Categories
Amnesty
By Cindy Carter, published June 16, 3:41a.m.
This song, which appeared on Cui Jian's 1994 album "Balls Under the Red Flag" (红旗下的蛋) was the first Chinese song I ever attempted to translate. Many years and countless failed revisions later (and newly inspired by a documentary-in-progress about Chinese rock and roll), I've come back to it. As anthems go, it's pretty damned good...a political commentary cloaked in sexual imagery and double-entendre. If I had to reach for a western equivalent, I'd choose The Guess Who's "American Woman" and add a sprinkling of Bob Dylan, just for good measure.
I suspect that some of our translation colleagues have, at one time or another, translated this song into English and tucked it into their desk drawers. If so - if you're one of the proud, the reticent, the scholarly, the bored or the intrepid who have riffed this song and filed it away somewhere for posterity or inclement weather - please post your translation. The song raises some interesting language questions, and seems to defy most attempts at literal translation. As you can see, I've played these lyrics fast and loose.
Amnesty (宽容)
Both eyes closed, leaning on you
All hands down, stroking me
I want this satisfaction
and need you to respond
I want to tell you everything
just don't be mad with me
It's never love or hate with you
you're no more than what you are
I'm exhausted and it's pointless
but I have to go on fighting you
Fuck you, I say, fuck you
I'll talk behind your back
In the end, we'll see who wins
who holds out to the last
My eyes are open now and angry
I see what you've become and I can't speak
I want to sing an amnesty
for all that's happened here
but my voice sounds strange to me...
(click "more" for the Chinese lyrics)
宽容
我的身体靠着你两眼紧闭
我的手重复地摸着我自己
我要满足我自己也给你一个刺激
我要告诉你一切但不要你生气
我不再爱你我也没有恨你
虽然你还是你
我没有力气我也没有必要
一定要反对你
我就去你妈的我就去你妈的
我背后骂着你
我们看谁能够看谁能够
一直坚持到底
我的两眼睁开却充满委屈
看着你的样子我心中更感到压抑
我想唱一首歌宽容这儿的一切,
可是我的嗓子奇怪。。。。
词：崔健曲：崔健
Music and lyrics by Cui Jian
English translation by Cindy Carter
Comments
Here's my translation...i think it's more literal. Also, I think the Chinese lyrics are a little different at the end. I translated from "可是我的嗓子却发出了奇怪的声音".
Actually, I've only listened to this song once (just now, online), and I'm not very familiar with contemporary Chinese music (or any kind of Chinese music I guess), so maybe the tone is way off. This just makes me think I should pay more attention to music and stuff...oh well.
Pardon Me
Leaning against you with both eyes shut, I keep groping myself with my hands. I wanna satisfy me and give you something prickly. I wanna tell you everything but don't want you to get hissy.
I don't love you anymore, I don't really hate you either, Even though you're still the same... I have no strength and there's really no necessity. Antagonize you -- I just have to.
Fuck you, just FUCK you. Behind your back I curse you. Let us see just who just who -- can see this thing all the way through.
My eyes are open now, they're brimming with violation. Seeing you in that state, my soul feels even more depressed.
I wanna sing a song that pardons this whole mess, but a funny little oration is all my throat emits…
Matt, June 16, 1:01p.m.
Is 去你妈的 Fuck You?? Isn't it supposed to be "Fuck Off"?? Fuck You is definitely stronger translation, but I don't think it is very accurate here...
noyb, June 17, 10:54p.m.
Matt - Yeah, I think you're right. I couldn't find the album liner notes, but it seems like they did read "可是我的嗓子却发出了奇怪的声音".
I don't know about "prickly", though. It seems too literal, don't you think? I took it to mean he wanted to provoke/stimulate a response. I sort of liked the double entendre that ensued, so in the end, I went with "stimulate".
Noyb - 去你妈的 is a little softer than "fuck you", I guess, especially since it's used so often in a humorous way. When I come across 去你妈的 in fiction or film dialogue, I usually chose something less direct - seems like I've translated it as "screw you" at least a few times. But in the context of this song, the harsher translation just seemed more appropriate.
Cindy Carter, June 21, 12:56p.m.
Here's another one: did you notice the way I just fluffed right past "委屈" and translated it as "angry"? I've always found 委屈 to be a really hard word to translate. In this case, I mulled a bit over "wounded", "pain/pained", "wronged" and "grief/grieved" before making the simplest choice.
Cindy Carter, June 21, 1p.m.
Dear Cindy,
Wish I could find your email address...sorry to post this on your blog as a comment. I came upon Paper Republic while researching a documentary film I'm developing in China, and enjoyed looking through the thoughtful posts for quite some time. If this email is up your alley at all, I'd be grateful for your help - but if not, please know you have an avid reader in Brooklyn!
I'm a documentary filmmaker based in NY -- my films have aired on HBO and PBS/POV. If you want to check out my work, you can visit (www.grannyd.com, www.marloporas.com). I'm partnering with Yu Ying Wu Chou on this project, she edited the PBS/Frontline series Country Boys (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/countryboys/).
We're documentary portraitists - we craft intimate portraits of women over time. For the past few months we've been researching a new film about young urban women in China. We made our first research trip to Beijing in March and will return in September.
So much has been written/researched about the one child generation, particularly about the "Little Emperors," but we're most interested in the new opportunities and realities for young women in China. We find the story of the women of the one child generation to be pretty fascinating - they're the first generation of girls in Chinese history to be the sole focus of not just their parents but their extended family's life - with all the parents attention and future prospects resting on these girls shoulders. It engenders a different sense of self and of possibility, even if parents are ambivalent about having a girl.
We're eager to meet single young woman roughly between the ages of 23-32 who might fit the bill as a documentary subject. We plan to make an intimate portrait of a young woman over the course of one to two years, making approx 4-5 trips per year, each trip lasting 1-2 weeks. We'd like to craft a full portrait of the woman's life - as full as is possible - including her friends, family, and workplace. The film would mainly consist of the reality of her everyday life, augmented with interviews -- so we'd be filming her as flies on the wall during her everyday life.
The film would detail the complicated reality of life for young urban women -- the excitement of the manifold possibilities for them, the hard reality many of them face in terms of having to support their parents or in terms of struggling to figure themselves and their own futures out -- so we can give Americans a much richer portrait of the growing middle class than anything they've seen.
The most important qualities we're looking for are charisma, comfort in front of the camera, openness, and good self-awareness. We're totally flexible as far as interests/background. Our goal on the next trip is to meet as many women as possible, the more the better.
All this is an extremely long introduction! I hope that the project piques your interest. If you have any recommendations of people we should contact, we'd be incredibly grateful -- either for women who might be potential subjects for the film, or for people who might be able to introduce us to women.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Thanks for your time!
All my best, Marlo Poras
marloporas@aol.com 508.733.0022
marlo poras, July 2, 7a.m.
This is one of my favorite songs; sometime or another I probably have attempted a translation or two, but don't have any record of such efforts.
On the one hand, I suggest listening to this song live because Cui Jian definitely brings out the sexual side of it in a much more obvious way. On the other hand, I appreciate the recorded version because I think that Liu Yuan's sax playing really screams in comparison.
William Andrew Albano, July 15, 1:42a.m.
Nice to hear from you, William!
In case anyone here doesn't know, William is a blogger, patron and die-hard fan of contemporary Chinese music.
His website is www.niubi.com.
Cindy Carter, July 24, 6:06p.m.