MDZS Vol 5 Annotations 5

After forwarding this post to multiple times, I finally realize that I should just repost it.

I only know one mycologists, and I can attest that he fits the above description of mycologists quite well. He is also a clown and a balloon artist extraordinaire.

I need more mycologists friends.

im loving this article written by som mycologists who accidentally got high as fuck on fly agaric

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 4, pages 90 - 144.

Ten more pictures with notes about the novel! More text that may have been edited out of the print version!

Half of the sentence is gone!!!!!

"...and Chang Geng at that time had not even known what luxury and riches were, but had unexpectedly and resolutely left the marquis's residence; he would rather wander the wide 江湖 Jiang Hu than return to being a 'frog in a well' rich prince."

"Frog in a well" is 井底之蛙, which means "very limited worldview" since frogs in wells can't see more than their tiny patch of sky.

There is no mention of bloodlust in the version I read. It was just "In previous years, Gu Yun still frequently muttered about beating up this person or beating up that person..."

Yah. Priest has LOTS of plot. Constant bouncing between what happens in the imperial court vs in the outside-the-official-government world.

"粘". Priest even put that word in " ". It can mean sticky, adhesive. Not like a clingy girlfriend, more like magnets or glue.

It's very romantic right here, anyway. :)

Text, plus my bad handwriting: "Who knows what my brothers and comrades will think when they hear the news! What do you think, Marshal!?" meaning "What do you feel in your heart?! Do you really think this is fair?"

停 can mean "parked" or "landed," which I think makes more sense here since "stored" has the implication that the hawks are packed away, but, in this case, the hawks were flying just a little bit ago and now they are "landed," or "parked."

There some additional sentences in the version used for translation, I guess.

The Chinese from the version I read: 我若说出傅志诚私运紫流金谋反一事...

My bad translation: If I speak about Fu Zhicheng's smuggling Violet Gold conspiracy this one matter...

My interpretation: "the treason of smuggling violet gold," since he is referring to one matter, not two.

But it would not be weird if Priest later edited it into two matters of treason, one of smuggling and another of rebellion.

Chang Geng is elegant and graceful. He does not hunker. He settles.

炼丹 ”Make pills of immortality"

This "alchemy", Chinese version, is not to turn whatever into gold, but instead to find ways to extend your life; like how my mom puts turmeric in absolutely everything and reminds me to eat more blueberries and tomatoes and goji berries and...

OK! That's it for these ten photos! More later :)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 1

pgs 12 - 81

Here are some notes from Stars of Chaos Vol 1. Some are quick translations that don't really matter in the grand picture, but which are really fun and clever and it would be so much better if you could just see and understand it right now!

Here they are:

More under the cut

Did any of you learn the Ballad of Mulan (poem)? Yah. That poem talks about the difficulty of determining a rabbit’s sex, especially when it’s running.

I think “equipped” could be the correct word, but I’ve never seen it used as a verb in this context. It just means he put the thing on.

You will see many, many “Yifu!”s from here on. It’s a non-religious “godfather,” closer to “adopted” or “sworn” than “god.”

Remember: in Chinese, it’s good to be old :)

It’s a 蛟 jiao, not a fancy 龙 long。

Chinese has the Best Euphemisms for death! My favorite is 驾鹤西去: fly on a crane to the west(ern paradise).

Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List

All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos

My Seven Seas translation live-blog has begun!

(It accompanies my Occasional Yelling Into the Void live-blog of my Chinese re-read of 杀破狼.)

Note #1:

The appendixes are Awesome. Really well done for cultural and world-specific context.

If you don’t know the story yet, I suggest Skipping the Character Guide until at least the end of the first arc (too many spoilers)(just finish the Prologue), and skip the Location Guide (too boring).

Start with the Name Guide on page 434.

wwx: *talks* drunkji: *only thots*

Linktree

@purpletophat | Linktree

Linktree. Make your link do more.

