陆犯焉识

[cncorrect]

On 7/11/2024 at 12:13 AM, Fred0 said:

1. Is “speaking hypothetically” a reasonable translation of 如果说?

2. Is this a reasonable translation of 难说

Yes, because it conveys the meaning.

 

On 7/11/2024 at 12:13 AM, Fred0 said:

3. How is the phrase 十年八载 different in meaning from 八年或十年. What is the meaning of 载 in the context of that phrase?

'载' means 'year' in this context. '十年八载' is an idom, which means '大约八年到十年' in my understanding.

On 7/11/2024 at 12:13 AM, Fred0 said:

Question: Have I got this anywhere near right?

Yes, you are right.

[Fred0]

Thanks very much.

[Fred0]

The author is describing how Yanshi’s step-mother 嗯娘 pampers and dotes on him.

还有就是在焉识已经坐上轿车的时候，恩娘会追出门来，把几张钞票按在他手上，伴随一句悄悄话：“晓得侬手脚大惯了！”

 

What is “晓得侬手脚大惯了！” saying？ Would it be something like: I know you go around to your usual places and indulge yourself？

[Jim]

I'd do it more along the lines of "I know you like (惯了 - are in the habit) to spend a bit (手脚大 = 大手大脚 though indulge is also close)"

[Fred0]

Thanks very much.

[Fred0]

 

During a period when Yanshi was depressed, Wanyu decided that she was going to pawn the emerald whch was her wedding present from En Niang, her aunt and her new mother-in-law, even though it was a family heirloom and selling it would be going against En Niang, big time, and to use the money to buy Yanshi an expensive watch.

 

When they are packing to go inland to escape the Japanese who are occupying Shanghai, Wanyu confesses that she pawned the emerald. En Niang is furious. Later, alone in her bedroom Yanshi tells En Niang that it was really he who pawned the emerald so that he could buy the watch for himself. He tells En Niang that Wan Yu is only taking the blame to protect him. En Niang is doubtful and:  恩娘更加酸溜溜了，说：“你们两个人这么要好啊？一个要替另外一个顶罪过啊？” [You two are that tight that you each take the blame for the other?]

焉识只有脸皮一厚，随她去风凉。

[Yanshi could only be thick-skinned and let her cool down]  Please correct.

 

(En Niang’s statement is sarcastic, because it’s impossible that they are both covering for the other. One has to be guilty,)

 

 

The next day En Niang persuades Yanshi to take her out for a drive, and once they are in the car tells him that she has taken along money to redeem the emerald from the pawn shop. Yanshi protests that it’s been several months and the gem has probably already been sold. En Niang says there is no harm in taking a look. (The problem is that Yanshi doesn’t know which pawn shop Wanyu went to to pawn the emerald. So this is a trap to expose Yanshi’s attempt to take the blame)

 

她让焉识把去当铺的路途告诉司机。焉识把司机往静安寺路上指，一面在想恩娘玩心眼真是玩得太地道，昨天晚上他替婉喻垫背的一句话居然没有混过去。

 

She told Yanshi to tell the driver which way to go. Yanshi told the driver to go to the Jing-an Temple road, at the same time thinking that En Niang’s 玩心眼 is actually a very authentic one. Yesterday evening’s one sentence by which he attempted to substitute for Wanyu in taking the blame on himself unexpectedly was not a foolish thing to do.

 

The above attempt at translation is very unsatisfactory. The problems are:

 

1. What is the meaning of 玩心眼 ?

2. What does he mean be 太地道?

3. What is the last sentence saying? I don’t get it at all. What is the meaning of 混 in this sentence?

 

恩娘跟司机说，静安寺路上的几家当铺她都很熟。焉识知道恩娘在要他好看：给婉喻替罪，好啊，看你怎么拆穿自己。

 

En Niang said to the driver, I am very familiar with several pawn shops on Jing-an Temple Road. Yanshi knows that En Niang is wanting to watch him closely, as she is thinking: so you are taking the blame for Wanyu. Good, let’s see you expose your deception.

 

Is this translation anywhere near corrct?

 

En Niang is trying to communicate something to Yanshi when she says that she is familiar with the pawn shops in that neighborhood. But, what is it?

