PC Translations

Tang Tai Zong, taking great pity on the River God, replied, “Wei Zheng is an official under my command, and he is also a friend with whom I am on the best of terms. I can definitely take care of your request. You don’t need to worry any more about it.”

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Click here for the previous installment

Yuan Tian Gang, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, said, “Don’t be so happy yet. I know you are the God of the Jing River. You are the one who had added the amount and lenghtened the time of the rainfall, causing it to flood and drowning the inhabitants of the area. The Jade Emperor is very angry. Tomorrow night he will send a minister of the monarch Tai Zong, Wei Zheng, who, in order to punish your disrespect, will cut off your head.”

When the River God heard this, he was very alarmed. He sat down and begged Yuan Tian Gang, saying, “What should I do? I beg you to point me in the right way on this matter!”

Yuan Tian Gang replied, “You just need to go ask Tai Gong to help you.”

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This is a continuation of my translation of 中国童话 (Zhong Guo Tong Hua), or “Chinese Fairy Tales,” which began here

I’m finally getting back to posting the translation of The Story of the God of the Gate. The previous post is here, and the first post in the series is located here.

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The River God happily went back to the Jing River Palace. There he received the Jade Emperor’s imperial edict, clearly stating: Tomorrow afternoon 300 ml of rain will drop on Chang’an.

Upon reading this, the River God leapt with fright. The more he thougth, the less he was convinced. He decided he could purposely extend how long or increase how much it rained the next day.

After the rain stopped, the River God gleefully ran to Chang’an. Giving a naughty kick to Yuan Tian Gang’s fortune-telling stand, he giggled and said, “The amount and the length of time you said it would rain were not accurate. Your stall is in real trouble now!”

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Click here for part 1

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One day, the God of the Jing River noticed that there were less and less fish and prawns in the river each day, and he was extremely worried. He went everywhere inquiring, and he discovered that it was the fortune teller Yuan Tian Gang who was helping the villagers. Upon learning this, he prepared to go and destroy Yuan’s fortune telling stall.

That day, the God of the River disguised himself, dressing all in white and posing as a student. In his hand waving a white jade fan, he entered Chang’an.

In a short while, he reached Yuan Tian Gang’s fortune-telling stall. Rudely he said, “Hey Boss! Let me ask you, when is it going to rain around these parts? How much will it rain? How long will it keep falling? If you don’t predict accurately, I’m gonna trample your fortune-telling stall. If you can predict accurately, I’ll give you 500 pieces of silver.”

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I have begun working on translation of 中国童话 (Chinese fairy tales). In my next post, I will begin putting those translations, simple as they are, here. The book I am translating from contains five stories. I’ll begin with the first, which is entitled “The God of the Gate.” Each post here will only be a short portion of the story, as the translation work moves along rather slowly. Hopefully, as it all progresses, I’ll be able to translate more complex stories. For now, though, I think I will find sufficient difficulty in these, though they were written for kids.

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