A Thousand Fallen Petals

Glossary

Latin translations

Currite!: Run!

Vadete celerius!: Go faster!

Aquam indigemus: We need water

Me excusa, domina...: Excuse me, miss...

Aqua: Water

Ubi?: Where?

Non: No

Faex: An expletive

Mehercle!: By Hercules!

Gracias tibi ago: Thank you

Mulsum: wine with honey, a popular drink

Amor a primo conspectu: love at first sight

Fortuna: goddess of fate

Seres: people of the land of silk

Salve: Good morning/evening/welcome (a general greeting)

Pulchra es: You're beautiful

Ignosce mihi: Forgive me

Ita: Yes

Me exspecta, quaeso: Please wait for me

Omnium rerum principia parva sunt: The beginnings of all things are small

Pulchra es: You're beautiful

Ignosce mihi: Forgive me

Ita: Yes

Me exspecta, quaeso: Please wait for me

Tu salva nunc: You're safe now

Nocere tibi?: Are you hurt?

Quid agis?: What are you doing?

Me paenitet: I'm sorry (literal: I regret it)

Mecum veni: Come with me

Exspecta: Please

Mater: Mother

Chinese translations

Na me mei!（***！）: How beautiful!

Ni yao shen me a? （*****？）: What do you need?

Bie da le!（ ***！）: Stop fighting! (literal: Stop hitting!)

Shui （*）: Water

Hanfu（ * *）: traditional dress in ancient China

Ni bu xiang chi ya?（*****？）: Don't you want to eat? (confrontational tone)

Ye xu wo ke yi...（* ****。。。）: Maybe I can...

Chi（*）: Eat

Xie xie（ **）: Thank you

Bu yong xie（** *）: You're welcome (literal: No need to thank)

Ni de（**）: Yours

Shen me?（**？）: Pardon? (literal: what?)

Hao（*）: Good

Mei li（* *）: Beautiful

Kuai zi（**）: Chopsticks

Shi de (**)：yes

Guzheng (**): Chinese string instrument, similar to a zither

Sai weng shi ma (****): proverb meaning blessing in disguise (or the other way around)

Huangjiu ( **): an alcoholic beverage made from rice and millet

Chi de ku zhong ku, fang wei ren shang ren（*****，* ****）: Only by withstanding the hardest of hardships can you rise to become someone of value (literal: if you can eat the bitterest of the bitter, then you can become the man above men)

Wo yao qu Luoyang（*****）: I want to go to Luoyang

Ni he wo de ma ma（**** **）：you and my mother

Historical notes

Li Rong (**): lasting beauty, a feminine Chinese name.

Serica (of silk): China and the eastern regions, as known to the Romans.

Seres (the people of the land of silk): The people of Serica, as known to the Romans.

Da Qin (**, the Great Qin): The Roman Empire, as known to the Chinese.

Rinan: present-day Vietnam, previously under Chinese rule.

Concubine: A woman who lives with a man but has a lower status than his wife. The higher the status of the man, the more concubines he is likely to have. In ancient China, the emperor can have thousands, and they are ranked according to his favour and whether or not they bear sons.

Eunuch: A castrated man employed to guard the living quarters of women in the imperial court.

166 A.D.: The year when the first recorded emissary from Rome arrived in China.

"She puts the flowers to shame. She entices the birds to fall, and the fish to sink – so exquisite is she." – This may sound rather funny when translated into English but I adapted it from two Chinese idioms based on real historical beauties. (**** Guifei shames the flowers, **** Xi Shi sinks the fish).

'The Son of Heaven' with reference to the emperor – the Chinese used to refer to their emperor as a deity or otherwise chosen by the higher powers.

Luoyang was one of China's old capitals.

Although Li Rong is portrayed here as speaking Mandarin (=Beijing dialect, now spoken by almost everyone in China on top of their own local dialects), a girl in her time most likely did not speak Mandarin but a different Chinese dialect. Speakers of different Chinese dialects usually cannot understand each other.

Mandarin has five tones. Here, Li Rong tries to teach Alerio how to pronounce the words by gesturing the tones. However, the awareness of tones was first recorded around 500 A.D. so it's debatable if someone in 166 A.D. would know about it.