Fantine And Her Long Hair, 도둑 (1996)

Javert logic:

“This woman flung herself on Monsieur Bamatabois, who is an elector and the proprietor of that handsome house with a balcony, which forms the corner of the esplanade, three stories high and entirely of cut stone. Such things as there are in the world!”

Les Misérables' OC character, Nande, by Su Manshu

Su Manshu was a revolutionary poet who wrote a translation of Book One of Les Misérables into traditional Chinese.

Copy and pasted from a comment I made in Dec 2024:

Su Manshu wrote a self-insert (Nande) who was a mouthpiece for the favour of the revolution of China (which was ruled by the Qing Dynasty at the time).

However, since there wasn't much of a freedom in press in regards to the criticism of it, the main character (the self insert) dies.

During the translation (which was only book 1), there is a running comparison of Chinese and French history, and also anti-Christian sentiments due to Su's fear of the 'Western influence' of China.

The translation is so different, there is some unintended comedic elements to it in retrospect, but I'm sure during the time when it was written, it was truly a piece of revolution. It's just funny if you take the political context out of it.

There is also mistranslations, such as the Bishop asking how many coins Jean Valjean has, and telling him that his place is not a hostel and therefore he doesn't need to pay -> to then become the Bishop asking Jean Valjean how much coins he has, and telling him that it is indeed like a hostel, and thus needs to pay him with all the coins that he has (rather than JvJ keeping them).

There is an academic argument apparently on whether or not mistranslations such as these were intentional, or if Su wasn't as proficient in English as we believed he was to be (since he translated from Wilbour's trans.)

It also is a running theme throughout the translation that JvJ is a bad guy.

The paper I read doesn't talk about other characters, so I don't know how other characters are presented unfortunately. Probably because it overly focuses on the OC lmao

Constantine AU🥵

forever my favorite part of west end productions- the handshake :)

(again, sorry for the mediocre quality, this is from 2011!!)

I've seen Cabaret, Newsies, Hadestown, and Les Miserables are trending now bc how relevant these songs are

This is your gentle reminder that theater is political

Enjolras in Korean can be spelt with Ahn as the first letter, which works because Ahn can be a surname.

This awoke a memory for me of a jokey tale I told on ao3 many years ago:

Grantaire is Korean, and he is dating Enjolras. The problem is, Enjolras is White (and he's a man, but that was lowkey irrelevant lmaoo). This takes place in the late 80s/early 90s.

Grantaire tells his parents that he's dating Mx. Ahn.

You see, Grantaire had always wanted to date a foreigner, mainly because his father was very racist and Grantaire himself was seen as a burden on the family, a black sheep if you will.

So, to piss him off, he had dated many foreign men. Enjolras was the only one who was living in Korea and could speak some Korean.

When his family finally wished to see Mx. Ahn, Grantaire felt pressured to introduce him to the family.

All throughout the lead-up to this family introduction, Grantaire had never indicated that Enjolras was White (and a man, I suppose).

It wasn't until when Enjolras came through the door with a tiny whisky in hand did everybody find out on the day what kind of preferences their Grantaire had.

Enjolras knelt in front of the matriarch and poured whiskey for the drunk and disinterested father, and finally got accepted and was allowed to continue dating Grantaire.

You see, before this meeting, Enjolras was given a 'practice run', given how serious this meeting was going to be.

Éponine, a Japanese friend of Grantaire, decided to act as a ''matriarch'. She had asked Grantaire what she was supposed to do, and how she was supposed to act, and given her young age, really took a dramatic and comedic approach to her role as the matriarch.

She pointed at the cushion in which Enjolras was supposed to sit in, had a huge fan in her hand, and started being condescending and judging about him.

"You're a man." She said as she fanned.

"Yes, I think so."

"You're American."

"I'm French."

"What's your name?"

"Éponine, you know me."

"No I don't! I am Mrs. Kang, the head mistress of the household and you will address me as such! Where's the whiskey?"

He popped out a bottle into sight. Grantaire sighed in unison with the action. He had pushed for him to get a large bottle, and indicated, through mimes, to Éponine that she should remark on its size.

"Why is your gift so cheap?"

Enjolras glared at his boyfriend. "I am not getting drunk."

And so on.

WOAH Victor Hugo okay-ed a translation!

I thought for ages he really was against his work being translated, but maybe that was just for English lmao (Did I make this up? I thought I read that he was against, e.g. the translation for Notre Dame de Paris into English.)

When the famous [Armenian] translator, Grigor (Krikor) Chilinkirian wrote a letter to Victor Hugo, requesting permission to translate his novel, the author replied: "I do not speak your ancient language, but I like it. It speaks of the Orient to me, evokes the centuries gone by, and I can see the mysterious gleam of the light of the past. It is an honour for me to be translated into Armenian."

Posted on Facebook by Armenian Virtual College - AGBU, 2019

Hong Kong's protestes, and the usage of 'Do You Hear the People Sing' from Les Misérables

Message from the Free HK account that I've given links to below:

"

The reason for selecting this song is to remind Hong Kongers not to lose hope, to encourage everyone to stand up, to speak up together, and to further the fight for democracy. Another purpose is to beckon every Hong Konger and the rest of the world: in acts of conscience, call out together against the high, solid wall.

[Reference to Haruki Murakami's speech in 2009: "Always on the side of the egg," in which he said, "If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg."]

[...]

Indeed, not everyone can go to the front line, but many truly want to give what they can for this movement. We don't know how long this fight will last, and therefore we must stay unified and not lose hope. [...]

Last but not least, a thank you to all the participants for all their work-- including the conductor, musicians, singers, recording engineers, sound engineers, sponsors for the sound and video recording venues, actors, videographers, and sponsors for recording equipment--all of whom made this video possible. Hong Kongers truly "we connect"!

[...]

"

[Context:]

Description of the video:

Musicians responded to a call to action and formed a 40 member orchestra and 60 plus member chorus within a short amount of time to record "Do You Hear the People Sing" in three languages (Cantonese, English, Mandarin); people from all walks of life also contributed to the production of this music video.

ENGLISH

CANTONESE

MANDARIN

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