Puzzle Bobble Everybubble Strategy Guide—Part 5

Rainbow Library

Gimmick: Paint line, change, paint line change

Unlockables: Liber (VS mode), Studious Chack'n costume, Scholar Miniroon costume.

Normal

1. Hit the paint line bubbles with their matching colors.
2. Same as 1.
3. Hit the guide bubble. Peel off the paint line bubbles one by one until the whole thing is pink. Pop the chain to clear out all the supports. Rescue chack'n, forget the rest.
4. Drop the bombs, then shoot them directly below the center Chack'ns on either side.
5. Time change bubbles directly above the pointer to open the star bubble. Get rid of any one color, then beeline toward the remaining supports on either side.
6. Hit the paint line change bubbles with their corresponding colors.
7. DO NOT DROP THE PAINT LINE BUBBLES. Hit them in order from bottom to top to clear the Chack'ns off their supports.
8. Counting from the bottom up, there are 4 clusters and 6 paint line change bubbles. Best case is you color the top and bottom of the cluster on the support block to the left and right the same color as the bubbles in the middle of the cluster. If you miss, it's obnoxious to recover from but it can be done. Hit paint line change bubbles 1 and 2 as either Blue or Yellow (if you can time it so they match, even better). Clean off cluster 1. Hit paint line change bubble 3 as either yellow or purple. Clean off cluster 2. Hit paint line change bubble 4 as either blue or orange. Clean off cluster 3. Hit paint line change bubble 5 and 6 as either purple or orange. Clean off cluster 4.
9. Beeline the paint change and paint line change bubbles. Clean out the rest manually.
   
10. Carefully drop the bomb. Once you have it, press up on the D-pad to aim straight up at the blue chack'k. It should get all three in the blast radius. TIP: This one is easiest in 1 Player mode.
11. Brute force and good timing gets through this one easily. Aim for the corners of each diamond to drop the most change bubbles per shot.
12. WIDE STAGE Use the guide bubble whenever you feel like. Focus on removing the blanks from the supports until you can get to the ceiling.
13. Use the paint bubbles you can reach before the bombs if possible. There are too many support bubbles, so don't count on them dropping
14. WIDE STAGE Beeline for the paint line bubbles.
15. Aim the paint bubbles at the supports in the center of the stage. Pick off the clusters around the supports as well as the large blue and pink clusters near the top. This should leave you enough time to do the ceiling manually if you drop too many paint/paint line bubbles before you can fully utilize them.

EX

1. Carefully ricochet everything off the ceiling.
2. Beeline the bomb, then the green paint bubble. Finish off the top manually.
3. Use the paint line bubbles to make your life easier. Just aim for clearing off the supports.
4. WIDE STAGE Don't particularly bother trying to drop the special bubbles. Just brute force your way to the top. Your character will spend much of the time panicking.
5. 🌶 Most of this level is change bubbles so the star bubble does not really matter much unless you can somehow drop it, which is highly unlikely. Time your shots to match the color you have and brute force your way to the top.
6. WIDE STAGE If you can get the angle right, shoot up the chute between the bubbles to hit the Chack'ns. If you cannot, peel off the stripes until you can. TIP: Try this stage with the long pointer first.
7. Drop the bombs to break open the supports caging in the rest of the bubbles. The paint line bubbles are not particularly helpful but do not hurt overall.
8. Drop the bombs to break the triangles of support bubbles to make clearing bubbles easier.
9. 🌶 WIDE STAGE Drop whatever blasters you can at 3 & 9 o'clock orientation. You'll need to clear much of this stage manually. As you beeline the blasters, do not forget to shoot diagonally to drop off the sides.
   
10. [COME BACK TO THIS] Back to top

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble Strategy Guide—Part 4

Rainbow Factory

Gimmick: Timer, Blaster, paint change bubble.

Unlockables: Packy (VS mode), Robo Chack'n costume, Miniroon racer costume.

Normal

1. Brute force is fine.
2. Hit the blasters when they are exactly parallel (3 & 9 o'clock).
3. Hit the lower left blaster at 3 & 9 o'clock. Hit the upper blaster when it rotates to 10 & 4 o'clock, so it removes everything attached to the support on the lower right.
4. You will be given 4 blasters to get through this level. You only need 3 blasters to win. Drop the first blaster at 3 & 9 o'clock, then hit up on your D-pad to shoot it straight up. You will lose the second blaster. Carefully drop the third blaster only at 10 & 4 o'clock and remove the left side, and the fourth blaster at 2 & 8 o'clock to remove the right side.
5. Time your shot so the paint change bubble is the same color as the one you're shooting.
6. Same as 5. You might need to clean up a support or two manually at the end.
7. Aim to the right about 30 degrees. Clean through the entire right wall and as much of the ceiling as you can. You need to ricochet the off the wall and then ceiling to hit the paint bubble in the middle.
8. Ignore the planks. Clear off the support bubbles until you can get to the ceiling.
9. There are many ways to solve this. Brute force works fine. hit the bottom most blaster at an angle (10 & 4 or 2 & 8) when the other blasters are parallel (3 & 9) and drop the paint bubbles to clean up what remains.
10. Hit the bottom two blasters at an angle to open up the second tier of bubbles. If you can drop either the third or 4th blaster at 3 & 9, awesome. If not, just hit it at 3 & 9, and use the remaining blank bubbles to manually clean out the Chack'ns at the top.
11. The most important thing to do here is drop the planks. aim for the corner bubbles holding them up. Once those are out of the way, keep firing until you hit the Chack'ns in the matching colors.
12. A combination of brute force and careful timing will carry you through this stage. Your playable character will spend much of the time in a panicked state.
13. When you pop the yellow, orange and blue clusters, make sure the resulting paint bubbles are all the same color. I recommend blue. Fire one directly up. Fire the second one between the orange and yellow bubbles on the left, and the same on the right. Then pop the entire cluster.
14. Carefully peel off the paint bubbles on the left side one stripe at a time. If you don't have the right color, shoot directly up so the unneeded bubble bounces off the ceiling. You can easily hit the yellow bubble hanging off the ceiling with a paint bubble. Aim high and tear off as much as you can with each successive bubble until you can paint the last cluster including the orange bubble on the top right.
15. WIDE STAGE Dig until you open a blaster. Hit the blaster when it is parallel. Due to how wide the stage is, the blaster won't be able to extend all the way to both ends of the stage. If you hit the blaster on an angle, it is not the end of the world. Just be quick and dig your way to the top.

