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nnozomiAs various people have noted, Zhu Yilong is going to have blue hair for his new movie; I love it that he’s never satisfied unless he’s doing something completely new. No worries though, in this picture it’s clear that blue hair or not, his habit of hugging pillows remains.
Rereading a very good translation of Tove Jansson’s letters, which are wonderful (although on reflection I wish the editors had just lined them up chronologically rather than dividing them by recipient). Mostly more fun in the aggregate than in specific quotations, but a few that I enjoyed:
August 14, 1946
And if rocket-propelled missiles are eventually going to blow us to smithereens along with everything we’ve done, I want to be as calm and happy as I can now and work in peace.
December, 1946
That was when I realized [that I was in love with her], as we were dancing. It came as such a huge surprise. Like finding a new and wondrous room in an old house one thought one knew from top to bottom. Just stepping straight in, and not being able to fathom how one had never known it existed.
June 27, 1956
Everything I do, everything new that I see—there’s a parallel reflection: I shall show this to Tuulikki.
Reading a Japanese book—or rather a book originally published in Taiwan and translated into Japanese—which is a historical novel presented as a travelogue written by a (fictional) Japanese woman author touring Taiwan in 1938. Aoyama Chizuko is a young woman from a good Kyushu family who has just written a bildungsroman that became a huge hit and made her much in demand as a lecturer; when she visits Taiwan, her translator is a modest, immensely competent young Taiwanese woman called Oh Chizuru|Wang Qianhe, who instantly gets Chizuko’s quirkiness (and her absolute passion for eating huge quantities of every new and delicious food she can get her hands on, don’t read this one while hungry). I’m only a few chapters in, but it's clear that the book is going to take on colonialism and class, along with female friendship, in Chizuko’s idiosyncratic voice. More to come when I finish it.
Chinese: I don’t think I’m quite managing three to four hours a day, but I am doing the best I can and getting caught up on my daily Chinese Grammar Wiki Anki deck for the first time in ages. I probably need another deck full of sample sentences at all levels… . Still messing with translation, very slowly. I have finally ventured onto Lofter—if I have to have WeChat for Chinese conversation lessons I might as well make use of it?—and am very confused, but I’m enjoying meandering around tags reading bits of fics.
New words, slang and otherwise, from the farmboys:
Music: A handful of random things I’ve been listening to lately. Eliane Elias and her trio doing “Aguas de março” (one of the best Tom Jobim songs ever) and “Agua de beber”; Seong-Jin Cho playing Chopin Preludes, with one of the most thrilling openings I know of; and for something completely different, Leroy Anderson’s little novelty piece The Syncopated Clock, which I’ve always found very charming.
Photos: Just a few today; my morning-glories (still blooming steadily, anything from one to five flowers a day, rain or shine), and a tree decorated for Tanabata (on a windy day).
Be safe and well.
Rereading a very good translation of Tove Jansson’s letters, which are wonderful (although on reflection I wish the editors had just lined them up chronologically rather than dividing them by recipient). Mostly more fun in the aggregate than in specific quotations, but a few that I enjoyed:
August 14, 1946
And if rocket-propelled missiles are eventually going to blow us to smithereens along with everything we’ve done, I want to be as calm and happy as I can now and work in peace.
December, 1946
That was when I realized [that I was in love with her], as we were dancing. It came as such a huge surprise. Like finding a new and wondrous room in an old house one thought one knew from top to bottom. Just stepping straight in, and not being able to fathom how one had never known it existed.
June 27, 1956
Everything I do, everything new that I see—there’s a parallel reflection: I shall show this to Tuulikki.
Reading a Japanese book—or rather a book originally published in Taiwan and translated into Japanese—which is a historical novel presented as a travelogue written by a (fictional) Japanese woman author touring Taiwan in 1938. Aoyama Chizuko is a young woman from a good Kyushu family who has just written a bildungsroman that became a huge hit and made her much in demand as a lecturer; when she visits Taiwan, her translator is a modest, immensely competent young Taiwanese woman called Oh Chizuru|Wang Qianhe, who instantly gets Chizuko’s quirkiness (and her absolute passion for eating huge quantities of every new and delicious food she can get her hands on, don’t read this one while hungry). I’m only a few chapters in, but it's clear that the book is going to take on colonialism and class, along with female friendship, in Chizuko’s idiosyncratic voice. More to come when I finish it.
Chinese: I don’t think I’m quite managing three to four hours a day, but I am doing the best I can and getting caught up on my daily Chinese Grammar Wiki Anki deck for the first time in ages. I probably need another deck full of sample sentences at all levels… . Still messing with translation, very slowly. I have finally ventured onto Lofter—if I have to have WeChat for Chinese conversation lessons I might as well make use of it?—and am very confused, but I’m enjoying meandering around tags reading bits of fics.
New words, slang and otherwise, from the farmboys:
· 神不知鬼不觉 without anyone knowing (literally, God doesn’t know and the devil has no clue)
· 裸考 to take a test without studying (literally, a naked test)
· 给你个麦 Guangdong slang (?) for something like “you want a piece of this?” in the aggressive sense
· O不OK? just means “okay or not,” but I adore this piece of Chinese-English (or English-Chinese)
· 嘴硬 stubborn, refusing to back down (literally, hard mouth: used punningly in the show to describe a Sichuanese guy eating a hot pepper without changing expression)
· 无法无天 out of control, unruly, going too far
· 马虎 careless, sloppy
· 裸考 to take a test without studying (literally, a naked test)
· 给你个麦 Guangdong slang (?) for something like “you want a piece of this?” in the aggressive sense
· O不OK? just means “okay or not,” but I adore this piece of Chinese-English (or English-Chinese)
· 嘴硬 stubborn, refusing to back down (literally, hard mouth: used punningly in the show to describe a Sichuanese guy eating a hot pepper without changing expression)
· 无法无天 out of control, unruly, going too far
· 马虎 careless, sloppy
Music: A handful of random things I’ve been listening to lately. Eliane Elias and her trio doing “Aguas de março” (one of the best Tom Jobim songs ever) and “Agua de beber”; Seong-Jin Cho playing Chopin Preludes, with one of the most thrilling openings I know of; and for something completely different, Leroy Anderson’s little novelty piece The Syncopated Clock, which I’ve always found very charming.
Photos: Just a few today; my morning-glories (still blooming steadily, anything from one to five flowers a day, rain or shine), and a tree decorated for Tanabata (on a windy day).
Be safe and well.
