![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steppenwolf小人物
A note on the type
This is maybe (probably) (absolutely) a more obscure reference and you deserve a prize for your orienteering if you recognised Leslie Cheung's 1986 self-titled album, also known as 當年情. A strange majority of Chinese albums, at least the older more well-known ones, seem to be exclusively limited to a close up of the singer's face, so I was trying to find a more interesting one to do something with. Sadly I saw this one too late.The title is taken from one of the songs and can be translated to literally 'little people', otherwise to someone unimportant – it can be used disparagingly, but in this context (both the song and Cherry) it refers more to an ordinary person.
My mandarin is how you say not the best so mea culpa if I myself make any mistakes. I will take comfort in the fact that 99% of the people reading this won't notice…. devious laughter
background noise
Ireny and I were trying to put together a playlist for our Chinese sniper, but did you know that a ton of Chinese songs are either love songs or sad songs? & you know who was in love and also v sad? That's right, mboy. So I moved 朋友 over from the original playlist and raided my low stock of mandopop and cantopop for the rest.
No particular order for this one either!
thank you for the music
I've never cared that I wasn't someone important because being ordinary is also a kind of happiness
lyrics4translate
This is a Very Singaporean Chinese Song to the point that in our weird brand of multiculturalism each "race" has a designated song that's played at national day and this is the Chinese one. We sure are a society :crylaugh: I do love the song though!!!
I took the title from this because it feels exceedingly Cherry, that Adaptable Helper, and how he's just an ordinary person – some might say Leetle Guy – who's trying his best. Like, that's what we like the most about Cherry, right? At least that's what I like the most about him; that he was so young and thrown into such an awful situation and, yes, came out awfully wrecked, but true to himself and his friends nevertheless. You've got to stick it [car horn, me blubbering]
He never intended on becoming a main character, and it felt at least to me that he was happiest doing just his bit: 也许我自己 不能发出万丈光和亮 但我能为斗室带来足够的光芒, maybe I can't be shining brightly, but I can bring enough light for a small room. He says repeatedly that happiness was lollygagging at base and ahhh god they shoulda just stayed there… they shoulda just stayed there!! 平凡日子一样会充实, ordinary days will have just as plenty… listen to 陈伟联 please lads………….
幸福和快乐是结局
You must believe believe that we will be like a fairy tale
Where happiness is the ending
lyrics
I'm realising that half of the songs on this playlist are by Singaporean/Malaysian singers and may not be as famous as they are to me which – too bad! You're here! Anyway this is a song that every Singaporean Chinese person knows, as evinced by my mum and her friends singing it at a birthday party karaoke just last night. This one is maybe the most tenuous / indirectly related and I thought for an embarrassingly long time before including it but my rationale is: is Birdie ghost talking to Cherry. Birdie ghost because 你哭着对我说 童话里都是骗人的，crying, you tell me that fairy tales are lies, so this is like. When Cherry is left alone… there is no happy ending… and yet 我要变成童话里 你爱的那个天使 / 张开双手 变成翅膀守护你, he wants to turn into the angels in fairy tales that [Cherry] loves, extend his arms and turn them into wings to protect [Cherry].
Specifically, in the last chorus the last line (about happiness being the ending) is repeated but tweaked: 一起写我们的结局, writing our ending together. Worst Journey is Cherry writing their ending and giving Birdie and others the memory he thinks they deserve… I really just wanted this song for the last line man
飞不进妳的世界 也温暖不了妳的视线
我已经看见 一出悲剧正上演
剧终没有喜悦 我仍然躲在你的梦里面
I can't fly into your world, nor can I warm your sight
I have already seen a tragedy being staged
When it ends there is no joy. I still hide in your dreams
(I've left the HK singers' names in traditional Chinese, but the lyrics in simplified so I can read..)
lyrics
吻别 means kiss, in this case goodbye kiss. I swapped this out with 祝福 at the last minute because this is more tragic than that, there being less of a recourse or a we'll-meet-again kind of idea, which I think would probably be closer to Cherry's state of mind in the immediate aftermath. It's also got some lovely winter/snow imagery: 我的世界开始下雪 冷得让我无法多爱一天 / 冷得连隐藏的遗憾都那么的明显, it's starting to snow in my world, so cold that I can't love another day / so cold that even hidden regrets are that much more obvious.
Just the whole sense of having had something he can never have again man…我和妳吻别在狂乱的夜 我的心等著迎接伤悲, I kiss you goodbye during this [I don't really know how to translate 乱, it's like… messy, all over the place] night, my heart waits to welcome sorrow. Yeah it sure does
没有一盏灯 没有一个等待的人 只有夜色依旧如从前
After how many years only I'm still at the window, the cold dark night by my side
No light, no one waiting, only the night is still the same as before
lyrics
Weirdly, this song has the exact same tune as one of my Leslie Cheung faves and I think the more famous of the two, 沉默是金. Not a clue why! Anyway, the lyrics here are uhhhh pretty bad lads. The POV gets a little reversed because the speaker is the one on the journey but it could also be taken possibly as him looking for the party?? 是否还依然 在门前挂一盏小灯 / 牵引我回到你身边, do you still hang a small lamp at the door to lead me back to you. Big opening of Worst Journey Graphic Novel (hehehh, BUY IT HERE) too when Cherry's dreaming about being able to rescue them – 明明是一场空在梦里浮沉 / 不敢问当年是假是真, clearly it's an empty field floating in a dream / I don't dare ask whether it was true or false.
