Reflections on completing the translation of 'If I Could Mail You A Book'

[hazevi]

This is technically a bit of a premature reflection given the fact that I still have 22 chapters to edit, but I do have a couple of things that I just want to write down right now. 

I was having a terrible February this year when I started the translation of If I Could Mail You A Book. I wasn't sure what I was doing with myself or my studies, and I had hit a wall with my personal endeavors: mainly, writing. 

 

Writing was something that I had picked up during the pandemic and kept as a comfort hobby ever since. To me, there's nothing more satisfying than making characters come alive beneath my pen, and I'd say that if it weren't for my writing background, I would have never gotten into webnovels, translation, or baihe because of that. 

 

Anyways, back to this February. I was just, having a really hard time, so to speak. Even though I had decided to take a creative writing class at school, which was somewhat of a treat for me, I just found it immensely difficult to write anything that I was satisfied with. There was just something in the way. The more I wanted to write, the more I couldn't write because of how sad I was. 

 

Somewhere along that vicious cycle, I randomly thought about Ning Xi. 

 

Ning Xi, a character name in a baihe novel that I had read some time ago, around two years ago, at this point. I hurriedly pulled up Yi Zhan Ye Deng's page and was immediately met with a soothing teal title page: If I Could Mail You A Book. 

 

I didn't exactly read every single character on this skim-through read, but the more I read, the more I was pulled back to these characters. I personally really wish that I could be as good at Ning Xi with writing, and as high an EQ as Xinhe. 

 

Then, just out of a whim, on complete impulsivity, I created a document, typed in 书 tl 1, and just started going. To this day, many months later, I don't know what happened to me, really, for me to just absolutely go like that. 

 

As for translation, I think it's safe to say that I have a complicated relationship with it, for reasons that I won't really go into. But I was just surprised that after two years, a webnovel could just inspire me like that, for me to do it. 

 

And I did the next chapter in the same day, and I suddenly felt that I had something to do this year. 

 

I was on a high pace throughout February and March, especially after I found the baihe comm on dreamwidth, where I realized that there was a community. 

 

It's nearly like Ning Xi in the story itself: I suddenly realized that there was a goal in front of me, and if I wanted to continue writing, I had to slowly work myself out of this slump with other goals in life. And actually, I suddenly felt that I never had that spat with translation, either, and now it just feels great to be able to do this. 

 

There's something about writing, romanticism, growing up, and baihe all mixed in one in this endeavor. I'm glad to have reached the end of it. 

 

So, thank you, especially to Liang Xinhe and Ning Xi. 

 

You were the beautiful things that brought me closer towards the path to spring as well. 

 

If I Could Mail You A Book tl project: officially translated from 2/12/2024- 7/31/2024 

 

hazy.