horizon, [our] melody jointly ensembles.
煮一壶生死悲欢 祭少年郎 明月依旧何来怅惘 Cooking a jar of life, death, sadness, and happiness as a memorial ceremony for [my] early youth, how could the bright moon be as distracted as before? 不如坦坦荡荡 历遍风和浪 Why [don’t I] open-heartedly experience all these winds and waves? 天涯一曲共悠扬 At the edge of the horizon, [our] melody jointly ensembles. 天涯一曲共悠扬 At the edge of the horizon, [our] melody jointly ensembles.
Translation Notes: [1] 红尘 literally means “red dust” but usually refers to this “mortal world” especially in Buddhism. [2] Literally should be the Qin, a Chinese stringed musical instrument [3] 陈情 refers to the name of the flute held by WeiWuxian in the series The Untamed, but this can also mean “old feelings” or “to give a full account”.
This is a beautiful, florid yet melancholic song that is very jam-packed with meanings that are very deep and difficult to understand, because it is written in Classical Chinese style.
The white robe rippled over water, subdued grandeur of clouds overhead Tattered petals and light wine accompanied a moment’s clarity The Royal Dragon rode winds and went Good old dreams, vermillion glasses, and jade-green structures Turned into a burning wasteland [1]
八卦陣中迷途 香消命殞 三分晉 紅顏薄命
In going astray in the Eight-Trigram Battle Array [2], incense sticks were extinguished, and lives perished The Three Kingdoms unite into the Jin Dynasty [3], yet the beautiful women met their cruel fates [4]
狼煙烽火滿旗 赤壁幽窗冷雨 望不盡 禦龍順水而行 橫波水沒七軍 青子衿
Smoke signals [5] and fire beacons inundate the flags [I] cannot completely gaze through the cold rain covering the dark secluded window in the Red Cliff [6] The Royal Dragon went along the flow of water [And] the tide sank seven armies [7], leaving a blue collar [in memory]
誰將 浮名牽系 一品千金 英雄淚滿襟 癡心與誰寄 妾身無緣舊命
Who is this general who got hung on the vain promises of fame [8]? [Gaining these] first-rate thousand pieces of gold, while tears of [slain] heroes inundated collars? To whom do I offer these feelings of longing? Your servant [9] no longer has the opportunity [to live again] his past life.
折戟沈沙秋水溟 繁花落盡君辭去 青燈怨語一枕清霜冷如冰
Bent halberds sunk deep into the sand and seas of [your] beautiful and tranquil eyes [10] Blossoming flowers completely withering as you bade farewell – In the forlorn light [11], with wistful words rested on [12] as a clear frost, cold as ice
長阪坡上草木腥 滄江一夢鏡花影 馬蹄鈴 緗帙瓶 硝煙定 天命
On top of the long hillside slope, grasses and trees reeked blood and flesh [13] The deep blue river [remained as] a dream – a mirror of a shadow of flowers The ringing horse hooves, the bound books and scrolls [14], and the gunpowder smoke – all determined the Mandate of Heaven [15].
Classical Chinese is particularly difficult because:
1) It is extremely abbreviated. Modern vernacular Chinese commonly use two-character words (e.g. 害怕 / afraid), while in Classical Chinese, one-character words are preferred (e.g. 懼 / afraid). These have many other similar-sounding words (homophones) and are also rarely used in daily conversations.
2) Linking verbs, prepositions, conjunctions are never, if not rarely, used. They are almost always implied based on the context.
3) There is no clear distinction between nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Nouns can become verbs. Adjectives can become verbs.
4) Using a dictionary or translator is not enough. You have to read or sing the line or stanza, capture the essence, and see how the dictionary meaning is shaped into another meaning. This results in a lot of ambiguity. This happens especially in Chinese idioms, where you have to reconcile the story behind it and how it is used in the text or song.
Given these, I’d say that this song is the most difficult song I have ever translated. Notice how prepositions, linking verbs and conjunctions are absent in the sentence and how some nouns and adjectives end up as verbs.
Explanations
[1] 火連營 literally means “fire (火) connecting (連) camps (營)”, which references to 火燒連營 (“burning of the linked or connected camps”). During the Three Kingdoms Period, there was a time when the Wu (吳) Kingdom attacked the Shu (屬) Kingdom in The Battle of Xiaoting (猇亭之戰). Lu Xun (陸遜) ordered his army to carry straws and scatter them on the linked Shu camps then subsequently lighting them up, causing a massive fire. In the context of the previous line, it could mean that the grandeur was turned into a burning wasteland.
