SOUND OF GOLD AND JADE: A Collection of Traditional and Popular Chinese Songs Translated into English with Music Notation
ABOUT THE BOOK
Songs, or poetry set to music, are more accessible than any other literary texts (fiction, drama, poetry) in a major language because of the special resonance between the rhyme and the lyrics, as well as the alchemy encrypted in their mutual empowerment. Since time immemorial, songs (unity of music and lyrics) open the hearts and ears and enhance the spiritual and emotional aspect of even the humblest human lives. Celebrityand civilians have long learned to enjoy songs for the benefits it spawns — being enlightened, calmed, transported as well as the sharpened awareness of “the essential goodness of life”.
The Sound of Gold and Jade is a ground-breaking translation project of 180 great Chinese songs prized for their high aesthetic quality and entertainment value, rendered into English on the dual criteria of readability and singability. It provides an English speaking audience the opportunity to share the most accessible part of Chinese heritage.
Rhymes, rhetorical figures, and cultural specifics that make for difficulties in the translation of this special genre are dealt with in uttermostearnest all for the purpose of promoting Chinese vocal works in the English-speaking world, an opportunity to share some of the greatest songs thatform integral part of Chinese heritage.
This song project, thematically, falls into the following catagories:,
1. Patriotic Fervor
2. Joy of Adolescence
3. Eternal Sense of Nostalgia
4. Military Tunes
5 Love and Youthful Themes
6. Songs from Honggang and Taiwan
7. Folk Songs
8. Three Great Traditions of Folk Songs (LiuSanjie, Xintianyou, Huaer)
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Huang Shaozheng graduated from Shanghai Foreign languages Institute in the early 1980s. His lifelong passions are for the translation of literary works which do not lend themselves to easy and normal rendering, either from Chinese into English, or the other way round. For example, his translation of The New Testament into Chinese (2015), draws on the legacies of William Tyndale and the medieval scholars Kumarajiva and Xuan Zang. His twin interest in translating from Mandarin into English has had rich dividends in presenting the emi-nent Chinese indigenous poet JidiMajia‘s literary speeches (In the Name of Land and Life, 2013, MountainsThat Humble and Hold Us In Awe, 2018).
REVIEWS FROM ENGLISH READERS
Jan Laurens Siesling，writer of novels and poetry, art historian and translator
Huang Shaozhen is a man of many talents. By rewriting (because that is how we can call it) a treasure of songs dating from a crucial period in the history of modern China, he achieves several goals at the same time.
First of all, he saves many songs from possible oblivion, at least for the younger generation, even in China. By presenting many dozens of them together, he is able to outline an essential element of the politics of their time, more than half a century ago, and with them their impact on the people; such a collection is gold for historians, sociologists, and political scientists.
By presenting, not only the lyrics but, complete with their scores, also the melodies of the songs, to which Huang Shaozhen is emotionally and aesthetically attached, he writes a chapter in the historiography of Chinese music. However, his real goal is not to preach to his own parish, but to open the eyes and ears of the English-speaking world and to offer it a better understanding of the Chinese society in a period that has not been studied from this angle. Historians in foreign countries will be more than happy to welcome this source of ideas and witness of nothing less than aspects of the daily life and reality of the people in all layers of the society.
In order to succeed this bridge to the outer world, Huang Shaozhen realizes that the translations of the lyrics must be correct, which they are not yet. But also, to do honour to the original lyrics, these translations must closely cling to the original scores. This is something the most advanced AI technology cannot even approach. Huang Shaozhen has put his shoulders under this task. For song after song he has searched and often found the valuable equivalent in English of Chinese poetic norms and, most importantly, singable qualities.
What started as a private hobby out of his love of music and language will culminate in a major contribution to the cultural history of the Chinese People’s Republic in its early years. Everything necessary should be done to bring this great effort to a successful conclusion.
