Lol I meant to do my August roundup (since I consumed a fair amount of media), but, as usual, I got derailed by ZXC... and the utter delight/relief that there are other people translating and making lyric videos of his songs lmfao (he has an upcoming minialbum and is gradually dropping the tracks)

晚风 Lyric Videos:

By starrysea
This is the most straightforward translation with some personal touches, so it's easy to get the full picture + I think it's a good glimpse of what native speakers hear when the song is playing.

By fwoopersongs

YJTC/fwoopersongs likes to preserve as much as the wording and sentence structure as much as possible while interpreting the text, and I find this approach extremely useful when I want to understand everything that's going on in the song, especially because she's not limited by character count and has the ability to express everything fully (for example, "a version of me" for 某个我 which I wouldn't have thought of haha).

I sometimes get people retranslating my ZXC fansubs into other languages (with my permission), and as touching as it is, their trust in me wakes up my impostor’s syndrome, so I deeply wish I could shove YJ's song translations at them so they can refer to it lol. (One of them translates to Persian and does directly contact me for clarifications, which I think is very sweet! I’m not sure how active she is now, but at least for this song I have someone else’s line-by-line translation on hand as a resource.)

Mine:

This is half fanvid (using stock videos as well as clips from ZXC's works), half fantranslation, so it's very much interpretative. I tend to veer off original phrasing, and mostly I am okay with that because I'm used to working with contemporary songs and reading song translations... But a recent round of cnovel translation wank has made me second-guess myself again haha :')

Anyway I still love my lyric video thumbnails hehe

Lyric text + fantranslation comparison

(only including fwoopersongs/YJthecat's translation because I know she'd be okay with this)

Original text

某个我眺望着
有片云朵停驻了
计划秘密地捕捉
夜幕把日落拥有

密林里闪烁执着飞着
飘着的心呢悬着到暮色四合
夜晚更深了
星星点亮着
归途的颜色

夏夜的晚风吹着
像谁的拥抱余热
把温柔的故事全部都揉进了夜色
疏离地忘了
人们从身边经过
再各自散了

今夜的晚风吹着
像彼此呼吸余热
而我们的故事相遇再褪回到隔阂
自以为爱着
我们从身旁经过
一别就散了

Fantranslations

fwoopersongs A version of me, high up, looks afar; there is a cloud that has stopped. Planning a stealthy capture, to the Night, Dusk now belongs. Within the dense forest, lights flicker resolutely, flying along. And the drifting heart? Suspended. 'Til the curtain of night envelops. The night has grown deep, stars lighting the colours of the way back home. Summer's evening wind - it blows Like someone's embrace there's... lingering warmth. Take all the tender stories, knead them in 'til they are one with the night, and with that distance, forgotten. People pass by each other and parting ways, scatter. The evening wind this night - it blows. Like our inhale exhale there's... lingering warmth. And our story, from our first meeting it fades, 'til distance separates us again. We had thought ourselves in love. We pass by each other A goodbye, and we've parted.

Mine On some high ground I'm watching as a cloud pauses Furtively setting up a trap, Night descends to claim the sunset Lights flicker in the dark forest, persistently flying While the fluttering heart Remains unsettled until dusk closes around it As the night deepens The stars shine down on The colors of the road home The gust of the summer evening breeze Is like the lingering warmth from someone's embrace Blend our sweet story thoroughly into the colors of night To be set aside and forgotten People pass by from around us And go their own way The gust of the evening breeze tonight Is like the lingering warmth of each other's breath And when our stories come together, they fall away again We were so sure we were in love We left each other's sides And went separate ways