[2] 八卦陣 (Ba Gua Zhen) is the battle formation formulated by the Great Tactician Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) (and also his Noble Phantasm in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order) that destroyed entire armies. 香 (Xiang) here literally means “fragrant” but can also mean “incense”; hence, together with the next word 消 (Xiao) which means “to be extinguished” or “to disappear”.
[3] In 三分晉, 三 (San) literally means “three”, but it means “Three Kingdoms” in the context of the word 晉 (Jin), which by Chinese history is the Jin Dynasty, the united kingdom after the war of the three kingdoms.
[4] 紅顏薄命 literally means “red (紅) face (顏) fragile (薄) fate (命)”, but is an idiom that means “beautiful women suffer unhappy fates”. 紅顏 (Red Face) means a “beautiful face”. During the Three Kingdoms Period, there lived an exceedingly beautiful woman named Diao Chan (貂蟬). She had an affair with Lu Bu (呂布), the most powerful warrior at that time. In the end of the Three Kingdoms Period, when Cao Cao (曹操) of the Northern Wei Kingdom (魏) eventually ruled the rest of China, Lu Bu and Diao Chan were executed.
[5] 狼煙 (Lang Yan) literally means “wolf (狼) smoke (煙)”, which refers to the smoke formed by burning wolves’ dung burnt at the border posts to signal alarm indicating the presence of hostile forces.
[6] 赤壁之戰 [The Battle (戰) of Red (赤) Cliff (壁)] is one of the most famous battles in the history of the Three Kingdoms Period. In this battle, Zhuge Liang summoned the Eastern Wind, causing the fireships to ram into the chain of ships where the Wei Army stands, thus causing a massive fire, decimating almost the entire army.
[7] 水沒七軍 refers to the Battle of Fancheng (樊城之戰) in the Three Kingdoms Period. During that battle, heavy rains caused the Han River to flood, thus decimating the seven armies led by Yujin (于禁) and Pangde (龐德) and causing the remaining soldiers to be stranded. The remaining armies were destroyed by the naval army sent by Guan Yu (關於).
[8] 浮名牽系 literally means “to link (牽系) with a superficial (浮) name/reputation (名)”, which means to get hung on the vain promises of fame.
[9] 妾身 is a first-person humble pronoun that depreciates the self in addressing a higher-ranking official. In this context, the first-person here is most likely a soldier who lost his life during the battle where the general won, expressing his frustration over the general who in the end was rewarded at the expense of so many lives.
[10] 秋水溟 literally means “autumn waters and seas”, which is traditionally a description of a beautiful woman’s eyes. In the context of this song, the solider (persona) is talking to his love who was killed in war.
[11] 青燈 literally means “green light” or “blue light”, but in this context refers to a forlorn, melancholic light.
[12] 枕 literally means “pillow”, but in here, it functions as a verb which means “to rest on”, i.e. to rest your head on a pillow or some other surface as you sleep or die.
[13] 腥 literally means the smell of raw meat or fish, but in this context it becomes a verb, meaning “reeking of blood and flesh”.
[14] 緗帙瓶 refers to the cylindrical flask that carries a silk-yellow scroll or banner where words are inscribed. These are usually carried by knights and general during battles.
[15] This paints the carnage in a battlefield. 天命 is a common theme in the Dynastic Cycle, which means Heaven’s (天) Mandate (命). The Royal Dragon in the song may as well as symbolize this “Will of Heaven”.
Recently, a circulating “viral” blog post about Hokkien being the “sole surviving language of the Tang Dynasty” was brought to my attention, and my two linguist friends, Dave and Marvin refuted the claims of that post using these two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) of an essay that clarifies all the exaggerated claims made by the former article.
Consequently, I decided to briefly examine the Sino-Tibetan Language Family shown in Chinese Wikipedia pages (as they are more detailed).
Afterwards, I briefly examined the citations annotated and decided to make an abridged version of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family Tree, consisting of the languages of interest:
To quote the commentary of my linguist friend Dave regarding the former article:
The varieties of Chinese are actually languages (because they are not mutually intelligible). They have been compared to the Romance languages (which have been descended from Latin, such as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Romanian and French). It would be like claiming that Italian and Sardinian are the sole surviving languages of the Roman Empire.
