Things You Never Knew 你不知道的事

In Class



Here is an official English translation of the lyrics of the song (given by the official Youtube accounto of the singer). The brackets is my interpretation of the translations

蝴蝶眨几次眼睛 再学会飞行

How many times does a butterfly learn to blink, before it learnt to fly?

夜空洒满了星星 但即刻会落地

The sky is sprinkled over with countless stars, but how many will remain?

(In the Mandarin lyrics, the character "countless" isn't written, but the meaning is implied in the context. In addition, the second part of the lyrics mean "but will fall to the ground immediately". However, that is not what the translation states.)

我飞行 但你坠落之际

Even as I fly, you fall

(If I were to be more specific, I would say "the moment you fall".)

很靠近 还听见呼吸

So close that I can hear you breathe

对不起 我却没捉紧你

So sorry I didn't keep hold of you

(I think the translation's phrasing is a little awkward. I would translate this phrase as "I'm so sorry for not keeping hold of you".)

你不知道我为什么离开你

You don't know why I had to leave you

(The term "had to" does not exist in the Mandarin lyrics. Another problem is that because there is no tenses in Mandarin, this phrase can also be translated as "You don't know why I have to leave you" or "You don't know why I left you". The knowledge issue is how do we know which is the most accurate translate? Who decides which one is the correct one? The lyricist? What if the lyricist does not speak English?)

我坚持不能说放任你哭泣

How could I ignore your every cry 

(The more literal translation of the lyrics is "I insist that I cannot let you to cry" but the official translation is very different from mine.)

你的泪滴像倾盆大雨碎落满地

All the while the downpour of your tears shattering the ground

(Does "shattering the ground" make sense? To me, the lyrics meant "Your tears are like the heavy rain pouring to the ground".)

在心里清晰

So clearly pierced my heart

(Again, if I were to make the translations flow better, I would say "So clearly that the sound pierced my heart".)

你不知道我为什么狠下心

You don't know why I had to keep away

(There is no exact translation for the last three characters of the phrase. The closest translation that I can get to is "cruel" but according to the context, the speaker is being cruel because he needs to but actually he doesn't want to.)

盘旋在你看不见那高空里

Circling in the sky above, just out of sight

多的是 你不知道的事

So many are the things you never knew


The two main problems of translations that are most encountered here are the context and untranslatable words. Because these are lyrics, some of the phrases are metaphorical so unless the lyricist explains to me what he or she is writing about, as a Mandarin native speaker, I can only guess the meaning. This adds on to the inaccuracy of the translation. The knowledge issue here is that how do we know what we think is correct and so how do we know our translations are correct? It seems like languages may break the barriers of communication, but there is also a danger of misunderstanding and confusion. Hence, can language be considered as a safe way of communication?