
The Wonderfully Elusive Chinese Novel - samclemens
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/apr/23/wonderfully-elusive-chinese-novel/
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CurtHagenlocher
If the nuances of the different translations appeal to you, Douglas
Hofstadter's "Le Ton beau de Marot" is a must-read.

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autarch
Chinese really is well-suited to poetry. This carries over into song lyrics,
even for pop songs. Here are two that I really like:

* Tian Mi Mi by Teresa Teng - [http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/teresa_teng/tian_mi_mi.ht...](http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/teresa_teng/tian_mi_mi.html) \- which includes a line "your smile is like flowers opening in the spring wind"

* Sky by Faye Wong - [http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/more/chinese-pop-songs/sky-by...](http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/more/chinese-pop-songs/sky-by-zhang-jie-and-faye-wong.html) \- one of many beautiful lines translates as "The sky. Piled with layers and layers of longing."

There are certainly great lyricists in English, but the two songs I linked
above were both massive popular hits. Teresa Teng and Faye Wong during their
respective heydays are probably best compared with people like Madonna in the
80s/90s or Beyonce today (in terms of popularity, media attention, etc.). Is
there anyone in mainstream pop music writing lyrics as beautiful as the ones I
linked above?

(Fun side note: Faye Wong is a huge admirer of Teresa Teng, and has a great
cover album of Teng's songs called Decadent Sounds of Faye. The arrangements
of these songs are great and Faye Wong sings them beautifully).

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emodendroket
I like Teresa Teng's music a lot, but I'm not sure the lyrics are uniquely
poetic. And most of her songs also have Japanese versions, despite the two
languages having little in common besides a lot of lexical borrowings.

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lotsofmangos
I wonder if the word _duanming_ was the origin for the name of Short-Round in
Indiana Jones.

~~~
cafard
In military terms, a short round is a projectile that falls short of the
target, particularly if enough so as to harm one's own troops. The book on
which _Full Metal Jacket_ was based had a lieutenant nicknamed Short Round for
his stature.

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lotsofmangos
Well, I found the source, was a doggie -

 _" Like Indiana Jones and Willie Scott, the character is named after a pet
dog: Short Round was the dog of the film's writers, Gloria Katz and Willard
Huyck."_

