Chapter 19 <— click here to read the chapter.
Cheating Men Must Die and why translation is hard
Have you read the webcomic “Cheating Men Must Die”? The original title is 万渣朝凰 which in no way translates as “Cheating Men Must Die.” Mangaupdates gives the suggested translation as “Phoenix Among Scum” and “King of The Phoenix” in English. Interestingly, the Korean title is 환생 해결사 , which is something like “Reincarnation Solver/Fixer.”
So what does the original title mean? Well, first of all, it’s probably a reference to the 百鸟朝凤, a four-character idiom or chengyu. The literal meaning is “all birds pay homage to the Phoenix.” The story behind it is that the Phoenix was a wise and industrious bird who gathered food all year round. During a famine, the Phoenix saved the other birds from starvation and as thanks, the other birds plucked their most beautiful feathers from their body to give to the Phoenix.
The webcomic’s title simply changed the character 百 (lit. a hundred) to 万 (lit. ten thousand) and 鸟 (bird) to 渣 (scum). So the actual title is “Ten Thousand Scum Pay Homage to the Phoenix.” Wow, that’s a lot!
In addition, the metaphorical meaning of 百鳥朝鳳 is that “under a wise ruler the people live in peace and prosperity” and also, “all girls gravitate towards a supreme beauty.” Therefore, one could translate the title 万渣朝凰 as “All Scum Gravitate Towards a Supreme Beauty.”
Language is awesome, isn’t it?
Description:
Crushing a scumbag for a single moment gives momentary satisfaction, but lifetimes spent crushing scumbags provide lifetimes of continuous satisfaction. Su Lüxia, our female lead, transmigrates into other worlds with the Second Female Lead Counterattack System, and uses elaborate schemes and tricks to beat up countless cheating bastards and bitches.
Su Lüxia: “Only a cheating bastard’s tears of remorse, and the pained moans of a bitch unable to get what she wants, bring me solace.”
System: “Has my host tapped into her humanity today? Nope.”
There is also that relation between 鳳 (s. 凤) in the idiom 百鳥朝鳳 and 凰 in the title 万渣朝凰. Fenghuang 鳳凰 may work as a species name for the mythological bird, but separately, feng 鳳 is the male bird while huang 凰 is the female bird.
In the myths, the male phoenix 鳳 gave food to the birds, so the birds pay homage to it as the king (male). Changing it to the female bird 凰 gives a nod to the fact that Su Lüxia is a female.
Wow~ That’s so interesting!
Glad you think so!