儒风门的招魂台上,徐霜林看着夜色里点点飘零的金色流光，忽觉像极了那一年元宵雪夜，他投入炉膛的纸。
On Rufeng Sect’s Spirit Summoning Stage, Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky. He was suddenly reminded of the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night.
瞬间烧成了灰，只有点点星火仍在，隔着岁月,将他烫伤。It burnt into ash in an instant, with only specks of embers remaining to scorch him despite the years that passed.
望罗枫华,南宫絮,南宫柳三人。能一生为亲为友。
I hope that we three, Luo Fenghua, Nangong Xu, and Nangong Liu can be friends and family for life.
但人间早已没了南宫絮了,如今立在这里的是徐霜林，是疯子是恶魔是从地狱深处爬回来向世间一切正人君子索命的徐霜林。
But Nangong Xu no longer exists in this world. It’s Xu Shuanglin who stands here today; Xu Shuangli who is a madman, a demon, a person who crawled from the depth of hell to demand the lives of all the good men in this world.
再没有南宫絮了。There will never again be Nangong Xu.
他就像他的名字一样，飘零无依,沉浮于苍茫天地间。He, like his name, has drifted away, alone, floating somewhere between the vast heaven and hearth.
岁月碾过,岩峦也错骨分筋。何况是这一朵渺小柳絮。Years crushed by, even rocky cliffs shatter and break [1]. Not to mention this a small insignificant puff of willow catkin.
那么多年过去了，柳树苍老,枫华凋零,飘絮游游荡荡，看尽的不是天涯花,是漫山遍野的血,铺天盖地的恨。
It’s been so many years. The willow tree has become old. The magnificent maple has started to fade. The floating catkins wander in the wind [2]. What was seen through and through was not all the world’s flowers, but blood soaked mountains and plains and the hatred covering heaven and earth.
Ch 228
南宫絮 (Nangong Xu), 南宫柳 (Nangong Liu), and 罗枫华(Luo Fenghua)’s names are invoked in the last paragraph of this passage about them and passing time. I wanted to only translate the last part at first but it didn’t provide enough context, so I expanded the passage.
There’s something haunting in this paragraph from Meatbun. Things that are images of splendor and spring have been taken and made desolate with the passing of time. And beautiful willow catkins and youthful dreams are replaced by blood and hatred.
I just love this passage and wanted to share and point out the wordplay Meatbun did in her use of imagery.
[1] Literally bones slip/grind and tendons separate. But shatter and break seem to work better in english.
[2] 飘 is to float but implies in the wind so i broke that up. 游游荡荡 indicates wandering but not necessarily in the wind. fun note: Gone with the Wind is translated into chinese as simply “飘”.
Edit: “ … Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky. He was suddenly reminded of the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night. ” is better/more literally translated as “… Xu Shuanglin watched the scattered golden lights in the night sky which suddenly resembled the piece of paper he threw into the furnace that one snowy Lantern Festival Night. ” I was struggling to get the resemble and the sudden and the night sky to link… and now it makes sense in my brain. oops.
