I’m Annotating The Official Translation Of MDZS Before I Lend It Out To Non-Chinese Friends, And As

The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume FOUR 四

So, again, the translators Rynn and Jun have amazed me with their prowess. I have all of three notes for this entire volume, and two are just extra cultural background for kids who didn’t grow up in Chinese culture.

So, yah - Chu Wanning put this hand in the window frame, then he heard a crack sound, and then he realized that he had broken the window frame. Oops.

If you grow up around Chinese people, you might hear them talking about some foods being too cold or others being too hot, but they’re not talking about temperature, they’re talking about the effect of the food on the body.

And once you’ve lost your internal health-balance and are experiencing the negative effects of being too “hot,” you explain away your weird symptoms of not sleeping well, sore throat, acne, etc as being the result of eating too many chili peppers or chocolate muffins the day before.

It’s strange, but it all makes sense. Just eat your chocolate muffins in moderation.

If you watch enough period dramas, you see a lot of saluting, often but not always accompanied by a bend at the waist.

And in case you didn’t remember: -xiong means “brother.” Polite way to address a man of roughly even status.

So you saw the trailer and thought you come to The Lost Tomb Reboot to see them raiding tombs, fighting ghosts, killing monsters, exploding this exploding that...

Turns out you see two 40-ish dudes talking nonsense, waving fake lightsabers in a tomb (yeah, in a tomb, no less) 🙄 And in later episodes they’re gonna dance tango, sing karaoke and hula hoop, also in a tomb...

I’m sorry not sorry I set all the wrong expectation...

[Okay I’m kidding, they actually do raid tombs, kill monsters, explode things. But it isn’t my fault our main characters happen to be idiots... ( ･ᴗ･̥̥̥ )]

how lan xichen says lan zhan’s name: ʷᵃⁿᵍʲⁱ

how wei wuxian says lan zhan’s name: 𝙇𝘼𝙉 𝙕𝙃𝘼𝙉

how lan zhan says wei wuxian’s name: 𝔀𝓮𝓲 𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰

how jiang cheng says wei wuxian’s name: ẅ̷̛͚͔̟͓̜̯̮̹̞̊̌̏̍́̏̐e̴̢̜͎͚̝̘̿͛͒̔̏̈́͑̏̊͜i̴̩͎͓͒̐̔̍͌̀͌͝ ̸̘̳̀̈̈́w̶̧̻͑̅͂̇ù̸̡̝͖̤̙̯͍̾̂̈́͜ẋ̴̢̡̛̰̥̳̱̯̠͕̀i̶̺̟̒̊̕à̶̛̗͓̋̑̏̿̃͗͌n̴͙͇͍̯̂̕

MDZS Vol 5 Annotations 5

Part 5 of 6, pages 343 - 375

Helllo again! I love these Extras.

Here are a few places where I got tripped up in my reading — all minor adjustments to vocabulary or word order or dumb clarification for my sake because something felt ambiguous in English:

They’re just melting it.

More under the cut.

Not that you need to learn more Chinese time-system / ordinal-ranking stuff, but here it is if you’re interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Stems

When I first read “bodies strewn across the ground” I freaked out thinking that I had somehow missed a MDZS Extra about some terrible massacre; then I realized that in Chinese, there is a nice distinction between flesh bodies that are probably living, 肉体, and corpses 尸体; whereas in English it’s all just “bodies.” 🙁

MDZS Masterlist.

All the Books I'm Annotating Masterlist.

I have some Nordic heritage and this hit me right between the smile and the tears.

I drew a little something for the Hiveworks micro comic summer~

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Hiveworks Comics

It's time! Today is the day. Share the comic you've been working on all summer with the tag #MicroComicSummer

“I named this cat Lan Zhan. Why? Because...whenever I say to him ‘Lan Zhan, it’s haishi*.’”

*haishi (亥时) - between 9pm and 11pm

(douyin)

Yet more reasons for Why I Love Chang Geng

(even if he is a possibly-evil genius and love-crazed lunatic)

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 ch 43:

When asked why he was hanging out everywhere but at the capital for the past 4 years, Chang Geng replies

“我……我想看一看，”长庚道，“了然大师以前跟我说过，心有天地，山大的烦恼也不过一隅，山川河海，众生万物，经常看一看别人，低下头也就能看见自己。

“I….wanted to see,” Chang Geng said, “Teacher Liao Ran had told me before, the heart encompasses the sky and the land; even a mountain-sized worry can only occupy one small corner. Mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans; millions of living creatures; often, through looking at other people you can look down and see yourself.

没经手照料过重病垂死之人，还以为自己身上蹭破的油皮是重伤，没灌一口黄沙砾砾，总觉得金戈铁马只是个威风凛凛的影子，没有吃糠咽菜过，‘民生多艰’不也是无病呻吟吗？”

If you’ve never cared for someone with a grave illness who is on the verge of death, you might think that your broken skin was a major injury; if you haven’t drank a mouthful is yellow sand, you would forever believe that a powerful army was a reflection of awe; if you’ve never eaten chaff and swallowed greens, ‘the peasants have difficult lives’ is only a hollow sentiment.”

(Or something like that. This is a crazy novel that I can’t translate, but I do love it so!)

Anyway, it’s gorgeous to see Chang Geng start to take his place in the world.

And it’s so funny to see Gu Yun constantly surprised at him and wondering why it feels so awkward when they’re touching or alone together or touching while alone together ❤️

i am begging you all to stop treating this site like instagram if you dont want it to be content free by next year

grading the dramatic entrances of The Untamed, in no particular order

Wen Chao at the Cloud Recesses - Yes, he’s garbage, and he interrupted Jiang Cheng’s carefully prepared gift-giving, which is unforgiveable, but you cannot deny that this is a moderately dramatic entrance. From a piece of shit. 5/10, hate him, consolation prize for most punchable face.

Lan Wangji on the search for Wei Wuxian - The slow climb up the stairs. The epic scenery. The unsubtle threat. 8/10, points deducted because the follow-up is anticlimactic. We should have gotten to see some ass-kicking.

Lan Wangji at the hostage summer camp - Improvement! Isn’t letting the scenery do all the work, but letting it work for him instead. More slow swishy robes. More murder in his expression. No sign of having a broken leg because he keeps the pain inside. 9/10, excellent way to not be dead, no wonder Wei Wuxian rapidly develops a technique for flirting in hostage situations.

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