Thus far, I have been mum about my personal interests on this blog. And though I first intended for this blog to host all-original content, I figured it can be a platform for my translation pieces too. Literary translations can be itself a creative exercise, after all, perhaps generating new content in the process, to paraphrase Ezra Pound and his contemporaries.
Now, Ivana Wong is actually one of my favourite artists of all time. It is an occasional pastime of mine to translate the lyrics to her songs. This particular track is simply bursting with wonderful imagery, and so, in celebration of her latest album dropping earlier this year, I present to you a translation of the track, “我們他們”. The original lyrics can be found on the official channel of her record label.
The gull sees the upper half of the sky’s colour1
The bat remembers the lower half of the hill’s shadow
The figure expresses dissatisfaction in the body also
Light and shadow, how do we differentiate from the other half?
What are “we”? What makes “them”?
Even if I opened my eyes,
Gazed at that moon that is only half of itself,
Differences2, let us not mind them first,
Let us enjoy the full moon together
Could we exchange our feelings with each other?
Assuming that our positions are swapped with one another?
The morning flower is grateful for the first half of spring’s sights3
The red maple regrets the second half of autumn’s tears4
Looking back at “us”; understanding “them”
What are “we”? Who is knocking on the door?
Even if I opened my eyes,
Gazed at that moon that is only half of itself,
Differences, let us not mind them first,
Let us enjoy the full moon together
Could we exchange our feelings with each other?
Assuming that our positions are swapped with one another?
The paper crane moves to reside in the upper half of the sky
The bullet buries itself in the lower half of a sea of flames
Understanding “us”; looking back at “them”
Grey hues, how do we judge shades of black and white?
In the centre5, how do we criticise the left and the right?
Who are “we”? What makes “them”?
Who is knocking on the door? Who is willing to answer the door?
Notes:
(1) “天色”: although the phrase is usually taken to mean the time of the day (as evidenced by the colour of the sky), or the weather (again, as evidenced by the sky’s colour), I chose to transliterate it into “sky’s colour” to maintain the imagistic parallelism between this and the "hill’s shadow” in the next line.
(2) “偏差”: I translated this into “differences” as it flows better tonally, but I am aware that it generalizes the original denotation a bit. A more precise translation would yield words like “deviation”, “divergence”, etc.
(3) & (4) “春光”; “秋水”: A literal translation of “春光” would be “spring’s light”, but “光” (light) can sometimes be taken to mean sights or scenery, as in “風光”. And as was the case with the first couplet in the first verse, I wanted to punctuate the parallelism between “春光”, and “秋水” in the next line. Now, you may question why I did not simply translate “秋水” as “autumn’s waters” and be done with the parallelism of two pieces of natural scenery, “spring’s light” and “autumn’s waters”. But, I realise that “秋水” can at times be used idiomatically as a metaphor for clear, limpid, feminine eyes, as in “望穿秋水”. I am unsure which denotation the original songwriter intended, so I mashed the two denotations together to produce the current translation, “autumn’s tears”, in order to preserve the both potential denotations.
(5) “中間”: Originally, I translated this as “in the middle”, but then I remembered that this line is almost certainly referencing political strife, and that in English, the “centre” and “centrism” is the designated terms for those that abstain from both left-wing and right-wing stances.
