Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 6.1

Arh – did anyone miss me while I was gone? I had to take a break to recuperate emotionally after translating the ending of Song Ning’s story in one breath. I felt so drained and emotionally paralysed afterwards. But discussing it with you all in the comments section of the last post helped me find some degree of closure.

It is as if T7 knows the number she did on our poor hearts and eyes, the first part of Chapter 6 is somewhat melancholic with some bits of funny thrown into the mix. Chapter 6.1 marks the beginning of Ying Ge’s Story – Thirteenth Moon, which I understand is a favourite for many of our readers here.

If you want to read the summary of Thirteenth Moon’s story, click here.

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 5.3

Ahhhhh Surprise Post! THis is the finale to Song Ning’s story. The original schedule would have had me finishing this this week anyway, and I really didn’t want to hang on to this anymore. This is one of the most heart rending stories, and I really wanted to finish it quickly and move on to the next part. 😛

Here’s a picture for you all, of what could have been happier times for Song Ning and Shen An.

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 5.2

 

Posting a little earlier than usual. This chapter shows what could have been between Shen An. If you remember, Jun Fu explained once that the Hua Xu Realm is born from the human heart, but everyone within it is a shadow of their real selves, and would behave exactly how their real selves would.

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 5.1

Hola-  I’m back. In case anyone’s curious about my trip – Taiwan was very fun, but sadly, I was overcome by a bad flu and throat infection as soon as I got home. Must be all the fried food, late nights, dehydration and exhaustion. So I spent my week feeling a bit Ah’Fu-ish, in that I was in a state where I was between feeling Not Human and Somewhat Human most of the time. 😦

So forgive me for the relatively short chapter post. I decided to just post what I managed to translate first since this chapter has one of my personal favourite scenes in it. Hee Hee Hee…

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 4.2

Argh – I’m in such a rush to finish all my work and pack for my trip to Taiwan, so did not have much time to edit. Please just bear with it – I will do an edit later. Since the translation bit was substantially done, I decided to just post it.

Have fun with Peanuts for the next two weeks. 🙂

Perfect Couple (金玉良缘) – Episodes 2-3 Recap

I have come to the decision on whether to recap this show. Instead of doing detailed recaps, I will be doing a highlights recap from episode 4. You probably can follow the general gist of the drama from them, but it’s more of a place for me to share my thoughts/rants.

thehungryegghead is doing recaps of this drama on her blog. I am not sure if she will be continuing it, but they’re definitely faster than my updates! She has already recapped up to Episode 6.

Perfect Couple Recap – Episode 1

I’m taking a little diversion from C-novels and introducing a bit of c-drama into the blog. Coincidentally, the last drama recap I tried to do was also a Wallace Huo vehicle: The Swordsman. Alas, that fizzled out and died – couldn’t even blog about one more ep to finish the ending because it was so epicly bad.

Perfect Couple stars Wallace Huo and Tang Yan. The trailer shows some cute chemistry, and the style of storytelling reminds me of Ming Yue Ting Feng (I have withdrawal symptoms). Story by Tong Hua, which is my justification for recapping it on this blog: to see whether she can translate her writing into the small screen. If you haven’t already, you can find out more about the info by going to Koala’s site.

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 4.1

 

First of all, thank you for all of your comments to Chapter 3.2. Never in my wildest imagination did I foresee such passionate analysis of Song Ning and Shen An’s story. I appreciate everyone’s views and I hope we can have another round of debates when we finish the Song Ning and Shen An arc.

And then…. nothing happens in this chapter post, except a lot of characterization and cute between Jun Fu, Jun Wei and Xiao Lan. We get to know Jun Fu a lot better in this chapter from her thoughts on Song Ning’s story and also her interactions with the other characters.

Dedication: This chapter dedicated to Decembi 🙂

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 3.2

Translating this chapter was really difficult for me, emotionally. We have all heard of writer’s block where the author doesn’t know how to continue the story. I had translator’s block, because I was fully aware of where the story was going and was very unwilling to go there. But still, to that place we must go, otherwise I might have very angry readers at my doorstep.

But I must thank you all! I was very heartened by the responses in the comments from the first half of chapter 3 last week – there were some excellent points brought up! This week’s post is a meaty chapter with a lot of going ons – please do feel free to leave your thoughts with us.

So onwards with Song Ning’s story, we go…

Hua Xu Yin (华胥引) – Chapter 3.1

So we have a surprise in store for you. Have you guessed from the picture above?

*Dramatic Drumroll*

Yes – again, after much wiffy-waffling about with Peanuts, we have decided to translate the entire story chronologically based on the book. Or rather I have decided, and Peanuts being ever sweet and supportive.

In my first post (ie Chapter 2.1), I had mentioned that we have decided to translate only the main story of Jun Fu and Mu Yan and skip/gloss over the sub-stories.

However, after careful thought, I decided (with Peanut’s support) to commit to translating the entire book chronologically, as opposed to skipping around and revisiting the sub-stories at a later stage. The decision stems from my love for the book, and also because the story is told from Jun Fu’s point of view – and her point of view informs us of her character and personality.

And because no one ever reads the headnote, I am just going to save it for the commentary at the end of the post.