Omnipotent Youth Society: Cable Temple | 萬能青年旅店：郊眠寺

Recording with subtitle (cc) | 视频同步双语字幕

歌词双语对照 | Translation

Cable Temple

A song by Omnipotent Youth Society

新语言旧语言
New language
Old language
该怎样回答不眠的时间
How do you answer
the sleepless Time
星河下电子荒原
Under a river of stars
an electronic wasteland
亿万场冷暖亿万泥污人
Billions of loves and losses
billions of lowly lives

切断电缆朝霞晚风
Cut the cables
morning glow and evening breeze
临时收入临时生活
Temporary income
temporary life
切断电缆数字云烟
Cut the cables
digital impermanence
免费月光免费惊险
Moonlight for free
thrills for free

月光熔铁星铸我神与心
Moonlight smelts iron stars
to cast my heart and soul
月光熔铁星铸我神与心
Moonlight smelts iron stars
to cast my heart and soul

渤海地产太行水泥
Bohai sea real estate
Taihang mountains cement
宗教医保慈善股票
Religious health insurance
philanthropic stocks
幻觉贸易阶级电梯
Mirage commerce
social class elevator
高级魔术高级发明
Advanced magic
advanced gimmicks

凝聚神与心建此不夜城
Welding heart and soul
to build this night city
凝聚神与心建此不夜城
Welding heart and soul
to build this night city

演员失业电缆失窃
Actors unemployed
cables stolen
共享富裕共享恐惧
Sharing wealth
sharing fears
东方睡衣涌上街头
Oriental pajamas
flooding the streets
街头嘈杂公共聋哑
Clamorous are the streets
the public deafened and silenced

紧急换电缆循环追捕令
Urgent cable changing
circular arrest warrants
紧急换电缆循环追捕令
Urgent cable changing
circular arrest warrants

我有迷魂额头滚烫
My soul enchanted and lost
forehead burning hot
我有迷魂人间明暗
My soul enchanted and lost
All the light and shadows on earth
鸟兽暗语危险消息
Animals whispering
dangerous rumors
自然友谊自然躲避
Natural friendship
natural elusion

西郊有密林助君出重围
Jungles in the western suburb
shall help thee out of the siege
西郊有密林助君出重围
Jungles in the western suburb
shall help thee out of the siege
人间明暗人间明暗
All the light and shadows on earth
All the light and shadows on earth

Misc

Translator’s note

Kill that Person from Shijiazhuang and Cable Temple convinced me that Omnipotent Youth Society is making the most authentic music of our times, even under stifling censorship and layers of ambiguity. Sharing wealth / sharing fears / Oriental pajamas / flooding the streets / Clamorous are the streets / the public deafened and silenced / Urgent cable changing / circular arrest warrants paints a faithful picture of China at this moment as well as at every moment in its circular history.

My favorite is Under a river of stars / an electronic wasteland, possibly a homage to T. S. Eliot. I love Moonlight smelts iron stars / to cast my heart and soul, though perhaps it should have been translated as iron planet (the earth) instead of iron stars.

Til this day, I’m unsure about how to best translate 人间明暗. Literally it means the brightness and darkness of the human world. I couldn’t find a way to retain its simple rhythm (it has only four syllables in Mandarin) and extended meanings, nor did I find any good translation of this phrase so far.

I ran into another version of lyrics translation for this song Wei Leran @ Lyrics Translate when writing up this blog post. I noticed a bunch of fascinating differences and agreements between the other translator and me, considering I didn’t refer to any existing translations when I was working on my translation. Check it out if you’re interested.

All suggestions and discussions are welcome!

译后记

听过《杀死那个石家庄人》和《郊眠寺》后，非常喜欢这个乐队。「共享富裕共享恐惧 / 东方睡衣涌上街头 / 街头嘈杂公共聋哑 / 紧急换电缆循环追捕令」，唱的正是此刻以至于历史循环中的每一刻的中国。

「星河下电子荒原」一句尤其出彩，翻译中也（希望是顺应原作本意地）致敬了艾略特。「月光熔铁星铸我神与心」很美，但我读了一些歌词解析后，不太确定铁星是不是指地球（地核富含铁与镍）。

「亿万场冷暖亿万泥污人」犹豫了很久，似乎最终仍未翻译出「冷暖」中的世事洞察。最难翻译的则是「人间明暗」，从开始翻译到现在已经过了半年，我还没有想出或见到任何一个兼具信达雅的译法。目前采用的译法大致照顾了字面意义，但无法传达层叠的意象和简洁的节奏。

准备发布博文时，正好看到了另一个歌词译版：Wei Leran @ Lyrics Translate. 我在翻译时没有参照其他译版，所以出现了很多挺有意思的差异；有兴趣的话可以对比阅读。

欢迎讨论和建议!

References

Image source: AI-generated art by StableCog. Reproducible by the following parameters:

prompt: three layers of mountains lit by sunset in the background, shimmering lake in the front with a single small gray boat, pale mono-color, in the style of ancient chinese ink wash painting
model: Stable Diffusion 1.5
width: 768
height: 768
guidance scale: 7
inference steps: 30
scheduler: Euler
seed: 1205444845