EX

1. Clear out the bottom of the hexagon. This will buy you some time to clean out the lower sides. Like endless mode, the less you need to move the pointer, the faster you can clean these out. Go up the sides until you can safely ricochet off the wall to clear out the top half of the stage. To reach the top half you want to be at around a 45 degree angle. Be careful not to get bubbles stuck on the planks creating more work for yourself.
2. Drop the star bubble with a yellow. Clean out the one blue bubble. Shoot the star bubble where the blue bubbles were so you hit all 4 remaining colors simultaneously.
3. Dig through the blanks until you can hit the paint bubbles. Clean off the top manually.
4. Hit the paint bubbles, even when they don't paint anything advantageous. Cleaning off the supports is more important.
5. 🌶 There are 5 blasters in this puzzle: two in the bottom row, one in the 2nd row, one in the 3rd row, and one in the 10th row. Starting on the bottom left, hit the blaster at 2-and-7 o'clock. Hit the bottom right one at 3-and-9 o'clock. Hit the 2nd row blaster at 2-and-7 o'clock again. Hit the 3nd row blaster at 10-and-4 o'clock again. Hit the top most blaster at 3-and-9 o'clock. This should open up a triangular cavern in the middle where you can hit both the blue and pink rows of Chack'ns easily.
6. TIP: Complete this level with the long pointer first before you try to 3 star it. First, get your character to stop panicking by shooting the diamond clusters of bubbles off the bottom row of rocks at the corners. Now shoot at a 30 degree angle, aiming directly to the left of the rock on the top row to hit the green Chack'n dead on. Do the same on the far right for the blue Chack'n. For the ones in the middle, imagine a straight line going through the cog wheels in the background. Draw a line through the center of those cog wheels to the pipes framing the stage—this spot is at the same level as the rocks in the bottom row. Drop your pointer to about 60 degrees to hit that spot. Shoot to the left. Your bubbles will bounce right until they hit the band of the release valve near the top right pipe—this spot is at the same level as the rocks in the top row. Then the bubbles will bounce off the ceiling to directly on top of the rocks in the top row. Keep shooting until you free orange Chack'n. Now rotate your pointer to the right and keep shooting until purple Chack'n is free.
7. Carefully peel off each paint bubble so they're all the same color. Paint the chack'ns the same color. You want to hit the rock in between the chack'ns to guarantee you'll paint two in the same burst. When they're all painted, hit the star bubble. There is almost no room for forgiveness in this stage so aim very carefully.
8. WIDE STAGE Time your shots to match the paint bubbles. It helps make clean up faster. Brute force should get you through the rest.
9. This stage has no room for error. If you mess up one of these blaster drops, restart. The idea is to drop one blaster at each of its different angles to remove all the bubbles from the inside of the rocks. You need one at 10 & 4 o'clock, one at 2 & 8 o'clock, and one 3 & 9 o'clock. If you mess this up, restart the level. There are three guide bubbles and three blasters. Imagine them labeled from left to right. Hit guide bubble 2 to knock it out of the way. Drop blaster 1 at 10 & 4 o'clock. Shoot this blaster in the space where guide bubble 2 was. Hit guide bubble 3 to knock it out of the way. Drop blaster 2 at 2 & 8 o'clock. Shoot this blaster in the space where the guide bubble 3 was. Angle your pointer to the right and drop blaster 3 at 3 & 9 o'clock. Angle your pointer to hit in between the rocks so you can remove the bubbles at the top inside the rocks. If you've managed to do this all in under 30 seconds, drop guide bubble 1 for a stage clear.
10. 🌶 WIDE STAGE This stage is too wide for you to just brute force your way to the top. Clear what you can and peel off the paint bubbles one at a time to clean off what you cannot. It'll be tight.

Back to top

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble Strategy Guide—Part 3

Rainbow Town

Gimmick: Paint bubbles, change bubbles, rocks.

Unlockables: Woolen (VS mode), Sheep Chack'n costume, Sheep Miniroon costume.

Normal

1. Hit the paint bubbles with the matching colors.
2. Same as 1.
3. Same as 1.
4. Time your shots to match the same color as the change bubbles.
5. Aim high to ricochet a bubble to the pink Chack'n at the very top.
6. Aim for the intersections with the change bubbles to drop off the rest.
7. Shoot carefully at the corners of the change bubble hexagons to get to the top as quickly as you can.
8. Brute force and the star bubble.
9. Drop the paint bubbles and shoot them at the supports.
10. Hit the bomb. Hit the pink paint bubble. Finish off the lower left rock manually.
11. Brute force works fine. Be careful not to make more work for yourself with the rocks.
12. Brute force works fine.
13. Use the Purple paint bubble to reach the first stripe. Use the Blue paint bubble in the top right, and the Orange paint bubble in the top left.
14. Hit the middle bomb. Drop the left bomb to remove the left support, then the right bomb to the right.
15. Wide Stage Use the paint bubbles to reach the horizontal stripes until you get to the top.

EX

1. Aim carefully to get around the rocks. There is very little room for error. You might get screwed over by RNG a few times before you manage to clear it.
2. Aim carefully to paint the whole track of bubbles between the rocks pink. It's a lot less forgiving than the last time.
3. 🌶 Hit the star bubble then brute force your way through the remaining pattern until all the supports clear. You'll need to ricochet most of your shots.
4. Brute force works fine.
5. WIDE STAGE Hit all the paint bubbles and you'll be fine.
6. More rocks. Aim carefully off the walls and you should be fine.
7. Brute force works fine. The paint bubbles are merely helpful.
8. WIDE STAGE Dropping the bombs in the middle will help take care of the clutter on the sides. Try to time your aim with the change bubbles.
9. More rocks. Wall bounce very carefully.
10. 🌶 Brute force and careful timing on the change bubbles. That's all there is to this one.

Back to top

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble Strategy Guide—Part 2

Miniroon Park

Gimmicks: Plank and Support. Clear all.

Unlockables: Miniroon (VS mode), Miss Chack'n costume, Chick Miniroon costume.

Normal

1. Brute force will work fine.
2. Same as 1.
3. Same as 1.
4. Use the bomb to blow a hole in the first cavity. Clear it out. Use another bomb to ricochet into the second cavity and clear it out.
5. Use the first star bubbles to get rid of the pink. The second star bubble should drop. Use the second star bubble to remove the blue.
6. Use the guide bubbles.
7. Same as 6.
8. Same as 1.
9. Same as 1.
10. Clean off the supports.
11. Use the bombs to destroy the supports.
12. Brute force. Make sure to get the two rows of greens on the sides to drop off the planks before they hit the danger line.
13. Same as 6.
14. Shoot diagonally to get around the planks until you can start hitting the bubbles on the ceiling. Brute force should work fine.
15. Clear what you can in the middle. Drop the bombs and shoot them through the middle as much as you can. Clear out the rest manually.

EX

1. Use the bombs to remove as many supports as you can.
2. Hit the intersections to get rid of the planks.
3. Take advantage of the stripe pattern to removed the blanks around the supports.
4. Brute force.
5. Clear the anchors. You will need to ricochet off the sides, and possibly the ceiling.
6. 🌶 Drop the bombs off carefully to bomb your way to the Chack'ns in the top left corner.
7. Same as Rainbow Village Normal Stage 8. You will need to ricochet to hit the Chack'ns in the top half of the screen.
8. Match the blanks near the Chack'ns.
9. Use the guides.
10. 🌶 WIDE STAGE Aim high. Match the blanks near the Chack'ns.

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble Strategy Guide—Part 1

Barron's Tower

This is endless mode. Just power through it. The COM players aren't terrible here. They're just not good at blanks. Use those power ups. Pay attention to how large clusters are being held up. Aim high and try to drop them off. Maximize the amount of bubbles you can clear with the minimum of movement. Good luck.

• Normal (1 P) 50k points
• Hard (1 P) 120k points
• Extreme (1 P)

Rainbow Village

Gimmick: Save Chack'n

Unlockables: Chack'n (VS mode), Goggles Chack'n costume, Headphones Miniroon costume.

