Genshin Impact: Hu Tao's Chinese constellation is a poem that got ruined in English translation

When it comes to the Chinese version of Genshin Impact, miHoYo is often known to fill it up with a lot of cultural references and literary details that are often lost in translation.

One of the many examples of one such translation issue is in the case of the character Hu Tao. While her English voice-overs and textual translations of character bio were able to represent her basic nature and personality, there were a lot of her character traits that went missing in other versions.

In a recent Reddit post, the Genshin Impact player, who goes by the handle of evrien, brought into focus something interesting about Hu Tao and how her lyrical aspirations were lost in other versions of the game.

The Redditor noticed that in the Chinese version Hu Tao had a very unique constellation naming which was vertically symmetrical in the character count. Upon further research, the player found out that the constellation names, when put together, form a verse in an ancient Chinese poetic style form called Yuefu.

Yuefu are Chinese poems composed in a folk song-like lyrical style, and the words from Hu Tao’s constellations, when loosely translated, seem to read exactly like one.

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Genshin Impact’s Hu Tao and Chinese lyrical poetry

When translating Hu Tao’s constellations under the Yuefu poetic style, the Redditor is able to make out the following lines:

• The butterflies gather upon the blooming spider lilies, (C1)
• With ominous clouds above, foretelling a returning rain, their minds stirred unrestful (C2)
• Unknowingly harvest that poisonous rouge (C3), they slumber along in the chamber of flowers (C4)
• I sigh as I burn the flowers as a parting incense (C5)
• May the fleeting aroma be with those ghostly wings (C6)

Now, what grants this theory some weight is the fact that Hu Tao is represented as a character in Genshin Imapact who is prone to creating unique verses and frequently gets into rap battles with Xingqui.

So, her original constellation name making an entire poem when put together, is not too farfetched a conjecture. Additionally, in the Reddit thread, there are more translations by other members of the Genshin Impact community, and each of those loose versions goes very well with Hu Tao’s role as the director of the Wangsheng Funeral home.

In one of these translations, a player arranges it in a way that draws a picture of Hu Tao who is solemnly preparing a funeral.

While it’s not certain if the original Chinese version included the Yuefu poetic style in Genshin Impact, it’s quite interesting to note just how rich in philosophy and learning Hu Tao will be as a character if it were true.

Much of her dark humor and personality traits are perhaps lost in the English version of the game. However, that is perhaps true for all characters in Genshin Impact, as it’s impossible for an abridged version or translation to stay true to the original.