陆犯焉识

[Fred0]

Re: 割舍, the term appears in an earlier sentence:

恩娘哭了一夜一昼，是哭别她的继子呢，是在哭着割舍呢。焉识一副身心都化成谢意了，觉得留学的好景都是恩娘赐给他的。

 

En niang cried for a night and a day. She was crying over the (coming) separation from her step-son. It was crying over loss. Yanzhi in his body and mind was filled with gratitude. He felt that his studying abroad was a good circumstance which En niang was bestowing on him.

 

Here 割舍 seems to mean “to part with/ to give up.” When it appears later in   可怜的女人，她就这样割舍给你看, could it be translated: Pitiful woman, in this way she shows you her sense of loss?

 

What follow is:

这一刻，焉识可以拿死来报答恩娘。因此恩娘提出一个仅次于要他死的请求，他也就答应了。恩娘请求他在漂洋过海之前把冯婉喻娶进门。

She is making him feel sorry for her and grateful to her so she can hit him with her demand for compensation that he marry her neice, which would give her a more secure bond with the Lu family? She would not only be the widow of their dead son, but the aunt of their grandson’s wife.  Does this make sense?

[Jim]

Yes, that looks right, and the sense then is of really making a show of it - 给你看 acts as an intensifier.

[Fred0]

 

22 year-old Yanzhi has been carrying on an affair with Wangda for a year, and he has become aware that she is ashamed to introduce him as her boy friend. He fears that she will abandon him sooner or later:

他不再天真无畏，怕一场终将发生的伤痛随时到来。他开始对望达不忠；没有望达的时候，他也不闲着，暗暗给自己建立了红粉预备役。

How would one understand what kind of relationship this is? A beariful young woman/in reserve/ to use as a servant?  So is it a prostitute? What does it mean that he has set her up (建立)?  This is taking place in Washington State where he is a foreign student.

 

Later, when he has broken up with Wangda, he is suffering in his new lodging:

从此焉识在半地下室里悉心读书。红粉预备队被提拔转正，供他在读书写作之余无聊一番。

Henceforth Yanzhi, in his half-basement room, will put his whole heart into his studies. The hongfen yubei team (now it’s a team) are promoted to full membership, providing him with events to fill the boring time remaining after studying.

搬到地下室多日，他打开了行李，却无心归置，碰到哪里都等于碰到了望达。

After moving into the half-basement room for many days, he opened his luggage. However he had no heart to unpack and set up his things. Everything he encountered was like encountering Wangda.

他更没有铺床的力量，一个星期合衣入睡，哪里都是床。

He didn’t even have the energy to make his bed. For a week he slept in his clothes. Everywhere there were beds. (What is this last clause saying: that he was going around and sleeping in other beds?

红粉预备役来来去去，他在一周内花光了所有积蓄，自认为荒唐起来了，可还是不忍拆开留有望达气息的床具。

The hongfen yubei servants were continually coming and going. In one week he had spent all the money he had put aside. (Does this mean they are prostitutes or just expensive dates?) He thought he was becoming ridiculous, but he couldn’t bear to take apart the bed in which Weida’s smell was still left.

 

Is it possible that Yubei is a name, and that she was his servant? But the how is she a 队?

[Jim]

Can't say for sure but I'd guess the 红粉预备役 are other women he dates rather than sex workers, despite the bit about it making him blow all his money, as one way to translate 被提拔转正 in context would be "promoted to girlfriends proper" and I don't think that would be said of sex workers. Pretty certain it's not a name, it's his "reserve army of women" or back-up girlfriends.

哪里都是床 I take to mean he could sleep anywhere, sofa, chair etc., wherever I lay my hat style.

[Fred0]

Thanks very much. I have to learn to allow for statements to be metaphorical.

[Fred0]

 

Lao Ji has just interfered with the torture of a criminal by Captain Xie, who is also a prisoner, because he stole his gold wristwatch.

 

谢队长犯的是强奸罪，刑期是七年。

Captain Xie’s crime is rape; his sentence is seven years.

其他“加工队员”的刑期最长的也不过十年。因此他们在老几这样的重大政治犯人面前优越感十足。

Other members of the “processing team” all have sentences no longer than ten years. Thus they consider themselves totally superior to Lao Ji, this major political prisoner.