Mark Tredinnick，writer, poet, grammarian
In Sounds of Gold and Jade, Professor Huang Shaozheng gives a great silence voice. Since China’s reemergence as a major power in the past thirty years, many of her poems and great books have found their way into English and other Western languages through the art of translation. And through them China has begun to be better understood in something like its own voice. But her songs, in which the Chinese soul, ancient and modern, is more truly sung,
Huang Shaozheng argues, have defeated the few translators who’ve attempted to give them a second life in English. If it is true, as he convincingly argues, that songs calm, enlighten, charm and give a listener fuller entry into the big emotions of a life than even poetry and the best prose, it is because the song employs both words and music, and each element seems to swell the power of the other. But the magic that happens in the sometimes profound unity of sound and sense in a song, the fit of music and speech—it is this that also most resists translation—a fact compounded by all that may be lost in translation of the emotional power of a song because many of its references are locked in the specificity of the culture, geography, politics, sensibility, and history from which the song arose. All this has left most of the canon of Chinese songs untranslated.
Huang Shaozheng has put that right with this book, which attends closely to the readability and the singability of the songs in the English that he employs. He deftly sidesteps, too, the opacity of time- and place-specific reference to give us song that seem, paradoxically, at once both eternal and Chinese, while also fitting comfortably a contemporary idiom and evoking human emotion as it is felt the world over. One feels the songs have found the perfect translator in Huang Shaozheng, who is more given, as he confesses, to language that is enduring than language that is innovative. Here is a great act of cultural conservation, a gift from China to the world, made possible only by the commitment, craft and humanity of this fine translator.
Nii Parkes writer, editor, contributor to National Geographic
A nation’s soul resides in the harmonies of its songs; its spirit takes form in the shapes the mouth makes to frame the words the music carries. In his quest to translate 185 landmark Chinese songs into English, Huang Shaozheng is fulfilling the role of an ambassador, making myriad aspects of the Chinese character, its indomitable spirit, its nurturing soul, tangible to English speakers for the first time.
However, Huang Shaozheng is also doing the work of a historian, for songs are some of every nation‘s most memorable poems, and as Langston Hughes, the celebrated African-American poet active during a period of fundamental social change in America, writes in his introduction to Poems from Black Africa “poets are lyric historians… the songs of the poets have been not only songs, but often records of the most moving events, the deepest thoughts, and most profound emotional currents of their times”. The range and depth Hughes speaks of is evident here in songs that cover the iconoclastic May Fourth Movement sitting alongside songs of adolescent love and lament and songs of migration and exile; songs on the beauty of nature frame songs about marching into battle.
Huang Shaozheng’s experience with biblical translation will have served him well in tackling the array of subjects in these songs, and his work translating poets over decades means that he is at ease with heightened metaphor-rich language. Nonetheless to translate such a range of subjects with such a beautiful language while paying attention to the translation’s fidelity to musical accompaniment speaks of a remarkable ambition as well as a love for his country, its history, its culture – and a profound appreciation for music. In taking on all these facets and handling them with patience and linguistic grace, Huang Shaozheng has achieved a tour-de-force that will redefine English scholarship in the realm of Chinese folk songs while providing a lasting reference book for generations to come.
Mxolisi Nyezwa，poet， writer
In this memorable collection of modern Chinese songs titled “The Sound of Gold and Jade”, spanning over a century, the translator brings together songs about love and the joys of adolescents; songs of the military and their patriotic fervour, and the great Chinese folk traditions of LiuSanjie, Xintianyou and Huaer.
The act of creation is always precarious to the creator of songs as well as the translator. It is a double-edged sword tearing apart both the careful and careless from a crude and ugly world, a poisoned chalice. The artist is both a venerable and vulnerable character. His compositions will not satiate the world’s thirst for freedom, its demands and expectations for agony from a broken soul.
I am moved by the energy of the earth’s spirits, the magical lyrics and rhythms of the 185 songs that the translator has laboriously put together to make this book. I dream to hear the songs in performance to calm down my perturbation for sadness and loneliness - my awkward familiarity with an estranged and dismal world.
Parvathy Salil Poet，PhD Candidate
Four decades of exemplary translating from and into Chinese have now brought Mr. Huang Shozheng – the biblical, bilingual, and independent translator – to yet another magnificent project: "The Sound of Gold and Jade". Marking a subversive digression from the precepts of the current translation theory(fidelity) that reorients originals in terms of the narrative and value systems, Mr. Shozheng’s work is perhaps the first-ever to render 185 classic Chinese songs to be sung and widely read in the English language.
