So I didn’t get around to translating that bit from Flyng Fox of Snowy Mountain yet, but…
Yesterday at the library, the second book of this series fell into my hands (I work at the check-in/check-out desk). It had a different cover, more like the one in this Baike article about the series (which also has pictures of the characters, ooh). A cover that said “wuxia” rather than “romance,” heh. So I hunted down book one of the series, and, well, the cover is pretty girly. On the other hand, the first sentence of the synopsis on the back includes the phrase “raining blood and evil wind” (血雨腥风) which is an expression meaning “carnage.” So, I guess this is wuxia after all.
So far I’ve just read the first page, and I might translate that here on the blog, cause it’s rather descriptive.
I’ve been trying to come up with a translation of the title, but I can’t quite figure out what it means. I could tell you what each of the characters means by itself, but not all together – it’s quite possibly something poetic that I’m not getting. Maybe I’ll have a better idea after I read more of the book.
For now, for the curious non-reader of Chinese, the pinyin for the title is “Zi Zhao Tian Yin” and the author’s name is Bufeiyan. (I do believe that’s supposed to be all one word because it’s a pen name, something literary.) Bufeiyan is an award-winning wuxia writer who started out as an internet sensation. As I was poking around, I stumbled on this article about Chinese internet authors and realized I actually started reading another one of her books (解忧刀 / Jie You Dao, pictured in the article) several years ago. I don’t remember much about it; I don’t think I got far. Maybe I’ll have to track it down and take another stab at it.
But first, Zi Zhao Tian Yin. And hopefully at some point that translation from Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain. Stay tuned for updates or translations!
Dispatches from the Jianghu 