Lyrics Project #8: West Mountain Song - Guan Wenzhuo

[feihong]

Folk singer Guan Wenzhuo describes a journey steeped in sadness and small but striking observations. Not a lot of concrete details emerge, but the narrator does visit a small village at the foot of a mountain, where he stays for a while to heal his emotional wounds and enjoy the night sky.

 

This is part of the Grand Chinese Lyrics Project.

 

Chinese title: 西山的歌

Artist: 关文卓

Listen: https://artist.douban.com/m/guanwenzhuo/tracks?play=tScpp1&pl=pS2jz96ang&pz=1

Type of lyrics: First-person story

Genre: Folk

Difficulty: Medium? Very simple grammatically, and only one semi-rare character (炊).

 

Lyrics

 

风儿吹
吹起涟漪
风儿吹
我的眼泪

 

树叶摇
沙沙响
挥挥手
疲惫的身影

 

简单的歌
青山脚下
小小村落
为我疗伤

 

路漫漫
走走停停
哪一段风景
还会铭记

 

相知的人啊
伤了的心
多少离愁
随炊烟飘去

 

简单的歌
青山脚下
小小村落
为我疗伤

 

简单的歌
唱给谁听
西山朦胧
月色迷离

 

简单的歌
青山脚下
小小村落
为我疗伤

[feihong]

Translation: https://www.notion.so/chicagochinese/b454995825f24a4384c922c3ca650d8f?v=ab603cd54ab742c08011bf2a70fe6e0c

[abcdefg]

Thanks for doing this. Didn't expect to like these songs, but most of them I do. This one appeals. I like its simplicity. 简单的歌。 

 

It's easier than your last one ("secular life.") 

 

I have several friends who are originally from the mountains of South Yunnan. A few times after dinner (at a big round table -- 8 or 10 people -- lots of food -- 白酒 flowing) they start singing rural mountain songs. Some are in 方言, some are mostly 普通话。The basic format is usually the same.

 

A man or woman stands up on one side of the table (on one side of the mountain) and sings loudly declaring his love for a certain 美女 or 帅哥 who lives in the same village. He sings while he's working in the fields or forest. Out of sight (on the other side of the mountain/on the other side of the table) the person being sung about hears and answers back. A simple dialogue develops, "You are so beautiful and virtuous" he sings to her. She replies to him "You are so strong and hard working." And so on. Very simple stuff, but charming. It's not unusual for the woman to kind of start swaying as she sings, affecting a coquettish look. And the man who is courting her with song will gesture with his hands, even though they both are still pretending to not be able to see each other, separated by part of the mountain or by a deep valley. 

 

All of us at the table clap and toast them. Laughter all round. The people doing the singing are usually a mature couple, married with half-grown kids. But it's a mock return to youth and to the village. They revive those days because they are cherished.