I guess this and the one above are the real downers of this playlist, in that there's no real sense of hope (only the night is the same as before). BUT DON'T WORRY WE'RE RETURNING TO HAPPIER DAYS
[This is hard to translate exactly… it's like an exhortation that all right. let the wind blow. let the sad things come. laugh, then.]
lyrics
Every year at mid-autumn festival my family eats mooncakes and has tea and plays this 费玉清 album. I don't know why because the album is actually sad as fuck, about leaving and losing love and remembering lost love. Very Cherry-core; I think it could easily have been single artist single album with this.
This isn't a super happy song, but I don't think it's outright sad either. It's more… wistful, I guess? The speaker is standing on the horizon of memories and time, looking back at the sadness of how empty things are, lost dreams, not willing to let go. This line in the context of his search for the party kills me: 再回头才知早已无处可寻, only on looking back do I realise that I was already nowhere to be found. BAD, RIGHT?
But I like the ambiguity of this song: he asks 那些不曾忘记的歌 是否还在谁的心里轻轻地哼, are those unforgettable songs still quietly humming in someone's heart? It's never an outright castigation of himself or a complete loss. So there's pain – let's laugh anyway.
像那年看日出
你牵着我穿过了雾
叫我看希望就在黑夜的尽处
After the rain, there is a road
Like that year when we watched the sunrise
You held me through the fog
Told me to see how hope was beyond the end of the night
lyrics
A winter journey song. For obvious reasons. Man… like, this whole song is about walking through the rain. (If this is similar to another English song I do not see it.) And not just that, but being able to do it because of someone else bringing you through – 路上有我追着你的脚步, the road shows my footsteps following you(rs). The 'guide' told the speaker once that after the rain is a
There's a bit of stuff about the 'guide' – obviously Bill & Birdie in this context – leaving, too, how 想一个人闪著泪光是一种幸福, it's a kind of happiness to think of a person with tears in your eyes. When they send him off (or leave him, here) 满天燕子都在飞舞， the sky of swallows is dancing in the air. And although he's alone, he's not really – 在心中你陪我看每一个日出, in his heart they're with him watching every sunrise.
Ah fuck I watched the music video for this song when I was like 9 I didn't expect to get emotionally bodied by it years later. It's actually meant to be a sweet song
终有梦 终有你 在心中
Only when you have loved truly then you will understand that there will be loneliness, we will look back
But in the end [I] will have a dream, have you in my heart
lyrics
Ah the song that started it all off… also a very well-known, lends itself to karaoke song (TWICE last night for me mum). 朋友 means friends and Worst Journey is just Cherry and his friends, isn't it?
This is the anchor song, and if there's one song I'd suggest you read the full translation of it would be this. (If you scroll down to the second, private youtube video on this page that's a fairly decent full translation. NOt the first one lmao) Again I feel like it's beautifully lyrical in a way that's difficult to translate but I hope you will hear some of it from the music!
For maximum effect, imagine ghost Birdie telling this to Cherry:
朋友不曾孤单过
一声朋友你会懂
还有伤还有痛
还要走还有我
Friends are never alone
A lifelong friend, you'll understand
There's still pain, there's still hurt
There's still the road ahead, there's still me
几时才问的明白 这结局谁在安排
Actually, I don't want to leave only I feel too hopeless
How long must I ask until I understand? Who arranged this ending?
lyrics
Weirdly, probably intentionally, the first and last songs of this album are nearly the same (the titles are inverted) – I actually prefer the last song with the piano, but only this first one has the full lyric. It's largely about someone reflecting on a painful past that rushes back into him with difficulty – 回头路一片沧海， the road back is a deep sea, and things are hard to let go of.
But it also does that melancholia thing that I love very well, because they aren't always tragic and despairing – there's always something else. The speaker does come back, even after years. He left but also remembers when he decided to stay behind. And both (I think 也 here may be a bit ambiguous, whether it only refers to the staying behind or both leaving/staying, but both makes sense to me & is sad) 也是为了无怨 为了无悔 为了爱 – for lack of complaint, for lack of regret, for love. This line rolls off beautifully in Chinese in the song (~2:20) and I wish I could explain it better!
On parting: Chinese songs do the sad-but-not-sad parting so well. Actually now that I'm thinking about it a lot of Chinese stories are about, like, the parting and potential return, huh? I feel like that's the entirety of this 费玉清 album. It makes me so morose man.. even if is sad there's still something to take from it… there were the happy memories. Sorry both my Cherry playlists lean on this theme so hard I JUST WANT HIS SUFFERING TO HAVE MEANT SOMETHING!!!!
All american rejects
祝福 – I actually just swapped this out for 吻别 while typing this haha I'm so random I can't believe I did that! I think bc 吻别 talks more about the snow it felt more fitting… but you can see a fairly good translation of 祝福 here
孤单北半球 – I also watched the music video on the same DVD as 陪我看日出 (it was a compilation album that gave me most of my mandopop taste) but spotify doesn't have the version I'm looking for, and none of the others are very good. It's about people missing each other. But the missing is death :crylaugh: This is the version I remember (2000s animation and all).
上海灘 – the lyrics of this song fit thematically, but it is Just Too Famous to be here. It's also wayyy too dramatique.
夕陽之歌 – I think this was ultimately too sad and also not Cherry's brand of sad, I just wanted to share it here because Anita Mui's final performance, and the end of it, makes me cry every time.
two - morning || two - will you join the dance?
three - crevasse || three - we die, but we don't
four - ...antics || four - unknown continents || four - going to the match || four - in that final flowing cold
five - dead and gone
