Re: hakka: A Hakka Rhyme

["Dylan W.H. Sung" <mabr12@dial.pipex.com>]

HI Yoon-Ngan,

Please excuse the poetic licence! Mandarin chickens are ji, I see the
Hakka creeping in :) Chinese (Big5) then my translation, then the
original.

Cheers!
Dylan.
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   A Hakka Rhyme             (in Mandarin pinyin)
   ---------------------------------------------------
   月光光              Brightly, brightly shines the moon upon
   Yue4 Guang Guang          (the bright moon) 

   照蓮塘              Illuminating the lotus pond
   Zhao4 Lian2 Tang2         (shone on the pond)

   蓮塘背              Beyond the pool of water's edge
   Lian2 Tang2 Bei4          (behine the pond 

   種韭菜              Chives of green instead of sedge
   Zhong4 Jiu3 Cai4          (grew the chives)

   韭菜開花            When their flowers they begin to open
   Jiu3 Cai4 Kai Hua         (when the chives started to bear
                                                   flowers)

   種金瓜              Start the planting of the pumpkin
   Zhong4 Jin Gua            (time to grow the pumpkin)

   金瓜大              When the pumpkin has matured
   Jin Gua Da4                (the pumpkin had grown big)

   好種竹              Its the time for bamboo to be planted
   Hao3 Zhong4 Zhu2          (bamboo to be planted)

   竹稿大              When the bamboo has grown tall
   Zhu2 Gao Da4              (the bamboo grew bushy and tall)

   好養馬              Becomes the time to rear a foal
   Hao3 Yang3 Ma3            (time to rear a foal)

   馬長大              When this foal a horse becomes
   Ma3 Chang2 Da4            (the foal grew to horse)

   好養羊              Let us raise sheep and then some!
   Hao3 Yang3 Yang2          (time to keep a few goats)

   羊肥大              Now the sheep have grown and fattened
   Yang2 Fei2 Da4            (the goats grew fat and big)

   到城賣              To the market they are taken
   Dao4 Cheng2 Mai4          (sold in the city market)

   好養雞              T'is the time for hens to keep
   Hao3 Yong3 Gai            (time to keep chickens)

   雞肥大              Until they time they too are big
   Gai Fei2 Da4              (chickens had grown fat and big)

   過豐年              All in all a prosperous year indeed!
   Guo4 Feng Nian2           (a prosperous new year was in sight)