 

Here is where I have trouble:

老几是敌人，而犯了罪的人民群众还是人民群众；坏的人民跟好的敌人不一个性质，坏的人民坏到哪里也不是敌人。他们在人民的范畴里可以有很大空间去坏。

Lao Ji is an enemy. But these members of the people who have commited crimes are still members of the the people.  [The idea that there could be] bad masses with a good enemy is not even a category.  Any bad member of the masses, wherever (?), is still not an enemy. Those within the category of “the people” can still have lots of room to go bad.

 

Please criticize this this translation.

[Jim]

Think you're not far off. As you are probably aware, this is related to Mao's notions of contradictions among the people and with the enemy: Quotations from Mao Tse Tung — Chapter 4 (marxists.org)

 

In this line 坏的人民跟好的敌人不一个性质，坏的人民坏到哪里也不是敌人 the 性质 means quality or nature: Bad people and a good enemy were still qualitatively different/ different by their very nature. Wherever a bad member of the people ended up, they were still no enemy... The 到哪里 can also be translated more figuratively, 'whatever the case' etc.

[Fred0]

I was not at all aware of  the connection to Mao's writings, so this is enormously helpful. I'm glad I asked- so much to learn.

[Fred0]

What one reads in a novel a vulgar person say: “管你妈卖×去！”, what is the missing word for which the "x" is substituted?

 

Aslo, previously:  你妈×的你没流口水？

[Jim]

The crude word for female genitalia - 屄 - which is as rude as "cunt" in most versions of English (maybe not Scots, where it can be a term of endearment :D) You also see it written euphemistically with homophone characters. Occasionally it can be another crude word in some dialect speech, like 屌.

[Fred0]

To belabor  the same subject: what function does 管 have in that curse?  [“管你妈卖屄去！”]

[Jim]

I think it's related to this sense:

管的解释|管的意思|汉典“管”字的基本解释 (zdic.net)

 

Where it's sort of "your mother can..." with a hint of "for all I care".

[Fred0]

Dialogue is always the hardest to get,, especially when the tone is vulgar. Thanks for your indulgence to explain these little points. It's so unsatisfying to understand 95% but to  be stuck on some little quirky point.

[Fred0]

Lao Ji (Lu Fanzhi) is being confronted at the gate of the prison camp by a sentry shining a flashlight in his face. 

 

其实天还没黑尽，但手电筒不光为照明，它给你一种精神镇压，让你顿时不敢妄动。满心正义的人也经不住这样兜头一束光的，何况老几这样有着曲折企图的人。

 

How would you translate 曲折企图的人？ ...a man with complicated intentions?  (We later learn that he is using a special permission to leave the camp to see a movie featuring his daughter.)

[Jim]

It's a bit more negative than complicated, more like "twisted" but given the context perhaps not quite that extreme: "untoward" maybe? That's negative in the eyes of the camp authorities who have him in their torch beam rather than saying there's anything wrong with his plans per se.

[Babylon]

Talks something with my opinions about the "管你妈卖x去!"
# The "管" here means "Control"(管理 管控), actually the man wanna say "don't control me (you can to control your abject mother but not me!)"
# The "x" here usually substitutes a "B" or "逼", "操你妈逼(B)"(Fuck your mother) is the most notorious and starkest lewd curse in the Chinese culture. It's also the most famous and infamous dirty words, 堪称国卖 (can be rated as the top one widely known obscenity in national scope). Yeah, the "屄" was an accurate meaning but almost 50% PRC residents don't know this character at all including me prior to I read this post ... 
# Btw, the one single English sign "B" has an unusual and prominent status in Chinese culture derived from its sharp pronunciation similar to the "逼"(coerce), also the "屄"(cunt).
 

[Fred0]

Thank you, Babylon, for your comments. Very interesting. I have never read or heard the phrase 堪称国卖，but now I will recognize it.

[Babylon]

Please pardon my typo -> 堪称国骂? I usually merely scrutinize on my English ... 

[Fred0]

Yes, that makes more sense. Thank you.

[Fred0]

 

Lao Ji has been granted  special permission to leave the prison camp and walk ten miles to an auditorium to see a movie. He has been placed in leg irons to prevent his escape. After a mile he can drag the leg irons no further and so he stops at a settlement of non-prisoners to try to obtain a ride. It is evening. As he approaches this settlement...

老几咣啷当咣啷当地走近，看着此地自由的男女们枯索之夜的产品在尖叫撒欢。

As Lao Ji, banging and clanging (his leg-irons) drew closer,  he saw the free men and women of this place happily yelling back and forth over their dull and tedious evening tasks.

 

Am I understanding 枯索 correctly?

Am I understanding 夜的产品 correctly?

Any other corrections of this translation?