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Verses in ep 3 are a mix of two poetries

AleksandraSucur

I'm neither a Mandarin speaker nor a particular poetry lover, but I've googled Xu Qian's verses  (as they've seemed somehow "familiar", I've immediately thought of Zhang Ruoyun's "drunken" masterpiece performance in Joy of Life S1, reciting the verses of Chinese poetry classics).

The first couplet is from a Wang Wei's (?-761, Tang Dynasty) "Nostalgia for My Brothers on the Double Ninth Day"
All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day.

but the following couplet of the original is different:
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch -- and my branch missing.

In his present day life, Xu Qian is not a scholar but a salesman and his poetry ignorance probably adds to the fun of those who have studied the ancient C-poetry, because he confuses the second couplet with Gao Shi's (高适) couplet from “Farewell to Dong Da” we've seen in a poetic 3D animated historical film "Chang'an":

Fear not you’ve no admirers as you go along!
There is no connoisseur on earth apart from (who) loves your song

(Gao telling Dong that though they were doomed to part, Dong would surely find new close friends in the future)  

Sources:
 "Nostalgia for my Brothers" http://www.china.org.cn/chinese/catl/en/2015-10/21/content_36854351.htm
 “Farewell to Dong Da,” https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2020/06/friendship-in-verse/

 

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ShortCircuit

Thank you! I was wondering what poems he mixed up ('cause it's obvious he mixed them up LOL). 


At least Fan Xian knew his poetry hahaha~

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AleksandraSucur

Yeah, Fan Xian was a poetry nerd 🙃lol!

Hahaha, how did you sense the poetry was mixed up, I've discovered it only tnx to google...

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ShortCircuit

One of them talks about being away and lonely, the other half is about being recognized even by that one person and making it worth it, LOL, they can't be on the same topic :D (He also totally looked as if he had forgotten the rest of the original one, and then there was the quip about him not knowing his Mandarin all that well, LOL. It was an obvious set up for such a misquote).

I am no expert, LOL, the ONE poem I know of ancient Chinese poetry is Li Po's Alone Looking at the Mountain (and that's another beautiful poem about being lonely but content with it). 

https://allpoetry.com/Alone-Looking-at-the-Mountain 

If Xu QiAn ends up quoting Li Po I'll lose it completely LOL.

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AleksandraSucur

😁👌

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Elka1234

Спасибо. 🔥

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shiawasenohikari

You're awesome! NGL, I had been planning on searching the poem because it sounded too disjointed but I pegged it to how certain verses may be lost in translation, and many have culturally relevant/highly contextual meanings, LOL. 

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AleksandraSucur
 shiawasenohikari:

You're awesome! NGL, I had been planning on searching the poem because it sounded too disjointed but I pegged it to how certain verses may be lost in translation, and many have culturally relevant/highly contextual meanings, LOL. 

Thank you! I've opened the discussion after the first "poem" lol, but in later episodes XQ himself admits he remembers only halves of poems, ie. few verses, as the most of us remembers from their general obligatory education, a few verses and that's it. This fact makes his personality realistic and relatable.
As for the translation... I also feel there's a problem with it, independantly of the poetry, and that we need a Mandarin speaker to clear the doubts. Lets drop the "harlot" instead of "courtisan", many people complained about, we've heard some dissonance between "25 years ago" mentioned by the Bureau  Supervisor to Head Wei and "19 years ago" mentioned by Silver Gong Li as a reference time in which Wei severed his unmatched fighter skills. When we pass a half of the drama I'll ask MDL Mandarin speakers about it

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shiawasenohikari

It is intriguing how so much is lost in translation. However, I would rather have these bits of information than none at all. Knowing such details, however scant, helps in keeping things interesting, especially if one is interested in literature like you and I. 

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