The Yellow Earth
Has this blog been a little rough lately? All this combative stuff... fighting, boxing, bashing. And the swearing and cursing and bad language... tsk tsk
*sigh*
Yet Tabby Cats have a softer, warmer, furrier side too, you know. We aren't entirely claws and fangs!
Time for a kinder gentler Tabby, today only!
Chinese traditional folks songs are so cool. They totally blow me away. Even old saws like "A Li Shan di Gu Niang" absolutely melt me on the spot.
But of all the great Chinese folk songs out there, one in particular rules the roost. It is the "Riverbank Girl's Song" used as the centerpiece in the fantastic movie Yellow Earth (1984). This movie is spectacular. I won't spoil the story too much except to say - go see it. Actually it doesn't really have any story, it's all atmosphere and scenery. Such story as exists is innocent and simple - in Northwest China of the 1930's, Shaanxi province, a total dustbowl, an absolute wipeout of the local people by drought, war, famine, you name it, a young idealistic Communist archiver cadre guy has been dispatched to the farthest remote farms in the upper reaches of the river, to contact the local peasants, talk up the greatness of Communism, and incidentally collect and notate the area's "people's songs", what we'd call folk songs.
He lodges in the hovel of a family consisting of a prematurely aging, bitter, and silent father, and his young, pretty teenage daughter, about 12 or so years old. Mother died of hardship and sickness long ago. The father is already in negotiations to basically sell his girl as a "bride" (number 6 or something) of a rich landlord in a far distant village.
Neither father nor daughter really ever says anything to him. They just feed him and ignore him. They are silent, tough, peasant people, like made of dry leather. The cadre is beginning to think these people have no voices at all, they don't talk, they don't sing, they just slave labor in profoundly bitter silence - the whole mission is pointless. But one morning, the man is down by the river washing his face, and the young girl comes with her heavy wood buckets to dip for water to carry 2 miles back home for the fields. He watches surreptitiously, and as she fills her buckets, thinking nobody's around, she suddenly begins to sing this unbelievably tragically gorgeous traditional folk song, using her own improvised lyrics.
The link for the audio here.
The Chinese language lyrics are just below. Below them, English translation by me, another Tabby Cat Gamespace Premium Content Special Today Only!
This song crushes my heart. But I love it.
Just a note: this isn't trivial to translate. You need pretty high level Chinese, and some training in classical Chinese. I don't believe this is translated anywhere else on the internet, so all copyright reserved (c) Tabby Cat! Even if it's out there somewhere, bet the other versions aren't as poignantly poetic as mine. But as as always here at TCGS blog, if you don't like how I do it, do it yourself.
==================================
黄河边的歌--女儿歌
六月裏黃河冰不化，
扭著我成親是我大，
五穀裏數不過豌豆兒圓，
人裏頭數不過，
女兒可憐，女兒可憐，女兒呦。
浮水上的鴨子刮水上的鵝，
公家人不知我會唱歌。
青楊柳樹十八根杉，
想說心事我開口難，我開口難，女兒呦。
天上的沙鴿隊隊飛，
不想我的那親娘再想誰，
不想我的那親娘再想誰，
再想誰。
==================================
Even in June, the icy Yellow River can hardly flow,
They force me to marry as I start to grow.
In a grain silo are infinite kernels,
Among the people small ones like me are beyond count.
Pity the girls, pity the girls.
To be a girl is so sad.
The ducks swim easy on the river,
The geese brush the surface lightly with their wings.
The government man doesn't know - I can sing!
All the green poplars, willows, and firs,
Grow comfortably together,
But when I try to speak my heart's pain,
I can't open my mouth to say a word,
Because I'm a girl.
The sand doves fly together so high,
Companions gone far away in the sky.
Who do I have in my heart? Only my mother.
Who do I have in my heart? Only my mother.
Who do I have?
