# Love is dreaming together, becoming kids again



## Keldrilh

Hello!
Can you help me to translate this sentence in Chinese, please?
- Love is dreaming together, becoming kids again -
Thanks in advance,


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## RahmanYu

"愛是....
讓我和妳，再次像孩童般相遇，
在夢中"


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## Keldrilh

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your translation.

I have another question.

在夢中 is more similar to "In a dream", right?


The idea of my sentence is more like this:

Love is *to dream* together.  (Dream like verb, not like a noun);

And at the same time, while we are dreaming, It is like our minds get younger again. (Basically we bacame kids again in our spirit and attitude).


With this explanation, will your chinese translation change, or does it match this meaning?

I am asking you this,  as I would like to be sure the translation reflects the meaning I gave to the sentence.

Thanks again,


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## RahmanYu

"愛是...想像我們如同孩童般，再次相遇"
This would be okay I guess~


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## Keldrilh

Uhm.... I am not sure.

What if we divide the original english sentence in 2 different chinese sentences:


*1)* Love is... to dream together. 
愛是.... 我和妳在夢.
愛是.... 我和妳在夢一起.
愛是.... 讓我和妳在夢.
愛是.... 讓我和妳在夢一起.
maybe my four chinese alternatives are all wrong? How would you say it in chinese?
Love is... me and you dream together (in this case dream is like a verb)
Love is... me and you (are) a dream together
Love is.. me and you in a dream together
(Which will be the most _poetic_? i'm trying to be very accurate in the translation because i will publish it for a project. I hope my chinese friends will love my sentence...)


*2)* And so we became kids again.
And we became kids again.
And In the meanwhile we became kids again.


What do you think?

Thanks a lot for your time RahmanYu ,


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## retrogradedwithwind

爱就是梦想着在一起，宛如孩童


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## Keldrilh

Thx a lot retrogradedwithwind,

your translation seems to expresses exactly what I had in my mind about the sentences "dreaming".

Still I would like to cross check the second part of the sentence:

宛如孩童 It seems it is missing the idea that the 2 lovers "*return*" young.

宛如孩童 sounds to me more as "they are dreaming, _like_ kids"

Is there a way to render this change of state of mind? They are returning kids - They are becoming kids again.

Something like: 而 再次像孩童般成为       (再次像孩童般相遇 RahmanYu original sentence)  (而 --> while).
(Sorry I don't speak chinese, I simply tried to adjust RahmanYu sentence)

So the final sentence will be:

爱就是梦想着在一起，而 再次像孩童般成为。
or
爱就是梦想着在一起。 而 再次像孩童般成为。

Please let me know,
Thanks a lot,


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## fyl

RhmanYu's suggestion 愛是想像我們如同孩童般，再次相遇 means "Love is to imagine we are like kids and come together again".
retrogradedwithwind's suggestion 爱就是梦想着在一起，宛如孩童 means "Love is wishing to come together, just like kids".
They are both very different from what your original sentence 'Love is dreaming together, becoming kids again' means.
Your own attempts are all quite wrong. If it had been so easy, they would have already given you a simple answer (if there were no misunderstandings)... Translating can be like rewriting a poetic sentence from the ground up, which is not easy and involves personal creativity/alternations.

My attempt is 爱就是做着同一个梦，回到小时候. The meaning is 'Love is like making the same dream, going back to childhood', not exactly the same as your sentence but not far away.


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## RahmanYu

Well, I agree that it's hard to translate directly from an English sentence to Chinese.
If you're trying to write a poetic sentence, it would sometimes change the meaning.
Also, the translation you wrote:
*1)* Love is... to dream together. 
愛是.... 我和妳在夢.
愛是.... 我和妳在夢一起.
愛是.... 讓我和妳在夢.
愛是.... 讓我和妳在夢一起.

"Dream" here does not indicate 夢。　夢想著 would be better. (which similar to imagine）
And all the four sentences do not make sense though...

而 再次像孩童般成为 ---- 成為 needs an Object. therefore this sentence is wrong,either.