Hokkien (Min Nan) is a language that first broke apart from Old Chinese (which is why it has certain archaic features), while the others broke way from Middle Chinese. (On the other hand, calling Min Nan Hokkien kind of disregards the other Min languages, such as Min Dong, etc. Min varieties have been called “dialects”, but they are actually mutually unintelligible languages. It’s similar to how the languages of Italy have been called “dialects.”)
Like most Sinitic or Chinese languages, Min Nan isn’t pure because there are many Baiyue and Southeast Asian influences (similar to how Mandarin has been heavily influenced by Tungusic languages, such as Manchu). The people of Fujian are descended from the northern Han that intermarried with Southeast Asians. (Italians and Spaniards also have some Arab DNA and Arabic languages have influenced their languages). There have been reconstructions of Old Chinese and Middle Chinese languages. Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese borrowed several words due to contact with several Han peoples (similar to how English has many loanwords from Latin because of the French).
This should hopefully clear out misconceptions on the exaggerated claims of the former article. Although, I think if one has good knowledge of Minnan / Southern Hokkien language, learning Japanese and Korean will be easier and intuitive because there are many similarities between these languages.
This is one of the most hard-rock-emo Chinese songs I’ve ever translated. It’s also pretty jam-packed with idioms. Because some idioms use a lot of imagery, I decided to keep some of the transliteration of idioms, and put their implied meaning on the footnotes.
张惠妹 – 血腥爱情故事
Zhang Huimei – A Bloody Love Story
作词：Hush
作曲：Jonnic
编曲：陈君豪/梁思桦
你尝过的那些甜头 都是寂寞的果实
The sweetness that you have tasted – are all the fruits of [your] loneliness
那是活生生从心头里 割下的我
It’s [a piece of] ‘me’ that you morbidly[9] severed from my heart
一块肉像一个赠品 从来都不假思索
A piece of meat as a complimentary gift – always [giving it] without even pretending to [re]consider
你锐利 我就腥风血雨 洋洋洒洒当个写手
You are keen and sharp, so I go on making the wind foul and the rain bloody[1], so voluminously and flowingly[2] that I become a [magnificent] writer
就让我紧跟着你起承转合
So let me follow [you] step by step in writing[3] the introduction, the theme, the transition, and the summary
让我为你写一本恐怖小说
Let me write for you a horror novel
谁可疑 谁可怜 谁无辜 谁苟活
Whoever is suspicious, whoever is pitiful, whoever is innocent, whoever lives in degradation –
我已经看到最后结果
I have already seen the final ending.
就让我来代替你承先启后
So let me replace you in inheriting the past and ushering the future[4] –
刻骨铭心像一本情爱小说
Being engraved on your bones and your heart[5], like a romance novel
越血流 越手酸 心越空 肉越痛
Exceeding the flow of blood, exceeding the hand that is sore, the more the heart aches, and the more the muscle aches
千刀万剐的感情才生动
Love* that is slashed ten thousand times by one thousand knives[6] is finally becoming alive
*感情 would normally mean “feelings”, but “love” would be more appropriate in this case.
不要还给我 不要还给我
Don’t return it to me; don’t return it to me
你尝过的那些甜头 都是寂寞的果实
The sweetness that you have tasted – are all the fruits of [your] loneliness
那是活生生从心头里 割下的我
It’s [a piece of] ‘me’ that you morbidly* severed from my heart
一块肉像一个赠品 从来都不假思索
A piece of meat as a complimentary gift – always [giving it] without even pretending to [re]consider
你锐利 我就腥风血雨 洋洋洒洒当个写手
You are keen and sharp, so I go on making the wind foul and the rain bloody[1], so voluminously and flowingly[2] that I become a [magnificent] writer
就让我紧跟着你起承转合
So let me follow [you] step by step in writing[3] the introduction, the theme, the transition, and the summary
让我为你写一本恐怖小说
Let me write for you a horror novel
谁可疑 谁可怜 谁无辜 谁苟活
Whoever is suspicious, whoever is pitiful, whoever is innocent, whoever whoever lives in degradation –
我已经看到最后结果
I have already seen the final ending.
