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I do know the meaning of each word in the following sentence.

我却为你万千感慨

But I still cannot understand the meaning of the whole sentence. Google translates it as.

I feel so emotional for you

I doubt about it. The hard part for me to understand this sentence is because of the present of 却.

So what does the above sentence mean?

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  • Consider “却” as “但”, like "但我为你万千感慨 ". Meanwhile, grammatically, “但” is a conjunction word and “却” is an adverb, so they will appear in different places in the sentence
    – Shaw
    Sep 14, 2020 at 21:05
  • 1
    Just add a "but" before your translation.
    – T-Pioneer
    Sep 19, 2020 at 1:57

2 Answers 2

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Google's translation isn't off too much.

却 is an adverb which is used more or less like "yet", "however" or "and yet" in English. I say "and yet" because I often see it used as a conjunction, in place of 反而.

For example:

这句话那么简单，却点燃了我 (= this sentence is so simple, and yet it set me on fire)

万千 means "a myriad", also in English used figuratively to elegantly express a large quantity.

感慨 means something like "full of sorrow". Mdgb says "rueful". Zdic defines it as 心生感触而发出慨叹. Which essentially is a feeling of such sorrow that you can't withhold sighs and moans. Also, given the proposed synonyms (感叹, 慨叹) it seems it's used in a verbal position. It's seems used like a stative verb.

So if you put it all together:

我 (I) 却 (however, yet) 为你 (for you) 万千 (myriad) 感慨 (rueful, feeling sorrowful)

It roughly means the subject's feelings are many and nuanced, but all of them related to sorrow and sadness.

A fluent translation (somewhat poetical) might be something like:

And yet for you I let out a multitude of sighs

or, taking 万千 less literarily, so many feelings that the subject is overwhelmed.

And yet for you I'm overwhelmed by sorrow

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  • There is no verb in the sentence, isn't there? Is it also correct for oral and written to use sentence without verb in Mandarin?
    – O Connor
    Sep 16, 2020 at 7:10
  • @OConnor I think 感慨 is the verb, but it's one of those with shifting lexical role. So there's maybe two interpretations. 1. 感慨 is a stative verb (adjective) and 万千 is the intensity adverb, so 万千感慨 is the same construction as 很高。2. 感慨 is a normal intransitive verb.
    – blackgreen
    Sep 16, 2020 at 9:10
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It is from a lyrics of 《相思的债》

The complete sentence is

你闯进了我的心里 真情灌溉
我却为你万千感慨 默默等待

Girl: You rushed into my heart, filled it with water of love. In the meantime, I am emotional a lot for you, waiting quietly.

The 却 shows the comparison that the boy is active while the girl keeps waiting, even though she is emotional.

Lyrics are written in a rather twisted order to make the sound beautiful, but that also make it hard to understand.

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  • Yes, one of my favorite karaoke songs. Here's the link to hear how those words are pronounced --- youtube.com/watch?v=aH68xMSTX74
    – Wayne Cheah
    Sep 20, 2020 at 3:25
  • So 却 in this context means: In the meantime?
    – O Connor
    Sep 25, 2020 at 6:55
  • @OConnor It basically means "but". However, the contrast is not 180 degrees. It looks like a comparison between counterparts. So I think, "In the meantime" can be a better translation than "but".
    – River
    Sep 25, 2020 at 13:44

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