Hakka mountain songs (4)

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

Hakka mountain songs (4)

(A)   村姑想情郎 longing for her lover

日頭落嶺跌下溝,
 The sun sets through the ridge and down the creek,

唱一個山歌送日頭﹐
I sing a mountain song to send off the sun,

日頭呀還在那白雲里﹐
 The sun is still inside the white cloud,

好話呀還在妹心頭﹐ 
My good words are still inside my heart,

 大路壞了無人修﹐
 The main road is dilapidated and no one repairs it,
  
情哥哥去了無人留﹐
 My lover has gone away and no one tries to detain him,

誰人呀留得我情哥轉﹐
Who can convience my lover to come back, 

柑子的樹上結了石榴﹐
The mandarin trees blossom with fruit like pomegranates,

月亮出來兩頭勾﹐
The moon comes out like a hook with two ends,

一頭是燈草一頭油﹐
One end is the rush the other is the oil,

燈草呀又短那油又少,
The rush is too short and the oil is too little,

滿腔的熱淚背人流。
I am full of hot tears that I can only shed behind people. 
................................................................


(B)    排   排   坐 Sing a Hakka song

排排坐﹐唱山歌﹐ 你打鼓﹐ 我打鑼﹐ 薪臼灶背炒田螺﹐
田螺 殼﹐刺到家官腳﹐ 家官呀呀叫﹐ 薪臼哈哈笑。

Sit in a row and sing mountain songs. You beat the drum and I hit the
gong. Daughter-in-law frys sea-shell behind the kitchen. The sea-shell
shells prickle father-in-law's feet. Father-in-law cries out loudly and
daughter-in-law laughs loudly.

排排坐﹐唱山歌﹐爺打鼓﹐ 子打鑼﹐ 薪臼炒田螺﹐
阿公燒火背駝駝﹐ 阿婆檢樹皮﹐ 阿妹唱山歌。

Sit in a row and sing mountain songs. Father beats the drum and son hits
the gong. Daughter-in-law frys the sea-shells. Bending his back gandpa
makes the fire. Gramdma examines the tree parks and sister sings
mountain songs.
.........................................................................


(C)    喝 醉 酒   Got Drunk

(Male) ﹕         喝酒喝得醉連連﹐ 
                  失腳跌倒大路邊﹐
                  麼情阿妹借眼看﹐
                  有情阿妹雙手牽。


(Female)﹕        喝酒太多發酒癲﹐  
                  幸得跌倒妹身邊﹐
                  今次跌倒妹牽起﹐   
                  下次跌倒瞞人牽。

(Male):   Having drunk so much wine that I fell on the roadside.
          Luckily I was seen by a girl who, with her both hands,
          pulled me up.

(Female): Drinking too much wine will get addicted. Fortunately I saw
          you lying on the roadside. Next time there will be no one
          to pull you up.
...................................................................

(D) 
This is a Hakka mountain song composed by Dr Zheng De Hua 
(鄭德華) and published by Nanyang Shang Pao (南洋商報) a Malaysian 
Chinese newspaper) on 23rd March 1993.

           鬧   新   房

一   腳   踏   入   新   娘   間

又   有   檳   榔   又   有   煙

再   過   兩   年   生   個   子 

生   個   細   子   中   狀   元

Honestly I don't know how to translate it into English.
..........................................................



(E)  The passionate lovers

This is a passionate story which happened in a town called Song Kou
(松口) in Mei Xian (梅縣) in Guandong province (廣東省). A young Hakka
couple were deeply in love. However, they were not allowed to get marry
because both of them had the same surname of Liang (梁). According to
Chinese tradition people with the same surname were forbidden to get
marry. In order to extricate from this ardent love affairs the young man
decided to go to Nanyang (南洋 present day Malaysia and Singapore).
Secretly, without telling his lover, he packed and went to the jetty in
the river and board a little boat heading for Guangzhou (廣州), the
capital of Guangdong province (廣東省). Somehow the girl discovered his
plan and rushed to the jetty trying  to persuade him not to go.