Normal

1. Target the columns hanging off the ceiling to drop Chack'n.
2. Target the horizontal bubbles to drop Chack'n.
3. Hit the green.
4. Drop the star bubble. Shoot the star bubble in an intersection where it hits three colors. Finish off the remainder.
5. same as 4.
6. Use the star bubbles to clear each of the colors.
7. Drop the bomb. Shoot it directly up between the yellow Chack'ns.
8. Blast your way through with the bombs.
9. Use the blanks to quickly match with the Chack'n colors.
10. Brute force your way to the top.
11. Same as 10.
12. Same as 6.
13. Clear away enough to hit the bombs. Then get the last Chack'n manually.
14. Ignore the bottom row. Shoot diagonally through the blanks to brute force your way to the Chack'ns on the ceiling.
15. Use the bombs and star bubbles to clear out as much as you can, and clean out the rest manually.

EX

1. The chack'ns are surrounded to look like flowers. hit the petal colors.
2. Hit the star bubble, and then brute force your way to the top through the middle.
3. Same as Normal stage 4.
4. Brute force your way to the top through the middle.
5. 🌶 Dig up the sides until you can ricochet a bubble matching Chacn'n's color.
6. Brute force.
7. Aim slightly to the left of the first bomb to drop it off the yellow stem. Throw it to the left to make the next bomb open. Once you hit the top, start ricocheting off the left wall to hit the rest of the bombs. If a bomb has dropped into your possession, use it to get rid of the remaining Chack'n bubbles.
8. The idea is to shoot directly up the channel to hit the Chack'ns. If you can't make that, carefully peel off each stripe of the channels until you can make that shot. It will take serious practice. Good luck.
9. Hit the intersection of the vertical and first row of horizontal bubbles to drop the first bomb. Use the first bomb to drop the second bomb. Clear out enough of the third row to throw the second bomb in the space directly under the Chack'ns on the far right. Aim high to drop the third bomb. Shoot the third bomb into the space directly below the Chack'ns on the far left.
10. 🌶 WIDE STAGE Use the bombs to dig along the stripe pattern to the bombs on the top row.

Back to top

大学で日本語を勉強していた時、就職活動に対しては大学院生やジェットプログラムの参加者以外の勧告がなかった。先生たちも我々学生達のように迷い込んでいて、大学に残るという唯一の安全な選択肢を選んだじゃないかと思う。ご存じない方々に紹介すべかろう。ジェットプログラムは文部科学省が英語教育か文化交換のため外国人を輸入するプログラムなので、我々外国人の学部学生の中、競争が厳しく、落ちる可能性が高いものの、皆目指してみた。教育の方が入りやすくて日本語の一言も知らなくても入れると言われる。こういう参加者が日本のどんな学校でも送られる。万が一都市に設置された学校に就く。運転免許がないので公共交通のある都市へ行かせてくださいと面接で言ってしまった途端、落ちるなんて当然じゃないかと思って、結局落ちた。それにもうすぐ十年経って、今でも田舎の高等学校で英語教育をしているはずという夢を見る。否、「悪夢」というべき哉。

Corresponding ExR: Refinement part 1 FW pages 105-114

I have been on the fence about how to manage this one for agonizing months—perhaps over a year at this point. The way that Chinese works is, simply put, morpheme hell. Everything is a morpheme, sometimes bound, sometimes free, but morphemes don't obey the laws of parts of speech cleanly. And this is extra true for Classical Chinese—though I doubt MXTX was thinking that far ahead. (I'd be curious how much Classical Chinese is part of a standard Chinese school curriculum.)

I am reasonably convinced that the chapter title is probably a pun on the Lan clan motto: 雅正. Ya3zheng4 is a set phrase in Chinese, but utter nonsense in Japanese. According to Mandarin Bridge, it means “correct (literary) / upright / (hon.) Please point out my shortcomings. / I await your esteemed corrections.” However, if one were to dissect it, as one might expect to with Classical Chinese, we have [elegant]+[right]. Is 雅 an adjective or an adverb? Is 正 an adverb, an adjective, a noun, or even a verb? ExR translated this as simply “righteousness”; 7S as “Elegance and Righteousness”. Whatever the answer, 雅騒 ought to be parallel in its translation in order that the blatant allusion (i.e. the joke) lands. I'm going to play it safe for now but some potential alternatives I've workshopped thus far include:

• Righteously raucous
• Righteous ruckus
• Refined racket
• Cultured clamor

This needs much more thought before I commit to anything.

If I'm starting to have one complaint here it's that Zheng sensei the translator is throwing in a good number of Chinese words and assuming you'll just know them or look em up. Perhaps this is the style of the genre. I don't know. I've not read many full length novels, much less Chinese style dramas, in JP yet. MXTX's writing is not a standard example of the Wuxia genre.

Some vocabulary from inline notes: 家規 kaki: an example of blatant Chinese, and means 家訓 “family precept” 簫 shou: Lan Xingchen's instrument. It looks like a recorder at clarinet scale. 清談会 seidankai: “A meeting where representatives of each cultivation clan assemble and hold a conference.” I do have to wonder if Qingdan has any relation to this process. From what we've seen, these conventions are mostly politicking meetings, not philosophy discussions. 藤草 fujibakama: thoroughwort. Eupatorium. The standard spelling is 藤袴. Why they chose to use a non-standard spelling is beyond me. source: https://flower-photo.info/products/detail.php?product_id=111

The “Cloud Recesses” (some unknown place deep in the clouds) feels like it's probably a reference to something. I'm less sure “Lotus Pier” is but it's likely. I'd love for someone who can do primary source research to help me track down the references in the 3zun's names but that's way beyond my skill level.

ExR san, where did the Zen come from?

In such a tranquil place, one's heart would be still like water. Only the echoes of a bell tower could be heard vibrating through the air. Although it was incomparable to a holy temple, the cold mountains still send forth a lonesome air of Zen. (ExR)

山も人も、すべてが静けさに満ちていて、ここにいると凪いだ水面のように心が静まっていく。時折聞こえてくるのは高楼から響く鐘の音だけだ。寺院などではなく、一世家だが、ひっそりとして清澄な場所だ。(FW pg 104) The mountains and the people, everything was abundant with silence. Being here, one's heart would quiet like a calmed surface of water. Occasionally, the only thing one might hear is the sound of a bell echoing from a tall building. It wasn't a temple or anything, but rather the home of a prestigious family [another Chinese word]; it was a still, serene place.

“Morning reading” is clarified as “reading and sword practice”. Perhaps this is from watching too much anime, but whenever I see 結界 kekkai in a piece of text, I assume the “barrier” is magical rather than physical. That implication seems completely lost in ExR.

“It's all because of the unhealthy trend that the YiLing Patriarch started. There are so many people who copy him and cultivate that foolish method... (ExR)

Verdict: passable but I don't love it.

“It’s all the Yiling Patriarch’s fault for starting the trend with his evil craft. There are way too many people playing around with that senseless cultivation method of his…” (7S pg 121)

Verdict: absolutely not. You tried and got a rake to the face.

「あの夷陵老祖のせいで、邪道が流行りだして、真面目に修行しないで彼の真似をしようとする人があとを断ちません。... (FW pg 107) “It's all the Iryou Elder's fault that the unorthodox path is trending, and the [number of] people who try to imitate him without training seriously is without end.