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## retrogradedwithwind

I prefer to write a new sentence to “translate ” what you want to say......

爱就是一起做梦，做着同样的梦，一起重回孩提时代。

But this doesn't sound like a line of poem.

——————————————
Also, I would be glad if I can know what your sentence exactly means. 
Love is dreaming together while we are becoming kids
Or 
Love is dreaming together and is becoming kids.


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## Mamanunique

爱就是一起做梦，一起重返童年……


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## Skatinginbc

爱是一起做梦，一起還童


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## Sylph

"Love is dreaming together, becoming kids again" literally means "爱就是一起做梦，像孩子一般（重回孩提时代）“, but this obviously is not a good translation. When we translate something poetic, we have to make our translation poetic, too besides conveying the original meaning. Therefore, in this sense, I think Rahman Yu's first translation is good.


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## simonchg

Please allow me to go one step further（开个脑洞）and polish it a bit,

“爱就是天真烂漫地做梦，仿佛一起回到童年。“

In my sense of English, 'becoming kids again' portrays the feelings that you have when snuggling to your beloved and 'dreaming together' about your common future.
Therefore, '天真烂漫' makes it adequately contextual in Chinese, so does the rearrangement of 'together（一起）'.


I'm feeling it vicariously right now... darnit!


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## Keldrilh

Hello guys,

First of all, thank you all, for all of your reply.

I was very happy when I saw all of your answers this morning.

I really appreciate it.


Secondly I apologize again for my wrong sentences.
I tried to adjust the chinese sentences with the help of the dictionary, and with some grammar articles i found on internet (i only know few basics of chinese grammar).
Basically I tried to understand the “flavour” you gave to the translation, and then I tried to adjust it to the “flavour” I have in mind.
But not knowing chinese grammar I simply wrote sentences without sense.

I think I was just creating confusion in this way.


In these days I’m trying to translate for my project around 15 sentences in different languages, including complicated languages for me such chinese, arab and hindi.


For all languages I realised, as all of you said, the most difficult part is to render the "flavour" of the original sentence.
I am italian, and it was easy for me to render the flavour of the sentences in all western languages: italian, french, spanish, portouguese, german, english…
For western languages It was easy because their vocabulary are similar, and their grammar are similar; as matter of fact they all came from latin.


As I can see from your comments, I created some confusion.
So I will now try to give very detailed information about the flavour I like to render in chinese.

If it will not be possible I will change/adapt the flavour.


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## Keldrilh

*POINT A)*
First I explain here how I see the difference between “*TO DREAM” VS “DREAMING*”. Basically “*INFINITY FORM” VS “+ING FORM*”

*INFINITY FORM is “static”
+INF FORM is “in motion”*

I will explain it with few examples:

Example ONE
Happines is TO EAT  -->  I’m happy WHEN I eat  -->  Every time I eat I am happy
Happiness is EATING  --> I’m happy WHILE I’m eating  --> During my meal, I am happy (_From the moment_ I sit to the table for my meal, _till the moment_ I leave the table, I am happy)
*WHEN --> is “static” --> INFINITY FORM
WHILE --> is “in motion” --> +ING FORM*

Example TWO

Joy is TO DANCE  --> I’m joyful WHEN I dance  --> Every time I go to the club I am joyful
Joy is DANCING  --> I’m joyful WHILE I’m dancing  --> During the dance, I am joyful (_From the moment_ I go to the dancing floor, _till the moment_ I leave the dancing flor, I am joyful)
*WHEN --> is “static” --> INFINITY FORM
WHILE --> is “in motion” --> +ING FORM*

Example THREE
Love is TO DREAM  --> Love is WHEN I dream  --> Every time I dream is Love
Love is DREAMING  --> Love is WHILE I’m dreaming  --> During the dream is Love (_From the moment_ I start to dream, _till the moment_ I finish to dream, is Love)
*WHEN --> is “static” --> INFINITY FORM
WHILE --> is “in motion” --> +ING FORM*


Basically, the +ING FORM, put a* HUGE EMPHASIS *on “THE MOTION”.

