#tgcf translations

[fluff-crt]

"Pray for peace in Zhongyuan Festival"

Source: https://x.com/TGCF_Official/status/1825004697205305758 https://x.com/TGCF_Official/status/1825005951050539034

[mxtxfanatic]

While flipping through mdzs to verify some stray thoughts of mine, I happened to fall into a translation discrepancy that I feel really, really emphasizes how important it is to have a proper grasp on the language you are translating before translating for a public audience.

Now before we get too deep into this, I want to reiterate that I am someone who does not understand Mandarin in any form but has been reading translations (both by humans and machines) for a few years now. However, because I have been reading translations that tend to follow the Mandarin more closely in grammar and because I haven't shied away from reading machine-made or bad human translations, I have noticed some places where mistranslations from Mandarin to English are common: pronouns, verb-subject matching, negatives, prepositions, and conjunctions. For this post, we will be focusing on the latter two.

In the lead-up to the Wen invasion of Lotus Pier, we are given a scene where Madam Yu whips Wei Wuxian, and in this scene, we are given a glimpse as to Madam Yu's average punishments towards the young ward.

While Madam Yu always pelted him with hostile words, she’d never really hit him hard before—two or three lashes at most, or being made to kneel or confined indoors, and it never took Jiang Fengmian long to release him from that.

—Vol. 3, Chapt. 12: Sandu: The Three Poisons, 7seas

In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded. He’d also be let out by Jiang FengMian soon later.

—Chapt. 57: Poisons, exr

Reading these back-to-back, it should be very clear that though the same section is being translated from the same exact source, these translations do not say the same thing. The official stresses that Madam Yu had never hit Wei Wuxian "that hard" before, as well as saying that his punishments were a few lashes OR being made to kneel OR being confined, three separate punishments never taken together according to this diction. The exr translation, however, states that Madam Yu had "never truly been cruel to him" (emphasis mine) and that him being whipped was in addition to being confined. The emphasis on the strength of her lashings is absent, but an emphasis on the intent behind her actions—that she never meant to be honestly cruel to her ward—is established in its stead. (While this section as translated by exr does not mention kneeling, later scenes reflecting on Wei Wuxian's childhood in Lotus Pier do.)

Both of these translations... are wrong.

If we give exr the benefit of the doubt by virtue of being the original completed English translation of mdzs, then the official 7seas release should automatically raise red flags for the ways it seems to directly contradict the narrative that has existed for a few years before the novel was licensed. It doesn't help that the official has been riddled with many mistranslations and omissions from the very first volume, lowering any credibility it would otherwise have to stand on. But if we were to examine the rest of the exr translation, then the emphasis on Madam Yu's intent also rings false given the fact that we are told over and over again in this same translation that 1) Madam Yu is, in fact, unnecessarily, illogically, and erratically mean-spirited and cruel, and 2) Wei Wuxian knows this even at this time in his life (shoutout to the Lotus Pod Seeds extra) and understands her actions as targeted cruelty. What does the actual text say, then?

Although Madam Yu always spoke ill of him before, her hand had never been this viciously cruel. At most, she whipped him two or three times and ordered him to kneel down and be confined to his room, and he would be released by Jiang Fengmian sometime later.

—@jiangwanyinscatmom (emphasis mine)

Madam Yu has never been "as cruel" as in that moment when whipping Wei Wuxian, because normally she only whips him 2-3 times. She would whip him a few times and send him to the ancestral hall to kneel and be in confinement, which matches up to the memories that Wei Wuxian reflects on in other parts of the novel. This translation gets rid of the character inconsistencies that the other two translations create. So how did we get here? Remember how I pointed out those common Mandarin-to-English translation mistakes? Well, both the exr and 7seas translations fall into the trap of confusing conjunctions and prepositions. That's how we get a list of punishments rather than an order of events for a singular punishment type. That's how we get "not truly cruel" instead of "not as cruel." That's how we get these sections contradicting what we know about Madam Yu's personality and behavior from the rest of the novel through those two translations. Unfortunately, both translation teams just happened to flub in the same area in slightly different ways, and while I'm willing to give a multi-lingual grade-school student translating in their spare time the benefit of the doubt, a paid translator with a translation team hired by a professional publishing house should have better quality control than a spare-time hobbyist.

Also, just in case anyone wants more proof on what mxtx meant for us to take away about Madam Yu's treatment of Wei Wuxian from this scene, it was also apparently so important to mxtx for readers to know that Madam Yu was truly cruel to Wei Wuxian during his childhood that the act of her routinely whipping him whenever he was in her presence was something that was added into the revised mdzs. It was not in the original unedited version of the novel.

In the past, although Lady Yu always insulted or patronized him, she never laid a hand on him. At worst, she’d make him kneel for prolonged periods of time, but he’d always get bailed out by Jiang FengMian after a while.