This was a cute addition.

Each person wore the Lan Sect's uniform, with flowing, plain robes as white as snow. ほとんど藍家の雪のように白い校服を着ていて、皆落ち着いた雅な雰囲気を纏っている。(FW pg 108) They were mostly wearing the Lan household's uniform, white like snow, and were all clad in a calmed, elegant atmosphere.

Something I'd really love to know from someone who can do Chinese research better than I is how “Golden carp tower” came from 金麟台, because what's written here reads to me as “golden unicorn terrace”, even knowing that the golden carp legend is the same as the one surrounding Gyarados. I remember researching this once and Kotobank lead me to a fairly long poem about the construction of the Qilin Pavilion at Weiyang Palace 未央宮. I need to track that note-to-self down and post separately.

I can’t get over the image of LWJ’s clothes being a neat little block of tofu like at the grocery store.

The set of white clothes was folded extremely neatly, almost making one's hair rise. It looked like a snow-white piece of tofu—even the forehead ribbon was folded without any creases. (ExR)

その白い服は非常に几帳面に畳んであって、まるで真っ白い豆腐のようだ。しかも、抹額まで少しの歪みでもなくきっちりと畳まれていることに、思わず鳥肌が立ってしまう。(FW pg 113) Those white clothes were extremely meticulously folded, as if it were a pure white tofu. Moreover, even the headband was folded precisely without any distortions—so much so that it gave him goosebumps in spite of himself.

This was also a nice addition

The water in the spring was freezing. (ExR) 冷泉は肌を刺すような冷たさ... (FW pg 113) The cold spring had a skin piercing like chill...

Vibe check...

In the different sects, there was a type of discipline whip to punish disciples of that sect who made significant mistakes. After the torture, the scars wound never disappear. (ExR)

仙門には大罪を犯した門弟を懲罰する時に使う戒鞭（かいべん）というものがあって、ひとたびこれに打たれたら、その傷痕は永遠に消えない。 Among the cultivation world, there was a thing called a discipline whip which is used in order to punish disciples who had committed serious crimes. Each time one was struck by this, the scar would never disappear. (FW pg 113)

ExR: Arrogance Part 5 FW pg 93-104

The first thing that drew my eye was trying to figure out what Wen Ning is wearing in this scene. He’s described as wearing a 袍 hou, which is noted as 丈の長い上着 “an outer garment with a long length.” And in my brief half hour of research, I think I might be dealing with a false cognate here. Hou from my research on wikipedia and kotobank, are very specifically a type of outer garment generally warn by ancient nobility and some military officers as far back as the Nara period (710-794 CE). See item B below (reposted diagram of a 束帯Sokutai from Wikipedia. The hou is only a piece of the full getup.) They all have round collars. Many of them have raw edges in certain places where you would expect seams. Some of them also have an extra large decorative lower hem (this example does not).

Meanwhile Chinese 袍服 pao2fu2 does not point at a single garment (“generic robe”) so much as a category of garments with a particular style of construction: the whole thing is cut out of one piece of fabric (if I’m reading this correctly??). This garment style goes back as far as the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC – 256 BC). The round collar isn’t standard on the Chinese side the way it is on the Japanese side. Just based on the images it looks like a cross collar would be more common (which makes sense if you’re trying to minimize seams). Based on this discrepancy, I’m curious what novel-only Japanese fans would draw Wen Ning wearing. If only I had a twitter…

Fun trivia: The Japanese “kimono” is based on an 8th century CE style of pao2fu2.

Then again, as ExR states in their note about Jiang Cheng’s clothing—people draw him wearing whatever so don’t worry about it too much.

As I stated in Arrogance Part 4, I will be damned if I use “fierce corpse” for 凶屍 kyoushi and I refuse to use it. It just sounds dumb. I will not be doing a deep dive about the “fairies” in “fairies, beasts and evil spirits”, which FW translates as 妖獣と殺鬼 (“supernatural beasts and killer ghosts”).

Please allow me one dumb pun for WWX’s trashy flutestry—耳障り it’s ear-itating

Oyaji gyagu asside...

Now quotations. I swear I won’t be as long winded as last time.

One cultivator shouted at the top of his lungs, “Close in on him!” (ExR) 「奴を囲め！」と一人の修士が声を張り上げた。(FW pg 95) “Surround him [derogatory]!” one cultivator raised their voice.

Just a thought: 奴 yatsu could be any third person singular pronoun. “Surround him” is just as reasonable a conclusion as “Surround it”. I could envision the Cultivation World objectifying the poor guy after over a decade of our protagonist’s absence. “Close in on” is too verbose for a mob.

“Didn’t you bring signal firelights with you? Don’t you know to use them when you meet something like this? What are you pretending to be strong for? Scram over here!” (ExR) 「お前は信号弾を持っていなかったのか？あんな手強いモノが出てきたのになぜすぐに打ち上げない？無茶をするな、とっととこっちに来い！」(FW pg 97) “Didn’t you bring a signal flare? Why didn’t you use one when there was such a strong thing appeared? Don’t be so reckless, get your ass end over here right now!”

Ok, that’s embellished a little, but don’t tell me Jiang Cheng wouldn’t swear like that. “Scram over here” is just awkward. “Scram” is motion away from; “come here” is motion toward. This is contradictory.

In an instant, shock, disgust, anger, and disbelief all crossed Jiang Cheng’s face. (ExR) 一瞬にして、驚愕、憎悪、憤怒、そして信じられないという気持ちが胸の中で交錯し、混ざり合って江澄はきつく顔を顰める。(FW pg 98) In an instant, feelings of astonishment, abhorrence, indignation, and disbelief interlaced in his breast, blending together as Jiang Cheng severely scrunched his face.

Not saying ExR is wrong. Just that they could do better. If I really wanted to force the alliteration, I could go with “feelings of astonishment, abhorrence, anger, and apprehension”, or might need to think a little harder to find something else. I would prefer to use something a little stronger than “anger” for 憤怒 funnu, since 憤り ikidoori “resentment” came up a lot in the prior chapter, and I personally read it as foreshadowing for all the people who eventually got brutally murdered.

With an assured stroke, it was as if a rock had created thousands of waves in water. The sound of the zither had created countless ripples in the air, colliding with Zidian. The latter waned, and the former waxed. (ExR) Steadfast as he plucked the string, like a rock in a river rousing ripples, the sound undulated in the air. It clashed against the purple lightning, canceling the attack. (7S pg 111)

その指が弦を無造作に引くと、たった一つの石が千の波を引き起こすが如く琴の音は空気中にさざ波を無数に作り、紫電とぶつかり合って衝撃を相殺した。(FW pg 99) No sooner did his finger simply pluck the string, like a single stone bringing about a thousand waves, the sound of the koto made innumerable ripples through the air, colliding with Zuden and canceled out its impact.

Zidian=Zuden. ExR’s is the odd one out this time. I like 7S’s alliteration there.

With a slanting crack of his whip, Zidian slashed out with the semblance of a poisonous dragon, precisely landing on the center of his back! (ExR) He raised the whip and swung, and the purple lightning swam forth like a vicious dragon, striking him in the heart of his back! (7S pg 112)

…手を上げて鞭を斜めに振り下ろす。紫電はまるで毒龍の如く泳ぎ出し、ちょうど彼の背中に命中した。(FW pg 99) He raised his hand, and swung the whip down on a diagonal. Zuden swam forth just like a poisonous dragon, hitting him directly on the back.