All western languages can put this emphasis on “THE MOTION”.

I know the “verbs grammar” of chinese is very different from western languages.

*Is there a way to express “this motion”, “this flavour” in Chinese?*

If it is not possible, no problem.

If it is possible the english sentence would be translated  --> “Love is dream*ing*”.
If it is not possible the english sentence would be translated  --> “Love is *to* dream”

*POINT B)*
Here I explain how I see the difference between “*A DREAM” VS “TO DREAM*”.
Basically the difference is “*NOUN” VS VERB*”

B.1) Love is a dream sounds like:
There are two people in love. They are in a dream. They _cannot make_ choices. The dream decide for them the events. The cannot decide their future. The dream will give them a future and: maybe they will like this future, maybe they will not like this future.

B.2) Love is dreaming sounds like:
There are two people in love. They are dreaming. They *make choices*. The make decisions for their future. They decide their future according to their actions. *They are in charge for their future*. *They create their future together*.

In chinese I understood it is possible to combine different chinese symbols to say “dream” or “to dream”.

*Is there a way to express the "flavour" with the verb, and not with the noun? Basically to match the “flavour” described in point B.2)?*

*POINT C) *
Here I explain how I see the word “*TOGETHER*”.

C.1) Literal Interpretation.
Mark and Mary go together to the cinema --> They are litterlaly going together  --> They can touch each other with their hands.
Mark and Mary are studying together --> They are in the same room  --> They are on the same table  --> They can touch each other with their hands.

C.2) Allegoric interpretation.
Mark and Mary make projects together  --> maybe they speack on wechat  --> They are not necessary phisically together
Mark and Mary take decisions together  --> maybe they speack on the phone  --> They are not necessary phisically together


The “flavour” I want to give to my sentence is C.2)

 How does this apply to my sentence?

Mark and Mary are together “menthally"
There are in love. And they are dreaming.
They *make choices*. The make decisions for their future. They decide their future according to their actions. *They are in charge for their future*. *They create their future together*.

Of course they also do things together. But it is very important they do thing together with their mind, planning their projects, with their dreams and their imagination.

Do you have a way in chinese to say “together” according to this flavour?

*POINT D) *
Here I explain “*BECOMING KIDS*”.
Our life is divided in two parts: KIDS and ADULTS. Our behavior changes completely from Kids to Adults.

I show here some points of the behaviour:

*When we are kids:*
we wake up in the morning, we play, adults play with us, we eat, we play again, we go to toilet, we meet some friends, adults bring us toys, even in school is a kind of fun becouse we meet friends and school also organize activities for us, we go back home, we eat, we go to toilet again, we play with the parents, we play with the family members, everybody around us is good with us, we go to sleep, and the next day we do the same….

When we are kids we have a lot more imagination.
When we are kids we make a lot more dreams about our future.
When we are kids we don’t think about problems, we just do everything we like.

*When we become adult*:
we loose our imagination.
we stop to make dreams for our future.
Becouse unfortunately in life there some problems.
Examples:
Maybe we fail the university admission, or even maybe we don’t have the money for the ammission.
We don’t find a job.
We can’t change the job.
We don’t have enough money to buy a car, or a house.


Basically when we are adults we discover life is full of problems.
Beetween our eyes and the world we put a filter.
_And with the filter:_
we will never finish the book we wanted to write.
we will never organize that trip we wanted to make.
we will never start that career of painter we decided when we where kids
And so on…


So I believe that falling in love is an opportunity to start again to make dreams, and start to behave like when we where kids.

Becomings kids means reactivating our imagination
Becoming kids means start to make dreams again about our future.
Becoming kids means we don’t think about problems*. *We just do what we like. (At least we try. When we are kids we try to do everything. And we don’t care if we fail)
And we do all this things again, with our lover.
(I also make a stupid example: you take your girlfriend by hand and you run under the rain. And then hugging and kissing (like in a movie). Other adults may think is stupid, but if you have imagination to think about it, it could be silly, childish, but romantic!)

*POINT E)*
Here another consideration about: “*BECOMING KIDS*”.

