幸福的青鸟?

[Lu]

Another Sanmao question. Sanmao and José go to eat out at a very nice, high-end, expensive restaurant. The atmosphere is so pleasant that Sanmao almost forgets she's in the dusty, 辛苦 desert at all. As the (nice, high-end, expensive) dishes arrive, she sighs: 啊！幸福的青鸟来了！

 

What does that mean? I haven't been able to find online what a 幸福的青鸟 is. For now, my translation is 'Oh, this is the good life', but it would be nice to get something more precise.

 

Any help is appreciated!

[TheBigZaboon]

Did she order beer?

Dusty, thirsty, beer!!! Qingdao!!!

But, then again, I have a rather one-track mind...

Just the first thing that came to mind at 6:10am in this part of the world...

[Lu]

No, they ordered the finest red wine. Also they're in the Spanish Sahara, I should have mentioned that. So probably not Qingdao or any other beer. But thanks for your thoughts!

[Geiko]

Is it 青島 like the beer or 青鳥 as you wrote in the first post? If I google 幸福的青鳥 I find many results about a mythological bird.

[Geiko]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird_of_happiness

The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years. One of the oldest examples (found on oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, 1766-1122 BC) is from pre-modern China, where a blue bird (qingniao) was the messenger bird of Xi Wangmu, the 'Queen Mother of the West' who began life as a fearsome goddess and Immortal. By the Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD) she had evolved into a Daoist fairy queen and the protector/patron of "singing girls, dead women, novices, nuns, adepts and priestesses...women [who] stood outside the roles prescribed for women in the traditional Chinese family".[1] Depictions of Xi Wangmu often include a bird—the birds in the earliest depictions are difficult to identify, and by the Tang Dynasty, most of the birds appear in a circle, often with three legs, as a symbol of the sun.[2]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingniao

Qingniao is especially regarded as the messengers or as otherwise serving the Queen Mother of the West Xi Wangmu. In some sources, three-legged Qingniao carry her messages; in other sources, a single one-legged Qingniao fetched her food.[1] In some versions, three, sometimes three-legged, green birds brought her food

[TheBigZaboon]

Sorry about that...

Old eyes, and early morning blahs...

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...

Somebody in the background chiding me for not recognizing the obvious difference between a bird and an island... Woe is me...

[Geiko]

The funny thing is that I also read 島 at first, it wasn't until I checked Pleco that I realised my mistake. I think we all need a beer!

[lan-su]

This short story by San Mao might offer some clues ...

http://www.ccview.net/htm/xiandai/wen/chenmaoping086.htm

[eslang]

一语道破解千愁——论三毛散文的语言特色
http://www.xdjjw.net/xiandaijiaoji/xueshujiaoliu/2010-06-10/1161.html

如遇美味，她不说“哇，上菜了！”而说“啊！幸福的青鸟来了”。
这只“青鸟”原来是象征主义戏剧家梅特林克笔下象征幸福的光明。

 

【篇一：青鸟读后感】
http://www.yashadd.com/a/153287.html

在主人公寻找青鸟的过程中，人们最终知道，幸福的真正含义就在于，自我牺牲和给予他人。幸福存在于生活的每一个细节中。阳光里，空气里，时间的流传里，到处充满着人们没有发现的幸福。还记得三毛文章中那辆幸福的大巴士吗？其实幸福就在你的身边。生命的本身就是幸福的。

 

The Blue Bird (French: L'Oiseau bleu) is a 1908 play by Belgian playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Bird_(play)

Maurice Maeterlinck (莫里斯·梅特林克)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Maeterlinck

 

可以做个参考，不一定准。

[roddy]

Suggestion from a fellow professional, feel free to disregard:

 

"Oh, the bluebird of happiness has arrived," exclaimed Sanmao as yet another expensive delicacy arrived.

"WTF?" exclaimed Jose. "Can't you just talk normally? And what's with your name? Three-hair?"

[Lu]

I think 'bluebird of happiness' may be a false friend. Also it won't work in Dutch, we don't have a blauwvogel.

 

And you know where Sanmao's name comes from, no? I don't know if Jose even knew she called herself that in Chinese. He never learned the language.

 

/end of seriously engaging with snark

 

Lan-su, thanks, but I think that story was written many years after the story I'm translating. She didn't travel to South America until after Jose had died, if I'm not mistaken.

 

Others: thanks! Apparently I just hadn't payed attention :-/ I'll find some nice solution from all your information.

[Angelina]

Maybe you don't have to translate it verbatim. The Chinese language (or languages) has many colourful expressions.

 

How would you translate a Chinese person saying that their dog: "胆小"? Do dogs even have an actual physical 胆?  Sometimes verbatim works, sometimes not, depends on context. 

[Lu]

Sometimes verbatim works, sometimes not, depends on context.

Yes, that is pretty much what my work entails.

[lan-su]

I would think that for your purposes chronological sequence doesn't matter ... You don't have to be a trained literary critic to recognize that whenever an author returns to a theme, it's significant ... Each usage is a definition and provides a clue to intention ... Writers tend to have a limited vocabulary and are prone to saying the same things in different ways, the key is to find the kernel meaning and unravel from there ... "And that made all the différance" -- Frost and Derrida in conversation, haha ...