![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
(no subject)
A long weekend (I *will* not work Monday, I *will* not- and other famous last words.) Third week of headcold now moving into lungs, provoking (again) spasmodic coughs and dynamite sneezes; heavy, logey, head hurts hurts hurts. What to do? What can anyone do?
Why, translate Yumemakura, of course!
That's not as batshit as it sounds. If you're going to feel lousy anyway you might as well translate. You won't be ruining any good books or shows doing so, or wasting time doing nothing. Instead you'll be wasting time googling butchou sonshou darani 仏頂勝陀羅尼 and finding out about mantras and sutras and daranis, to say nothing of the 32 marks of the Buddha; and looking up Fujiwara no Tsuneyuki in Konjaku monogatari and trying to figure out how you get to be both a dainagon and a sadaishou, but hell- he's called dainagon sadaishou no Tsuneyuki, so that's what he is; and then wondering if his sobriquet 好色童 should best be translated 'lusty lad' or 'horndog' or a discreet 18th century 'am'rous boy'? (or 'hot babycakes'?); and discovering that henoho means balls and *this' youkai eats eyeballs but *that* youkai eats manballs aka henoho.
And *then* you get to lie down in a dark room with the earphones on cause your headache is now *really* bad.
(Translating is the wheel of fire which is only mildly uncomfortable while you're grasping it. The trouble is that you mustn't let go for long periods of time because then grasping it again seems more painful than it is and you don't want to do it. Once grasped there's at least a small sense of accomplishment to be had; and everything after looks so much better, as it were.)
Why, translate Yumemakura, of course!
That's not as batshit as it sounds. If you're going to feel lousy anyway you might as well translate. You won't be ruining any good books or shows doing so, or wasting time doing nothing. Instead you'll be wasting time googling butchou sonshou darani 仏頂勝陀羅尼 and finding out about mantras and sutras and daranis, to say nothing of the 32 marks of the Buddha; and looking up Fujiwara no Tsuneyuki in Konjaku monogatari and trying to figure out how you get to be both a dainagon and a sadaishou, but hell- he's called dainagon sadaishou no Tsuneyuki, so that's what he is; and then wondering if his sobriquet 好色童 should best be translated 'lusty lad' or 'horndog' or a discreet 18th century 'am'rous boy'? (or 'hot babycakes'?); and discovering that henoho means balls and *this' youkai eats eyeballs but *that* youkai eats manballs aka henoho.
And *then* you get to lie down in a dark room with the earphones on cause your headache is now *really* bad.
(Translating is the wheel of fire which is only mildly uncomfortable while you're grasping it. The trouble is that you mustn't let go for long periods of time because then grasping it again seems more painful than it is and you don't want to do it. Once grasped there's at least a small sense of accomplishment to be had; and everything after looks so much better, as it were.)
no subject