I admit I can't quite find what link I thought for this post to the last one. It's probably the separation in all these breakup-themed songs that linked to the separation of Hu Shi from his wife, and then I threw in the butterflies poem because why not, same author, and solitude is mentioned in it too. In any case, today we have two poems by Hu Shi which I translated to English and French – and Italian! I'm surprised, I didn't remember that – shortly after finding them online in late 2011 (year 1 of studying Chinese) and had corrected shortly afterwards. Actually, one of them was not translated to French! Surprise! The history is pretty simple:
- Between 31/10/11 and the 9/12/11 19:54 file which was then attached to a 22:10 email, I had the originals below; order? God knows; I mean, the English was probably the first of all groups, and the shorter one was probably translated first, but between the French and the Italian, I have no idea; though the files consistently list French, sided with Italian, then English, then English sided with Italian for the longer poem, so Idk; we have a literal translation done on 8/11/11 in English class, so I assume none of the translations were done before then; the 23/11/11 file with the decipherment doesn't really say much, because I could have deciphered it on paper and then copied it – and the 8/11 translation suggests that's exactly what happened; the 25/11 diary entry says «Hac septimana secundum Hú Shì-is poema verti. […] Tum est quod et invenio et verto lěnglěngde tàiyáng» (This week I translated the second poem by Hu Shi. […] It is then that I both find and translate Cold sun); this means that all Hu Shi translations were done by then, and the second poem, which I assume is the longer one, was translated in the week between Mon 21/11 and Fri 25/11; as it turns out, the French was the first one, as made during English class on 24/11 in the below version save for the initial variant «car elle s'rait plus seule», followed by the English, in the version «Two yellow butterflies both fly up to the sky. / I do not know why, one of them comes nigh. / The one left, alone pitiable seems, / *And* wishes not to rise: lonely is the sky.»; I assume the Italian came last, as no trace of it is found in the English notebook; right after those, we have the second one in English, in the below Original version (the first arrow is a change happened outside class, the second one happened during class, and the next-to-last line was untranslated during class; again, no trace of any other translation;
- On 19/12/11, my corrector came to visit me, and gave me corrections on the poems; within 31/12/11 10:21, I had metabolized those corrections and produced the corrected versions below;
- Then the blog comes up, and says: «I'll spare you the wrong translations though. Honestly, I'm struggling with poem 2. Why did my corrected translation read the last line as having subject "I" when he's been talking of "those who travel the whole world" for the last few lines? And what does the 定 in line 5 mean? I reworked part of those translations, but won't go into intermediate versions to avoid cluttering this post»; this whole intro, along with the final translations below (minus the musical English remake), appear in a 16/8/18 PDF which is a preview of this post from 8/8/18 (i.e. the preview tab was opened on 8/8 and saved as a PDF on 16/8); this means that, on 8/8, I was drafting the post, and thus that is the date of the final rework;
- On 19/4/21, I set this to music, following the tones with the tune. The first half-line dates 19:15, the rest between 22:15 and 22:23. I then rework the translation into English to fit the tune. That happens the next day, between 14:47 and 14:49, with a tweak basically at 15. I present the reworked translation at the bottom, just before the sheet music for the Chinese original (my Sibelius only fits two lines of lyrics, so characters and Pinyin didn't allow the English to fit.
两个黄蝴蝶 双双飞上天。 不知为什么 一个忽飞还。 剩下那一个 孤单怪可怜， 也无心上天 天上太孤单。 Two yellow butterflies both fly up to the sky. I do not know why, one of them comes nigh. The one left, alone and pitiable doth seem, And wishes not to rise: lonely is the sky. |
Liǎng gè huáng húdié, shuāngshuāng fēi shàng tiān. Bùzhī wèishénme yī gè hū fēi huán. Shèngxià nà yī gè gūdān guài kělián, Yě wú xīn shàng tiān tiān shàng tài gūdān. Deux papillons jaunes veulent ensemble au ciel. Je n’ sais pas pourquoi, l’une s’en vient vers moi. L’autre, abandonnée, seule et pitoyable, Veut pas s’envoler: le ciel est très seul. |
Due farfalle gialle insieme al ciel sen vanno.
Chissà per qual ragione, una mi vien vicino.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, compatibil pare,
E non si vuol levare: il cielo è così solo.
