I like it! “Bacchus” is the kind of thing that can be distracting in translations, since he’s already a pretty familiar figure with associations of his own, but I think Qiao and his friends were probably acquaintances, even if they knew him by the name of Du Kang instead — and over on Bluesky someone suggested “sozzled sylph,” which I also like too much to nitpick.
I like it! “Bacchus” is the kind of thing that can be distracting in translations, since he’s already a pretty familiar figure with associations of his own, but I think Qiao and his friends were probably acquaintances, even if they knew him by the name of Du Kang instead — and over on Bluesky someone suggested “sozzled sylph,” which I also like too much to nitpick.
When I was triangulating that line Google Translate gave me “drunk river fairy”, which I liked enough to almost use. I do like “sozzled sylph”, but here I’ll nitpick- sylphs are of the air and like naiads exclusively female. “Sprite” maybe?
I wasn’t sure how the Chinese viewed equivalence of deities. The Romans were the sort to see Odin and decide “Hmm, yes, ah, definitely Mercury”, so they wouldn’t have minded.
I like it! “Bacchus” is the kind of thing that can be distracting in translations, since he’s already a pretty familiar figure with associations of his own, but I think Qiao and his friends were probably acquaintances, even if they knew him by the name of Du Kang instead — and over on Bluesky someone suggested “sozzled sylph,” which I also like too much to nitpick.
When I was triangulating that line Google Translate gave me “drunk river fairy”, which I liked enough to almost use. I do like “sozzled sylph”, but here I’ll nitpick- sylphs are of the air and like naiads exclusively female. “Sprite” maybe?
I wasn’t sure how the Chinese viewed equivalence of deities. The Romans were the sort to see Odin and decide “Hmm, yes, ah, definitely Mercury”, so they wouldn’t have minded.