—Chapt. 57. Act 12: Sandu/Three Poisons, Part 2, qinghe-nie

[incorrectly-quoting-mxtx]

The amount of dick jokes in MXTX novels is really something to behold because a lot of them are pretty subtle…..

And then there’s General Dick Yang

[sanlangkiss]

i just feel so safe when i think about hua cheng. i think this is partially because when reading tgcf, everything is ok when hua cheng is there. even if things aren't going that well, knowing hua cheng is there by xie lian's side makes me feel better and at ease.. there's a constant sense of safety and also this feeling that things will work out

it's such a nice little thing and makes hualian all the more special because after so long, it's just right for xie lian to have someone that makes him feel so happy and safe (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ )

[mewtwo24]

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how wwx grew up in an adopted family that always spoke in terms of what he owed them (except Jiang Yanli), and Lan Wangji, upon wwx's resurrection insisted "there is no need for sorry or thanks between us" and kept to his word every single time. Or are you normal.

[qifreyplushie]

i heard this audio and immediately knew what i had to do

[notyixiangs]

tgcf revised—mu qing & xie lian's reconciliation, chapters 192-193, translated by me

note: i'm not a translation professional, i did this for fun to give a rough idea of what happened in the revised version of this scene. it's also inevitable for subtleties to get lost in translation so do be aware. i know the english prose sounds a little awkward because chinese prose works differently but i wanted to translate it as directly as possible & any attempts at making it sound "smoother" or nicer would demand biased input from me which i wanted to minimize

edit; found a typo in the first slide. mu qing should say "even thought" not "even though"

[vinzulu]

[hualianisms]

ch 241 // ch 250 // revised vol 1 ch 15

xie lian being so lonely and having no one to listen to him for 800 years, but hua cheng loves listening to him talk and always wants to listen no matter what it's about or for how long...

(credit: ch 242 translated by suika & rynn, ch 250 translated by erushi, revised novel vol 1 ch 15 translated by me)

[hualian]

tgcf donghua weibo uploading the MOST cryptic post about "new short film officially launched" what do you MEAN what short film launched where when huuuuh 😭😭😭 more info please I'll wait patiently!

[yea-baiyi]

i just posted but i feel INSANE hua cheng’s entire appearance in the ghost groom arc is just symbolism.

when xie lian is alone (having sent everyone away, in danger but perfectly capable of fighting his way out), hua cheng steps in front of xie lian, offers his hand, and guides xie lian through the woods to where he needs to be. monsters cower before him, magical barriers don’t stop him, he steps on the skulls of enemies and crushes them so thoroughly that xie lian behind him feels like he is walking on flat ground. he doesn’t just swoop in without asking — he offers his hand, and waits, and xie lian willingly reaches out and lets himself be guided. and his grip is featherlight, even as he steers xie lian through danger and darkness. his blood rain warns away all who would dare harm them, but xie lian doesn’t get hit by a drop. and hua cheng does this all in his true form, not in disguise, because he’s not playing a character or trying to achieve anything, this is just him. despite not being confident enough to face xie lian directly, hua cheng has already shown him exactly who he is.

(now excuse me while i gnaw through an entire wall because how was this not glaringly obvious to me all along)

[fluff-crt]

TGCF Donghua: "Happy Children's Day!"

Source: https://x.com/TGCF_Official/status/1796723341023195508

[mxtxfanatic]

Reasons Why the 7seas MDZS is the Inferior Translation

I recently had the misfortune to get my hands on all the 7seas mdzs volumes, so I wanted to make a list of some reasons why I will not be using this translation for any meta unless it is in comparison:

Reason 1: whoever tf's idea it was to translate "rogue cultivator" as "knight-errant":

The founding father of the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, Jiang Chi, came from a knight-errant background.

—Vol. 3, Chapt. 12: Sandu: The Three Poisons

Reason 2: the fact that I was made to read French with my own two eyeballs in an English translation when the word "title" was perfectly serviceable as a translation:

But recently, he’d gotten used to using his venerated sobriquet every day.

—Vol. 1, Chapt. 7: Morning Dew, 7seas

Reason 3: this reason has been paywalled due to my personal belief that the compensation for inflicting this kind of psyche damage onto myself should be monetary

[crazydaymycrazyway]

Xie Lian, accidentally getting drunk: Fuck, I wanna die!

Mei Nianqing: Your Highness, watch your language!

Xie Lian: Hickity Heck! I crave death!

[yaoigoddess9158]

I just realized that, if I ever transmigrate into any novel/manga I’ve read, I’d be doomed because they’re all from different countries with different languages…

[lazycranberrydoodles]

i read mdzs in 2020, when it was still up on exiled rebel scanlations. they've since taken it down because the official english translation is out. but the entire book has been snapshotted by the wayback machine!!