I was in Taiwan last week and was bothered, then intrigued, by a DPP song (lyrics) periodically blaring in the streets from small campaign trucks. It's in 6 different languages... An interesting romanization and translation challenge... Here's my attempt:
(北京話 Beijing words - Mandarin)
輕鬆漫步愛河邊
微風吹送著溫暖
波光粼粼到天邊
喜悅的心 大步向前
Qīngsōng mànbù Ài Hé biān
Wēi fēng chuī sòng zhe wēnnuǎn
Bō guāng lín lǐn dào tiānbiān
Xǐyuède xīn, dà bù xiàngqián
Easy stroll along Love River
A warm breeze blows
River waves sparkling to the horizon
Stride forward with hearts full of joy
(台語 Taiwanese)
你我心連心 咱的手牽手
互相來照顧 幸福的前途
台灣 咱的愛
We connect heart to heart and hand in hand
Happy to take care of each other's future
Our love Taiwan
(客家 Hakka)
我同你行幸福路
I am happy with your road trip
(阿美 Amis)
ARAI KU WAMA WAHAHI 【感謝上蒼賜福】 [thank God bless them]
(達悟 Tao)
AYUYI DAU RUDU 【感謝上蒼賜福】 [thank God bless them]
(排灣 Paiwan)
MASALU CEMAS HI NALUWAN 【感謝上蒼賜福】 [thank God bless them]
(台語 Taiwanese)
你我心連心 咱的手牽手
互相來照顧 幸福的前途
台灣 咱的愛
We connect heart to heart and hand in hand
Happy to take care of each other's future
Our love Taiwan
(客家 Hakka)
歡喜笑臉 就在面前
共下同行 直到永遠
Joy in the face of a smiling face
A total of peer until forever
(台語 Taiwanese)
勿驚風雨 咱作伙行
阮的心肝 永遠在這
Do not panic for the storm Our group firms
Ruan's always a tough decision in this
(台語 Taiwanese)
你我心連心 咱的手牽手
互相來照顧 幸福的前途
台灣 咱的愛
We connect heart to heart and hand in hand
Happy to take care of each other's future
Our love Taiwan
(台語 Taiwanese)
你我心連心 咱的手牽手
互相來照顧 幸福的前途
台灣 咱的愛
台灣 福爾摩沙
We connect heart to heart and hand in hand
Happy to take care of each other's future
Our love Taiwan
Taiwan Formosa
Romanization of first couplet done with the help of
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict
Unfortunately, I am not capable of doing Taiwanese romanization.
Translation to English by Google Translate
http://www.google.com/translate_t?langpair=zh|en
with a very few corrections by me and Yuwen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_(linguistics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_(linguistics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_Taiwan
More on Taiwan language and politics:
http://pinyin.info/news/
http://www.tailingua.com/
http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/
The election is today.
Not sure what this is about, but Frank Hsieh, the DPP's presidential candidate, appears to be a Jedi (ooh, an Obama-inspired Jedi!)
Posted by: Kai Carver at March 22, 2008 02:43 AMI do have an idea what the USS Kitty Hawk is about...
Posted by: Kai Carver at March 22, 2008 02:58 AMScuse me for being off-thread, but has Photoshanty been attacked by spambots or what?
Posted by: Anita at March 22, 2008 05:01 PM"Do not panic for the storm Our group firms
Ruan's always a tough decision in this"
????
Exciting campaign music.
Posted by: tracy at March 24, 2008 04:06 PMYeah. That's Google's translation. Upon closer analysis, I get:
(something)'s conscience is forever here
"(something)" could be a name or an ancient instrument, but is probably something else, perhaps a uniquely Taiwanese word that happens to use the Chinese character 阮...
Yuwen, help!
This is what it feels like all the time in Taiwan (and probably elsewhere in Asia*): levels upon levels of "I don't understand" :-)
In other news, Yuwen indicates the title of the song is 希望台灣 Xīwàng Táiwān, or "Hope/desire/wish for Taiwan".
*actually, this is what it's like everywhere in the world, all the time. We just usually don't notice it so much.
Posted by: Kai Carver at March 25, 2008 02:03 AMThe below sentences are written for singing in Taiwanese, which mixed in Chinese characters and those specific for Taiwanese. However, some characters are used in both Chinese and Taiwanese but with different meanings. For example, 阮 in Taiwanese means "my" but a last name in Chinese. This is why Google translation does not recognize it in the context...
A more proper translation may be:
** Taiwanese lyric:
勿驚風雨 咱作伙行
阮的心肝 永遠在這
** from Google translation:
Do not panic for the storm Our group firms
Ruan's always a tough decision in this
** from Yuwen:
Fear no storm. Let's walk along.
My heart will always be with you