Traversing the subtleties and confines of rhyme, rhetoric, and cultural nuances, the project aims at both readability and singability, containing a fat list of songs(pop songs are largely absent!) musical historians would applaud：the old favourites and most popular songs that celebrate patriotic fervour alongside the ever-present nostalgic longing, adolescent exuberance, rumination on youth and love, as well as evocative songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In this intricate work, the beauty of prominent landmarks coincides with the healing and the revolutionary zeal of the soldiers receiving loving care from ordinary village wife, a Nightingale incarnate; Both oxymoronic descriptions (as in "a fatal glance sparked a sweet emotion") and vivid descriptions (as in " Penghu Bay", which presents intriguing reminiscences on "the two pairs of footsteps and the half left on the sun-lit sand”) add to the rich tapestry of the work. The project is also one that foregrounds assimilation in the aftermath of the colonial past, as in " Pearl of Orient" which establishes Hong Kong as “a place where the East meet the West”. That said, the emphasis is unwaveringly on returning to one's roots.
An overtly political work beyond its aesthetic preoccupations, “The Sound of Gold and Jade” celebrates resistance and liberation from imperialism(s). An extraordinary work of contemporary significance, “The Sound of Gold and Jade” lauds persistent fights against oppression and reminds one (as in “Working men of All Countries, Unite”) that there is a "whole world to gain and win”.
Mark Weiman, publisher
I have perused with interest and fascination Huang Shaozhen’s forthcoming book “Sound of Gold and Jade”. It presents English translations of a choice selection of the Chinese songbook in all its variegated aspects in a span of a century —of political to personal, juvenile to romantic, historic to contemporary. It’s one thing to read about a foreign country in the newspapers, or to visit it as a tourist. But to begin to understand the depth, subtlety and essential humanity of a foreign culture to be presented with the lyrics of a broad selection of its popular and folk music provides an emotional entrance into its soul, if you will, that can be had in no other way. I applaud his efforts to exercise “soft power” and bring to the English speaking world an important and hitherto underappreciated aspect of the vast and magical nation of China. I’m flattered and honoured to be part of his efforts.
Contents of In the Thrall of Some Greatest Musical Moments
100 Mandarin Hit Songs in a Century
金玉之声-百年汉语世界优秀歌曲巡礼100首(汉译英)
