A Word about the Mo Yan Phrase:

In an earlier blog post, I noted that Yan had made an interesting comment about a main character in LIFE AND DEATH ARE WEARING ME OUT, a fellow nick-named “blue-face”, on account of the peculiar birthmark on his face. The guy was described as being a “Stone in an outhouse, hard and stinky”. One of my Chinese friends translated this sentence into Mandarin a week after the post appeared. Her translation is as follows: “茅房里的石头，又臭又硬” (mao2fang2li3de5shi2tou2, you4chou4you4ying4). “茅房” is the word for “outhouse”, “石头” is the word for stone, “里的” is the word for “inside of”, “臭” is the word for “stinky”, “硬” is the word for “hard”, and “又” is “and/also”. A reader named “Bokane” has offered almost the same translation, but with a different word for “outhouse,” namely “茅坑” (mao2keng1). It was good to get the latter comment and I look forward to receiving more feedback on my blog in the future.