Today's reading-2010.01.30

I read two articles on NYtimes today. One is about Tony Blair on the war against Iraq; the other one concerning Bill Gates' Fundation's efforts on vacacines.

keep up with it.

Leave the rest to fate

I unspeakably believe in fate.
Now there is this choice between Nanjing and Beijing; it isn't so much about my choice, since what i'm going to do really depends on the timing and what i can get.

If i stay, things will probably stay the way it is; i mean, being a high school teacher. I guess it's not very exciting. Then i stay in a limited region, have limited circle of friends.
If i go to Nanjing, there will be things to anticipate, which i believe there will be surprises.

So, just need to see what happens and what kind of coincidences, or like a bizarre twist of fate finds me. Do what you can, and leave the rest to fate.

Norms

I am working on my MA graduation thesis. And it's not going well.
Authorities want you to be creative and work out new things; but there are so many regulations and norms you have to follow.

Just one little thing i want to complain about. Personally I think it's a very natural process that you came out with your research questions after the literature review since by then you'll have presented what's been done in related field and what're the limitations and then what you are going to do.

But no, research questions come in the third chapter-research design! Why is that? Why cannot we take a little bit liberty on that? I don't want to challenge them; I just want to graduate and start fresh. So i'll just compromise. Most of the time, compromising is easy for me, as long as they don't contradict with the principles that i hold.

唯女子与小人难养也--The Confucius

This sentence from 'the Analects of Confucius' has been 'abused' in real life when people want to defame (not necessarily in an offensive one) women in China. And they could say it with bold assurance in that 'the Confucius said it!'.

Yes, it's true that it's quoted from him. However, by using it, people want to say women and villains (i personally think villain is a much better word than people/men with low birth; people with low birth does not necessarily imply flunkies/villains) are hard to deal with, yet they forget about the textual and social context of the sentence.

The whole sentence is “唯女子与小人为难养也，近之则不孙，远之则怨”, which literally means only women and villains are hard to deal with; if you are friendly with them, they get out of hand, and if you keep your distance, they resent it (the translation's from someone). So literally yes. However, we cannot really interpret it this way without looking at the big picture. Some people begin to think why would the Confucius say something so sexist.

I talked about people misunderstand it partly because of the word '唯', which can mean 'only' here, or functions as a modal particle. I'm not sure how to say this precisely in English; but it's not a problem of language itself, but a question of logic here. For example, you can say, only those children aged 12 or above have access to xx; this does not mean all the children aged 12 or above should; it just suggests that a certain part of them are hard to deal with; Sorry i cannot really state clearly what's in my head; i'm not a person good with words actually.

Moreover, there is a specific reference of 'women and villains' here. It's not just women in general; if you keep reading to the next part of the sentences, '近之则不孙，远之则怨' modifies the nouns women and villains. It's this kind of people that are hard to deal with; not women and villains are hard to deal with, since if you are friendly to them, they get out of hand; if you keep you distance, they resent it.

I am not a well-read person, but from some of the comments i've read, this particular idea sounds very reasonable. Women here refers to the dancing and singing girls that are presented to the king of the country, and villains refers to the asskissers. It is even possible that they may be referring to certain people, the officials or so.

We cannot read things but miss the whole background; it's always important to see close to the contexts, textual contexts as well as social contexts, which makes reading much harder than it appears to be.

However, the one great thing about language itself is that, everyone can speak in a way that they feel comfortable with. I mean, sometimes people just like saying things to express their intended meaning, while it's not consistent with the norm or the standard use or the original meaning of it, as long as they don't care whether or not they sound super educated. You don't always have to be right unless you are doing some serious writing, speeches or translation.

Translated lyrics-旅行的意义

I thought I might be able to do something like this; but never did. Thanks to some inspiration from someone, I start with this one, one of my favorite songs. I find it hard to find English words for certain Chinese expressions, like 'shuobuchu/shuochu'. I tried to use a variety of words, e.g. tell, explain, specify, elaborate, but i don't think they are the same as that in Chinese. The two languages have different registers. Also, the translated title sounds a little awkward, because i'm not sure if significance stands for 'Yiyi' in Chinese. Well, i have a limited vocabulary, but what can I do about it, just need to keep trying.

hope the internet connection works fine; I just wrote something and then it went blank.