一、祖国颂 河山赞 patriotic songs
1. I Love My Home on the Rolling Deep我爱这蓝色的海洋 胡宝善 王传流作词 胡宝善作曲 1973年
2. Chorus: Defend the Yellow River黄河大合唱 保卫黄河 词:光未然 曲:冼星海 1937年
3. Song of Changjiang（Yangtze River） 长江之歌 词:胡宏伟 曲：王世光，纪录片《话说长江》的主题曲1984年
4. Hymn to Red Plum 红梅赞 （1964年，歌剧《江姐》主题歌）作词：阎肃、作曲：羊鸣、姜春阳、金砂
5. Land of Hope在希望的田野上 陈晓光词，施光南曲 1983年
6. I Love you, China我爱你，中国 作词 : 瞿琮 作曲 : 郑秋枫
7. The Same Song 同一首歌 作词:陈哲 作曲:孟卫东
8. We Sing of Our Motherland 歌唱祖国 词,曲：王莘
9. We Are Walking Down A Great Road 我们走在大路上 李劫夫作词、作曲1963年
10. Hymn to Spring春天的故事 蒋开儒、叶旭全作词，王佑贵谱曲
11. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau青藏高原 词曲:张千一 1994年电视剧《天路》片头曲
12. Heavenly Road天路 屈塬作词，印青作曲，韩红2005年演唱
13. Pearl of Orient东方之珠 词,曲：罗大佑 1997年
14. A Great and Wide River 一条大河波浪宽 乔羽词:刘炽曲 1959年电影《上甘岭》主题曲
15. Working Men of All Countries, Unite 全世界无产者联合起来 光未然词 瞿希贤曲 1964年
16. Sailing the Seas Depends on a Good Captain大海航行靠舵手 词：李郁文 曲：王双印 1964年
二、三大古典名著插曲 themes from movies adapted from three classical novels
1. As They Go the Unknown Ways敢问路在何方 电视剧《西游记》主题歌 词：阎肃 曲：许镜清
2. Into the Mists of Distant History 历史的天空 《三国演义》主题曲 词: 王建 曲:谷建芬
3. Song of Good Fellows 好汉歌 《水浒传》主题曲 词：易茗 曲:赵季平
4. A Mighty River Rolls Eastward滚滚长江东逝水 电视片《三国演义》片头曲 词：杨慎（明） 曲：谷建芬
5. Lovers Vain Labor枉凝眉 电视剧《红楼梦》主题曲 作词:曹雪芹 曲:王立平
6. Cunning Proves Its Own Undoing聪明累 电视剧《红楼梦》插曲 词:曹雪芹 作曲:王立平
三、思乡曲 Hymns to Home, Sweet Home
1. Cloud Emanating from My Native Place故乡的云 词：小轩 曲：谭健常 1984年
2. Oh, the Rolling Sea 大海啊,故乡 词，曲：王立平
3. Crescent Moon 弯弯的月亮 李海鹰词曲 1989年
4. Old Age Like Glory Setting Sun夕阳红 词：乔羽 曲：张沛基 央视《夕阳红》栏目主题曲
5. Moon at Mid-Autumn 十五的月亮 作词 : 石祥 作曲 : 铁源/徐锡宜
6, I live Upstream 我住长江头 【宋】李之仪 曲:青主
四．军旅战斗歌曲Military Songs
1. A Little Polar Tree一棵小白杨 词:梁上泉 曲:士心 1983年
2. I Sign Up for the Military我是一个兵 词：陆原、岳仑 曲：岳仑 1950年
3. A Navy Port at Night 军港的夜 词：马金星 曲: 刘诗召 1980年
4. Hymn To Heroes 英雄赞歌 - 张映哲 词：公木 曲：刘炽 1964年 电影《英雄儿女》主题曲
5. Wanquan River万泉河水清又清 词：吴祖强 曲：杜鸣心
6. Red Star Shines on me to Rush to Combat 红星照我去战斗 邬大为、魏宝贵词，傅庚辰曲 1973年 故事片《闪闪的红星》插曲
7. Flowers in May五月的鲜花 - 季小琴 词：光未然 曲：阎述诗 1935年
8. Doing Laundry For PLA Garrison Soldiers洗衣歌 李俊琛词，罗念一曲 作于1964年
9. Azaleas Ablaze映山红 邬大为、魏宝贵词，傅庚辰曲 1973年
10. Our Standard Remains Unfurled in the Sky血染的风采 作词 陈哲 作曲 苏越
11. Song of Partisans游击队之歌 贺绿汀词曲 1936年
五．青春之歌 Songs of Youth
1. Falling Stars Last Night 昨夜星辰 作词作曲：吴桓、张勇强、张勇强 1984年
2. Life Is So Sweet Like Sunshine So Bright 我们的生活充满阳光
故事片《甜蜜的事业》(1979) 主题歌 集 体词 吕远 唐河曲
3. Come and Have a Party年轻的朋友们 今天来相会 (1980) 张枚同作词，谷建芬作曲
4. Let’s Roll and Float in Our Little Boat 让我们荡起双桨 乔羽词，刘炽曲 1956年
5. Farewell 送别 李叔同1915年填词 曲：John Ordway 1983年电影《城南旧事》主题曲
6. Friends Are a Sure Boon of Life好人一生平安 词:易茗 曲: 雷蕾 1990年电视剧《渴望》片头曲