Again, I like the Japanese best.

Lan WangJi, “…” Jiang Cheng, “…” He was both shocked and enraged… (ExR)

藍忘機は無言だった。江澄もしばし言葉を失っていたが、驚きのあまり急に怒鳴り声を上げた。(FW pg 100) Lan Wangji was silent. Jiang Cheng had also lost his words for a short while, but with great surprise he suddenly raised his voice in anger.

While there is a beauty to everyone saying “…”, there is better clarity making it a sentence.

In fact, the shout made Jiang Cheng, who cared about maintaining his reputation above anything else, unable to make another move. でないと紫電が虚名を博したことになる。面目を命と同じくらい大事にする江澄は、二度目を打つことはできなくなった。(FW pg 100) If he didn’t, he’d earn Zuden a false reputation. Jiang Cheng, who cherished face just as much as life, became unable to strike a second time.

hmm…

“In my opinion, he was probably bitter from being unable to cultivate using the correct method, he ventured off onto the wrong path.” (ExR)

ACCEPTABLE

“In my opinion, he was probably indignant at having failed in cultivating the orthodox path, and so he deviated. (7S pg 113)

ACCEPTABLE

私見ですが、おおかた彼は正道の修行に失敗し、腹いせに邪道に走ったのだと思われます。(FW pg 101) In my personal opinion, I think [humble] for the most part he failed at cultivating the orthodox path, so in retaliation he ran along the unorthodox path.

Don’t forget the passive can be used in active voice when you’re trying to be polite. “In my personal opinion, it is thought that…” is overly literal and a little nonsensical.

I’m translating the following two paragraph because there are 2 jukugo and 3 notes to trip over. Inline notes have been separated out.

Although he was infamous, people had to admit that, before the YiLing Patriarch Wei WuXian had betrayed the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he was known for being a handsome young man and a refined cultivator skilled in the six arts. He ranked the fourth among all of the young masters in the cultivation world, being described as lively and cheerful. On the other hand, the ill-tempered Sect Leader Jiang ranked five, surpassed by him, so most people weren’t so bold as to mention the matter. Wei Ying was a frivolous and wanton person who loved to have tangled ties with pretty girls. Nobody knew how many female cultivators he had troubled with his charms, but it was yet unheard of that he was also attracted to men. (ExR)

そもそも、現在の評判は良くないとはいえ、夷陵老祖魏無羨がまだ雲夢江氏から離反する前、彼は美男子として広く知られていた。六芸を見事にこなす風雅な名士として、世家公子の風格容貌格づけても第四位だったことは認めざるを得ない。世間の人々は、彼のことを口々に「豊神俊朗」と称賛したーーだが気性の激しい江宗主は第五位で、魏無羨に負けていたので、余計に話を持ち出すのは憚れた。 魏嬰は軽佻浮薄で美しい女性と遊ぶことが何よりも大好きで、いったいどれほど多くの仙子たちがこの遊び人に泣かされてきたか知れない。だが、彼が男も好きだったという話は今まで誰も聞いたことがなかった。(FW pg 101-102) One could say that presently he didn’t have a good reputation to speak of in the first place, but before the Iryou Elder Wei Wuxian defected from the Unbou Jiang clan, he was known far and wide as a handsome man. As a refined personage who was splendidly accomplished in the six arts^1, one could not help but acknowledge him as ranking fourth among all the young masters of the cultivation world in terms of personality and appearance. The public unanimously admired him as beauteous and vivacious^2.–but Sect leader Jiang who had a viscous temperament ranked fifth, and because he lost to Wei Wuxian, was afraid of what others might think if he broached the subject too much. Wei Ying was frivolous and loved nothing more than playing with beautiful women, and it cannot be known just how many senshi^3 were made to cry by this playboy. But to this day no one had ever heard that he also liked men.

And those notes:

六芸：身分のある者に必要とされた技芸で、礼儀・音楽・弓術・馬術・書道・算術のこと Six arts: arts necessary for any person of social standing, i.e. etiquette, music, archery, equestrianism, calligraphy, arithmetic.

豊神俊朗：顔が美しく朗らかで生き生きとしていること Houshin shunrou: someone with a beautiful face, cheerful, and lively

仙子：仙門に所属し、仙術を修行する女性の敬称 Senshi: a title of honor given to women affiliated with the cultivation world and practice cultivation.

Cf. ExR’s notes via English Wikipedia: Rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, mathematics. Japanese Wikipedia says something different. With regard to the Six Arts, Japanese Wikipedia says:

六芸（りくげい、六藝）は、中国の古代において二つの異なる意味で使われた。一つは儒教の六つの経典で、六経ともいい、五経とほぼ同じ意味である。もう一つは周の時代に教えたとされる六つの技芸である。まれに「ろくげい」と読む。本項では後者について解説する。 Six Arts (rikugei) has two different definitions with regard to ancient China. The first is the six Confucian sacred texts, also called rikukei, and has about the same meaning as gokei (“the five classics”). The other is six arts taught during the Zhou dynasty. Rarely read “rokugei”. This article explains the latter.

Later in the article it swaps out 馬術 “equestrianism” for 馬車を操る術 “technique for manipulating a horse-drawn vehicle”. That sounds a lot more like “charioteering” to me. (If anyone else wants to get lost on Wikipedia, the reason there are five Confucian Classics instead of six is because the “Rites of Zhou” is considered apocryphal.)

Also throwing this out there, “whether a human or a god” is usually “human or buddha”, but I’m not going to argue too much here. God is an acceptable substitute for Buddha, considering the source culture is Buddhist influenced and the target culture is Christian influenced.

Ok 2 last things…

His face was emotionless. “Mark your words.” (ExR) “As you say,” he said expressionlessly. (7S pg. 117) しかし、藍忘機はその言葉を聞いて、無表情のまま体ごと魏無羨の方を向いた。 「言ったな」 (FW pg 104) However Lan Wangji heard what he said, and turned his whole body to face Wei Wuxian without expression. “You said it.”

What he says in Japanese is really just “say-[perfect aspect]”. Everything else is completely subjective to the translator and I my gut feeling is that Chinese is not that different in this particular case. You could translate this a dozen different ways and they’d all be correct.

HOW THE HECK DOES IT TAKE LAN WANGJI 104 PAGES TO USE A PERSONAL PRONOUN??????

Because you asked, it’s 私 watashi because he’s a very polite stick in the mud. And it’s even more obvious retrospectively that Lan Wangji had significant influence in Lan Sizhui’s life because he also uses the same pronoun. Everyone else is an 俺 ore. If you haven’t watched enough anime to know the semantic differences between those, I’m sure you can find it in like 3 clicks. I don’t have time to write that essay. If I did, I’d make a separate post and it’d probably be 20 pages about the semantics of gender and pronouns in Japanese and how much can change on a dime.

Ok that should do it for my tumblr backlog.

ExR trans: Arrogance Part 4 FW pages 81-93

I am not a comparative religion expert, and I make no pretense of it. I’m just someone who reads Wikipedia too much.

