Sunshine Aficionada

What’s up, dear blog? I’m going to be dead next week when I have five finals, three of them in one day from 8am-6:30pm. I just love the scheduling of my life. I’m hoping that I don’t bomb them and destroy the grades I’ve worked to the death to accomplish this semester.

Last month I watched the historical drama Schemes of a Beauty 美人心计 and promptly fell in love with a few male historical figures and the actors themselves. I’m sure the male audience of the drama was even more pleased; true to its title, Meiren Xinji abounds with beauties. I’m still in awe and fascinated by the politics, warfare, and court intrigues of the early Han Dynasty. This craze even beats my fervent interest in the Liao and Song dynasties.

Today I translated the lyrics to Luo Hua 落花, the theme song for Schemes of a Beauty and sung by the lead actress Ruby Lin. The past few weeks I also translated excerpts from Jin Yong’s wuxia novel Sword Stained With Royal Blood 碧血剑, Gu Long’s novel The Tale of Refining the Sword like Cleansing the Flower 浣花洗剑录, and tidbits of dialog from the latter’s 2007 drama version. I’m thinking of perhaps starting a translation collection (a portfolio blog?) of my Chinese-English translations over winter break.

I watched about 15 episodes of 浣花洗剑录 in two days until I stopped due to lack of free time and declining interest. Unfortunately, while searching for a summary of the series I stumbled upon a spoiler that broke my heart. I lost all inclination for continuing the series because I moped in misery for a good three days over the tragic fates of my favorite couple in the series, Mu Lang Shen Jun and Princess Tuo Chen. My body was literally wracking with sobs during their final scene and I cried so much that my eyes were terribly dry for hours afterwards. Needless to say, I love them to death. It’s the first time I am so truly endeared to any tragic couple because I love both of them without reservation. Usually I am either drooling bucketfuls over the male lover or desperately wanting to smack him for his absolute failure in both matters of the head and the heart. But their love was beautiful, passionate, and true until the very end, even though the princess later discovered the full extent to which the man she loved had deceived her. Egregiously evil, her enemy in every way, yet the dearest in her heart even until their dying breaths. I will not elaborate further for fear of spoiling such a heartwrenchingly tender story for someone else.

Also, I finished Chapter 7: Training of Kindest Cruelty last month. I’m making progress on Chapter 8, which will be out before the end of the month.