[Jim]

On 8/12/2024 at 12:58 AM, Fred0 said:

焉识只有脸皮一厚，随她去风凉。

Here, Yanshi is gritting his teeth and allowing En Niang to upbraid him. Being thick-skinned is obviously part of it and fits neatly but it's a bit more active. I'm pretty sure the 风凉 here is in the sense it appears in 风凉话 风凉话（汉语词汇）_百度百科 (baidu.com) She's sarcastically castigating Yanshi.

 

 玩心眼 is playing mental games with someone to get your way, or scheming etc. So here I think it's something like En Niang really goes all out when she starts working her little games with you. 太地道 I'm taking to be her really going all in, though perhaps it's just that she's good at it.

In 昨天晚上他替婉喻垫背的一句话居然没有混过去 he's saying that the story he told last night to try to get Wanyu off the hook by taking the blame (垫背) hasn't worked. 混过去 here is something like "gotten away with it", just as when you 混 your days you just sort of scrape by. A more natural translation might be that En Niang wasn't buying the story he told.

 

In the last sentence, I think 恩娘在要他好看 is Yanshi can see that En Niang is doing this because she wants to show him how she has seen through the lie; she's acting out this little drama for his benefit, as it were. The next clauses are Yanshi imagining what she's saying to him by doing this: so you want to shoulder the blame for Wanyu? Fine, off you go then and let's watch you show yourself up/expose your own lies.

The bit about knowing all the pawn shops I suppose is warning him his lie will be exposed, e.g. when they go in and she asks a familiar shop-keep if she recalls Yan Shi with an emerald and of course he doesn't. 

[Fred0]

Thank you so much for this. I have learned a lot.  

[Fred0]

 

Lu Yanshi has escaped from his prison camp where he has been a prisoner for 29 years. He has returned to Shanghai and is planning to take his wife, Wanyu out to dinner, at which time he wants to confess his errors to her. (We don’t know his crime, but we know that he was given an indefinite sentence for being a counter-revolutionary.)

这是推迟了几十年的一顿晚餐，之间不再夹着个恩娘。

This is a dinner which has been postponed for several decades, and there is no longer an En Niang (his step-mother and his wife’s aunt) between them.

他们会喝点法国红葡萄酒。他要好好地正面地看看婉喻，告诉她浪子回头金不换，

They will have some French red wine, and he will look Wan Yu in the face.  He will tell her that broken bones well set become stronger, the prodigal who returns, is more valuable than gold,

就算判刑流放最终使得一个浪子回头，让老浪子终于识了好歹，看到他误了自己和婉喻什么，

so even though sentenced to exile, it finally made the prodigal look back, and allowed him to learn right from wrong- to see what was the offence he committed against himself and Wangyu.

那就是国家替陆家办了一件正事。

This was to substitute the nation for the Lu family as his most important business.  [Or, alternatively]  Thus the nation did a good service to the Lu family (by sending him into exile).

 

Which of these alternatives is correct, and how can one know which is the correct understanding.

[Jim]

The latter; it's the state having done the family a good turn. The grammar's quite straightforward is how you know, I think:, A 替 B does XYZ. Also, the former wouldn't work as the subject of the verb 办 won't be Yanshi as the sentence is constructed.

[Fred0]

That makes sense. Very helpful. Thanks. 

[TheBigZaboon]

Breaking an only partially self-imposed silence again to thank both of you (and the others who help, too) for both the enjoyment and enlightenment you provide in this thread. At the risk of repeating myself (which I do far too often), I look forward to your efforts that provide real and valuable edification and insights into Chinese through hard work that I just don't have time to do for myself...

 

Please don't stop sharing. I'm sure I'm not the only one benefiting from your generosity...

 

Thanks again...

 

TBZ

[Fred0]

Dear TBZ,

 

You are so kind to write, and your comments are much appreciated. Jim is a brilliant teacher and I feel very grateful for him, as well as other contributers on the forum. I could not have gotten very far with Chinese without this forum. It has been, and remains, a blessing.

