无羁

闻笛声独惆怅
云深夜未央
是与非都过往
醒来了怎能当梦一场

红尘中毁誉得失如何去量
萧萧血热刀锋凉
山高水远
又闻琴响
陈情未绝卧荻花月如霜

煮一壶生死悲欢祭少年郎
明月依旧何来怅惘
不如潇潇洒洒历遍风和浪
天涯一曲共悠扬

穿万水过千山
路尽人茫茫
是与非都过往
醒来了就当它梦一场

红尘中毁誉得失如何去量
萧萧血热刀锋凉
山高水远
又闻琴响
陈情未绝笑世事多无常

煮一壶生死悲欢 祭少年郎
明月依旧何来怅惘
不如坦坦荡荡 历遍风和浪
天涯一曲共悠扬

煮一壶生死悲欢 祭少年郎
明月依旧何来怅惘
不如坦坦荡荡 历遍风和浪
天涯一曲共悠扬
天涯一曲共悠扬

English #1 – Running Wildly

Hear the flute’s sad and lonely sound
The night is still young in Cloud Recesses
Everything has came and went
When you awake, how could you take it all to be a dream?

How do you measure the success and failures of the mortal world?
The sound of blood is restless, the edge of the blade is cold
The mountains are tall, the waters are far away
Yet I still hear the sounds of the qin
Chenqing has not stopped, set down the reed, the blossoming moon is like frost

Boil a pot of joy and suffering in memory of youth
The bright moon is still listless when it appears
Why not go through all the wind and waves without restraint?
All the world harmonises to the same melody

Crossing ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains
The people on the road are boundless
Everything has came and went
When you awake, just treat it like a dream

How do you measure the success and failures of the mortal world?
The sound of blood is restless, the edge of the blade is cold
The mountains are tall, the waters are far away
Yet I hear the sounds of the qin
Chenqing has not stopped, laugh at the changing mortal affairs

Boil a pot of joy and suffering in memory of youth
The bright moon is still listless when it appears
Why not go through all the wind and waves with an open heart?
All the world harmonises to the same melody

Boil a pot of joy and suffering in memory of youth
The bright moon is still listless when it appears
Why not go through all the wind and waves with an open heart?29
All the world harmonises to the same melody
All the world harmonises to the same melody

Submitted by laurenjay

English #2 – Unrestrained

Listening to the sound of the flute, solitary, melancholy
Deep in the clouds,1 the night has not yet aged
Right and wrong—all past and gone
Waking—
how can this all be considered a dream?

In this world of red dust2
how can praise and blame, victory and loss be weighed?
Blood flows hot, the blade’s edge cold
The mountains tower, the rivers wander3
The sound of the zither, heard again
This story4 has yet to end
laying on reeds,5 the moon like frost

Warm6 a vintage of life and death, sorrows and joys
to commemorate7 the young men who have passed
The bright moon remains the same—
where did despair and distress come from?
It would be better to freely journey,8 facing the wind and waves
sharing the corners of the sky with the rise and fall of a song

Crossing ten thousand waters, passing a thousand mountains
At road’s end—a silhouette, hazy and indistinct
Right and wrong—all past and gone
Waking—
just consider this all as a dream

In this world of red dust
how can praise and blame, victory and loss be weighed?
Blood flows hot, the blade’s edge cold
The mountains tower, the rivers wander
The sound of the zither, heard again
This story has yet to end
we laugh at the affairs of the world, so inconstant9

Warm a vintage of life and death, sorrows and joys
to commemorate the young men who have passed
The bright moon remains the same—
where did despair and distress come from?
It would be better to, with open heart and fair mind,
face the wind and waves
sharing the corners of the sky with the rise and fall of a song

Submitted by absolutelsewhere

1.The words here are 云深 yunshen, as in 云深不知处 yunshen buzhichu, which is the full name of Cloud Recesses. The name derives from the last line of a 贾岛 Jia Dao poem, 《寻隐者不遇》, and could be rendered in full translation as “deep in the clouds, where one knows not.” Though 云深 yunshen is certainly being used here as a shorthand for Cloud Recesses, I choose to translate 云深 yunshen a bit literally.
2.红尘 hongchen, literally “red dust,” is a metaphor for the mortal world/human society.
3.山高水远 shangao shuiyuan is a chengyu that derives from 刘禹锡 Liu Yuxi’s essay 《望赋》, and is used to describe long journeys. Literally rendered, it becomes “the mountains are high, the waters (rivers) distant.” If I were to over-read this chengyu, I would point to a resonance with the chengyu 高山流水 gaoshan liushui, literally “high mountains, flowing waters,” which is often used as a shorthand for the 知音 zhiyin relationship.
4.Title drop! The line 陈情未绝 chenqing weijue means “chenqing has not ended/is not yet over.” For an in-depth dive on the binome 陈情 chenqing and its possible meanings, I would direct you this post. [See translation source.] An alternate translation for this line could be “these old feelings have not yet ended.”
5.荻花 dihua are reed flowers, also called silk flowers. They’re associated with autumn, rivers, and a kind of pastoral simplicity (a la “cutting a bed of reed flowers and sleeping beneath the stars”). It is perhaps most well-known in 白居易 Bai Juyi’s poem 《琵琶行》Pipa Xing, in which the first couplet runs: 浔阳江头夜送客，枫叶荻花秋瑟瑟 / at the head of Xunyang River, I see off guests at night / maple leaves, reed flowers—autumn whispers and rustles. Wei Wuxian also quotes the end of this poem in episode 5 of CQL.
6.It was—and is—common practice to heat certain wines/alcohol prior to consumption.
7.The verb 祭 ji, translated here as “commemorate,” just hits different in Mandarin. It’s specifically the verb used in 祭奠 jidian, “to hold a memorial ceremony for,” and has valences not just of commemoration, but also sacrifice and ritual. Think about the connotations of “raise a glass” from Hamilton and you’re maybe halfway there.
8.潇洒 xiaosa doesn’t have a good equivalent in English. Usually, you’ll see it translated along the lines of “easygoing and unrestrained,” or “free and unaffected”—it’s extraordinarily charismatic, somewhat careless (or rather, carefree), and, dare I say, quite dashing.
9.The phrase 世事多无常 shishi duo wuchang is likely a reference to episode 35, during which Lan Wangji remarks 世事无常 shishi wuchang, literally “the affairs of the world have no constancy,” sometimes rendered “life is unpredictable,” shortly before throwing back a shot of Wei Wuxian’s wine.

Author’s comments:
Translation and annotations by hunxi-guilai on tumblr! Reposted with permission. Masterlist of their translations from The Untamed OST can be found here: https://hunxi-guilai.tumblr.com/PL-translations. Their commentary on this song follows:

无羁 Wuji is the first song on the CQL companion album and the theme/credits song of CQL. It is utilized diegetically in the same way the Wangxian song is in the original novel (it is also used extradiegetically, copiously). The song is performed as a duet between Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, and can be construed as a conversation or dual-monologue between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

Of the three official versions of the Wangxian song (MDZS audiodrama: 忘羡 Wangxian, CQL live-action: 无羁 Wuji, and MDZS donghua: 羡云 Xianyun), 无羁 Wuji is the least overtly romantic, foregrounding instead the thematic elements of right and wrong, dream and reality, death and legacy, entering the world to contribute to society and departing the world to wander freely.

In addition to being a thematically appropriate title, 无羁 wuji is a stealth pun on the ship name 忘羡 wangxian (“forgetting envies”). An alternative ship name for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji could be 无机 wuji (“without device”). 无机 wuji is a close homophone to 无羁 wuji, which brings us full circle to the name of this song.