#tatmingpair

[romantamsxiangshi]

Translation of Tat Ming Pair's 1988 禁色 (Forbidden Colors)

Tat Ming Pair, comprised of instrumentalist Tats Lau and singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, drew from David Bowie's and the Pet Shop Boys' discographies for their uniquely experimental sound. 禁色, translated to "Forbidden Colors" and "Forbidden Love," is hailed as one of the first queer anthems of the Canto world. Notably, there are no pronouns in the song; the focus lies instead on a speaker "I" and their lover "you."

Translation:

窗边雨水 Rain puddles by our window 拼命地侵扰安睡 And pulls you thrashing from your sleep (1) 又再撇湿乱发堆 Once again, your hair's a mess 无需惶恐 But there's no need to fear 你在受惊中淌泪 You're trapped in your terror, weeping 别怕 爱本是无罪 But your love is innocent. (2)

请关上窗 Please close the window 寄望梦想于今后 Can we dream of tomorrow, instead? (3) 让我再握着你手 Can i hold your hand again? 无需逃走 There's no need to run away. 世俗目光虽荒谬 This whole world is cruel, absurd, (4) 为你 我甘愿承受 But if you would let me, i'd take it all for you

愿某地方 Someday, somewhere 不需将爱伤害 Nothing will hurt us. 抹杀内心的色彩 Right now, our love knows only its own death (5) 愿某日子 But someday, one day 不需苦痛忍耐 We will no longer need to endure anything 将禁色尽染在梦魂内 And our souls will know all their colors (6)

千种痛哀 Tonight, you only know your thousand sorrows 结在梦魇的心内 And your nightmares have ensnared your heart 愿我到死未悔改 And tonight, i wish to die with no regrets 时钟停止 For the clocks stand so still. (7) 我在耐心的等待 So i wait with a patient heart (8) 害怕雨声在门内 But i am scared of the rain at our door

愿某地方 Someday, somewhere 不需将爱伤害 Nothing will hurt us. 抹杀内心的色彩 Right now, our love knows only its own death 愿某日子 But someday, one day 不需苦痛忍耐 We will no longer need to endure anything 将禁色尽染在梦魂内 And our souls will know all their colors

若这地方 But if, here and now, 必须将爱伤害 The world must hurt us, 抹杀内心的色彩 Our hearts can know only their own deaths. 让我就此 So, let me go. 消失这晚风雨内 Let me disappear into this storm. 可再生在某梦幻年代 Perhaps we will wake up in a kinder tomorrow. (9)

Translation notes:

(1) A more direct translation would be "prevents you from falling asleep," with the characters 拼命 implying "struggling with all your will/life." I chose to make the rain the subject of this line, instead, to capture the loss of agency that echoes through the rest of the song.

(2) A more direct translation is "love, in its most original/base form, is innocent." I played around with the translation of "you've always known how to love, and your love is innocent"--it's all subjective!

(3) This line is not a question in its original form, but I chose to frame it as a conversation between speaker and subject.

(4) A more direct translation is "the perspectives of the orthodox are absurd," but that sounded too clunky to me. The stakes feel higher when the speaker is fighting against the whole world.

(5) A more direct translation is "massacring all the colors of our heart," but I chose to put this line in conversation with the later "souls know all their colors" -- Tat Ming Pair describes love as a very intentional, and therefore cognitive, act. The queer tragedy of knowing and anticipating your own death runs through the whole song, and through much of their other discography, which is why I chose this translation.

(6) I found the choice of 魂 (hun, the cognitive/knowing part of the soul from old Chinese myth), and not 心 (xin, the heart, commonly used as a stand-in for everything related to love) very telling. 魂 is not the most intuitive choice when describing love, nor does it have a direct translation. I therefore chose "our souls will know all their colors" as a two-part approximate. This one character informs a lot of my other translation choices, including in (5).

(7) The use of time in Forbidden Colors is fascinating: time, in Chinese and Cantonese, is existential. Tomorrow speaks not to the next 24 hours, but to a different state of being and an entirely different set of possibilities. The promise of a tomorrow is the promise of a new (and possibly kinder?) reality--that the clocks stand still on this night, and that the speaker's lover cannot fall asleep, speaks to how this reality is withheld from them.