The sentence could be either

TO BECOME KIDS  --> INFINITY FORM
or
BECOMING KIDS  --> ING FORM


Exactly the same consideration of *POINT A)* apply to *POINT D)*

*The “flavour” I would like to be, if it is possible with the chinese language, is the “flavour” of “the motion”.*

*POINT F) *
Here I explain “*AGAIN*”.

"Again" is just a preposition.

For example in english I can say:

*Becoming kids again*
Or
*Returning kids *

The word "Returning" imply the word “again”, so it is not necessary.

So in chinese we may have to use the word again, o we may not, I don’t know.

*POINT G) *
At this stage I think I have explained the meaning for all the part of the sentence:

*Love is
dreaming* POINT A and POINT B
*together* POINT C
*becoming kids *POINT D and POINT E
*again* POINT F

There is one last consideration.

The english sentence implies the word “while”.

*Love is dreaming together,* (while) *becoming kids again.*

“While” it is not written, but it is implied.

It would be _redundant_ to write it in the sentence.

Basically "while" give to the sentence the flavour that the two “Actions”, of Dreaming and of Becoming, are happening at the same time.

To explain this, I rewrite for you my sentence in this way:

_*Love is, we are dreaming together, while we are becoming kids again.*_
---> This sentence is not grammatically correct in english, it is not poetic, it is not the way english people write… but it may help to find the "subjects" / "objects" of the sentence to help with the translation in chinese. and it help with the understanding of the word implied "_while_".

Well, i guess that's all.

You may not have time to go through all the post, but if you did, thank you.

I really appreciate your help.

At this stage I feel than more than a translation, it turned into a challege.

I am sorry, I didn't expect It could be so complicated.


My goal would be to keep the "flavour", rather than translating.

In my opinion this sentence 爱就是梦想着在一起 written by retrogradedwithwind reflect the flavour I want to give. I checked with the dictionary, and it seems to me it express the flavour I described. But than fyl said that the meaning is "wishing to come together". So maybe I was wrong? But than Rahman says 梦想着 it is "similar" to imagine, but it is not imagine. So maybe it is the correct meaning?



retrogradedwithwind said:


> I prefer to write a new sentence to “translate ” what you want to say......
> 爱就是一起做梦，做着同样的梦，一起重回孩提时代。
> But this doesn't sound like a line of poem.
> ——————————————
> Also, I would be glad if I can know what your sentence exactly means.
> Love is dreaming together while we are becoming kids
> Or
> Love is dreaming together and is becoming kids.


 
I agree with you, in that way it doesn't sound like a line of a poem. I liked the first suggestion. I hope the detailed explanation I posted will help to understand the "meaning" i have in mind.


And then I think I like fyl interpretation: 回到小时候 going back to childhood. It seems to me it matches the "flavour" I described but I am not sure. Could you double check, please?

*And also I like mamanunique version, but what really scare me is that all the translation proposed are so different....*


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## fyl

Keldrilh said:


> In my opinion this sentence 爱就是梦想着在一起 written by retrogradedwithwind reflect the flavour I want to give. I checked with the dictionary, and it seems to me it express the flavour I described. But the fyl said that the meaning is "wishing to come together". So maybe I was wrong? But than Rahman says 梦想着 it is "similar" to imagine, but it is not imagine. So maybe it is the correct meaning?


梦想着 is "dream" but is not the "dream" you want here. Literally, 爱就是梦想着在一起 means "love is just dreaming to be together". In other words, they are far apart and are impossible to come together; they dream to come together one day. To say "dream together", you need 一起 to precede 梦想. I translated it as "wishing" just to avoid any confusions.
梦想着 does have something to do with "imagine", but it's meaning is quite different from "imagine". I'm not sure what Rhaman means.



Keldrilh said:


> And then I think I like fyl interpretation: 回到小时候 going back to childhood. It seems to me it matches the flavour I described but I am not sure. Could you double check, please?


