People Who Mistake Impulse for Love (Song Translation)

Sometimes, your life just sucks. And you don't want to analyze it. You don't want to talk about it. You just want to curl up in your bed and just be. This drama did that for me. It's called I'm So Smart (我叫郝聪明 - the English translation is a play on words of the original Chinese title, which I will explain in another post). I loved loved this drama, but because it's a web-drama, it didn't get much publicity in either mainland China nor the international online community. As such, I'm going to do a review of it, and maybe even a recap if I feel ambitious enough. But, small steps right? First, a teaser of sorts - the ending theme song replete with a music video including scenes from the drama and a translation of the song. It's really sweet in both the melody and the lyrics - it's actually been receiving a lot of plays on my phone ever since I watched this drama almost a year ago in early 2014 (!!!).

Ultimately, I think the song captures the web-drama perfectly in the sense that it's a re-telling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - set in modern day China. In the context of rapid changes in all aspects of life including economically and socially, people struggle to keep up while trying to maintain a sense of identity and find meaning in their hectic lives. It's about maintaining a sense of naivete and a moral instinct in a world where it's so easy to be jaded and just go with what's the most convenient. This can't be anymore true when it comes to relationships. The song is about how much real feelings hurt, how it's so easy to just dabble and not commit, but in spite of past hurts, some of us still want to find "real love" - whatever that is - and if it means being a fool, then so be it.

Title: 有人常常把爱情比作一种冲动 (People Who Mistake Impulse for Love)
Singer: 张之夏 (Zhang Zhixia)

有人常常把爱情比作一种冲动
You ren chang chang ba ai qing bi zuo yi zhong chong dong
There are people who mistaken a fleeting impulse for love

冲动过后就各奔西东
Chong dong guo hou jiu ge ben xi dong
After the impulse dies, everyone just flees in whichever direction

而我相信我能好好的把它守候
Er wo xiangxin wo neng haohao de ba ta shouhou
But I believe I can wait for my ideal love

哪怕最后只剩感动
Napa zuihou zhi sheng gandong
Even if I risk being left with only feelings in the end*

就像是你和我 深深爱过
Jiu xiang shi ni he wo shen shen ai guo
Like you and I deeply loved

却如此遥远 不再交错
Que ruci yaoyuan bu zai jiaocuo
But as such, we became so distant we could never cross paths again**

原来是你和我 只剩沉默
yuanlai shi ni he wo zhi sheng chen2mo4
In truth, it was just you and me, left with silence

却忘了曾经熟悉的温热***
Que wangle cengjing shuxi de wenrou
Forgetting the familiarity and warmth we used to have

da da da da da da la da da
da da da da da da la da da

你给的天空已雾雨朦胧
Ni ge de tiankong yi wuyu menglong
The world# you gave me has already turned to one of rain and haze

da da da da da da la da da
da da da da da da la da da

再见了伤痛 转身之后把回忆清空##
Zaijian le shangtong zhuan sheng zhihou ba huiyi qingkong
The pain of goodbyes turns into nostalgia of better days once we’ve moved on


Footnotes
*As in, nothing else to show for – no marriage, etc.

**Not sure if she means this line in the context of the previous sentiments in which it would sound more like – “Even if that means we might just become distant friends never to meet again,” but I chose to translate it in the context of the following sentiments. Either works, though.

***The original lyrics I found online had this as 温热 (wenre) which translates to tepid, usually referring the temperature of water, not sentiments. When I listen to the song, I actually hear 温柔 (wenrou) which, as translated here, does refer to the warmth of feelings and memories.

#Technically, 天空tiankong means sky or heaven, but I loosely translated it to be “world.”

##Again, the original lyrics I found had this as 清空, which literally means to clear or to empty, but qingkong could also be 晴空 – looks exactly the same, but the first character is different giving it a slightly different meaning – that of clear days. These two phrases actually have different intonations but it’s difficult to tell which one it is in the song since much of subtle intonation like this is lost in singing. So, I left the original Chinese characters as is, and translated it with the second 晴空given that the previous line talked about weather, too.