Chissà per qual ragione, una mi vien vicino.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, compatibil pare,
E non si vuol levare: il cielo è così solo.
病中得他书，不满八行纸。 全无要紧话，颇使我欢喜。 我不认得他，他不认得我。 我却纪念他，这是为什么？ 岂不因我们，分定长相亲。 由分生情意，所以非路人。 天边一游子，生不识故里。 终有故乡情，其理亦如此。 岂不爱自由，此意无人晓。 情愿不自由，便是自由了。 Being I sick, he wrote, not a=>e’en eight full lines. Not so serious words, made me happy quite. I do not know him, he does not know me. I rememb’r him though; why can that e’er be? Is it not ’cause we have grown close in calm, From this love was born, so stranger he is not? All-world travellers live to know no home. They long for home i’ th’ end, they think also thus => this they also think: Is’t not freedom to love? This feeling no-one knows. They’d rather not be free, but are nought but free. |
Bìng zhōng dé tā shū, bù mǎn bā háng zhǐ. Quán wú yàojǐn huà, pō shǐ wǒ huānxǐ. Wǒ bù rènde tā, tā bù rènde wǒ. Wǒ què jìniàn tā, zhè shì wèishénme? Qǐ bù yīn wǒmen, fēndìng zhǎng xiāngqīn. Yóu fēn shēng qíngyì, suǒyǐ fēi lùrén. Tiānbiān yī yóuzǐ, shēng bù shí gùlǐ. Zhōng yǒu gùxiāng qíng, qí lǐ yì rúcǐ. Qǐbù ài zìyóu, cǐ yì wú rén xiǎo. Qíngyuàn bù zìyóu, biànshì zìyóule. . Men d’otto righe scrisse a me, malato; Non gravi motti; ma mi fêr felice. Lui non è noto a me, né io a lui. Eppur me la ricordo; come posso? Non ci siam fatti amici nella calma, Donde l’amor, per cui non è straniero? Chi tutto il mondo viaggia, non conosce Casa. Infin patria cupe, e così pensa: «Non è amar libertà?». Sentire ignoto A tutti. Libero è, ma nol vorrebbe. |
两个黄蝴蝶 双双飞上天。 不知为什么 一个忽飞还。 剩下那一个 孤单怪可怜， 也无心上天 天上太孤单。 Two yellow butterflies both fly up to the sky. I do not know why, one of them comes back. The one left, alone and pitiable in faith, Wishes not to rise: lonely is the sky. |
Liǎng gè huáng húdié, shuāngshuāng fēi shàng tiān. Bùzhī wèishénme yī gè hū fēi huán. Shèngxià nà yī gè gūdān guài kělián, Yě wú xīn shàng tiān tiān shàng tài gūdān. Deux papillons jaunes veulent ensemble au ciel. Je n’ sais pas pourquoi, l’une s’en va en arrière. L’autre, abandonnée, seule et pitoyable, Veut pas s’envoler: le ciel est très seul. |
Due farfalle gialle insieme al ciel sen vanno.
Chissà per qual ragione, una torna indietro.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, è compatibil molto,
E non si vuol levare: il cielo è così solo.
Chissà per qual ragione, una torna indietro.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, è compatibil molto,
E non si vuol levare: il cielo è così solo.
