邓福如《你好吗天气好吗》
Furu Deng
Chinese remix of Peter, Paul and Mary’s classic “500 Miles”
Chinese lyrics:
在梦里有个地方 你是否还记得吗
(in my dreams, there is a place, do you still remember?)
你说过的每句话 我都疯狂
(Every last word you spoke, I crazed over)
迎着风我轻轻唱 随着落叶去流浪
(Welcoming the wind, I lightly sang, following the falling leaves, journeying)
又想起了那一首 Five hundred miles
(Again remembering that song, 500 miles)
人总是有些话 说不玩心里藏
(There are always words people hold, words they can never complete, hiding in their hearts)
平安吗 过得好吗 怎么传达
(are you peaceful? Are you doing well? How do I convey this)
人总是没办法 去明白去原谅
(People always struggle, unable to fully understand, to forgive)
你好吗 天气好吗 只剩这样
(Are you well? Is the weather good? Such words are all we are left with)
a hundred miles a hundred miles
有些事没办法 去明白去原谅
(There are some things, people always struggle, unable to fully understand, to forgive)
original English lyrics:
If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four,
Lord I’m 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I can’t go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I can’t go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train I’m on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
@4 weeks ago with 9 plays
#furu deng #chinese #remix #ballad #piano #soft #music #song #500 #miles #peter #paul #mary #oldies
As a child, I was really quite enamored by the beauty of Chinese 成语 (4-character idioms). As a 7-year-old however, I was often much more distracted by hard characters and struggling to read/understand whole idioms and their background stories in Chinese class as opposed to actually pursuing an interest in their source material.
As I grow older and revisit these age-old preserved sayings from stories of old, I find myself becoming increasingly emotionally attached to their source forms and seeing increasing wisdom in their words of caution.
Case in point, is the source of 三人成虎. Literally translated as “Three people create a tiger”. The gist of the story relates to an individual named Pang Gong (庞恭) of the Warring Eras (战国时代), adviser to the King of Wei at the time.
Before embarking on a trip with one of the Princes of Wei to the State of Zhao, he posits to the King, a hypothetical scenario:
“if a person came to court and told you there was a tiger roaming the capital’s markets, would you believe him?”
The King replied, “Of course not.”
Pang Gong continued, “And if two told you of the same scenario?”
The King again stated, “Even then, I would not believe.”
Finally, Pang Gong asked, “And what if there were three such people to report such a case?”
The King then answered, “If there were so many people reporting on seeing a tiger, that must indeed be the case! And as such, I cannot believe it is not the truth.”
Pang Gong, upon hearing this, states with deeply troubled thoughts:
“It is indeed as I expected. The problem lies therein! In reality, men and tigers are mutually afraid of each other. Concretely, which is more scared of the other, one cannot say. But we know in general, that a single tiger would not dare to randomly roam the capital markets. Today, the king does not even bother to self-investigate and thoroughly clarify the matter. Only relying on the witnesses of three who claim that there was indeed a tiger. Then when I am away, and you hear from three of those who speak ill of me, does this not then make me a bad person? Before my departure, O King, I make this request of you: please will you not make light of your trust of others’ words?”
Not long after, Pang Gong departed. And as time passed with many speaking ill of him behind his back, the King came to believe the truth to those words. When Pang Gong eventually returned to court, he was denied entrance and refused to be seen by the King.
(Chinese original and colloquialized at Baidu)
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As a child, I used to laugh at the story, finding the simplistic translation to be almost laughable. But as usual, with my drama-watching habits, listening to my friends talk around me, returning to this idiom hits home much more this time around.
We are so easily swayed by repeated information. Enough repetition creates ‘truth’, and eventually, ‘fact’. We almost never question, never thinking twice about how we have established these reified notions in our mind.
I often become too personally invested in watching makjang-esque (i.e.: highly dramatic) shows, which is why I generally avoid them. Because all the misunderstandings, the accidental overhearing at the wrong time always, always, always, destroys the truth, and creates a devastating situation where the ‘good guy’ is overwhelmed by the stack of odds against them.
Just talk to each other! I scream at the shows. Eventually giving up.
But in reality, how many times have I really made sure that the information I obtain is truth? And really, IS there objective truth, ever? Certainly not. But the pursuit of always aiming to hear all sides to a reality and incident, I think, is key to coming closest to a well-rounded perspective of what had transpired.
Reality and truth are subjective to our choice to hear what we want to hear. But we can hopefully try to alter it and tweak it to greater wholesomeness with an active pursuit to hear all sides, to never judge, based on what other’s inform of you. Particularly when we have made no move to personally look into the source of gossip.
@1 month ago with 1 note
#gossip #reality #truth #it is what we want it to be #thoughts #idioms #chinese