観音 Kannon = Guan1yin1 = Avalokiteśvara, one of the most popular bodhisattvas in all of Buddhism. Bodhisattvas are people who have achieved Buddhist enlightenment but decided to stick around to help others achieve enlightenment too. Much like other Indian theological figures, they can have many forms, so what ExR says in their notes is not entirely correct. It just so happens that Avalokiteśvara in art tends to have more masculine depictions while Guanyin has more feminine depictions, but they’re not mutually exclusive. Further readings　 Seriously, I type in 男姿の観音 (“male kannon”) and the first result is a photo gallery of a master Buddha sculptor in Kyoto, Japan.

九天玄女 Kytuuten gen'nyo = Jiu3tian1 Xuan2nü3 = Dark lady of nine heavens 7S readers, I highly recommend you pencil in some umlauts on pages 90 and 388. I know that English is allergic to diacritics, but this one is important. “nu” and “nü” are totally different sounds. The Dark Lady of Nine Heavens is a figure in Chinese folklore described as an immortal in Daoism and a goddess elsewhere. As stated, Xuannü presides over war, sex, and longevity, a la wikipedia. Not sure where 7S got “protectress of the nation” but I’m going to chalk that up to them doing more primary source research than I did. The big story mentioned on Wikipedia revolves around her being a mentor to the Yellow Emperor, who has a long list of accomplishments as a mythological figure in his own right. Xuannü is the elder sister of 九天素女 jiu3tian1 su4nü3/kyuuten sojo, the Pure Lady of Nine Heavens, another music and sex deity. There’s a third sister mentioned on the English page but somehow not the Japanese or Chinese pages, cai4nü3 彩女, the Colorful Lady. I think she must be better known by another name, since I’m not getting any search results. Japanese wiki also links back to a few more literary appearances of Xuannü: in 12th century Chinese literary classic Water Margin 水滸傳 shui3hu3zhuan4/suikoden (chapter 41), 16th century novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt 三遂平妖傳 san1 sui4 ping2 yao1 chuan2, and 18th century Japanese travelogue Journey to the East 東遊記, touyuuki (yes, that’s blatant literary homage to Journey to the West 西遊記 xi1you2ji4/saiyuuki) Further reading on Jiutian Xuannü I’m not linking the Taoist sexual practices page… you go look that up on Wiki yourself.

玉皇大帝 gyokukoutaitei = yu4huang2da4di4 = Jade emperor Basic reading material here. The Jade Emperor is a deity in both Chinese folklore and Daoism. Most of you are probably reading TGCF. If you’re curious enough to look up Junwu as a mythological figure, I won’t be redundant. It is strange to me that FW defines him as a 神 kami. Daoism doesn’t seem to be keen on gods, I thought? I really need to do some further reading…

Note to self: I need to read the Classic of Mountains and Seas at some point. It was quoted at the beginning of every segment of Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow, and I was really curious about it back then, and I am even more now.

ExR uses “Erjin temple” but FW just uses 寺院 jiin. They’re totally different words. Erjin temples, as ExR notes, are a specific kind of temple built well into the mountains. I’m still not sure what the base word is to back check a Chinese dictionary whether it’s a term affiliated with a particular religion or not. Jiin appears to be a catch all for Buddhist temples. “A building in which statues of Buddha are enshrined, where monks/nuns live, where religious worship, training, and ceremonies are performed.” The Encyclopedia Nipponica has a long article on word origin and usage of each of those characters, 寺 ji and 院 in respectively, and their usage differences between India, China, and Japan, and I will stop myself from going on that tangent here.

Customary units of measure are a trip. It’s one of those things that changes based on your location and time period. 1 丈 zhang4/jou = 10 尺 chi3/shaku. The Dancing Devi is about “3 丈” tall. Is this thing really 3 meters/9.84 ft tall in traditional units?

• 3 zhang4 = 30 chi3 = 30x0.32 m= 9.6m, or 3012.6 in=31.5 ft (pre-1915 China) OR
• 30x33.33 cm = 10 m, 30x13.12 in = 32.8 ft (post 1930 China)
• 3 jou = 30 shaku = 30x30.30 cm = 9.09 m OR 30x11.93 in = 29.825 ft (Japan)

Some references for metrics

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_(unit)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zh%C3%A0ng
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement

Jin Ling insults the thing anyway.

“Powerless goddess without status” (ExR) “some nameless rogue deity” (7S pg. 92) 聞いたこともない野良神 (FW pg. 83) “a stray deity I've never even heard of”

Not to be confused with the manga by the same name. 野良 nora is the “stray” you’d use for “stray cat”. I’m giving this one to 7S.

Also! ExR, with all due respect, your use of idiom leaves much to be desired. There are some phrases which inexplicably happen to be near identical across multiple languages. “Strike while the iron is hot” is one of them. “[Kill] two birds with one stone” is another. Why is this footnoted?

The townspeople of Buddha’s Feet were all astonished and thought that it was a magical stone formed by gathering he energy of heaven and earth… (ExR)

佛脚鎮の人々は非常に驚き、これは天地の霊力が結集した神の石だと信じて…… (FW pg 81) The people of Buddha’s Leg Garrison were extremely surprised–they believed that this was a stone deity concentrated from the spiritual power of heaven and earth…

ExR you are dropping adjectives again…

What happens in the cave had enough differences on both sides I got thrown off a few times.

With a few shings, everyone in the cave had either drawn their swords or taken out their talismans. At the same time, a person suddenly burst in from outside the temple, holding a gourd of medicinal alcohol. He threw it toward the stone statue, and raging flames sprouted from it, illuminating the stone cave so that it could even pass for daytime. … Before, the statue clearly had one foot lifted and both of its arms raised upward, of which one was pointing directly at the sky, its form graceful. However, amid the crimson and yellow flames, it had lowered both its arms and its foot. there was no doubt–it definitely wasn’t a mistake of the eye! (ExR)

石窟の中の者たちがそれぞれ剣を抜いたり、呪符を取り出したりする音が響く。ちょうどその時、祠の外から突然誰かが駆け込んできて、薬酒入りのひょうたんを天女像に向かってぶちまけた。石窟の中は、たちまちむせかえるような強烈な酒気で満ち溢れる。その男が呪符を一枚取り出して素早く石像に投げつけると、神座の上の石像から轟々と烈火が燃え上がり、石窟の中をまるで昼間のように照らした。 … 先ほどまで石像の両腕は上がっていた。片方の腕は天を指し、足も片方だけ上げていて、その姿はなんともなまめかしく色気があった。それが、今や炎の中のその手足はすべて下ろされている。決して見間違いなどではない！(FW pg 83-84) The sound of the folks in the cavern drawing their swords or pulling out talismans resounded. At that very moment, someone from outside the shrine suddenly rushed in, turned a gourd filled with medicinal alcohol toward the celestial maiden statue, and dumped out its contents. The inside of the cave was flooded with the overpowering smell of liquor as though it was choked all at once. That man pulled out a talisman, and no sooner did he promptly throw it toward the stone statue, conflagration erupted thunderously from the stone statue on the altar*, illuminating the inside of the cavern as though it were daytime. … Up until this point, the stone statue had both arms raised. One arm pointed toward the heavens, and it lifted both feet and just that one arm; and its form was really crudely adorned, and had sex appeal. Now, amongst the flames its limbs were all lowered. There was absolutely no mistaking it.