就让我来代替你承先启后
So let me replace you in inheriting the past and ushering the future[4] –
刻骨铭心像一本情爱小说
Being engraved on your bones and your heart[5], like a romance novel
越血流 越手酸 心越空 肉越痛
Exceeding the flow of blood, exceeding the hand that is sore, the more the heart aches, and the more the muscle aches
千刀万剐的感情才生动
Love* that is slashed ten thousand times by one thousand knives[6] is finally becoming alive
不要还给我 不要还给我
Don’t return it to me; don’t return it to me
再去捉摸 都太迟了
To go and make sense[10] of it again – all of this is too late already
手心肉的牵连早已没有用了
Holding together [each other’s] hands[11] has long since been useless
眼看失去灵魂的空壳 魂不附体的两个人
Helplessly watching the empty shell losing its spirit – [leaving] nothing but the two persons who are the separated body and soul[7]*
再去着墨 都太多了
To go and apply ink on paper again – all of this is too much already
再浓烈的故事都算太俗气了
To make this story even heavier is already too vulgar
写到哪里能刚好就好
Until where would be the most impeccable to write
才能看得要死要活
So that the story can desperately threaten to commit suicide[8]
爱也要死要活
Love must threaten to commit suicide[8]
就让我紧跟着你起承转合
So let me follow [you] step by step in writing[3] the introduction, the theme, the transition, and the summary
让我为你写一本恐怖小说
Let me write for you a horror novel
谁可疑 谁可怜 谁无辜 谁苟活
Whoever is suspicious, whoever is pitiful, whoever is innocent, whoever whoever lives in degradation –
我已经看到最后结果
I have already seen the final ending.
就让我来代替你承先启后
So let me replace you in inheriting the past and ushering the future[4] –
刻骨铭心像一本情爱小说
Being engraved on your bones and your heart[5], like a romance novel
越血流 越手酸 心越空 肉越痛
Exceeding the flow of blood, exceeding the hand that is sore, the more the heart aches, and the more the muscle aches
千刀万剐的感情才生动
Love* that is slashed ten thousand times by one thousand knives[6] is finally becoming alive
不要还给我 不要还给我
Don’t return it to me; don’t return it to me
[1] 腥风血雨 literally means “foul wind and rain of blood”, which refers to a “reign of terror” and “to go on a carnage”.
[2] 洋洋洒洒 literally means “voluminous” or “flowing”, which describes a magnificent amount of writing.
[3] 起承转合 is an idiom that refers to the four steps in writing or composing an essay – introduction (起), elucidation of the theme (承), transition to another viewpoint (转), and summarizing (合).
[4] 承先启后 is an idiom that literally means “to inherit the past and usher in the future”, which means to serve as a link between the past and the future.
[5] 刻骨铭心 is an idiom that literally means “to be engraved on your bones and heart”, which means to leave an indelible impression; to be unforgettable
[6] 千刀万剐 is an idiom that literally means “a thousand knives slashing ten thousand times”, which means “to be hacked, to be pulverized, to make a mincemeat of”
[7] 魂不附体 literally means “soul that cannot merge with the body”, which means “separated body and soul”
[8] 要死要活 literally means “want to die, want to live”, which means to “threaten to commit suicide”.
[9] 活生生 literally means “very alive”, but in this context shows morbid or ruthless cutting and severing a piece from a whole.
[10] 捉摸 literally means to “to grasp”, but in this case, it means “to make sense of”.
[11] 手心肉 literally means “palm muscles”.
I would consider this to be the most sensual Chinese song I’ve ever translated.
西瓜JUN – 易燃易爆炸 (特別版)
Mr. Watermelon* – To Easily Burn, To Easily Explode** (Rearrangement)
*JUN refers to the pinyin of the Chinese word 君, which is equivalent to the “-kun” in Japanese Kanji. It is used to address males (Mr.).
