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The Wonderfully Elusive Chinese Novel
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- CurtHagenlocher 12y agoIf the nuances of the different translations appeal to you, Douglas Hofstadter's "Le Ton beau de Marot" is a must-read.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoI wonder if the word duanming was the origin for the name of Short-Round in Indiana Jones.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y agoThat's a little more sophistication than I'm willing to credit Spielberg and Lucas, especially given the rest of that film.
- cafard 12y agoIn military terms, a short round is a projectile that falls short of the target, particularly if enough so as to harm one's own troops. The book on which Full Metal Jacket was based had a lieutenant nicknamed Short Round for his stature.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoWell, I found the source, was a doggie - "Like Indiana Jones and Willie Scott, the character is named after a pet dog: Short Round was the dog of the film's writers, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck."
- autarch 12y agoChinese really is well-suited to poetry. This carries over into song lyrics, even for pop songs. Here are two that I really like: * Tian Mi Mi by Teresa Teng - http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/teresa_teng/tian_mi_mi.html http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/teresa_teng/tian_mi_mi.ht... - which includes a line "your smile is like flowers opening in the spring wind" * Sky by Faye Wong - http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/more/chinese-pop-songs/sky-by-zhang-jie-and-faye-wong.html http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/more/chinese-pop-songs/sky-by... - one of many beautiful lines translates as "The sky. Piled with layers and layers of longing." There are certainly great lyricists in English, but the two songs I linked above were both massive popular hits. Teresa Teng and Faye Wong during their respective heydays are probably best compared with people like Madonna in the 80s/90s or Beyonce today (in terms of popularity, media attention, etc.). Is there anyone in mainstream pop music writing lyrics as beautiful as the ones I linked above? (Fun side note: Faye Wong is a huge admirer of Teresa Teng, and has a great cover album of Teng's songs called Decadent Sounds of Faye. The arrangements of these songs are great and Faye Wong sings them beautifully).
- emodendroket 12y agoI like Teresa Teng's music a lot, but I'm not sure the lyrics are uniquely poetic. And most of her songs also have Japanese versions, despite the two languages having little in common besides a lot of lexical borrowings.
- mjklin 12y agoThere are videos of Teng singing Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie out there. Cause this is thriller!