Point D is up to explanation. I would say most suggestions in this thread (except mamanuique's and skatinginbc's) about the "becoming kids again" are already good. The major problem is to make the whole sentence fluent and poetic. If change the first part, I may change the second part too.



Keldrilh said:


> *And also I like mamanunique version, but what really scare me is that all the translation proposed are so different....*


When there isn't a simple standard answer, people will have their own choices between "faithful", "poetic", "flavor", etc.
mamanunique and skatinginbc's translations are simple, literal and plain, but far from being poetic. In fact, even the meaning is up to explanation (爱就是一起做梦=love is daydream together=love is impossible?)


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## Keldrilh

@fyl
(sorry, Rahman is meant to be RahmanYu, the other guy who provided the translation)


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## fyl

Update to my previous post: I just realized there are some contexts that 梦想 can be translated as "imagine". For example, 我们梦想着未来 (we are imagining what the future will look like), 我们梦想着在一起的情景 (we are imaging what it will be like if we come together), etc.


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## Keldrilh

fyl said:


> 梦想着 is "dream" but is not the "dream" you want here. Literally, 爱就是梦想着在一起 means "love is just dreaming to be together". In other words, they are far apart and are impossible to come together; they dream to come together one day. To say "dream together", you need 一起 to precede 梦想. I translated it as "wishing" just to avoid any confusions.


If so, I was wrong. This meaning is the complete opposite to my "flavour".
It is opposite becouse:  *- they are far apart and are impossible to come together; they dream to come together one day -*
My "flavour" is that they are already together.


fyl said:


> Point D is up to explanation. I would say most suggestions in this thread (except mamanuique's and skatinginbc's) about the "becoming kids again" are already good. The major problem is to make the whole sentence fluent and poetic. If change the first part, I may change the second part too.


 
I liked your translation for "becoming kids again", Well, now I'm even more glad to hear this. It means the difficult part is only the first part of the sentence. 
After the first part is fixed, the second part is easy then.


fyl said:


> Update to my previous post: I just realized there are some contexts that 梦想 can be translated as "imagine". For example, 我们梦想着未来 (we are imagining what the future will look like), 我们梦想着在一起的情景 (we are imaging what it will be like if we come together), etc.


*- 我们梦想着未来 (we are imagining what the future will look like) -*  It seems similar to the "flavour" i described. I have a question about this.
Are we are simply imaging how the future will be?
or Are we imaging (and taking an active role) to create the future we want?

*- 我们梦想着在一起的情景 (we are imaging what it will be like if we come together) -* I don't really like this, because it is like we are not together now.

Thanks a lot for your time,

[Edit:]
@simonchg

Hello simonchg,

earlier today, when i prepared my replies, I didn't see you message. Your message was the last posted.

Actually I love it when you say: *- when snuggling to your beloved and 'dreaming together' about your common future -*

Maybe you are really a vicarious!

Apparently your translation, according to the explanation you gave me, fit the "flavour" I want to give to the sentence. If any chance you have 10 minutes to chek my last posts, can you confirm it to me, please?

Or maybe will you guys tell me your point of view, please?

Thank you all again!


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## Mamanunique

做梦 and 童年 are as simple as dreaming and kids which are the original words. In Chinese, 做梦 and 童年 have their "flavor" that are similar to what dreaming and kids have . You don't need to add flavor to or specify them.
I don't think my words 爱就是一起做梦 ,as a part of the whole sentence ,means "daydream". It means to think about something that you like to happen or have. I can't see the necessity to be poetic here without context. And it depends on the context to see if the line 爱就是一起做梦 is poetic.


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## fyl

Keldrilh said:


> *- 我们梦想着未来 (we are imagining what the future will look like) -*  It seems similar to the "flavour" i described. I have a question about this.
> Are we are simply imaging how the future will be?
> or Are we imaging (and taking an active role) to create the future we want?


Just imagine, no actions.
I was just giving examples to show 梦想 can be translated as "imagine". These sentences are not supposed to be related to translations of your sentence.



