Joy of Translation

Monterey Language Services worked to translate an excerpt of a very famous Mandarin pop song, 青花瓷 (Blue and White Porcelain).

We present an English translation that recreates the story of the original song in comfortable, singable English.

Even if you don’t speak Chinese, you can truly enjoy and sing the song! That is precisely the intention of this project – to show how much joy a great piece of translation can bring to people.

Be on the lookout for our YouTube videos, which will have both individuals and groups singing the song!

For reference: https://youtu.be/EWIOdhz4oQQ

Interpretation of the Lyrics

Our translation is based on our unique interpretation of the lyrics as a dialogue between an art connoisseur and an antique blue and white porcelain vase from the Song dynasty.

The art connoisseur stumbles upon the vase in a town south of the Yangtze river, in the Jiangnan (“south of the river”) region, an area known for its drizzly weather, for the beauty and soft-spoken nature of its residents, and for being the birthplace of many beautiful works of pottery.

Banana trees, rain, and door-rings rusting green portray not only the humid climate of Jiangnan, but also the perfect weather for bringing out the best color in making porcelain.

The song recalls this fateful encounter and the art connoisseur’s feelings of longing for this immortal work of art.

As listeners, we are invited to share in the connoisseur’s feelings of awe towards the secrets of ancient pottery that have been forgotten for thousands of years.

This art connoisseur could even be imagined as a non-Chinese person fascinated with Chinese culture.

In the second verse, the art connoisseur sees a bowl with leaping carp and is reminded of an antique blue and white porcelain vase, or “you.” The verse describes his discovery of the vase behind a splashed ink painting among other old works of art.

The lyrics reference many different traditional Chinese arts and crafts, such as calligraphy, seal-carving (such as for the potter’s marks stamped on the underside of vases and bowls), embroidery, and landscape painting in the “splashed ink” style.

The song can be viewed as a love letter to Chinese culture.

About the Original Song

With their 2007 song “Blue and White Porcelain”, musician Jay Chou and lyricist Vincent Fang ushered in a trend of “Chinese style” (中國風) songs in Mandopop music, fusing traditional Chinese cultural elements and instrumental stylings with contemporary and Western influences.

Vincent Fang’s lyrics are crafted in a hybrid of modern and classical Chinese, blending literary allusions to classical art forms with the intimacy of address in a modern love song.

Apparently, Fang initially wrote the song about a different kind of pottery called Ru ware (汝瓷), known for the beautiful sky-blue color of its glaze.

However, because a song titled “Ru ware” seemed too esoteric, the theme was eventually changed to blue and white porcelain.

This porcelain is more widely known and therefore easier for the audience to visualize, and Fang also thought it was better suited to convey love, the emotion at the song’s core.

Lyrics

色白花青的錦鯉 躍然於碗底
Carp leaping live in the bowl, painted white and blue

臨摹宋體落款時 卻惦記着你
tracing the old potter’s mark, I’m thinking of you

你隱藏在窯燒裏千年的秘密
You’re the secret kept in the kiln all these centuries

極細膩猶如 繡花針落地
fine as a sewing needle’s falling ‘clink’

簾外芭蕉惹驟雨 門環惹銅綠
Banana trees tempt the rain, doors rust to green

而我路過那江南小鎮惹了你
and when I passed through your town, you enchanted me

在潑墨山水畫裏
Splashed in the landscape painting

你從墨色深處被隱去
you were hidden in the depths of ink

Credit and Disclaimer

The original Chinese song is credited here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf8HHCcbpFc&list=PLZMNI72DYSfavFSLH-o0WfWQ2C-1dbj_e&index=13

This English translation is a collaboration between Mei-Ling Chen and Christoph Zhang.

The English translation shown in this video is property of Monterey Language Services for purely educational purposes.

Monterey Language Services has no intention to use it for commercial profit.

People have come up with all sorts of ways to show appreciation and help each other during these hard times. In cities across the world, when 8 PM rolls around people head to their balconies and yards to cheer, clap, bang pots, and make as much noise as they can to show their support for health care workers. There are countless examples of individuals taking action to make the best of the situation, like this neighborhood in Oakland that threw a “social distance block party” and these people performing music and leading exercises for their apartment buildings.

Social media is a great tool for helping people and spreading positivity. People are using social media to connect people who need help with people who can provide that help. For example, the app Nextdoor (a social media app for your neighborhood) has developed a “help map” feature, where participants can sign up to be “helpers” in their neighborhood. Anyone in the area who needs extra assistance knows that they can contact these people to run errands, do check-ins, etc. Cultural institutions, like museums, are using social media to connect with their fans in new and fun ways. For example, the Getty Museum has posted a challenge online for people to recreate works of art with everyday objects. The results are creative and hilarious, and bring some lightness to the difficult situation of being stuck at home.

Companies and corporations are also taking huge steps to help people during this pandemic. General Motors has partnered with Ventec, a ventilator supply company, to drastically increase the number of ventilators that are being manufactured. This has the added benefit of keeping many GM workers employed that might otherwise have lost their jobs. Some distilleries, such as the Shine Distillery in Portland, have started making hand sanitizer, a critical resource that is currently quite difficult to obtain. These are just a few examples; please check out this Forbes list for more.

At Monterey Language Services, we love seeing all the ways that individuals, organizations and companies are coming together to provide help in this difficult situation. We are doing our best to provide help how we can: we are continuing to provide translation and interpretation services for any client that needs it. We also want to spread the message that we are here for each other, and we can get through this together!