旅行的意义 The Significance of Your Traveling
作曲: 陳綺貞, 編曲: 李雨寰
監製: , 填詞: 陳綺貞


你看過了許多美景 Too much beautiful scenery you’ve seen
你看過了許多美女 Too many pretty girls you’ve encountered
你迷失在地圖上每一道短暫的光陰 In every spot of earth you’ve been lost

你品嚐了夜的巴黎 You’ve savored the beauty of Paris in the night
你踏過下雪的北京 You’ve walked through Beijing covered with snow
你熟記書本裡每一句你最愛的真理 You’ve memorized every single witty sentence

卻說不出你愛我的原因 Yet you cannot explain why you love me
卻說不出你欣賞我哪一種表情 You cannot specify your favorite countenance of me
卻說不出在什麼場合我曾讓你動心 You cannot elaborate when you fall for me
說不出離開的原因 You cannot tell me the reason you keep walking away

你累計了許多飛行 You’ve flied thousands of miles during the years
你用心挑選紀念品 You’ve attentively selected souvenirs
你蒐集了地圖上每一次的風和日麗 You’ve appreciated every single glorious day around the world

你擁抱熱情的島嶼 You’ve embraced islands with passion
你埋葬記憶的土耳其 You’ve left behind the memory of Turkey
你流連電影裡美麗的不真實的場景 You linger upon unrealistically beautiful scenes in movies

卻說不出你愛我的原因 Yet you cannot explain why you love me
卻說不出你欣賞我哪一種表情 you cannot specify your favorite countenance of me
卻說不出在什麼場合我曾讓你分心 you cannot elaborate when I become your distractions
說不出旅行的意義 you cannot tell me the significance of your constant traveling

你勉強說出你愛我的原因 You reluctantly enounce why you love me
卻說不出你欣賞我哪一種表情 Yet you still cannot specify your favorite countenance of me
卻說不出在什麼場合我曾讓你分心 You still cannot explicate when I am your distractions
說不出離開的原因 You still cannot tell me the reason you walk away

勉強說出你為我寄出的每一封信 Then you reluctantly tell me that every letter you’ve sent to me
都是你離開的原因 Accounts for the reasons you left
你離開我　就是旅行的意義 Walking away from me, is the significance of your constant traveling

Start new and different

I like writing weblog articles. It's a way to let out the excessive negative feelings, as well as happy thoughts. In real life there is just not very many people to talk to, especially those who are willing to listen to your endless nonsense.

I have been writing on my Chinese blog for quite a long time, on and off. And there have been some friends who follow my writing, well, it's more like sharing and knowing about friends' life without having to meet in person; and let's face it, in this way, you actually get to know people better.

All of a sudden, I started having a crush on this guy from last year, cannot really recall when it was exactly; the crush has been going on for a while, on and off. And in order to prove that i won't be embarrassed to show him my blog, i showed him. Seriously, it's just silly; however, i think subconsciously i do want him to see it. but yes, i was a little embarrassed. Well, nothing wrong with the embarrassment. He appears to be a very 'mysterious' guy, he doesn't like to share much; even though he does not reject questions, i still don't know what to ask. There is nowhere to begin with. But I don't have many secrets, i like to share and i have to TALK.

It is not that i love him or anything. It's just a crush; and from my own personal 'crushing' experiences, it will probably go away years later. (god, i hope it won't last years, i'm doomed) But i just loving the feeling that you have this kind of passion, not only about a person, but about life itself. It's kind of exciting. I just hope i could have to chance to be related to someone that i really adore, someone annoying and adorable. This is what life should be about, isn't it?

It cannot stay the way it used to be, but the important thing is passion. And meanwhile i began to realize that my English is still not good enough, far from good. This is the major reason that i started this blog, to write in English and read more English writings.

So, off to a good start! And a lot of messes to clear up. Chin up! (intended to say 'good luck', but it seems that luck is really not in my department. (i make up English expressions based on what i hear, it could be very wrong, but i'm just going to take it easy).