Mamanunique said:


> In Chinese, 做梦 and 童年 have their "flavor" that are similar to what dreaming and kids have


I have checked several dictionaries and 做梦 has two meanings: 1. dream during sleep, i.e. the "real" dream 2. when used as a metaphor, it means 幻想, e.g. 白日做梦. For the 2nd case, "daydream" is also the explanation from some dictionaries (e.g. 汉典词语“做梦”的解释 汉典 zdic.net)
Frankly speaking, I see only negative connotation when I see the word 做梦 (when used as a metaphor).
I wouldn't say it's completely impossible to use it in a positive way, but I can't think of one at this moment.


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## Mamanunique

They just dream, no matter how other people think of them. Sometimes a dream comes true, sometimes doesn't. For example, 他以前经常*幻想*/*做梦想要*娶个漂亮老婆，今天居然变成了现实。


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## brofeelgood

To dream (做梦)
- He dreamed of his wife last night

To dream, to envisage, to anticipate (梦想)
- We are dreaming of a better future
- He is dreaming of a trip to the Swiss Alps

I assume you're going after the latter.

-----

- 爱就是一同梦想
- Love is dreaming together

- (一起)拾回逝去的童年/童真
- Picking up the faded childhood / innocence of childhood 

If you prefer it to be more literal, then
- 再次成为天真无邪的孩子
- Becoming innocent children again


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## simonchg

Hi @Keldrilh

Thanks for your positive comment.

I've read your posts and found your project really inspiring. Umm...let's talk about the translation first.


1) What I did.


> 爱就是天真烂漫地做梦，仿佛一起回到童年。



Before you said you are working on a project, I thought you were asking for an expression that 'flows' from a native speaker's point of view.
So I tried to paraphrase the sentence in Chinese, instead of translating it literally.

In other words, the sentence supposedly was able to 'invoke' the romantic scene among Chinese users, the way you possibly would like the sentence to work in.
BUT technically speaking, it is missing some 'points' that you made specifically afterward, such as

>Point A (in motion):
this sentence is not necessarily implying the process. People could add it on with imagination though.
>Point G ('while'):
this sentence does not include any hint of the temporal relationship between 'dreaming' and 'becoming'.

It works just fine in Chinese, but not in the way as in English.

The sentence can be reversely translated as

*- Love is dreaming childishly/naively, as if (we've been) back to the childhood together. -*

Quite close, isn't it?


2) What you asked.
>Point A: *Is there a way to express “this motion”, “this flavour” in Chinese?*
Yes, with proper context or by using a more abstract/flowery synonym (i.e. '做梦‘ --> '梦想’, '筑梦‘）. 筑梦 is a better alternative here.
>Point B: *Is there a way to express the "flavour" with the *_*verb*_*, and not with the *_*noun*_*? *
Yes, simply avoid negative or even neutral synonyms like '做梦‘, '想象', '幻想', '描绘', etc.
>Point C: *Do you have a way in chinese to say “together” according to this flavor?*
Yes. '一起’, '并肩', ‘共同’, '齐心', from literal to allegoric in order. But they are very contextual. 一起 fits well here.
>Point D:
Different ways of thinking between Chinese and English speakers may account for this.
It is kind of hard to make my point at this moment but, if I were told '爱是一起做梦，再次成为孩子。', i would think it is too weak and recognize it as a literal translation from some foreign language at once.
>Point E:
Same as A.
>Point F:
Interestingly, it is acceptable to say 'return again （重新回到）' in Chinese, but as redundant as in English.
>Point G:
Generally speaking, Chinese is less logically structured than English. It would be awkward to squeeze it into a sentence unless you are stressing on its logic.
It is idiomatic to form a sentence whose clauses are loosely attached in Chinese. Therefore, 'as if（仿佛）' smooths the sentence.


3) An alternative


> 情若神魂归一处，仿如竹马绕梦来



My friend proposed a poetic-ish version in classical Chinese. It is really pedantic and awkward to put it into a modern Chinese context. Just for your information.


I felt excited to know that you're on a project of translation across different languages. Is it part of your job or just out of your own interest?
It sounds as cool as I Can Eat Glass project.


Best of luck


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