**This illustrates the volatility and instability of the singer’s feelings.
翻唱：西瓜JUN
原唱：陳粒
作詞：尚夢迪/駢然
作曲：陳粒
盼我瘋魔還盼我孑孓不獨活
Expecting me to be insane, and also expecting me to be not only to live as a wriggler –
想我冷艷還想我輕佻又下賤
Wanting me to be beautiful yet cold, and also wanting me to be giddy yet lowly –
要我陽光還要我風情不搖晃
Wanting me to be cheerful*, and also wanting my feelings and emotions to not sway –
戲我哭笑無主還戲我心如枯木
Playing with my laughters and tears without control, and also playing with my heart like a dead tree –
*Literally translates to “sunshine”
賜我夢境還賜我很快就清醒
Giving me a dreamland, and also waking me up clear-headed very fast –
與我沉睡還與我蹉跎無慈悲
Slumbering together with me, and also mercilessly wasting time with me –
愛我純粹還愛我赤裸不糜頹
Loving me so purely, and also loving me so nakedly, with no rot nor ruin –
看我自彈自唱還看我痛心斷腸
Watching me play and sing by myself, and also looking at me grieving and heartbroken –
願我如煙還願我曼麗又懶倦
Wishing me to be like the smoke, and also wishing me to be graceful and beautiful yet languid and weary –
看我痴狂還看我風趣又端莊
Looking at me being obssessed, and also looking at me being charming and dignified –
要我美艷還要我殺人不眨眼
Wanting me to be beautiful and amorous, and also wanting me to kill people without even blinking my eye –
祝我從此幸福還祝我枯萎不渡
Hoping me to be happy* from now on, and also hoping me to wither and never survive** –
*Could also mean fortunate, lucky
**Literally means “to never tide through a problem, cross over an ordeal”, which means to die or perish, and never survive through problems
為我撩人還為我雙眸失神
Teasing other people for me, and also being absent-minded for my both eyes –
圖我情真還圖我眼波銷魂
Drawing true love for me, and also drawing ecstasy for my glances –
與我私奔還與我做不二臣
Eloping with me, and also not being my second servant*** –
誇我含苞待放還誇我欲蓋彌彰
Praising me that I am ready to break into blossom*, and also praising me that I am just trying to hide it only to make it more exposed**
*含苞待放 is an idiom that literally means “a bud just ready to burst”.
**欲蓋彌彰 is an idiom that literally means “the more one tries to hide, the more is exposed”
***做不二臣 is an idiom that literally means “to be an official like none other”, which means to be extremely loyal
請我迷人還請我艷情透滲
Inviting me to be enchanted, and also inviting me to be permeated with eros –
似我盛放還似我缺氧乖張
Just like me containing [myself], and just like me being perverse* and lacking in oxygen** –
由我美麗還由我貪戀著迷
Through my beauty, and also through my indulgence of love and fascination –
怨我百歲無憂還怨我徒有淚流
Resenting my hundreds of years free from all anxiety, and also resenting me only having but tears to flow.
*乖張 literally means to have an odd, perverse, and eccentric behavior
**Or panting for oxygen
ReLIFE is a manga that describes key issues in Japanese work culture and elaborates on themes such as motivation in life, friendship, and love. Going through the journey in this manga is best described as literally having a “Re-LIFE”, meaning, getting to live life again in such a way that is not mundane nor monotonous – in such a way that one will not have any regrets.
The context involves a 28-year old Kaizaki Arata being a NEET (ニート, which in Japan is an old unemployed person), taking in a magical pill that allows him to appear as a high school student and live through the high school life again.
Meanwhile, here are some quotable quotes (some might hint to spoilers):
“You’re completely worthless, but do your best nonetheless!” – Kaizaki Arata (ReLIFE)
“But fireworks also make me a little sad. They’re flashy, beautiful, and draw me in for a while. But then comes the time they disappear and it makes me feel lonely. It just makes me remember things are beautiful but only for a fleeting moment.” – Kaizaki Arata (ReLIFE)
“Seeing two young people being so cute together hurts.” – Kaizaki Arata (ReLIFE)
“You can really feel proud of what you’ve accomplished when you work together with everyone towards the same goal.” – Kaizaki Arata (ReLIFE)
“School isn’t just about studying. It’s also a place where one can learn all the various skills necessary to live in a society.” – Kaizaki Arata (ReLIFE)
