My Current Song Choice

I think for most people, songs need to grow on you.  The first few times you hear a new song, it’s not that good or just okay.  But then after a while it starts getting better and better.  Then you end up spending a whole afternoon listening to it on repeat.  That happened to me quite often when I was in high school – the time when I kept up with the latest tunes.

One time (at band camp) I heard a song by Sally Yeh – Jook Fook (means to wish you good fortune).  It was the #1 song in Hong Kong in 1988, but I didn’t like it.  Then in 1991 I saw it being sung during the Miss Hong Kong pageant by a babe and it became one of my favourite songs.  It took 3 years – a record for how long it takes for a song to grow on me.  Now that record has been broken, and Sally Yeh is involved again.  It’s a duet in mandarin, with George Lam – her current husband, but they weren’t married when they first sang it in 1993 (I think it came out in 1993).  I didn’t think it was a good song at the time.  But now, 25 years later, I've listening to it on repeat for the past week.

The reason is that I can really identify with the lyrics.  They tug at my heartstrings.  Since it’s in mandarin, I wasn’t sure what all the words meant so I asked a friend to help me translate it.  The translation is below and there is also a link to a YouTube video.  A hundred of those views are probably from me over the last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G72QjOUrSJQ

Usually when I translate things, I like to translate the meaning but this time I’m going for a more literal translation of the words.  This way, if you read it without hearing the song, you can translate it back into Chinese and see how poetically powerful the lyrics are.

CHOICE

During the days when the winds get stronger,

I smile as I watch the flowers wilt.

During the season when the snow is dancing,

I raise my glass to the moon.

These kinds of feelings

This kind of road

We experienced them together.

[I hope that you can love me until the earth is old and the sky is barren.

I hope that you can accompany me to the corner of the seas where they meet the edge of the sky.

Even if everything repeats itself

I would not change my decision.

I chose you.

You chose me.

I will certainly love you as long as the lasting earth and the eternal heavens.

I will certainly accompany you until the seas are dry and the rocks have eroded.

Even if I could go back into the past

That would still be my only decision.

I chose you.

You chose me.

This is our choice.]

Spring has left, autumn is gone.

Bid farewell to today, another tomorrow.

Day after day passes, month after month, year after year.

Our hearts do not change.

Repeat [ ]

I choose you.

You choose me.

This is our choice.

******************

Big Oh