Has anyone talked about the translation of "Mo Ran, hell is too cold, I'm here to die with you?" Even when reading this part I thought about how difficult it must be to translate it, specifically because the Chinese verb for "to die with," 殉 (xun), has layers of implications and doesn't really have an equivalent in English.
殉 means "to be buried alive with the dead" or "to die for the cause of/to be a martyr for." The original meaning of 殉 is human sacrifice, which was practiced in ancient China by monarchs and noblemen, who bury their concubines and servants with them to accompany them in afterlife. When 殉 takes place without the concubines' consent, it's a very cruel and barbaric practice, but I think Meatbun used this term partially for its implication of ownership - the concubines are buried with the monarch because they belong to the monarch; Chu Wanning used 殉 because he belongs to and belongs with Mo Ran. In the rare historical cases where the concubines are voluntary, 殉 is carried out to express grief and loyalty.
A more modern and common usage of 殉 is in the phrase 殉情, which means "to die for love." 殉情 is often used in cases where lovers who couldn't be together either because of their families' disapproval, or their relationship being frowned upon by society, or some other insurmountable obstacles, choose to commit suicide together. If they can't be together in life, at least they can reunite in death. Chu Wanning, too, chose to martyr himself for love.
So you see how 殉 conveys so much emotion and subtext in the space of a single word - love, grief, devotion, loyalty, belonging, self-sacrifice, Chu Wanning's desperate resolution, and the cruel circumstances that drove his action.