神座 shinza isn’t quite an altar. It’s the part of the shrine where the “god” “sits”. There’s no snappy one-to-one English word that I know of. I no longer recall if I had said so in a previous post, but part of the reason I go back and forth between “Celestial Maiden” and “Devi” is because of the donghua’s interpretation of this statue having extra body parts the way an Indian depiction of a many formed non-human being would. I also like the alliteration of “dancing devi”. You could argue 色気 iroke is “grace” but that’s not the first definition of the word. According to Jisho.org, “grace” number 4. The extra olfactory imagery combined with the more powerful flame imagery of the Japanese I think sets the scene a little better. I would like to know what happened to the “crimson and yellow” flames, but alas. You could also argue I under translated 見間違い mimachigai by not specifically including the explicit visual factor 見 mi. “Misjudgment” didn’t feel right; “mistake of vision” was too verbose. I’d have to think a lot longer to come up with something better, but I still have a ton more quotations to go through.

Lan JingYi’s face was pale with terror… (ExR)

蘭景儀が死んだような顔をした。(FW pg 85) Lan Jingyi made a face like he had died.

Poor kid

“…Dead souls are a lot easier to absorb than living souls… This creature only eats living souls, and knows of a way to obtain them. It is both powerful and selective in terms of food.”

死霊の魂は生霊の魂よりも遥かに吸い取られやすい…それなのに、あの天女像は簡単に食べられる死霊の魂じゃなくて、わざわざ生霊の魂だけを選ぶような偏食だ。(FW pg 86) The soul of a spirit of the dead is by and far much easier to absorb than the soul of a spirit of the living…Despite that, that devi statue appears to be a picky eater who chooses not the souls of dead spirits which it could simply eat, but only souls of the living, on purpose.

I need to revise my glossary yet again. The last time I saw 生霊 ikiryou, I thought WWX was talking about astral projection. A “Wraith” is “an apparition of someone that is believed to appear as a portent just before that person’s death.” (Wordnik.com) so I thought it might line up nicely. I was wrong.

Also at some point in this discussion, around page 88ish, they stop using plain old 魂 tamashii to describe what the Dancing Devi consumed and switch over to 魂魄 konpaku, which, if I’m reading this Wikipedia page correctly, has different theological implications. TLDR Chinese spiritualities postulate that you don’t have just one soul, but several, and they come in two varieties: 魂 hun2 is connected to human mental capacities while 魄 po4 pertains more to the flesh. You can have multiples of each. When you die, 魂 hun2 separates from 魄 po4, which is why your spirit wanders off but your corpse remains.

“Wait, so you’re really not a lunatic?” (ExR) 「ちょっと待てよ⁉あんた、本当は阿保じゃなかったのか⁉」　(FW pg 86)

No, he’s not a simpleton either.

Lan JingYi, “All of these are just your guesses, right?” (ExR) 「そりゃそうだけど。でもこのまま仮説を立て続ければ、きっとすべての辻褄が合うはずだ。」 (FW pg. 88) “That may be so. But if you keep raising hypotheses like this, they should all be consistent eventually.”

They better be given how much text I’m rekeying.

The goddess statue was originally just an average rock which happened to look like a person. Having accepted a few hundred years’ worth of worship without any reason, it had gained some powers. Yet, because it was greedy and its thoughts ventured off the wrong path, it had wanted to quickly increase its powers by eating souls. …the creature in Dafan Mountain wasn’t any sprite, demon, ghost, or monster, but a goddess! This was an untitled goddess born from the hundreds of years of incense. Using the items used to deal with evil spirits and beasts to deal with it would be like using fire to distinguish [sic] fire! (ExR)

天女像は、たまたま人間の姿に似ていたため、奇しくも数百年も祀られ続け力を得たが、もともとただの石の塊でしかなかった。しかし非常に欲深い天女像はいつからか魔が差して、信じ難いことに魂魄を吸って食べることによって力をさらに増幅させようと目論んだようだ。……大梵山にいる怪異の正体は、妖魔鬼怪の類ではなく、神だったのだから！ 食魂天女は、数百年にわたって祀られてきた野良神のなれの果てだ。だから、殺鬼や妖獣を退治するためのものを使って戦うのは火で火を消そうとするのも同然だ！(FW pg 89) The devi statue miraculously gained power through continued worship over several hundred years due to the fact that it somewhat resembled a human, but originally it was nigh but a clump of rock. However, the extremely greedy devi statue at some point succumbed [to its greed], and as hard as it is to believe, appears to have schemed to magnify its power even more by consuming souls… Because the true face of the mystery of Mount Daibon was not some type of creature, demon, ghost, or monster, but a deity! The soul eating devi was a shadow of its former self–a stray deity worshiped over hundreds of years. So fighting it by using thing for exorcising killers or beasts would be no different from trying to extinguish fire with fire!

When I first saw “ventured onto the wrong path” I was a little nervous we might have another questionable compound ending with ending 道. It didn’t quite go where I thought it would. On the other side of this equation is 魔が差す ma ga sasu, an idiom both containing a key word, 魔=demon, and meaning “to be possessed by an evil spirit” as definition number one. I liked definitions two and three better, “to give in to an urge, to succumb to temptation”, and I would also like to emphasize there’s absolutely no way this stone statue could ever be a “demon,” as per the definition of which in Chapter 4, given that it was “originally a clump of rock”. 妖魔鬼怪 youmakikai isn’t a word in Japanese, but yao1mo2gui3guai4 is in Chinese, and there’s a set translation for it. Without the context of Chapter 4, I would ascertain ExR is overtranslating 妖魔鬼怪, but with that context, taking it one character at a time is perfectly fine. I’m using my own and totally ignoring ExR’s note. There’s genuinely no satisfying way to parse 妖 you (ayakashi)/yao1, and as far as I know, there aren’t enough examples of them in this novel to even bother trying. I’m not typing up the whole paragraph from 7S but they use nefarious being for 妖魔鬼怪 and malicious spirits for 殺鬼や妖獣. I see why they might have done that (e.g. lack of context) but I do not agree.

Wei WuXian couldn’t help but to comment, “Why are you blindly worshiping him? Even his own inventions were a mess! (ExR) Wei Wuxian replied helplessly, “What are you blindly believing ion him for? Anything he came up with was utter bullshit. (7S pg 100)

「あんな奴の言葉なんてむやみに信じるなよ。あいつは自分のことすらちゃんとできない、めちゃくちゃな人間だからな！(FW pg 90-91) “Don’t believe whatever that [sort of] guy says so indiscriminately! He [derogatory] was a mess of a man who couldn’t even take care of himself properly!

The reason I bring this one up is because I’m not sure exactly where his “inventions” comes from? It is bothering me.

To extinguish fire, water was needed. Therefore, if magical weapons didn’t work, what about dark sorcery? (ExR)

DISAGREE

You need water to extinguish fire. If spiritual devices wouldn’t work, then how about demonic tricks?! (7S pg 101)

DISAGREE

火を消すには水を、仙門法器がダメなら、邪門鬼道の技を使うしかない！(FW pg 93) To extinguish fire, [missing verb] water; if the tools of the trade of the school of cultivation were no good, then one could only use the techniques of the evil school of the ghost path!