“When you’re at a low moment in your life and you still have to interact with your surroundings, it’s quite tiresome, isn’t it? You’re having such a rough time and yet everyone else seems to be having fun. Since they look like they’re having fun, you don’t want to ruin it by crying or saying something sad by mistake. Even though it’s not their fault if we’re in different situations, you can’t help but be angry. You unintentionally become jealous of them, and when you realize it, you feel pathetic. Then you worry how pathetic you are and want to redeem yourself, but then you gradually end up distancing yourself from everyone and wind up alone. Then once you’re alone and can’t reach out to those who were around you, you realize you should have said these simple words back then. You can’t help but think you would like to have someone to complain to and discuss your troubles with. In the end, you just want to be saved by someone.” – Onoya-san (ReLIFE)
“I think it takes a lot of courage to ask somebody for help.” – Yoake-san (ReLIFE)
“If you’re worrying about issues from your home, where the situation is different from everyone else’s, and after this is resolved, you would still like everyone to continue acting the same way as before. In that case, wouldn’t you try to protect your pride by hiding your problems from your friends, in order to avoid this awkward position?” – Yoake-san (ReLIFE)
“Being lovesick can be quite a painful sentiment.” – Hishiron (ReLIFE)
“Up until now, I had to go to a good high school if I wanted to go to a good university. I had to go to a good university if I wanted a good job. That’s what I used to think. But I’ve started to think that life isn’t quite that simple. That being said, while you’re allowed to be anxious about the future. Please don’t be too pessimistic about it. I understand how worried you are right now, but there will never be a point of no return. There will always be opportunities in the future to receive help from others. After all, the world is a vast place. I’m sure there will always be a path for someone to take, but sometimes people focus too much on the negative and waste all those precious opportunities. If at some point in life, you make a mistake or keep failing over and over again, and you can’t help but think it’s useless and you’re a good-for-nothing, remember, you’re only taking a detour, and I’m sure further along the path will come a day where you’ll think, “It was a good life experience.”” – Hishiron (ReLIFE)
“The more I become interested and conscious of you the more confused I become. It’s like I become someone other than myself.” – Hishiron (ReLIFE)
“Even though this happiness is just a dream, even though I will disappear like a dream, I’m sure I wont regret walking down this path.” – Hishiron and Kaizaki (ReLIFE)
I tried comparing the difficulty level as one studies Chinese, Korean, and Japanese (relative to English with Chinese exposure*), and came up with this graph. I asked the opinion of some people, made some fixes, and here is the result.
Korean is hard at first because of relatively difficult pronunciation, but gets really easy in the long run because Hangul is really easy to read (unlike Kanji and Chinese characters). In fact, the small spike of difficulty in Korean is because of idioms based on Chinese idioms.
Japanese is easy to pronounce, but hard because of its very unique grammar structure and Kanji characters. However the difficulty plateaus in the long run even with some slight increase in difficulty due to idioms based on Chinese idioms. You need to have a good grasp of all forms of sentence patterns to be functional in Japan.
Chinese is hard to pronounce at first, but gets easy because of relatively simple grammar structure similar to English. However, the difficulty abruptly spikes upward and goes way, way beyond Japanese because of Chinese idioms, Classical Chinese. There is the demand of knowing a lot of Chinese characters with multiple pronunciations in different contexts. On idioms, you need to know the historical context, modern context, etc.
This book argues that everything about humans has always been due to COOKING – that the progression from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, the intelligence brought about by increased brain size, social norms, sexuality/sex culture and gender roles, are all due to COOKING. It invokes perspectives from human physiology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology.
