A Girl Named Wen Na -- Part 1

I watched this video the other day and really like it. So I am going to use this video clip as my translation practice, also a listening practice for you, the Chinese learners. :)

In this video, a girl named Wen Na, who is a wonderful painter and writer, talked about how she started her journey of painting fantasy images on the wall (fresco) . When she painted those pictures, she also created stories in her mind to help her painting. Her frescos were so fantastic that she was invited to paint in many places in China and some other countries. She also wrote down those stories that inspired her to design her paintings.



Chinese script and English translation:  (time from beginning to 3:17)

Study tips:

To know the detailed meanings of each word, paste the Chinese sentence to here. It's a wonderful tool.


我是文那。
I am Wen Na.

我来今天给大家介绍一下我的作品。
Today I want to introduce my artworks to everyone here.

三宝是一个对我来说非常重要的地方，它是在景德镇的一个山谷里。
Sanbao is a very important place for me. It locates in a valley at Jingdezhen.
(Sanbao is short for SanbaoInternational Ceramic Art Village Museum. It is located at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China)

这个地方当时我无意中闯了进去。它完全是在一个纯出自然的地方。我当时特别想留在这里。而我当时认识了那儿的主人李老师。然后李老师说：“我可以让你在这里参加我的一个展览，但是你可以给我一个什么样的作品呢？”
I found this place by accident. This place is so natural. At that time, I really wanted to stay there. I met the founder, Teacher Li. Li asked me, " Would you like to join one of my exhibitions? What kind of artwork are you going to present? "

当时，我为了能让李老师对我留下深刻的印象，我当时就不知道灵机一动，我说：“您可以给我一面墙，一面夯土做的墙。我给你画一面画， 我给你画一面墙。”
I wanted to give Teacher Li a good impression. So I got an idea. I said," If you give me a wall, an adobe wall. I will paint a picture on it. I will paint the whole wall for you. "

然后我没有想到李老师他就真的给了我那么一面墙， 然后他真的打电话说：“你来吧，我把那个墙给你砌好了。”
I didn't expect that Teacher Li really gave me a whole adobe wall. He called me, " Come over, I already built a wall for you."

但是，在那之前，我只有拿马克笔把我的画画在墙上的经验。然后我从来不知道真正面对一个夯土墙的时候该怎么办。
But until then, I only had some experience with painting on the wall using a marker. I didn't know what to do when I faced an adobe wall.

但是因为我是版画系毕业的，所以我对材料…… 虽然我从来没有动过毛笔，画过国画，没有动过这些念头，但当我面对这堵墙的时候，我就第一次拿起了毛笔。
Since I studied etching in the college, I knew some of the painting material. Even though I had never used a brush to paint the classic Chinese painting before, I picked up a brush when I faced a whole adobe wall.

然后可以看到在这幅画上，我其实没有打稿的，因为我不知道怎么能在夯土墙上打稿，所以当时我就画了这样的一幅画。
You can see that I didn't draw a draft before I painted on the wall. I didn't know how to do it. So I painted this picture.

这个是画在那个村子的餐厅的门口，我画这幅画大概用了六个小时，这个时候我用的神仙的元素，只是因为我觉得它特别适合那个山村，是一种纯出自然的选择，所以我当时画了灶王爷、杜康和陆羽，是茶神和酒神在那里保佑着他们。
The painting locates near the entrance of the village restaurant. It took me about 6 hours to finish this painting. I took some spirit as the theme. I just felt that it fit that village. It's a natural option for me. So I painted Zaowangye ( the Kitchen God), Dukang (God of wine), and Luyu (God of tea). It represents that those village people are blessed and protected by these gods.

所以这一切…… 那个时候我还是很胆怯的，虽然我画的时候很快，但是我不大敢去做很多的延伸，但是紧接着我就在那个村子里就这样留住了，但是我当时对陶瓷这些东西还是距离比较远的，所以我还是以绘画的形式在那里创作。
Everything ...  I was a bit scared then. I didn't dare to expand my theme too far, even I painted very quickly. Then I stayed in the village. At that time, I wasn't familiar with ceramics, so my arts just focused on painting.

当时我就说：“能不能让我在你村口的那面墙上画？把它都画满？” 当时李老师说：“那个是我的脸，如果你在这上面画的话，你就是在我的脸上画画。” 然后我就开始画了。
I asked (Teacher Li), " Can I paint on the wall at the entrance of the village? I will paint the whole wall." Teacher Li said, " That's my face. If you paint on it, you are painting on my face. " Then I started to paint on that wall.

当时画这面墙的时候，其实是我已经开始自己创造神仙了，这个过程是没有什么缓慢的过程，就是因为当时露了这一面黄色的墙。我觉得我想写点什么，当时我刚刚开始接触陶瓷，所以当时我就开始编撰了一个神仙叫作“束海”，是束缚的束。
Before I painted on that wall, I already started to invent my own spirit. It's a sort of fast process. When that yellow wall was revealed in front of me, I had some story in my mind. Since I just started know more about ceramics, I created a spirit named Suhai. (Su means bundle, hai means ocean)


就是海是没有形状的，海是由水组成的，水你是抓不住它的。而当我在景德镇的时候，我们有泥土这个介质，当水渗进泥土里，你抓住这个泥土，你就好像把整个海一样的水抓在了手里，你可以任意塑造水的造型。 所以我画了这个就是叫“束海”， 就是能够控制水的神仙。他可以在这里保佑你，把每一个泥捏成你想要的形状。 （ 截至 3：17）
Ocean doesn't have a specific shape. Ocean is made of water. You can not grasp the water. At Jingdezhen (a city famous for its ceramics), we had clay as the medium. We added water into the clay, we held the clay as if we were holding the ocean in our hands. And we could turn its shape into anything we wanted. So I painted this figure Suhai, a spirit who can control the water. He can protect you and bless you, so you can creat anything with the clay.  ( Till 3:17)