The Untamed As Text Posts (80/?) Mad Scientists Edition

Un unexpected crossover:

Also remember when the WWX nendoroid was announced and everyone made the joke that LWJ would buy all of them?  Well it wasn’t that much of a headcanon:

Wei Wuxian | Ep. 11

for @/the-lady-of-the-blue

!!!!!!! Now, can anybody tell me about the quality of the translation before I buy copies for all my friends?

Being both aviation-adjacent and LOTR-adjacent, I feel the necessity of reblogging.

I’m rereading 杀破狼 by Priest (Sha Po Lang) (“Stars of Chaos”). It took me forever to read it the first time, but I don’t really want to leave this universe, so….

I love how in the first 5 chapters, Priest perfectly conveys how Chang Geng is terribly in love with Shen Shiliu, completely against his own better judgement. Chang Geng is just entering adolescence and is having his usual nightmares, but now some of them are wet dreams, and he just doesn’t know what to do about all these feelings and Shiliu is not making it easy on him.

Shiliu is blind and deaf (or pretending to be) and lazy (not pretending there) and constantly trying to distract Chang Geng from his studies. He’s always calling Chang Geng over to play and waste time. He’s always throwing his arms around Chang Geng and giving him childish presents. He’s infuriating! And so, so handsome.

But Chang Geng is already building his life around Shen Shiliu. He has to become smart so that he can earn enough money to support Shiliu. He has to become strong so that he can protect poor blind, deaf Shiliu. He will be a good godson and take care of godfather, Yes.

Chang Geng is frustrated and confused out of his mind, and Shiliu keeps grabbing him as if one of them were a child!, but, even at this tender age, he knows who he wants to be with. Even if that person makes him mad in every sense of the word.

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 3, pages 63 - 87

Another ten pages of notes!

Like I've posted before, Priest has more plot than I have reading comprehension, but, after a few rereads, I think I know what's going on.

In case you are in my same boat but you can't read my handwriting: Fu Zhicheng was originally a bandit, so the emperor at the time (the previous one) was worried (with good cause); but Fu Zhicheng was still given command because there was no other option at the time -- no one else was strong enough to hold the area.

土地公. Soil God. Local god.

I learn all my Chinese Mythology and Religion via trying to understand Priest novels.

静虚 Silent Empty. It's a very good name for a Daoist monk.

穿一条裤子 Wear one pair of pants. Isn't that super evocative? :)

And yet another place where I feel that the original paragraph break would have been very helpful for reader comprehension.

"Consolatory" = to console him on the loss of his mother.

It's the same poem referenced on page 54.

In the version I first read, the implication was that the wooden bird was there the entire time, and you only noticed it as it was flying away.

望穿秋水 look, penetrate, autumn water ( autumn water = "trad. description of girl's beautiful eyes" according to mdbg.net).

Nice way to describe looking at/for something really intently, yah?

Yet another sentence that was not in the (pirated) online version that I read. It doesn't really matter, I know, but I lived in that book for a year, so, well. It wasn't there before.

Another possibly different version, plus different ways to translate 冷笑 (if that is what was in the newer edit given to the translators).

In the version I read, there is no mention of facial expressions; Chang Geng just acts.

If Priest added a 冷笑 (I think that phrase has been used with Chang Geng before), then I would translate that as a Bitter Smile or a Cold Smile rather than as a sneer, since, in my head, only yucky villains sneer, and Chang Geng is a super elegant handsome symmetrical graceful mastermind who sadly but frequently lifts the corners of his mouth without any warmth reaching his eyes.

绊马索 trip horse rope.

Top:

男鬼 male ghost/monster/zombie (some type of supernatural being, derogatory)

...pulverizing the double layer of iron. Those mech-suits are Thick.

Bottom:

远在天边，近在眼前。 Far as the side of the sky, close as in front of the eyes. <3

And that's another ten! Just 44 more to go... :)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

Zhou Shen did another photoshoot for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival performance. It’s one of his Serious Photoshoots.

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4812237040521729

And always the huge white sneakers.

青 is a great color! It can mean anything you want it to mean! 😝

Speaking of “Qing”, I highly recommended “Why isn’t the sky blue” by Radiolab. You can also read the Transcript, if you prefer.

青, or the most confusing colour word in old Chinese ever.

This is because while there is a modern distinction between 綠 green and 藍 blue, in the past we had 青 / qing for ‘nature’s colour’. In any old text (and old words still used) it could mean, depending on context:

blue

youthful / young

pale yellow.

green / verdant

the band of colour just above blue in the rainbow (紅橙黃綠青藍紫, which puts 青 in between green and blue）if you’re a kid but when you get to form 1, you get that the rainbow is actually 紅橙黃綠藍靛紫, so the blue-green we thought was blue green is now blue.

The blue of blue white porcelain (青花瓷）

clear sky blue - 青天.

indigo blue (青出於藍而勝於藍 / qing comes out of the indigo plant and yet it is more vibrant than indigo)

black.

Also, 青衫 may read “green clothes,” but together and describing historical / mythical figures it just means “scholar’s robes,” where the word 青 means ‘young’ and the robes could be any colour. It describes the style, not the colour.

A line from Peach Blossom Debt: 青衫公子站起身，本仙君驚且喜，恍若東風拂過，三千桃樹，花開爛漫。 The young noble clad in scholar’s robes stands, and this immortal one is pleasantly surprised, as though the east wind chanced by and every brilliant flower on three thousand peach trees blossom.

So, a very important question — what colour are Kunlun’s robes? Chapter 68:

Keep reading

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4812237040521729#&gid=1&pid=6

Zhou Shen’s new photo shoot from the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival performance. 😍🥰

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

I also just read Sha Po Lang! Those weapons and flying ships and wings have been in my head for months now - it’s lovely to see what they look like (according to idledee, which is gospel enough for me).

ive been reading sha po lang!