Chapter Text
EP1
30:40 “涓涓江汉流，天窗通冥室。谗邪害公正，浮云翳白日。”
“The river flow. The window leads to the underworld. Rumors endanger justice. The clouds hide the sun.”
This is the poem Prince Jin recites when he watches Zhou leaving him. It was the last words of Kong Rong(孔融), who was an honest official in the Eastern Han dynasty (prior to the Three Kingdom Period). He was killed by Cao Cao because he could not bear Cao Cao’s obvious intention of usurpation.
There is a translation error here: "冥室"(Ming Shi) does not mean underworld, but ‘dim room.’ It is worth noticing that Zhou’s assassin organization’s name ‘天窗’（Tian Chuang/Literal：Heaven Window/window on the top) also comes from this poem. The second sentence literally means ‘the window on the dome would lighten up the dim room.’ When Prince Jin and ZZS created Tian Chuang, they aimed to retrieve justice and lighten up the decayed court.
EP2
8:02 “但渡无所苦，我自迎接汝。”
“Don’t worry about your trip. I’ll eventually welcome you.”
It was a poem written by Wang Xian Zhi, a famous calligraphist of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This poem was written to his concubine Taoye, who is afraid to cross a river. Yes, CONCUBINE…
12:19 “髣髴兮若轻云之蔽月，飘飖兮若流风之回雪。”
“(Your steps were like) the snow in the wind, and the moon hidden behind the clouds.”
It was quoted from "The Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River" written by Cao Zhi, Cao Cao’s son. Cao Zhi imagines a vision of a gorgeous river goddess and instantly falls in love with her. Yes, extremely beautiful GODDESS...
13:05 “花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。”
“After having a bottle of wine among the flowers, you would no longer feel lonely.”
It was a poem written by famous poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. There is a translation error here: it should be ‘I’m alone when drinking a bottle of wine among flowers and having no company.’
WKX wants to say: I'm alone.
38:52 “而布衣之徒，设取予然诺，千里诵义，为死不顾世。”
“An ordinary traveler obeyed his principle and kept his promise. He traveled a long journey without a fear of death.”
It really has no connection with ’traveler,’ just ‘ordinary people’.
EP3
28:33 “三生石上旧精魂。”
“doomed fate of Karma”
It paraphrases instead of translating literally. The original lines literally mean ‘the old souls on the San Sheng (Literal: three reincarnations/lives) stone.’ It was part of a poem firstly written to describe two male soulmates (a scholar and a monk), then became famous because of Cao Xue Qin’s quotation in The Dream of the Red Chamber, which describes male and female protagonists' fate of Karma.
EP4
2:49 “倾盖如故，白首如新。”
“Feeling is not measured by the length of time.”
It also paraphrases instead of translating literally. It literally means “Some people know each other deeply as they first met, while others don’t even though they grow old together.”
EP5:
31:05 cut sleeves
It is a metaphor for homosexuality in the ancient Chinese language. It originates from Emperor Ai of Han’s same-sex relationship with Dong Xian.
EP6:
10:43 “千山暮雪，我孤翼只影向谁去啊?”
“If you leave, alone in this wilderness, who should I go to?”
Wkx paraphrases a poem written by Yuan Hao Wen. The poem is a love poem which uses a pair of swan geese as a metaphor to lovers.
Also:
the alias“周絮” (Zhou Xu)
絮 Xu=catkin. In the original novel, he has another alias called 周云：Zhou Yun, 云 Yun=cloud
Both of them come from the poem “身似浮云，心如飞絮，气若游丝” (Literal: the body like flowing cloud, the heart like flying catkin, the breath like a thread of silk). It was originally a poem that describes the chaotic mental state of a teenage girl in love who misses her lover lol. But in this context, it is used by ZZS himself to express his puzzled mind about the uncertain future (I guess).
Also: WKX is not a poet, he just recites A LOT to flirt lol
TBC?