This was how they expressed themselves in Shan Ge (mountain song) :

Girl: 妹系姓梁郎姓梁﹐     Boy:  圳頭行下青草湖﹐     
      兩人共姓各祠堂﹐           妹也唔使再三留﹐
      妹是西風郎是雨﹐           舍時十分舍唔得﹐
      西風透雨涼對涼。           怨得屋家唔好圖。

Girl: 松口行下銅琵橋﹐    Boy:   聽妹唱歌涯心慌﹐ 
      轉眼來看望江樓﹐           東流江水渺又茫﹐
      一對鴛鴦少一只﹐           那有利刀能割水﹐ 
      還有一只水上漂。           如今流水割斷腸。

Girl: 趕哥趕到蓬辣頭﹐     Boy:  日頭一出須華華﹐
      妹子唱哥唱啞喉﹐           想著妹子想著家﹐          
      千聲萬句留不住﹐           燈草跌落涌水角﹐
      恰似有天無日頭。           一條心事放唔下。

Eventually the boy was moved by the passionate love of the girl. Picking
up his luggages he disembarked the boat and eloped with the girl to a far
away place.


(F)  Hakka Roots: this is not a song but poem

This article, 客家尋根之旅 the tour of Searching for Hakka Roots  
organised by the Malaysian Hakka Association, was written by Qiu Hui Zhong
(丘惠中) and appears in the magazine to commemorate the 10th Congress of
the Persekutuan Persatuan Persatuan Hakka of Malaysia.

There is a paragraph in the article entitled:
福建的客家搖藍 or the cradle of the Hakka People in Fujian province.
In the paragraph there is a mountain song about the migration of the Kakka 
People from the north to Fujian provinve. They settled down in Shi Pi
village in Ning Hua county (寧化石壁村). The village of Shi Bi is
recognised by the World Hakka Association as the cradle of the Hakka
People in Fujian province. On the bank of Ting Jiang Mother River
(汀江母親河) there is a statue called The Mother which is sacred to the
Hakka. The composer of this mountain song is unknown.

山歌唱來一蘿蘿﹐   遊子回到母親河﹐   河南福建轉一轉﹐
方知祖先苦難多﹐   翻山越嶺受折磨。
翻山越嶺受折磨﹐   萬苦千辛都挨過﹐   平地已有前人住﹐ 
只好走入大山坡﹐   開天辟地淚沱沱。
開天辟地淚沱沱﹐   今日終有好結果﹐   開枝散葉天下走﹐
隔山隔水難隔疏﹐   勿忘公公同婆婆。
記得祖公和祖婆﹐   回到祖地感觸多﹐   汀州寧化石壁村﹐
親情都像母親河﹐   河水長流暖心窩。
河水長流暖心窩﹐   遊子歸來唱贊歌﹐   優良文化應傳頌﹐
結出美麗好花朵﹐   千年萬代笑呵呵。

The English is roughly like this:
 
There are lots to sing about in mountain songs. The wandering sons 
have returned to Mother River. Touring through the provinces of Henan 
and Fujian we realise the amount of hardship our ancestors had
suffered, crossing the mountains and ridges. 

After crossing the mountains and ridges our ancestors thought the hardship
was over. However, the flat fertile land was already being inhabited by
the progenitors. Without alternatives they settled in the hilly slopes.
With tears, they removed the forest and cleared the land before they
planted the crops.

Having removed the forest, cleared the land and planted the crops, 
wonderful results were achieved as it is today where their descendants
have spread far and wide through out the world. Though they are seperated
by land and sea yet their relationship is inseperable. Forget not our
grandparents.

Remembering our ancestors, we retun, with stirring emotion, to the 
ancestral land of Shi Bi village in Ning Hua county of Ting Zhou
prefecture. Our love is like Mother River whose water flows through our
hearts.

As the water of Mother River flowing through our hearts, the wandering
sons sing the praise of our excellent culture blossoming with flowers for 
the upcoming thousand generations.   

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