镜花影 (Mirror-Flower's Shadow) by 阿 YueYue (Dawn is Breaking OST)

Details

Description

This is Dawn is Breaking OST, which was released in 2024.

Mirror-flower: "from idiom 'Flowers in a mirror, moon on water'—unattainable beauty, illusion"
Shadow: "fleeting presence, reflection's echo"
The phrase layers illusion upon illusion—even the reflection casts only a shadow, like a dream recalling another dream. An emotional trace of something that never truly existed

Translated & interpreted by me, with initial support from machine translation tools & cultural research


Explanations:

"Autumn wind stirs up a ripple, never waiting for blooms to scent the ground"
Autumn wind: "transition, melancholy, impermanence"
Ripple: "fleeting emotional disturbance"
Blooms scenting the ground: "anticipated fulfillment"
Expected moment of beauty / completion that never came to pass

"Snow falls on [my] hair's edge—humming a tune without you plucking the guqin"
Snow: "fleeting moments, loneliness, emotional distance"
Snow on hair's edge: "aging, passing time, quiet sorrow"
Tune: "a fragment of song, incomplete melody"
Guqin: "refinement, emotional depth"
The echo of something once beautiful & shared. The music lingers, but the harmony is gone

"Recalling the past, not a single stroke was written"
Unwritten stroke: "restraint, acceptance of impermanence—recognizing the futility of preserving the fleeting"

"sighing [that] every kind of life is fate"
Fate (mìng): "inevitable, unalterable—decided by heaven, while destiny (yùn) is future potential influenced by human"
Accepting that every life's course is decided by fate

"Sought in vain—this life's fated beginning with you [was but a] mirror-flower's shadow"
Fated beginning: "origin of fated bond"
Seeking, but never obtained—the bond itself was an illusion

"Alas—so deep was [my] love, leaving me a body full of scars"
Steadfast, irreversible yet doomed love, leaving lasting wounds

"Hard to conceal a storm of love & hate—in an instant, the fleeting years reduce [us] to people once known"
Storm of love & hate: "intense, conflicted feelings"
People once known: "estrangement, once close, now distant"

"Candlelight flickers unsettling the [heart] again & again—words [spoken] by the western window seem [to] seal away a fragment of the deep night"
Candlelight flickers: "instability, emotional turmoil—the unsteady flame mirrors an unsettled mind"
Western window: "intimacy edged with farewell—intimate, possibly final, conversations before parting"
Seal away: "emotional confinement / preservation of memory—trapping a moment in time"
Deep night: "stillness, solitude, heightened introspection—time when emotions feel amplified & inescapable"
Amidst emotional unrest, the remembered exchange traps the speaker in a lingering longing & sorrow

"The millet dream is too real, [thus] I follow all the way"
Millet (huángliáng) dream: "a Tang tale where a man dreams of a lifetime's success while waiting for millet to cook, only to wake & find it's all illusion—life's impermanence, illusory glory, false fulfillment"
The dream's vividness blurs illusion & reality—leading to a blind, devoted pursuit

"Asking why the spring hurries by—rain falls silently, soaking the two of [us]"
Spring: "youth, love, new beginning"
Silent rain: "grief too deep for words, emotional restraint"
Questioning the fleeting joy—sharing quiet vulnerability in sorrow

"Youthful time lingers, unbearable—the word 'sorrow' leaves behind [its] traces"
The fleetingness of youth makes its memory linger with intensity—an unbearable ache, leaving behind traces of sorrow

"The millet dream, in the end, becomes someone once known"
Illusion fades, yet remains unforgotten—a bitter awakening, yet still haunted by imprint of sorrow


Lyrics & composition: 成不成 (Cheng Bucheng)
Arrangement: 曾奕灿 (Zeng Yican)

All rights to the music belong to the respective copyright holders. Audio rights are owned by the original artists or labels. No copyright infringement or commercial use intended

An unofficial translation for reference and appreciation purposes only. Please note that this translation reflects my personal interpretation, and other interpretations may differ.