[Fred0]

 

Lu Yanshi’s university has been moved inland in an attempt to avoid the invading Japanese. His wife has stayed behind with the children. Now he has taken up with a local girl from Chongqing some distance from the temporary location of the University. He tries to put her out of his mind but he is obsessed with her (physical) beauty. It’s difficult for him to get to Chongqing to see her.

He writes to her every third day and she writes back, but only once a week.

 

她的信一个礼拜来一次，看见她的字他就想笑，就释然，假如说冯婉喻只有一笔字可以拿出手，念痕没有任何可以称得上内秀的东西。还有什么不舍呢？

 

Her letters arrive once a week on Sunday. Seeing her handwriting he laughs inwardly, but he is relieved (that she is keeping in touch?) . If, let us say, If you only saw one character written by , that alone would be enough (to show how cultured she is). You couldn’t say that Nianhen (the girlfriend) had anything at all refined in her inner self, There is still what, such that you won’t give her up.

 

Is this translation anywhere near correct?

 

[Jim]

I'm not entirely confident going on these lines out of context, but I feel like the 释然 is him being relived somewhat of the burden of longing for this lover, as after comparing what her handwriting and that of his wife say about them as people, the 还有什么不舍呢？seems to me to be saying, 'So what about her is it then that you just can't let go of?"

[Fred0]

What he can't let go of is that she is astoudingly beautiful. I should have emphosized that point.  What he wants is her body.  The relief is to be able to laugh at her handwriting. So now I am seeing what you're saying. The laughter,  looking at her in a condescending way has broken the spell of his obsession with her. He can look at her now from a detached position, and from that perspective he can think, "then what keeps me from letting her go."  

 

It's so satisfying when the meaning becomes clear and the words are now speaking to you. Thanks so much. 

 

What he can't let go of is that she is astoudingly beautiful. I should have emphosized that point.  What he wants is her body.  The relief is to be able to laugh at her handwriting. So now I am seeing what you're saying. The laughter,  looking at her in a condescending way has broken the spell of his obsession with her. He can look at her now from a detached position, and from that perspective he can think, "then what keeps me from letting her go."  

 

It's so satisfying when the meaning becomes clear and the words are now speaking to you. Thanks so much. 

 

[Fred0]

Lu Yanshi is regarded as a star teacher and his classes were very popular. 在学生里陆教授是个明星，他的课堂总是像剧场一样客满，对话和笑声都允许。

 

The sentence below was a struggle for me. Please criticize and correct my translation.

 

撤到后方的课常常是几个班级并在一块听课，加上纯粹凭兴趣听课的人，课堂内外坐着上百学生，而他这一节课有半节是误人子弟。

 

The classes, which had retreated to the rear (of the fighting) often contained several grade levels attending class together plus people who were attending class purely out of interest, came to more than a hundred students sitting inside and outside the classroom. Thus, half of the students in this section were being neglected.

 

[Jim]

I thought 撤到后方 might mean something like "put back until last" here, then I remembered your earlier context of this being during the war so it literally is after they've retreated to the rear area. So I'd have the whole thing reading, "His lectures after the school was relocated to the rear area were often delivered to several classes all brought in together, so that when combined with the many others who also came to listen out of personal interest, there could be over a hundred students filling the lecture theatre and spilling outside, and half the lecture ended up being an entire waste of everyone's time."

I've done 误人子弟 like that as the basic phrase is a teacher teaching poorly so as to lead students astray, but I think from context it's the situation here of the lecture being so rammed that a lot of it gets missed. 

[Fred0]

The reason half the lecture was a waste of time was because his girlfriend, Han Nian-hen, whom he is trying to break up with appeared unexpectedly outside the window, so he lost his train of thought for the remainder of the class:

        但她转过身来偏偏就变成了韩念痕，并且还拎着一大捆被褥。剩下的半堂课他不知道在胡扯什么。撤到后方的课常常是几个班级并在一块听课，加上纯粹凭兴趣听课的人，课堂内外坐着上百学生，而他这一节课有半节是误人子弟。课堂内外坐着上百学生，而他这一节课有半节是误人子弟。  So the teacher is neglecting his students. I had also confused the students in the class with the class (lecture) that he is giving.

 

Now the whole paragraph comes together and makes sense. Once again, thanks very much!

[Jim]

Can imagine that might put him off his stride.