螢火 Firefly
This song is very, very sad.
Loosely translated:
A shooting star falling in the night
in a blink of an eye it becomes the furthest firefly
.
.
.
A fatal love
(which) passes with a laugh
Who will remember the promises
Hatred /regrets is used to relieve love's thirst
Let a whole sky of fireflies turn into smoke and fire
even if the remaining light weakens
let's let our previous incarnations
forged another ending.
Thoughts:
So we start out with a shooting star which sometimes denotes death in drama stories.
This star becomes a firefly. In most dramas, a firefly represents passionate love which doesnt last...
Then there's that '愛到飛蛾撲火' which means a destructive kind of love and even this kind of love is laughed off.
There's broken promises, hatred or if you like regrets being used to relieve the lack of love
The chorus bit takes the cake...
the fireflies have become smoke and fire and with the remaining weak light to allow
the previous incarnations ('就讓前世的你我') to create another ending.
When I read '前世的你我' that's taking about previous incarnations and I was so shocked!
I mean it does not talk about the next life! Usually when lovers are about to die etc they always pledge that in the next life they will meet again etc here there's nothing about the next life, only about the past.
So if we equate the song 螢火 to LLW and QS's love because of the early episodes showing LLW and QS having their romance amidst the fireflies it can only mean that the love between LLW and QS is doomed.
So if the fireflies crash and burn, we turn to 彼岸.
彼岸 - The Other Side
彼岸 is translated as 'the other side' which means YWY!!!!!
In Buddhism it is also known as Pāramitā. The pāramitās refer to the perfection or culmination of certain virtues. In Buddhism, these virtues are cultivated as a way of purification, purifying karma and helping the aspirant to live an unobstructed life. → translated into my layman terms...ie one's gain enlightenment and found nirvana alternatively entered Paradise
Sounds really, really good right? However, like Chardbyis mentioned, there's a reference to the 彼岸花 (Spider Lily). As I was curious about what Charbyis said, I googled. See
here (in chinese) for the legend.
Interestingly, it's also mentioned in Buddhism!
“彼岸花,开一千年,落一千年,花叶永不相见。情不为因果,缘注定生死。”
Translated:
“Spider lilies, bloom a thousand years, wilt a thousand years, flowers and leaves will never meet.
Feelings are not because of cause and effect, fate determines life or death.”
And that's the abbreviated edition...if anyone wants the long story, let me know. Btw, that sentence in bold is also used in some of the trailers.
Are you guys depressed yet? I am...I dont even have the energy to translate the song
Thoughts:
if you take the title 彼岸 at face value, QS has gone over to YWY's side and reached Nirvana (that blissful state of being)... unfortunately, there's that darn flower. Which can only mean that they can never be together!!
And there's another symbolism which isnt favourable...
That darn handkerchief of QS!
click to show/hide spoilersIf you looked at an earlier scene, she sewed 2 handkerchiefs...1 with the firefly and flower and another with branches and leaves. SO YWY now has that darn firefly and flower handkerchief...so it means his love is short lived and never meant to be together?? No!!!!!!!!!!
What about if you read it as YWY's handkerchief has the flower bud but the other handkerchief I am assuming its with LLW has the leaves and branches...separately doesn't it mean that the flowers and leaves never meet just like in the 彼岸花?
However on a happy note ...spoiler ...
do not read if you want to be kept in suspense...
click to show/hide spoilerson the weibo discussion, I noticed some posting that Zhang Hanyu was interviewed on a variety show and she said
"QS never became 王妃 she picked YWY!!!!!!!!!!"
however, i tried searching for variety programs on the cast or this show and nada...cant find anything which i find really strange. there's usually so much media attention on shows but there's nothing on this show
On a side note, I am working on translating something you guys will be extremely interested on...but I have to space it out ...my colleague was asking me which matter I was working on cos she hasn't seen me so hard at work reading and typing away furiously at my PC...am pretty sure you guys know what I was going!