I’m being overly literal with 仙門法器 senmon houki for the sake of a parallel structure that’d otherwise be dropped entirely, because I thought it was cleverly worded. For the record’s sake, these are totally made up strings of characters. They’re not real words. I have to do mental back flips to make them real words. Break down as follows. Translation… is pain.

• 仙 = immortality, >> “cultivation”
• 門 = gate, branch of learning based on the teachings of a single master
• 法 = method, law, rule, principle, model, system; can be stretched to “magic” via 魔法 mahou
• 器 = utensil, vessel, receptacle, implement, instrument, ability, container, tool, set
• 邪 = wicked, evil, wrong
• 鬼道 >> “ghost path”

This should have been a last resort for him, but however, with the situation already like this, it didn’t matter what he summoned. It’d be fine as long as the dark energy was strong enough and the killing intent was keen enough, so that it could rip the soul-consuming goddess into pieces! (ExR) He shouldn’t have done this unless it was absolutely necessary. But with things as they were, he no longer cared hat was summoned, as long as it was murderous enough and vengeful enough. As long as it could rip apart the soul-eating Heavenly Maiden, it was good enough! (7S pg 102)

万策尽きるまで、この手を使うつもりはなかった。だがこうなったら、どんなモノが召喚されてももう構わない。邪気が強く凶暴で、あの食魂天女をズタズタに引きちぎってくれるモノであれば！(FW pg 92) He didn’t plan on using this tactic until all other means were exhausted. But at this point he didn’t care what sort of thing he summoned. As long as it was something with strong malice and ferocious, that could tear that soul-eating devi to pieces!

I really don’t like ExR’s “dark energy”. 7S is a little more piecemeal than FW’s is, but it’s certainly closer to my back translation.

The word only referred one person—the right-hand man of the YiLing Patriarch Wei Ying, who had helped with the tyrant’s crimes, stirred upwind and waves, played the jackal to the tiger, overturned the world with him, and most of all was a fierce corpse who should have been turned into ashes a long time ago—Wen Ning! (ExR)

この単語を指すのはただ一人。それは夷陵老祖魏嬰の第一の手下で、彼の悪逆を助けて騒ぎを引き起こした共犯者であり、天地を覆すほどの力を持ち、とうの昔に焼き払われ灰にされたはずの凶屍――温寧！ (FW pg 93) This word referred to only one person. That was the Iryou elder Wei Ying’s number one subordinate, the accomplice who assisted his atrocities and provoked uproars, a revenant who had the power to overthrow heaven and earth, and who was supposed to have been burnt to the ground and reduced to ashes–Wen Ning!

As stated in the above post, I will be damned if I ever use “fierce corpse”; it sounds dumb. Interesting turn of phrase there in the ExR translation but I’m not sure what exactly it’s pointing at. Maybe that was an addition on their side? 焼き払われ灰にされた is pretty redundant, and if I wasn’t back translating most of the time, I would have dropped one of them.

『下終南山過斛斯山人宿置酒』　李白

Li Bai (701–762) is a Tang dynasty poet known for a) mundanity and b) embracing the booze. I’m not saying his entire body of work expresses his ideal world is best seen through beer goggles, but being at least tipsy is definitely a recurring theme… Hu2si1 (JP: Kokushi) san1ren2 is a hermit friend of Li Bai. That is all the information I can find on him. (The dictionary entry for 道士 doushi covers both Daoists and Buddhists, so without Chinese reference material, I’m at a loss as to which is correct.) Li Bai was also friends with Du Fu. Extremely influential guy. I’m doing a fabulously poor job of introducing him. I’m also too lazy to look up a date for this poem. Honestly the only reason I’ve translated this at all is because it comes up as a citation for 忘機 bouki/wang4ji1. As much as I’ve stared at this, I don’t love this translation. I could do better. Source text from here.

Classical Chinese

暮從碧山下 Dusk descends from the verdant mountain 山月隨人歸 The mountain and moon follow people home 卻顧所來徑 Yet looking back upon the road I just came down 蒼蒼橫翠微 A green mountainscape lies hazily ahead 相攜及田家 Carrying each other to reach rice paddies and houses 童稚開荊扉 Children open briar doors 綠竹入幽徑 Green bamboo enters the secluded path 青蘿拂行衣 Fresh ivy* brushes my travel clothes 歡言得所憩 Joyful words acquire a place to rest 美酒聊共揮 Fine liquor passes around as we chat together 長歌吟松風 We sing long songs to the pines and wind 曲盡河星稀 Melodies exhausted the river and stars are rare 我醉君復樂 I’m drunk you keep having a good time 陶然共忘機 Tipsy together we forget worldly concerns

*青 qing1 is usually blue but it describes “green” plants. I’m using “fresh” to not be redundant. I’ve looked at four dictionaries for what plant 蘿 luo2 could be. Lin Yutang says “turnip,” Mandarin Bridge says “radish,” Denshi jisho says “moss” or “ivy.” The “modern Japanese” translation below uses “ivy” so I will too. And image searching just gives me a strange assortment of plants and cartoon women.

I’m not translating the Classical Japanese on this one because it makes several choices I disagree with.

來る所の徑を卻顧すれば would make more sense as 来る所の徑を却って顧みれば even if it sounds a little repetitive. 卻顧 is not a word as far as my usual dictionaries tell me. I don’t like the way 6 lines (童稚 through 長歌) have an unnecessary space after the first two characters. Just add a comma! 美酒　聊か共に揮ふ I propose 聊 is a verb here, not an adverb. 陶然として共に機を忘れん I’ll take “pleased+thus” as “tipsy” but I think separating 忘機 into 機を忘れん is a bit much? I’m hard pressed to find a definition of 機 that even makes sense. It’s a “loom”; it’s a “machine”. It can be stretched into “opportunity”, “impetus”, the “inner workings” of something either physical or abstract, like the heart. bangs head on desk

Here’s the Modern Japanese translation

日暮れに碧山から下ってくると、 山月も我々についてくる、 下りてきた道を振り返れば、薄暗い山中に道がぼんやりと続いて見える 君と連れ立って田家につけば、子どもらが門を開けて迎えてくれた、緑の竹が幽徑まで生い茂り、青いツタが我が衣にまとわりつく 談笑しながら体を休めるところを得て、ともに美酒を酌み交わそう、松風に乗せて長々と歌を歌い、歌い終われば天の川もかすかになる 私は酔った、君もまた楽しめ、この境地に遊んでつまらぬことは忘れよう

Whenever we descend from the verdant mountain at dusk, The mountain and moon both come with us If we turn back to look at the path we’ve come down, We can see the path continues hazily into the gloomy mountains Accompanying you when we reach rice paddies and houses, Children open their gates to welcome us Green bamboo grows on even secluded paths Fresh ivy clings to my robes We acquire a place to rest our bodies while in pleasant conversation Lets pour drinks from this fine liquor together Singing songs for a long time on the [sound of] wind blowing through pine trees When we’re done singing the milky way grows faint I’m drunk, you keep having a good time Let’s stay like this for a while and forget about boring things

Absolutely bold take there proposing that 機 worldly affairs =つまらぬこと boring things

Alternative translations * https://www.istudy-china.com/li-bai-descending-zhongnan-mountain-and-meeting-si-the-hermit-with-english-translations/ * https://allpoetry.com/Down-Zhongnan-Mountain-