Translating New Years

I’m a little behind on some blogging and sorry about that.  Thursday, J wasn’t feeling well.  She said she felt achy and like she couldn’t get traction and wake up.  Friday she woke feeling worse and with a sore throat.  By Friday evening, Kiddo was complaining of the same thing and, in thinking back, Kiddo had been kind of moody and lethargic.  Sunday, I started to feel it.  Yesterday was my “bad” day.  

I thought it might be a covid variant, but testing yesterday and today have both been negative for me.  So, it’s either a virus/cold going around or it’s a covid that the tests can’t pick up on.  Either way, the girls were fine by Monday (yesterday) and seems like Monday (yesterday) was my bad day.  Today I feel like my throat is sore/itchy and I wish I could just lazy all day, but I can’t.  So, I will just have a feeling 85% day and I’m sure I will feel fine by tomorrow.

I bring this up because I missed out on posting this video over the weekend.  Taking care of both girls while feeling the front end of it myself and I just got behind on it.  So, enjoy a few days late.

As for enjoying, we are enjoying the Chinese New Year season here.  It’s started already at Central and a few other places.  The year of the dragon, we are told, is one of the bigger celebrations in the CNY.  The other 11 animals are real and tangible things, tiger, rabbit, horse, etc.  The dragon is the mystic, the ancient, the unknown.  It’s the idea of ancestors and the before.  It’s a hard concept to explain, since it was explained to me through a number of translations and my own self study.  So, my understanding is like a translation of a translation of a translation.  A bunch gets lost as it crosses over, translates, and some cultural or linguistic meaning gets lost crossing those boundaries.  Much like the Bible or other “holy” texts.  You take a 2000-3000 year old dead language and translate it across a bunch of languages and changes and things get lost or change.  

In fact, it is believed that the Chinese started writing in the Shang dynasty around 1400BC.  Before that, it seems that the idea of the Dragon in Chinese lore dates to at least 3100-3200BC as it seems that China and Egypt did have some type of commerce or trade, as certain ideas and bits of histories and things like that were found in hieroglyphic writings dated to approx 3000BC.  That means it survived as a Verbal History or Oral Tradition until writing and then translated across writing for the last 3500ish years.

Now, let’s go back to what I said about the Bible or holy texts.  Same idea.  Only, different deity/universal being.  Take the Torah or Bible.  Written in Sanskrit and Summarian (partly) and then in Aramaic and Hebrew, where it survived (mostly by oral and verbal tradition) until it was changed to Latin and Roman where it survived for 500ish years.  Then it was changed into the most “modern” Latin before that became a dead language and a variant of Roman/Italian that we know had some modern language shifts with the advent of languages throughout the European Continent.  Now, remember, this all predates “The Dark Ages” and then the Renascence.  The explosions of languages that happened in those eras is mind boggling and breathtaking.  Then, finally, in about 1600 things started to settle and The King James Bible (or the most modern transition we have and accept) happened.  However, in 1600, that would have been Shakespearean English.  English, as a language, has had two MAJOR recognized shifts and (as I’ve learned this week) most lingo-historians will argue that 3-5 minor shifts also happened and (also) that the Industrial Revolution happened, causing a schism between New World (or American) English and Old World (British) English.  So, the Bible has been through 11-15 MAJOR language shifts, on top of being written and preserved in dead languages, and then translated across those dead languages and linguistic shifts over 2100ish years.  Watch the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for a broad brush stroke on this.  Just as Indy is trying to get to the chalice.  The three challenges he faces.  It paints a very broad picture of how things change and why understanding that is important.  Literally saved the character multiple times.

And before I move on… I’m not saying the Bible is wrong or not real/true.  I’m saying that maybe you take it with a grain of salt and think about historical, cultural, and evolutional contexts and recognize that it’s been translated a minimum of 15 times and keep that in mind as you point out context.  Of course, I could do the same as above with MANY things, including the US Constitution.  So, why and how the Dragon means so much to the Chinese in the cycle of Chinese (Lunar) New Year is not something I will ever truly understand, but I can get a vague idea and use that in context for an understanding and apply a modern touch to that.  

End of the day, it’s important on very very deep level and cool for those that believe.  I will help you celebrate that, give it the weight and gravity it deserves (like when I go to churches, temples, or houses of worship for wedding, funeral, etc) and be respectful of those ideas and traditions.

Just sayin’!

In fun news, however, Kiddo and her hair have been super fun.  Friday, since J was home, she did Kiddo’s hair and she had braids.  Yesterday, I gave her a bow clip for fun.  As always, Super Cute!

Also, with my not feeling good and yesterday being a beast of a day, I ordered us some ice cream last night to munch while we watched a show.  Oreo and Brownie for J and myself and a mint chocolate chip for Kiddo.  The mint chocolate chip was fine, it was a smaller size (for a smaller person) and it was fine.  For J and me… Well, we could pull off the tops and figure it out, but this is how they came to us.  We just had to smile.  It gets even funnier when you know that they reached out to us on Grab and asked if we needed spoons and if items should pack on Dry Ice to travel to us.  I replied in English and needed to translate that to Thai for the staff since their reply to me after English was ????.  So, they knew we didn’t know Thai.  

It’s the little quirks like that.  They make us smile.  We try our best ad so do they.  In the end, we all figure it out.  It’s not always easy, but at the end of the day, we get it figured out and we get to have a smile about that.  

Let’s go, Kiddo…. It’s Tuesday.  You and Mumma feel better and I’m on the upswing.  You can have some ice cream tonight and we all will enjoy our treats.  Also, thank you for the “thank you” last night.*. I meant the world to Dada and Kiddo… I will always think of you when I get treats or other fun stuff.  You are as much a part of the family as me and Mumma and that means you get special treats and love as well.  Hugs and loves, Kiddo, and keep being you.

* Last night, after collecting the ice cream from the delivery driver and coming back up to the condo, Kiddo heard me and come to investigate.  She saw the ice cream J and I were munching and you could see she was hurt that she didn’t get treats.  I showed her the ice cream in the freezer for her and she had a look of just love and gratitude, but then, sincerely, she looked at me and just said, “Thank you!”  It was the most sincere and heartfelt thanks I’ve gotten in a long time.  Again, I wonder how we hit the Kiddo jackpot!