And now I figure out where to hang my mermen and unicorn-man…

More Evidence for How My Favorites are Evil (Geniuses)(but not really evil)

from 杀破狼 Stars of Chaos, Ch 57:

Gu Yun laments not being more decisive about obliterating (murdering) all the evidence that he had previously mostly obliterated; or he should have just collected the evidence and used it to stage a hostile takeover. Sigh. Oh well.

Chang Geng reassures LiaoRan that he won’t attack the emperor (not because being nice is the right thing to do, but) because it’s not the right time.

I’m sure there are plenty of other modern western stories where the main characters are grey, but I just can’t think of any other story where the non-villain-coded main characters are all “darn, I should have murdered that other person” and “don’t worry — I won’t murder until the time is right.”

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 7, pages 339 - 366.

Another eight notes...

The idiom for "too late" in Chinese is 黄花菜都凉了 "The Yellow Lilly (chrysanthemum? Yellow lily?) dish is already cold", which I had to look up.

Apparently, there was a time and place in ancient China where, when the fancy nobles would throw a banquet, they would serve 黄花菜 as the final dish. If you delayed attending so long that the 黄花菜 was already cold, then you had completely missed the banquet. You were too late.

牲口 is, technically, "draught animal" or "beast of burden," but I'm pretty sure what Priest means here is "those cold-blooded war beasts."

top: I think of it as two separate, unrelated, consecutive actions.

bottom: 铁膝飞足, iron knees flying feet, is so easy to read in Chinese. (This is the first time I've ever seen the word "poleyns.")

top: "young and inexperienced" in Chinese here is 初出茅庐, "first time out of the thatched cottage."

初出茅庐 is the coolest little idiom. So, in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a scholar called Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei, leader of the Shu Han, begged Zhuge Liang to become his advisor and, after three visits, Zhuge Liang agreed. This was the first time that Zhuge Liang accepted such an advisory position, and the "first time" that he left his thatched cottage (it was wartime. There was a lot of travel involved with advising a king/warlord).

Anyway, Zhuge Liang was a genius and immediately won a lot of battles through superior strategy.

next: for "dig in his heels before the capital," I feel like that could be more clearly written as "hold the capital."

next: regarding "unsalvageable situation," he's talking about his relationship with the emperor.

last: "No eggs remain when the nest overturns" is a common idiom, 覆巢之下无完卵。 We're all in it together.

"running to the market" 赶集 is a way to describe how things are noisy and busy and people are running back and forth (not bright and merry with people buying gifts for each other).

I think... the indescribable smell is the mix of gunpowder and blood...

If you don't know already, the Origin Myth for Where Humans Come From is that the half-snake goddess Nuwa made humans out of clay :)

I'm not sure why, but in English I thought that one of the Western soldiers was laughing; but in Chinese it's really clear that none of the soldiers are laughing.

Four more...

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

There was a young man from Peru

Whose limericks stopped at line two

So during my second time watching Jiang Cheng walk across what I now know is a random mountain to meet Wen Qing, all I could think about was Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning’s plan and the fact that they must have been following him, like:

Wen Qing: should he really be walking across that field?

Wei Wuxian: I don’t know, I thought he would follow the path

Wen Ning: should we stop it now so he doesn’t trip and fall?

Wei Wuxian: naw let’s wait a bit, he needs to think it’s difficult

Wen Ning: is this a good place? can I ring the gong now?

Wei Wuxian: I think it’s good. wen qing?

Wen Qing: yeah yeah it’s fine. ring the stupid gong - I’ll lead him to a better spot

Wen Qing: I’m not going to wear the hat

Wei Wuxian: c’mon, you need to wear the hat

Wen Ning: yeah, wear the hat, a-jie

Wen Qing: he’s wearing a blindfold! he won’t be able to see my face anyway

Wei Wuxian: but what if he takes off the blindfold? what then, hmm? the hat is key

Wen Ning: yeah a-jie, the hat is key

Wen Qing: uuuuugh fine I’ll wear the hat