(8) It's uncertain what the speaker is waiting for: their own death? Tomorrow? Both? I contemplated inserting an object of my choosing, but decided to leave it ambiguous.

(9) A more direct translation is "perhaps we will wake up in a better era," but I thought calling back to the "tomorrow" used throughout the song had a stronger narrative/thematic payoff. I really, really wanted to translate the line to "let me come back to you tomorrow," implying that the speaker will always come back to their lover, no matter the reality they must face, but decided to stick more faithfully to the original.

Fun fact: I first heard 禁色 at the airport, and it made me cry. This song was my first attempt at Canto-English translation, done by hand on the backside of a love letter.

[bballdad8]

應該不止我一個會在最近想起這首歌。達明的時代, 是香港最星光燦爛的年代。有誰又會想到真的會有瘟疫蔓延時?

[ispchan]

係值得期待的！等咗半年，我終於可以大叫一句：阿媽！我終於等到嘞！🙌🏻🙌🏻 #達明一派 #tatmingpair #達明一派replay #tmreplay #同黨 #latergram https://www.instagram.com/p/CfEcAmpP3GZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[winnieup]

[Replay アップロードを続ける 繼續追加] 20211225~1226 T仔USTrip Day15~16 同場加映 -> 駕了車4小時、 小睡了4小時、 於凌晨4時、爬起身看live 演唱會4小時。 今晩、別にことがありますよ。ネットで香港のコンサートを観てきました。 After driving home from Vegas for 4 hours, I took a 4-hour nap before watching a live concert in HongKong from 4am to 8am! #達明一派 #TatMingPair #TMP #winnieup @winnieup #LosAngeles #CA #USA (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc2DR2fOxBSuCrll4O32HXD-BO5YuWUuMlpl680/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[instadw]

Hong Kong pop singer, activist arrested on corruption charge

[yuenyan]

【明哥︰人人都是英雄good concert for hero】第三次看達明，唱得最好的一次。舞台簡單，效果華麗，穿插葉輝、西西的詩句，周耀輝的歌詞，如同視覺的盛宴，屢有驚喜。寫給逝世的David Bowie信，有點感動。沒有贊助，完全獨立的音樂，但只有六成入座率，有點心痛  #TatMingPair #hkig #concert #band

[palwong]

達明一派中，我的最喜歡其中一道#tatmingpair #達明一派 #達明三十一派對 #黃耀明 @wongyiuminganthony

[jayjoyce]

你敢做，佢敢唱 #不怕下落不明 #tatmingpair #hocc

[dchlau]

#tatmingpair #達明一派 #concert #hk http://ift.tt/2nUiPsK

[ispchan]

事隔兩個月後，終於飲到了... cheers 🍻 #達明一派 #tatmingpair #tm #達明一派replay #tatmingreplay #tmreplay https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1Nu4wA6wr/?igshid=lt8btyn1ssiq

[winnieup]

20201118 #達明一派 #REPLAYLIVE #TatMingPair (伊利沙伯體育館) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHxLvKeDO8iDe7RtmFCwwgOFTYOpiRUESWXugY0/?igshid=133i3jwd32hcs

[palwong]

真理部：今天應該很高興 腦內仍然浮現25·03·2017的影像。 26·03·2017的結果，只好努力團結監察，We Can Be Heroes #tatmingpair #達明一派 #達明三十一派對 #wecanbeheroes #heroes #黃耀明 @wongyiuminganthony #人山人海

[jayjoyce]

恐怕這個璀燦都市光輝到此 #今夜星光燦爛 #明日之後 #tatmingpair

[nicolelhy]

Local indie #tatmingpair

[ispchan]

今晚最後半個鍾，暫時係三場之中，最好的、最鼓勵的，除了有《1+4=14》、新歌《今天世上所有地方》，更有《自由之歌》 - - 送畀Nathan、Auntie，以及因為各種原因未能在場嘅朋友和手足... 🙌🏻🙌🏻 《自由之夏》：https://youtu.be/q2CO0-zA66M #達明一派 #tatmingpair #達明一派replay #tmpreplay #神經 #意難平 #自由之夏 (at 伊利沙伯體育館) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHni-3cAyXH/?igshid=3enbzoj83fk8

[winnieup]

20160325 #TatMingPair Concert #winnieup #Hongkong (at Hong Kong Coliseum)