病中得他书，不满八行纸。 全无要紧话，颇使我欢喜。 我不认得他，他不认得我。 我却纪念他，这是为什么？ 岂不因我们，分定长相亲。 由分生情意，所以非路人。 天边一游子，生不识故里。 终有故乡情，其理亦如此。 岂不爱自由，此意无人晓。 情愿不自由，便是自由了。 Sick, I got her words, not e’en eight full lines. Not so serious words, made me happy quite. I do not know her, she does not know me. I rememb’r her though; why can that e’er be? Is it not ’cause we long apart, feel love Born from being apart, so stranger she is not? Those always far from home live but know no home. They love it still i’ th’ end, thus do I her love. Is’t not freedom to love? This no-one answer can. I’d rather not be free, but am nought but free. |
Bìng zhōng dé tā shū, bù mǎn bā háng zhǐ. Quán wú yàojǐn huà, pō shǐ wǒ huānxǐ. Wǒ bù rènde tā, tā bù rènde wǒ. Wǒ què jìniàn tā, zhè shì wèishénme? Qǐ bù yīn wǒmen, fēndìng zhǎng xiāngqīn. Yóu fēn shēng qíngyì, suǒyǐ fēi lùrén. Tiānbiān yī yóuzǐ, shēng bù shí gùlǐ. Zhōng yǒu gùxiāng qíng, qí lǐ yì rúcǐ. Qǐbù ài zìyóu, cǐ yì wú rén xiǎo. Qíngyuàn bù zìyóu, biànshì zìyóule. . Men d’otto righe scrisse a me, malato; Non gravi motti; ma mi fêr felice. Lei non è nota a me, né io a lei. Eppur me la ricordo; come posso? Non ci amiam poiché a lungo separati Forse, onde lei non è per me un’ignota? Chi è sempre via, sua patria non conosce. L’ama ancora alla fin: perciò il suddetto Amor. Non è amar libertà? Risposta Nullo sa. Libero son, ma nol vorrei. |
两个黄蝴蝶 双双飞上天。 不知为什么 一个忽飞还。 剩下那一个 孤单怪可怜， 也无心上天 天上太孤单。 Two yellow butterflies both fly up to the sky. I do not know why, one of them comes back. The one left, alone and pitiable in faith, Wishes not to rise: she's lonely in the sky. |
Liǎng gè huáng húdié, shuāngshuāng fēi shàng tiān. Bùzhī wèishénme yī gè hū fēi huán. Shèngxià nà yī gè gūdān guài kělián, Yě wú xīn shàng tiān tiān shàng tài gūdān. Deux papillons jaunes veulent ensemble au ciel. Je n’ sais pas pourquoi, l’une s’en va en arrière. L’autre, abandonnée, seule et pitoyable, Veut pas s’envoler: en ciel elle est très seule. |
Due farfalle gialle insieme al ciel sen vanno.
Chissà per qual ragione, una torna indietro.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, è compatibil molto,
E non si vuol levare: in ciel sarebbe sola.
Chissà per qual ragione, una torna indietro.
L’altra, lasciata, sola, è compatibil molto,
E non si vuol levare: in ciel sarebbe sola.
病中得他书，不满八行纸。 全无要紧话，颇使我欢喜。 我不认得他，他不认得我。 我却纪念他，这是为什么？ 岂不因我们，分定长相亲。 由分生情意，所以非路人。 天边一游子，生不识故里。 终有故乡情，其理亦如此。 岂不爱自由，此意无人晓。 情愿不自由，便是自由了。 Sick, I got her words, not e’en eight full lines. Not so serious words, made me happy quite. I do not know her, she does not know me. I rememb’r her though; why can that e’er be? Is it not ’cause we long apart, feel love Born from being apart, so stranger she is not? Those always far from home live but know no home. They love it still i’ th’ end, thus do I her love. Is’t not freedom to love? This no-one answer can. They’d rather not be free, but are nought but free. |
Bìng zhōng dé tā shū, bù mǎn bā háng zhǐ. Quán wú yàojǐn huà, pō shǐ wǒ huānxǐ. Wǒ bù rènde tā, tā bù rènde wǒ. Wǒ què jìniàn tā, zhè shì wèishénme? Qǐ bù yīn wǒmen, fēndìng zhǎng xiāngqīn. Yóu fēn shēng qíngyì, suǒyǐ fēi lùrén. Tiānbiān yī yóuzǐ, shēng bù shí gùlǐ. Zhōng yǒu gùxiāng qíng, qí lǐ yì rúcǐ. Qǐbù ài zìyóu, cǐ yì wú rén xiǎo. Qíngyuàn bù zìyóu, biànshì zìyóule. . Men d’otto righe scrisse a me, malato; Non gravi motti; ma mi fêr felice. Lei non è nota a me, né io a lei. Eppur me la ricordo; come posso? Non è nato un amor dal nostro stare Divisi, per cui lei non m'è straniera? Chi tutto il mondo viaggia, non conosce Casa. Infin patria brama, e così pensa: «Non è amar libertà?». Nessuno sa Risponder. Libero è, ma nol vorrebbe. |
Two gold butterflies fly up to the skies
For some unknown why, one of them back flies
What a sorry sight, the one left in flight!
And it will not rise to such lonely skies.
For some unknown why, one of them back flies
What a sorry sight, the one left in flight!
And it will not rise to such lonely skies.
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