red chamber dream, book vs drama

May 07, 2012 21:36

This evening I watched episode 17, because I wanted to compare Xifeng's party as portrayed in the show with what I just read. There are scenes from several chapters in that episode, actually, including 36 and 44 (iirc). It's amazing, though, to watch this after just reading some of these scenes. They're so close, even to the point of characters saying lines I remember from the translation I'm reading. And my ears actually caught some of it this time.

And yes, Jia Lian does draw a sword and chase after Xifeng. I had completely forgotten that whole scene. But even what Baoyu is doing during the party. I hadn't made the connection the first time I watched it. The book is helping me understand it all better.

I was kind of amused (again) by Baoyu's speech about hoping to die among all his cousins so that their tears can form a river and carry away his body (ever the poet, Baoyu), but I've been trying to work through the the text of that speech. This is not going well. And then his words the next day...

昨夜说你们的眼泪单葬我,这就错了.我竟不能全得了.从此后只是各人各得眼泪罢了.
Zuóyè shuō nǐmen de yǎnlèi dān zàng wǒ, zhè jiù cuòle. Wǒ jìng bùnéng quán deliǎo. Cóng cǐhòu zhǐshì gèrén gè dé yǎnlèi ba le.

(there's 罢了 again...)

Anyway, what I'm seeing is:

Last night said your tears (something) bury me, this was wrong. I shouldn't get all (tears?). From now on, only everyone get tears... um... something. I'm still trying to figure out 罢了. "Never mind about the tears" maybe.

The language of this book is so different from what I'm learning in some ways. Maybe it's because this is so far above my level. Maybe it's because the spoken language is different now than it was when HLM was written. Jane Austen's English -- only half a century later -- is pretty different from what I speak. Language is a restless thing. I'm surprised I can comprehend as much as I seem to (or maybe I'm fooling myself).

hong lou meng, learning mandarin, reading

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