7. I Ain’t Seen Anything Like You 涛声依旧 词曲：陈小奇 1993年
8. An Unforgettable Evening 难忘今宵 难忘今宵 乔羽词 王銘曲
9. Amid the Cheering Uproar掌声响起来 陈桂芬作词、陈进兴作曲
10. A Fatal Glance 传奇 作词:刘兵 作曲:李健
六．港台风 Hit Songs from Hongkong and Taiwan
1. You Don’t Know What’s Amiss Between Us其实你不懂我的心 词：陈桂珠 曲：童安格
2. By the Riverside 在水一方 填 词 琼瑶 谱 曲 林家庆 1970年
3. A Banyan Tree路边一棵榕树下 填词：慎芝（台湾） 曲：远藤实(日本)
4. Waves’ Surging浪奔浪流 电视片上海滩 主题曲 作曲：顾嘉辉 作词：黄沾 1979年
5. Lonely Lovers 千言万语 尔英词 古月曲
6. The Moon Represents My Heart 月亮代表我的心 孫儀作詞、翁清溪作曲 1973年
7. Never Say Fail but Onward Conquer爱拼才会赢 词曲：陈百潭
8. Jasmine at Night夜来香 词曲： 黎锦晖 1934年
9. Childhood 童年 罗大佑词曲
10. Orchid Gifted by A Friend of Mine兰花草 词：胡适 曲：陈贤德 张弼
11. Penghu Bay 外婆的澎湖湾 词曲：叶佳修
12. Olive Tree 橄榄树 三毛词
13. Empty Bottles for Sale(jiu gan tang mai wu)酒干倘卖无 罗大佑、侯德健作词，侯德健作曲 1984年
14. Cooking Smoke Arises又见炊烟 编自日本民谣《里の秋》（故乡之秋）1978年庄奴填词,邓丽君演唱
15. Let Me Take Possession of You我只在乎你 填词 慎芝 谱曲 三木刚 编曲 川口真 1986年
16. Plum Blossom一剪梅 词：娃娃 曲：陈信义1984年台湾电视剧《一剪梅》片头曲
17. The Eternal One Who Chases a Dream 追梦人 词.曲：罗大佑
18. Like a Fairy tale 美丽的神话 王中言词 崔浚荣曲
19. Like the Foam’s Hand恰似你的温柔 梁弘志作词作曲，何国杰编曲，台湾歌手蔡琴于1980年首唱
20. When Will You Return, sir? 何日君再来词：贝林 曲：刘雪庵
七．民歌风 Folk songs
1. What a lovely jasmine flower 好一朵美丽的茉莉花（江苏民歌）
2. So Sweet甜蜜蜜曲 谱取自印度尼西亚民谣，庄奴填词
3. A Lovely Town 小城故事 曲：翁清溪 词：庄奴
4. My Cave Dwelling 黄土高坡 词：陈哲 曲：苏越 1988年
5. Why are flowers so red? 花儿为什么这样红? 雷振邦词曲
6. Wild Geese Flying South 雁南飞 1979年电影《归心似箭》插曲，李俊词，李伟才曲
7. Ladies in Ali Mount阿里山的姑娘 电影《阿里山风云》主题歌 邓禹平填词，张彻谱曲 1949年
8.Night On the Grassland 草原之夜 田歌谱曲、张加毅填词 1959年纪录片《绿色的原野》插曲
9.Beauteous Cloud Chasing the Moon 彩云追月 粤语民歌
10.Nature Woos All those Bewitched in Love万水千山总是情 粤语歌曲 邓伟雄作词，顾嘉辉作曲 1982
11.Let’s Get Back Home 让我们回去吧 吉狄马加歌词 奥格阿杰曲
12.Song of the Yi 彝人之歌 吉狄马加词 吉克曲布曲
13.A Heavy Date敖包相会 词 玛拉沁夫、海默 曲 通福 1953年《草原上的人们》主题曲
14.On the Eastern Mountain-top在那东山顶上 歌词改编自六世达赖仓央嘉措情诗，张千一作曲
15.Dingdong n’ Dingdong 泉水叮咚响 词:马金星 曲:吕远 1978 年
16.Merciful Heavens 要是老天爷有人情 陕北民歌（走西口）
八．中国西北花儿 Folk songs from northwest of China
1.Flowering Lasses and Lads花儿与少年 朱仲禄填词 作曲吕冰
2. Straight From the Bottom of My Heart花儿本是心上的话 张朵儿改编
3.Huaer Song as Magical Pill花儿的百病们散了 张朵儿改编
4. Say it Out, No Easy.心里有话口难开 张朵儿改编
5.My Love ,You Have Pulled My Heart 你把尕妹的心拉热 张朵儿改编
九．刘三姐歌谣 Liu Sanjie:folk songs from the Zhuang in Guangxi
(选自同名彩调剧，词作者：曾昭文 龚邦榕 邓凡平 牛秀 黄勇刹 包玉堂 以及同名电影 词作者：乔羽）
1. Songs Flow like River Waters山歌好比春江水
2. I’ll Treat You to My Songs多谢了
3. Goddess Of Singing好歌才
4. So Enchanting Songs Prove唱歌好
5. Two Riddle Verses了了罗（盘歌）
6. Undying Songs千年万代不断歌
7. Mecca for Singing三姐歌声传四方
8. Bayan Trees对歌合唱：藤缠树
9. Tea Picking Song采茶歌
10. Sing with me, the hills will respond隔山唱歌山答应