Mulan Again

[marina_bonomi]

But this time the whole ballad...

木 兰 辞
Mulan ci

唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织。
Jiji fu jiji, Mulan dang hu zhi.
不闻机杼声，唯闻女叹息。
Bu wen jizhu sheng, wei wen nü danxi.
问女何所思？问女何所忆？
Wen nü he suo si? Wen nü he suo yi?
女亦无所思，女亦无所忆。
Nü yi wu suo si, Nü yi wu suo yi.
昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵，
Zuoye jian juntie, kehan da dian bin,
军书十二卷，卷卷有爷名。
Jun shu shier juan, juan juan you ye ming.
阿爷无大儿，木兰无长兄，
Ah

Comments

[la_marquise_de_]

Lovely: thank you.

[marina_bonomi]

Thank *you*. :)

[marina_bonomi]

Thank you for reading! :)

[khiemtran]

Interesting. I didn't realise the Chinese version had her companions saying explicitly that they had been together twelve years. I wonder how this fits with the ten years after which the heroes return. Did she take two years just to get home, or was her struggle even longer than I thought (Hmm. Wikipedia says she fought for twelve years, but I wonder if that just comes from the same line...)

[marina_bonomi]

In my opinion it may be just an artifact of oral transmission, probably some singers went with 'ten years' thoughout, others had 'twelve' and some mixed it up.

I'm reading an interesting study about Mulan's transformations through Chinese and Western media, the amount of historical and fictional women warriors and their role in folklore is impressive. Over here the man (or woman) on the street would be hard pressed to mention somebody besides Jeanne of Arc...

[khiemtran]

In my opinion it may be just an artifact of oral transmission, probably some singers went with 'ten years' thoughout, others had 'twelve' and some mixed it up.

Hopefully, they weren't just a character long in one line, or a character short in the other...

I'm reading an interesting study about Mulan's transformations through Chinese and Western media, the amount of historical and fictional women warriors and their role in folklore is impressive.

Hmm. Sounds interesting.