Fluctuations

Translation Notes

• “涨落” — Fluctuations. This keeps the physical sense of variations while leaving room for the fortunes of individuals and civilizations. “暴涨” becomes “The Surge”: the chapter concerns a sudden increase in solar activity, although the Chinese title can also suggest growth on other scales.
• “启程” / DEPART. The source supplies the English acronym, which is retained as the ship’s name. Elsewhere, “set out” and “departure” carry the ordinary meaning of the Chinese name. “勇气号” remains Courage.
• “玉白银浊灰黑.” The ranks are Jade, White, Silver, Turbid, Gray, and Black. They describe both bodily properties and social standing. “Turbid” is deliberately somewhat unfamiliar as a rank: the word preserves the material quality of “浊.” References to rank or caste help make the social meaning explicit where English color terms might otherwise mislead.
• “黑二三 / 灰二三 / 浊尔山.” Black Two-Three / Gray Two-Three retain the numbered names; Turbid Ershan preserves the near-homophonic transformation of er-san into Ershan. Its significance as an imagined rise in status remains in the narrative, while the sound play requires this explanation.
• Personal names. Names are generally retained in pinyin. “句容夫” is provisionally divided as Ju Rongfu, taking the first character as the surname. The source does not specify its pronunciation or name division; this rendering should not be taken as an author-confirmed reading.
• “天 / 天日 / 天下.” “Heaven,” “the heavenly Sun,” and “all beneath Heaven” retain the fusion of cosmology and authority. “The world” or “the realm” is used where the immediate reference is geographical or political, so that the elevated diction remains selective rather than constant.
• “巡” / “勋田.” A “round” is the story’s unit of time, also used for distances measured by a courier’s journey. “Military land grants” conveys the institutional function of “勋田” without identifying it with any one historical landholding system.
• “赛博拟态虫.” “Cybernetic mimic” preserves imitation and the uncertainty of personal continuity. It gives up the literal insect image in “虫” to avoid making an actual insect body or a software worm part of the fictional technology. The nearby references to “human content” and “original equipment” retain the passage’s irreverent tone.
• “星系” / the return voyage. At the stargate’s discovery, “the system’s edge” reads “星系” in the context of the planetary system just described. The later reference to “返程的近四百年” is ambiguous about whether nearly four hundred years means the return leg or the span by the time of return; this version adopts the latter reading. The source does not explicitly settle the matter.
• The ballad’s “贵如白玉，取之外方.” The omitted subject is supplied as the nobles, in light of the earlier explanation that the highest ranks receive their sustenance from those farther out. “White and Jade” makes that connection visible. The source also allows the ordinary poetic image of precious white jade; the English cannot give both readings equal prominence.
• “悠悠苍天，曷其有常？” / “时日曷丧，与汝偕亡.” “Where is your constancy?” preserves an anguished challenge rather than turning it into a detached claim that Heaven was never constant. In the second line, “We will perish with you” adopts the voice of the people within the song. The Chinese leaves the first-person subject unstated.
• “金乌 / 星河 / 道.” “The Golden Crow,” “the River of Stars,” and “the Way” retain the final poem’s mythic vocabulary. The Golden Crow is a solar image; the English does not identify its abode with a particular star. The poems use unrhymed lines to preserve their meanings and changes of register.
• Fictional physics and dates. The translation retains the source’s stipulated Mercury, numerical values, scientific claims, and uncertainties. The two numbered notes above are the author’s notes; this section contains the translator’s explanations.