Recently had the pleasure of helping Singapore local Chinese chamber music ensemble – The TENG Ensemble to translate the lyrics for their rendition of《雪落下的聲音》(Sound of Snowfall), the theme song of the popular drama series 《延禧攻略》(Yanxi Palace). Check out their rendition here:
Since translation is always a work in progress, and is open to different interpretations and versions, I would like to include my version here together with my rationale and discussion of certain lines in the song. Rights to this translation belongs to The TENG Company and myself.
Some general considerations:
Rhyming scheme: The Chinese lyrics maintained an -in/-ying end rhyme throughout. My rhyming game is not that high-level, so I opted for an AA-BB CC-DD end rhyming scheme for Verse A and Verse B, and foregone any rhymes for the Choruses.
Structure: The Verses have a very unique structure – XX, XXXXX (2 words, seperated by a comma). For my translation, I decided to follow this structure, not visually, but aurally, replacing 2 words with (mostly) 2 syllables – e.g. Gently (輕輕), Softly (靜靜), Fate turns (相逢), Drifting (痛並, lol), Hurting (明明), Pretending (this is an exception but no choice) (假裝), Tears fade (淚盡), and How frail (此生).
One may notice that some English translations doesn’t match with the Chinese words – that’s an deliberate choice to swap the sequence around and make the meaning better in the English context, and it doesn’t affect the meaning as a whole.
Singability: Although this translation is only for viewing, not for singing, but I still made the lyrics singable buahahhhaah which means that the syllables match. There are some parts however, which I was too focused on matching the syllables – now looking back I would have adjusted it slightly to make the English lyrics flow better.
Selective line by line rational/ break-down/interpretation:
痛并，把快乐尝尽。Drifting, through the joy and pain.
痛并 by itself doesn’t make sense, they just wrote it like that to make the structure parallel. this actually means – 痛并快乐的 (painfully and happily at the same time). By interpreting this as “experiencing the joy painfully” (痛苦地尝尽快乐) one is falling into its structural trap. I shifted the 痛苦 and 快乐 to the back together, and added a “drifting” even though it’s not explicitly in the Chinese lyrics, because the it’s like experiencing the joy and pain – something that is implied.
泪尽，也不能相信，Tears fade, as night follows day,
This is quite different from the original meaning, and it is a deliberate choice (not just to make it rhyme). 不能相信什么？I saw 2 ways to interpretate this line – one, your words hurt me, so i had to pretend that all is well, yet i cannot trust you and your lies anymore; two, if we view this line with the next, then it means “i cant believe how fragile life is, even if i cry until my tears dry up, there’s nothing i can do.” I chose the second meaning, where it touches on the inevitable, fragile yet cyclical nature of life, where night will always follow the day (sun will always set).
I’ve also considered a version that is closer to the original line – “Tears fade, like our trust that fray.” – sounds a bit awkward (and gramatically incorrect for the sake of rhyming) but it’s okay too. yep. still chose the night follows day version haha.
你没办法靠近，绝不是太薄情，/ 只是贪恋窗外好风景。Always kept you afar, not because I’m heartless, / Yearning for life beyond a window.
Ok this is a part which i think can really be open for lots of discussions, because of the ambiguity created by the lack of subject: 你没办法靠近 *谁？*，绝不是 *谁？*太薄情，/ *谁？*只是贪恋窗外好风景。This song is applicable to many characters and instances in the drama – 富察皇后 (especially her), 高贵妃, 娴皇后, 富察傅恒 and 魏璎珞 etc. etc. I based my understanding mostly on 富察皇后, hence – 你(乾隆)没办法靠近我(富察皇后), not because i (富察皇后) is too cold and pushing you away, it’s just that i (富察皇后) yearn for a life beyond the window. And this interpretation will make sense cos in her whole life 富察皇后 feels entrapped in her role as the 皇后, as she had to shoulder immense pressure as the “first lady”. When she say she 贪恋窗外好风景, she doesn’t yearn for a change in scenary or a season, she yearns to escape a gilded cage (the deep boudoir within the imperial palace, the invisible forces of responsibility expected of her as the empress), framed in this lyrics by the window.
Looking back, i think i was too focused on making the syllables match, so much so that the meaning of the second line isn’t as clear as i would like it to be. Perhaps i would change it to:
Always keeping you afar, not because I’m heartless, / For I yearn a life beyond the window.
The second essay “Everyday Lifes” explores the physical, visual, and spatial differences (both interior and exterior) between a HDB rental flat and an average 3/4-room HDB flat in Singapore, all disguised under a single neighbourhood; and the mental impacts imposed upon its residents.
Two things that struck me after reading this article: one, as ashamed as I am to admit, that this is the first time I’ve heard of the HDB rental-flat scheme, and two, the 16 years late realisation that block opposite mine (and the block down the road), are all rental flats.
For the few who are equally ignorant as myself, the HDB rental flat are 1/2-room flats rented to families with a monthly household income of 1,500 SGD or less.
Though aware of the existence of 1/2-room flats, I’ve always brushed them aside as merely units built to suit to the increasingly complicated living demands of various flat-buyers, and perhaps a wise choice of abode for my future self if I were to remain as single as I am now. It hardly occured to me that many families stayed in these flats precisely because they do not have a choice, a choice to move, a choice to choose a bigger, more spacious flat even if they want to; and that there are housing schemes set in place just for households with lower incomes.
The rental flats are not intentionally built into a segregated neighbourhood, but rather, are woven with regular flats within the same neighbourhood. The first way to identify rental flats from street level, Yeo explains (and now looking out of the window I fully agree with), is by looking at the doors, or more specifically, the spacing between doors.
If we take a look at a regular 4-room unit from the corridor side, we will notice that the unit windows can stretch out along the corridor for as long as 10 panes (across 2 rooms), before ending by their neighbour’s equally spacious, 10-pane long unit. Doors are invisible from the corridors as they’re tucked to the side instead of facing outwards, again, a sign that residents can afford to have a bit of space (and by extension, privacy) between opposite neighbors and between prying eyes of opposite flats. For rental flats, in order to accomodate more units within the same perimeter of a flat, each unit is narrower and built side by side without the luxry of space. Each door hence faces the corridor directly, and each unit is only separated by a single window pane. The talk of having space between every 2 units as an additional privacy buffer is non-existent, and residents can only rely on the strength of four walls to seperate them from their neighbours, mere inches away.
(a hand-drawn visual comparision of the corridor view for rental (left) vs. regular (right) 4-room HDB flat)
Yeo noted that though the distinction between the two may be indiscernable to a passerby, it is obvious to residents within the area. I wish to comment that this distinction is, to a certain extent, one-sided, obsure, minute to the unknowing residents, mainly to those who live in the “regular” households (like myself), who probably regarded the visual differences as visual differences, and dimissed the high density of doors as merely a “design choice” for older flats.
The invisibility of clear signs of distinction can be viewed in both ways – the authorities’ fairly good attempt to ensure that all residents get access to basic hygiene and sanitation without intentionally creating territorial stigmatization (quote from Yeo: “Rental flats for low-income persons in Singapore are not ghettoized spaces in the extreme ways that low-income housing often isin other cities. There are also no slums. In terms of access to clean water, electricity, amentities, and transporation, the people I meet are not denied access to these things in any absolute or physical way. Nonetheless, the spaces they are in are uncomfortable. Importantly, these spaces place them outside of norms.” p. 63), or, a carefully constructed appearance to fit the narratives of prosperity, of past gloriousness, and of no slowing down.
afloatingeyot 