Watch the English singing performance of this song here
Gene performed this song’s English version that she translated
London, 2023.
Prelude to Water Melody
Singable Song Lyrics in English
Singer and translator: Gene Hsu
How rare the moon, so round and clear!
With a wine cup, I ask of the blue sky.
In the celestial palace up so high, what day tonight goes by?
Riding the air, I would fly.
But fear it’s too cold up there.
Crystalline mansions are so high!
Dancing to my shadow.
No longer the mortal tie.
She rounds the vermilion tower to shed her light on the sleepless.
Why then, when people part, is she so full and bright? So bright.
Men have sorrow and joy.
The moon does wax and wane.
Let’s share the beauty she displays.
Let’s pray our life be long, and our souls heavenward fly.
但願人長久(Song title)
Original Song lyrics in Mandarin (Traditional Chinese)
Poet and Lyricist: SU Shih
演唱 Singer: 鄧麗君 Teresa Teng
明月幾時有？把酒問青天。
不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年？
我欲乘風歸去，又恐瓊樓玉宇，高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影，何似在人間？
轉朱閣，低綺戶，照無眠。
不應有恨，何事長向別時圓？
人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺，此事古難全。
但願人長久，千里共嬋娟。
Behind the scenes
The Mandarin song “但願人長久”, composed by Vincent Liang, is a special song, because its lyrics adopted a complete ancient Chinese poem “水調歌頭·明月幾時有” written by SU Shih.
Though there are English translations of ancient Chinese poems, none of them was translated for a singing purpose. To bridge the gap between song and poetry translation, this English translation is for both the original poem and the Mandarin song, so the English version is singable by English singers and listenable by target audiences.
Translation between Chinese and English can be very difficult, because it is more than translating the source language into the target language, furthermore, it is about translating Western and Chinese cultures. Chinese is a language of “parataxis” while English is a language of “hypotaxis”. Thus, it is not an easy job to translate hidden or paratactic meanings behind the superficial words from Chinese into English. Likewise, it is not easy to use English language to convey those meanings in a hypotactic way.
Translating song lyrics has another layer of difficulty: music. To make sure English lyrics can adapt to the music is more difficult than translating a poem only. Moreover, it has various interpretations in modern Chinese for the same ancient Chinese poem, so I had to make a choice. Some phrases are omitted, the word order is adjusted, and the lines rhyme are ensured to adapt to music. Besides, I personified the moon and used a pun in English lyrics.
In conclusion, this translation is a faithful English version of the source song lyrics and presents the poem “水調歌頭·明月幾時有” to English audiences in a singable way.
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About the singer and linguist
Gene Hsu, a singer-songwriter-ethnomusicologist and professional interpreter and translator. Gene is engaged in intercultural and interdisciplinary research in music and translation. She has presented her papers at academic and professional conferences around the world. Furthermore, her research draws attention to the historical and intercultural significance of traditional languages, song writing and song translation. Gene hopes her work can contribute to bridge intercultural and language gaps and towards better understanding and world peace.
Read more: Prelude to Water MelodyFor more information about Gene’s research and work, please visit https://versevoice.org/research/ and https://versevoice.org/song-translation/
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