1. 本就这么一说，不过是逗她玩笑。一听小女人自己撞上了，哪里会放过。 Originally, he said those words only to tease her. However, since she have driven into him by herself, how cold he let her off? (Is the word in the bold characters right translation for 自己撞上了?) 2. 后面还跟着淑妃娘娘的仪仗。 Followed by her Ladyship Shu’s carriage and her fanfare? (Is fanfare right translation for 仪仗?) 3. 她是个尖利人，一辈子好强惯了 She was a mean person, accustomed to being competitive for her whole life. (I feel like mean person isn't probably the right word for 尖利人, nor competitive for 好强) 4. 这点气度没有，白白占了正室名头. Having only this little bearing, you occupied the title of the principal wife for nothing. 5.给。。。 放钉子 (context: the male lead's brother sent him concubines to disturb his harem) How is this phrase translated? Put someone nails? 6. 侧妃对于红牡丹硬要装成白莲花非常看不顺眼。当怜人就应冲着那倾国名花而去，怎么可以如此三心二意，不务正业？ What does 怜人 in this sentence mean? Pitiful person? 7. 嘴里仄仄有声? 8.When it's said that someone's face turned 青紫. What does it mean? (脸色青紫) 9. 尖锐刻薄 Harsh? 10. 字字见血?
7, tutting (depending on context. It can mean amazement or disapproval or something else...) 8. Bruises or face turned livid, depending on the context...
1- Need more context like how he teased her. It *can* be sexual or it could be simply her walking into his prank. 2- Entourage 3- Overachiever or go-getter for the first, the 2nd is ok 4- Since there is no context from the sentence fragment, I'd assume they were talking about the main wife's position so "the title of main wife is wasted on you"? or "you as the main wife is a waste"? depending on the context. 5- seriously need context, I *think* it might be to either hinder someone (aka put nails in his path) or get stared at really hard (glaring daggers at someone is an English approximation) 6- No idea 7- clicked his/her tongue 8- did someone get beaten up? The English term is "beaten black and blue", don't paste this direct since it might be grammatically incorrect but it could be translated as "face beaten black and blue" or "face full of bruises". 9- Harsh or sharp tongued depending on the intention. Sharp tongued if there is no hostile intention, harsh if there is intention to blame someone. 10- This may be an idiom. Rough guess? "His words draw blood" or "His words were sharp", depending on context. Maybe. This is my rough guess, hope it helps.
1. 本就这么一说，不过是逗她玩笑。一听小女人自己撞上了，哪里会放过。 (Translator’s note: 自己撞上了 literally translate as hit it herself. Not sure of the context but my translation is as follow) -Originally intended only to tease her. But on hearing that the little lady herself took the bait, how could he let her go. 2. 后面还跟着淑妃娘娘的仪仗。 -Entourage 3. 她是个尖利人，一辈子好强惯了 -She is a prickly character, used to getting her way 4. 这点气度没有，白白占了正室名头. -Not even possessing this bit of munificence, the title of principal wife is wasted 5.给。。。 放钉子 (context: the male lead's brother sent him concubines to disturb his harem) (Translator’s note: 放钉子 is a figure of speech, literally is put nails. But it usually means cause trouble by putting in problematic factors) 6. 侧妃对于红牡丹硬要装成白莲花非常看不顺眼。当怜人就应冲着那倾国名花而去，怎么可以如此三心二意，不务正业？ -怜人 means tragic figure/person 7. 嘴里仄仄有声? -Nervous mutters 8.When it's said that someone's face turned 青紫. What does it mean? (脸色青紫) -Means the face turned green (usually from fear) 9. 尖锐刻薄 -Sharp and sarcastic 10. 字字见血? (Translator’s note: Literally means each word sees body. A figure of speech meaning that the words spoken hits the recipient where it hurts) -Each word pierces the heart
I used Baidu to search for the sentence and found the original text. 1. Perhaps it refers to active catering, raised spirits, or something like that. It seems to be some kind of dialect or ancient vernacular language. 2. It can be considered a guard of honor, but if we consider the extended meaning, 跟着淑妃娘娘的仪仗, that means 淑妃娘娘 is following. 3. This seems to be an abbreviation coined by the author, I think 尖利 is the abbreviation of 牙尖嘴利, a neutral word, commendatory meaning refers to have a ready tongue, derogatory meaning means speaking harshly and not forgiving. 好强 means seek to prevail over others. 4. 正室 means the legal wife, the principal wife. This sentence means that a woman without tolerance is not worthy of being called a legal/principal wife. 5. In this sentence, a nail means a spy, an undercover person. 6. 怜人 means 优伶, actor or actress, it can also refer to singing and dancing artists. 7. 仄仄有声… I think it's a word that the author made up herself, from 啧啧称赞、啧啧称羡、啧啧赞美、啧啧称奇、啧啧称美.Or typed incorrectly. In combination with the context, I think this word refers to the sound of "zeze" ( lip-smacks) in a person's mouth. 8. Face looks bad because of anger and other emotions, cyanosis is an exaggeration. 9. Acrimony. 10. Speak thoroughly, direct to the hearts and minds of the people. Seriously, I really don't recommend that you translate these novels... These writers'writing methods are neither in line with modern Chinese nor with ancient vernacular Chinese. Grammatical errors, spelling errors and ambiguous passages can often be seen. And they often pretend to know when they does not know and create strange words and phrases. Keep translating and you'll see more strange things.
To be honest, what he said is actually how I feel as well. Some authors tried very hard to be unqie, however, the strange words they created are often meaningless or very misleading... I mean, I prefer them to spend more time on writing complicated plots using simple language than creating average plots using the language that no one knows how to read them.
For these novels targeting women, I think their authors'writing ability has deteriorated more and more. I don't know when it started to become fashionable to create strange abbreviations of phrases, to use strange rhetorical devices, or something else… But they think it's a proof of their good writing style. I don't think it's right, but everybody's doing it.
??? What type of strange words? Any examples? I mean, most of the words asked on this thread are common usage terms
You're actually right about this one. I found many misspellings and none-existent words in these author's novels which frustrates me greatly! However, the story is truly very well written, so I can still overlook these occasional mistakes/errors.
Solkage is right, it isn't that bad, most of these are fairly common words, it is the context that we need to make sense of the sentence. And I suspect some of your translations are a bit ... off. 1 is definitely a teasing prank, not some spirit raising story 2 is definitely entourage 3 is definitely a description of a competitive person and nothing to do with how she speaks 4 can be correct but I suspect you're wrong because 气度 is demeanour and not tolerance 5 needs more context but if you take the direct word meaning, it means laying out obstacles in a person's path. It really has nothing to do with spies but obstacles. The obstacle MAY be a spy but in general, if used in this manner, the obstacle is not specific. 6 is as you said probably a writing style by the author 7 is common, it's tongue clicking. 8 is correct though there is also a need to check context because "face turning colour" can also be used to describe what happens after someone gets punched. 9 acrimonious does work as a translation. 10 this is a lot more than "speak to the heart", when your words are sharp enough to draw blood, it is not just "emotion" but type of emotion as well. It is the negative and harsh kind of words, not the "inspire" kind.