Saturday 13 July 2019

No smoking!

OK, so today we have a funny little song that has no link whatsoever (at least AFAICT) with any other item on this blog. I met this sometime between Easter and Jun 28 2012 [except it first appears in Session 20 from 13/7 and the 12/7 before that doesn't have it], and translated it to English within the summer (during the summer, I think, in August in fact). [To be more precise:
  • I translated it on 13/8/12, as per the famous big intro, and I have the manuscript;
  • The mistranslation below first appears, without ll. 12-13, in a 18/8 20:54 file, while a file from 15:27 on the same day doesn't have it; I'd assume that the changes from the manuscript to the file are made on that date, and they are the addition of l. 11, and «Tea, bear, or smoke to fill my mouþ.» and «A big advertisement says» being changed;
  • The two lines first appear in a file dated 3/9/12 13:25, and since the song appears in a lyrics file dated 25/8/12 10:51, I assume the translation was completed after that date.]
  • My awful Hakka at the time produced the wonderful mistranslation on the left, whereas on the right you find a revised version from ≥15:20 on 6/9/18. On 29/5/21 at 12:24, for the recording, I change «Each man for health will cut off smoke» to the current form. At 15:25, while captioning the video, I realize that, with Zhang Shaolin shaking his hand in front of his nose while singing «Múi-thàu háu không cu-lu̇t-yen», the mui-thau was probably "smell" rather than "taste", so I fix it.
It is a (Huiyang?) Hakka song called 烟仔歌 | Yen-tsái ko, "Cigarette song" (NOT "ash song" as I somehow came to believe), and it is a pretty strong advice to NOT smoke.
Let's see it!


人人也来跟
饭后一支烟
快乐过神仙万千
饱饭烟仔最
啤酒担口烟
市面上多烟
大事宣传广告登
肺病辛苦又会了钱
生CANCER箇阵那么好怨
最怕二手烟
味道好狂猪律烟雪茄烟
大众广场都禁烟
复制三万到处有眼见
人人为健康脱离烟



Ev'ryone says I too will,
Smoking after meals,
Careless, be happy a lot.
I eat my fill with no ash, I don't need
Tea, beer, or cigarettes to smoke.
The market's full of smoke,
One big advertisement says
You'll have tisis and spend money,
Get CANCER, fight, you can't complain.
Fear second-hand smoke.
Smoke has such a violent taste.
Ev'ry one says smoke's a wonder
They will be taken right away
Each man for health will cut off smoke
Nyîn-nyîn kóng ngâi ya lôi ken
Fán hèu yit ki yen
Khuài-lȯk kwò shîn-sien vàn-tshién
Shıt páu fán mâu yen-tsái tsùi m nyèn
Yím tshâ yím phiā-tsíu tam héu-yen
Shì-mièn shòng hè to yen
Thài-sìi sien-chôn kwóng-kàu ten
Phùi-phiàng sin-khú yù vòi liáu tshiên
Sang CANCER kài-chìng m háu yèn
Tsùi phà nyì-shíu-yen
Múi-thàu háu không cu-lu̇t-yen
Thài-cùng kóng-chông tu và kìm yen
Tshau sam vàn tàu-chù yu ngán-kèn
Nyîn-nyîn vùi khèn-khong thot-lî yen



Ev'ryone says I too will,
Smoking after meals,
Careless, be happy a lot.
I eat my fill with no ash, I don't need
Tea, beer, or cigarettes to smoke.
The market's full of smoke,
One big advertisement says
You'll have tisis and spend money,
If you get CANCER, you can't complain.
Fear second-hand smoke.
Cigars have such a violent smell.
"No smoke" signs the whole square cover,
There's billions, they're just everywhere!
You should all quit smoke for your health!

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