Hakka mountain songs (3)

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.joinet.net.au>]

Hakka mountain songs (3)

Liu San Jie

The English translation is in below

相傳遠在唐朝﹐ 梅縣松口有一位劉三妹﹐ 聰明伶俐﹐ 
以擅長唱山歌而遠近聞名。 

一天﹐ 劉三妹在江邊洗衫﹐看見上游漂來一只船。
船上站著一個秀才﹐聲言特來找三妹對歌。

他張口就唱﹕

”講唱山歌捱最多﹐船上載有七八籮。
    拿出一籮同你對﹐ 唱到明年割番禾。“

劉三妹暗自笑﹐ 隨口駁道﹕

”河唇洗衫劉三妹﹐
    借問先生哪里來﹖
    自古山歌從口出﹐
    哪有山歌船載來﹗﹖“

秀才一聽﹐ 自知不是對手﹐ 
趕快掉轉船頭﹐ 溜之大吉。 

客家人中有一個美麗的傳說﹐ 那是發生在舊社會里﹐ 貧困的農村﹐
地主欺壓百姓﹐ 土豪劣紳橫行霸道﹐ 魚肉鄉民﹐ 窮人有苦無處訴。
這個時候﹐ 出現了一位美麗活潑﹐ 愛唱山歌的客家姑娘。 她用山歌
揭發土霸的惡﹐ 她用山歌唱出人民的心聲﹐ 歌聲喚醒了被壓迫的人民﹐
歌聲也鼓舞了人民為幸福而展開的鬥爭。
”只有山歌屬窮人。”這位愛唱山歌的客家姑娘﹐名字叫做劉三姐 (說她
比唐朝的劉三妹還會唱)。 她受到廣大人民群眾的敬愛和贊頌﹐ 成了人
們心目中的“歌仙”。

70 年代這個美麗的傳說被中國的電影制辦片伯成一部精彩的影片
“劉三姐”。飾演劉三姐的女主角黃婉秋那青春美麗的祥貌﹐甜美
    的歌聲﹐相信仍記憶猶新﹐ 難以忘懷的。
“劉三姐”黃婉秋女士是個家喻戶曉的人物。
    黃婉秋的丈夫的姓名叫何有才﹐ 她的女兒叫何雁冰。
    黃婉秋與何有才最拿手的就是唐朝的
    “劉三妹與秀才客家山歌對唱”。

During the Tang Dynasty (618AD to 907AD) there lived a beautiful
and intelligent girl at the town called Song Kou in the county of Mei
Xian (present day Meixian county in Guangdong province). Her named was 
Liu San Mei (Third Sister Liu) who was very talented in singing mountain
songs. Her singing was well-known throughout the region. 

One day Liu San Mei was washing clothings near the bank of the river.
Along it came a boat. In the boat there was a scholar who boasted that he
wanted to challenge Liu San Mei in singing mountain songs.
Immediately he started singing:

"Talking about singing mountain songs I have plenty,  
 There are seven or eight baskets of them in the boat,
 I'll take out one basket to challenge you to sing,
 Until next year's crops harvesting."  

Liu San Mei was smiling secretly and straight away she answered the
scholar in singing.

"Washing clothings on the bank of the river is Liu San Mei,
 May I ask, sir, where are you from?
 Since ancient time, mountain songs always come from the mouth,
 Where got such thing as boat carrys mountain songs."

The scholar knew he was no match. Immediately he turned the boat arund 
and sailed away for good.

Hakka legend has it that there was a beautiful and talented Hakka girl 
by the name of Liu San Jie. Liu San Jie was born and grew up in a
Hakka village. She loved to sing mountain songs. She sang mountain songs
to express her anger on the oppressive rich landlords and despots in the
land. She sang about how the poor people were being ill-treated by these
tyrants. With the mountain songs she arose the poor people to fight 
against the bad rulers. She became the "mountain song fairy" of the day.

In the 1970s the Chinese government produced a colourful movie based on
this legend and entitled it "Liu San Jie" (elder sister of Liu San Mei in
the Tang Dynasty). The main actress of this movie is Huang Wan Qiu whose
husband is He You Cai. They have a daughter by the name of He Yan Bing.
The best act for Huang Wan Qiu and He You Cai is the duet of 
Liu San Mei and the scholar.

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan		chungyn@mozart.joinet.net.au
Copyright 1999. All rights reserved.