Dear Chinese speakers, please help before episode 36 drives me insane!

[solo]

I guess things are coming to a head because the language gets more and more difficult. Or maybe it's just this one particular [bleep] episode.

Anyway. There are several passages which just leave me stumped. So I'll just put them here and throw myself upon your collective mercy. Somebody saaaaave meeeee! I won't even put in my speculations because they are simply crap.

What does any of this say? Some of it sound proverbial, some of it is idiomatic but then the rest isn't. Some of it is just.. there to make my life harder.

Ep 36, 12:36.46, about Dixingren

 

会失恋、会失身

 

Ep 36, 14:17.10, addressed to 'former SID members'

 

我不得不对你们说，偷偷苟活去吧，血性是一种危险的尊严，清楚认识到这一点的话，你们做的任何决定我都能理解。

 

Ep 36, 29:03.22, addressed to, or said about, Chu Shuzi when the Envoy gets to take him to Haixing

 

斗转星移，棚头傀儡，一线断时，落落累累

Comments

[qikiqtarjuaq]

会失恋 - Can be heartbroken/jilted (be disappointed in love, to lose love)

会失身 - Can lose their virginity/chastity

我不得不对你们说 - I have to say this to you all

偷偷苟活去吧 - go and secretly eke out an (ignoble) existence

血性是一种危险的尊严 - courage is a dangerous kind of honor

清楚认识到这一点的话，你们做的任何决定我都能理解。 - If you can clearly grasp this point, then whatever decision you make, I'll understand.

斗转星移 - change of seasons/passage of time

棚头傀儡，一线断时，落落累累 - This is a bit of a complicated saying I had to go to Baidu to understand. The full meaning is: 人生在世，不过是像傀儡一样借由灵魂的线来操纵肉体的躯壳，当灵魂离开肉体的时候，剩下的躯壳不过是像断了线的傀儡一般的散落的废物罢了

We are but puppets, our bodies shells controlled by the strings of our souls. Once the soul departs, all that's left is a useless puppet whose strings are cut.

[mecurtin]

Question: is 会失身 a thing that can happen to men as well as women, or is it only used for women?

Believe it or not, when I was in college (mid-70s) it was actually a question of debate whether men could be virgins.

[qikiqtarjuaq]

The official dictionary definition says this is a term specific to women, but I see people use it for men as well. At a glance there doesn't appear to be a separate term for men being used.

[in_the_bottle]

I've heard the term being used for men as well, so yes?

[(Anonymous)]

In the anime Ghost in the Shell 2, the translation for the quoted poem "生死去来，棚头傀儡。一线断时，落落磊磊" goes like "Life and death come and go like marionettes dancing on a table. Once their strings are cut, they easily crumble." The changed first line kind of broke the flow.

[solo]

LOL the Envoy is quoting Ghost in the Shell! Now I wonder about his hidden anime stash!

Thank you, kind nonnie.

[solo]

会失身 - Can lose their virginity/chastity

OMG. See, I even got that. But I just couldn't imagine Zhao Yunlan going there on a worldwide broadcast. I guess I underestimated him... ^^;

Regarding the things for past team members, that's very reassuring, thank you. It roughly matches what I thought it said but I really couldn't tell if I was reading - well, 'reading' - this right.

The final thing: oh Envoy, WHY? >.<

I...um...actually don't quite get the connection between the Envoy's short thing and the long thing from Baidu, except for a couple of words being in the longer version. But I'll happily go for it!

MDBG actually gave me that first line (斗转星移) as 'time flies', but it didn't seem to have nothing to do with any of the rest. Or with the situation he's in. But then clearly neither does the rest of his words, except for the fact that hey, Chu and puppets. Will ponder how to make this work.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this and checking out Baidu!

[qikiqtarjuaq]

I mean, there is plausible deniability in that there's a rare definition that means to lose your life/to die but literally no one uses it that way??? LOL

Time flies, as the seasons turn, all of that works I think. The gist of it is the Envoy making a rather depressing statement on death and souls as time passes.

And yeah, a lot of analysis of Chinese sayings is like expanding the 4 character phrases into its underlying meaning, which is often much longer. I rely a lot on baidu to explain those to me because it's all very opaque to me as well!

[solo]

Yeah, the original subs went with the dying thing, so picture my surprise when I checked! (I only checked because I saw no 死 anywhere...). I think I'll let him be more daring.

Oh Envoy, so cheerful. @@ Those 4 character phrases are ... do Chinese people learn them and their meaning in school, or are they just so embedded in the culture that everybody knows what they mean anyway?

(I also went to baidu but couldn't make head nor tail of what baidu was telling me.)

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Yeah, I completely glossed over that the first time around because I misheard it as 牺牲 (xisheng) instead of 失身 (shishen). It makes Shen Wei's expression in that scene all the more amazing though, if he's thinking of a certain night with Kunlun.

And as for poems and chengyu, we do grow up on stories behind the chengyu in children's books and such. And in school, there's literature classes. But a lot depends on what you consume as far as media/reading in your spare time. Some sayings are more common than others.

[solo]

Yes, is it kind of intriguing that of all the things to say about why Dixingren are like humans, he hit on that one. I mean, he could have said 'they go to the toilet, you know?' instead of talking about love and virginity.

I was never actually sold on something happening between them in YOHE (because reasons) but this thing here, this could make me overcome my doubts.

It's kind of pathetic, how little I know about China.

[jo_lasalle]

I was never actually sold on something happening between them in YOHE (because reasons) but this thing here, this could make me overcome my doubts.

That could also be about, like, two weeks ago after they sat on the bench in the sun, I'm just saying! ^_^

(Very interesting discussion / untangling!)

[solo]

I admit I'd forgotten that the benchsitting also fitted into this timeframe. :)