“Cooking increased the value of our food. It changed our bodies, our brains, our use of time, and our social lives. It made us into consumers of external energy and thereby created an organism with a new relationship to nature, dependent on fuel.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“My definition of Man is, a ‘Cooking Animal’. The beasts have memory, judgement, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. . . . Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats.” – James Bosswell (Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson)
“In 2006 nine volunteers with dangerously high blood pressure spent twelve days eating like apes in an experiment filmed by the British Broadcasting Corporation. They lived in a tented enclosure in England’s Paignton Zoo and ate almost everything raw. Their diet included peppers, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, grapes, dates, walnuts, bananas, peaches, and so on—more than fifty kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. […] The aim of the volunteers was to improve their health, and they succeeded. By the end of the experiment their cholesterol levels had fallen by almost a quarter and average blood pressure was down to normal. But while medical hopes were met, an extra result had not been anticipated. The volunteers lost a lot of weight—an average of 4.4 kg (9.7 pounds) each, or 0.37 kg (0.8 pounds) per day.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“The average weight loss when shifting from a cooked to a raw diet was 26.5 pounds (12 kilograms) for women and 21.8 pounds (9.9 kilograms) for men. Among those eating a purely raw diet (31 percent), the body weights of almost a third indicated chronic energy deficiency. The scientists’ conclusion was unambiguous: “a strict raw food diet cannot guarantee an adequate energy supply.”” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“The spontaneous benefits of cooked food explain why domesticated pets easily become fat: their food is cooked, such as the commercially produced kibbles, pellets, and nuggets given to dogs and cats.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“Cooking consistently increases the glycemic index of starchy foods.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“While some foods are naturally tender, meat is variable. Meat with smaller muscle fibers is more tender, so chicken is more tender than beef. An animal slaughtered without being stressed retains more glycogen in its muscles. After death the glycogen converts to lactic acid, which promotes denaturation and therefore a more tender meat. Carcasses that are left to hang for several days are more tender, because proteins are partly broken down by enzymes.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“If cooking softens food and softer food leads to greater energy gain, then humans should get more energy from cooked food than raw food not only because of processes such as gelatinization and denaturation, but also because it reduces the costs of digestion.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“In 1995 Leslie Aiello and Peter Wheeler proposed that the reason some animals have evolved big brains is that they have small guts, and small guts are made possible by a high-quality diet. Aiello and Wheeler’s head-spinning idea came from the realization that brains are exceptionally greedy for glucose—in other words, for energy. For an inactive person, every fifth meal is eaten solely to power the brain. Literally, our brains use around 20 percent of our basal metabolic rate—our energy budget when we are resting—even though they make up only about 2.5 percent of our body weight.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“Although the breakthrough of using fire at all would have been the biggest culinary leap, the subsequent discovery of better ways to prepare the food would have led to continual increases in digestive efficiency, leaving more energy for brain growth. The improvements would have been especially important for brain growth after birth, since easily digested weaning foods would have been critical contributors to a child’s energy supply.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“Cooking was a great discovery not merely because it gave us better food, or even because it made us physically human. It did something even more important: it helped make our brains uniquely large, providing a dull human body with a brilliant human mind.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“Take softness. Foods soften when they are cooked, and as a result, cooked food can be eaten more quickly than raw food. Reliance on cooked food has therefore allowed our species to thoroughly restructure the working day. Instead of chewing for half of their time, as great apes tend to do, women in subsistence societies tend to spend the active part of their days collecting and preparing food. Men, liberated from the simple biological demands of a long day’s commitment to chewing raw food, engage in productive or unproductive labor as they wish. In fact, I believe that cooking has made possible one of the most distinctive features of human society: the modern form of the sexual division of labor.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
“The idea that cooking led to our pair-bonds suggests a worldwide irony. Cooking brought huge nutritional benefits. But for women, the adoption of cooking has also led to a major increase in their vulnerability to male authority. Men were the greater beneficiaries. Cooking freed women’s time and fed their children, but it also trapped women into a newly subservient role enforced by male-dominated culture. Cooking created and perpetuated a novel system of male cultural superiority. It is not a pretty picture.” – Richard Wrangham (Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human)
Sumo (すもう/相撲) is actually composed of 相, which means “together” or “each other”, and 撲, which means “to pounce on”. This makes sense as two sumo wrestlers pounce upon each other.
Judo (じゅうどう/柔道) is actually composed of 柔, which means “gentle” or “soft”, and 道, which means “the way” or “teachings”. This would literally translate to “The Way of Gentleness”. This makes sense with its gentle fighting style which gently uses the opponent’s strength against himself or herself.
Kendo (けんどう/剣道) is actually composed of 剣, which means “sword” and 道 which also means “the way” or “teachings”. This would be transliterated to “The Way of the Sword”. This makes sense as swords (although wooden) are used here.
Taekwondo (태권도/跆拳道) is actually composed of 跆, which means “to kick”, 拳, which means “fist” (equivalent to Tekken in Japanese), and 道 which also means “the way” or “teachings”. It literally means “The Way of the Fist and Kicking”.
Wushu (武術) is actually composed of 武, which means “military”, and 術, which means “art”. This literally translates to “Military Arts”.
Kung-Fu (功夫) is actually composed of 功, which means “success”, and 夫, which in this context means “worker”. This literally translates to “Successful Worker”.
Taichi (太極拳) is composed of 太極, which is the representation of the “supreme”, the “ultimate”, the “absolute” or the “infinity” when the Yin and Yang come as one, and 拳, which means fist. It literally translates to “Ultimate/Supreme/Infinity/Absolute Fist”.
Incognito 