Born in Taiwan in 1951, Tracy Huang (黄露仪- Huang Lu Yu), also known as Huáng Yīng Yīng (黄莺莺) to Taiwanese, is well known for singing both Mandarin and English songs. She started singing with pop bands in Taiwan at a young age, which included singing at an exclusive American club which partly explains her ability to sing English songs so well. It was her move to Singapore that saw her singing career taking off. Her English songs, mostly pop songs of the 70s and 80s, like Abba songs, earned her many Chinese fans in the region who do not speak or understand Mandarin.
Among her Mandarin songs, Autumn Wind(秋 风) is probably Tracy Huang’s most famous song, sung in 1978. This beautiful love song starts with the clear and melodious sound of a flute which sounds quite like the whistling sound of autumn winds and the first line of the lyrics aptly describes the blowing of the autumn wind. The song lyrics express sadness over an unfulfilled love. Tracy sang this song very well; her voice just perfect in this song, very clear, sad and haunting. The music is also beautiful. A truly beautiful love song, even though a sad song.
While Tracy Huang may be popularly known for singing the original Mandarin version of this song, I understand that this song is originally a Khmer film song “Goodbye Phnom-Penh” (lear heuy reachthearny/ goodbye capital), sung by Chhun Vanna in 1963. A video of the Khmer song is at end of this post. For those old times, her voice is very nice.
Chhun Vanna was once popular Cambodian singer who was imprisoned and tortured during the Khmer Rouge rule due to her known status as a singer, an obvious target of the communist purge that led to the terrible era of the “Killing Fields” in which the Khmer communist regime killed more than a million of their own people. During that time, she lost her husband and five of her children. Fortunately, she was able to survive and later fled to Thailand (refugee camp) before finally settling down in the US.
Lyrics, Pinyin lyrics and English translation:
秋风 (黄露仪)
Qiu feng
Autumn Wind
Lyrics: Xu Qiang (许强)
秋風吹起落葉飄
qiu feng chui qi luo ye piao
The autumn winds blow up the fallen leaves which drift along
徬惶的我
Pang huang de woa
I’m feeling anxious and uncertain
徘徊在十字街口上
Pai huay cai ze zhe chie ko sang
I wonder along the the street
是對是錯 我不知道
shi dui shi cuo wo bu zhi dao
I do not know if it is right or wrong
我的命運 它是否在作弄我
I wonder if my destiny is teasing me
wo de ming yun ta shi fou zai zuo nong wo
藍色的海洋不平靜
lan se de hai yang bu ping jing
The blue ocean is not calm
我的心情 也像海浪一樣 動亂
wo de xin qing ye xiang hai lang yi yang dong luan
Like the ocean waves, my heart is in turbulence
是愛是恨 我不知道
shi ai shi hen wo bu zhi dao
I do not know whether it is love or hate
過去的事 真是叫我忘不了
guo qu de shi zhen shi jiao wo wang bu liao
I just cannot forget the sad affairs of the past
來 來....
Lai, Lai….
Come, come....
回來吧 甜蜜的愛
hui lai ba tian mi de ai
Come back, my sweet love
夕阳西下
xi yang xi xia
Like the setting sun in the west
断肠人 你为何在天涯
duan chang ren ni wei he zai tian ya
Why do heartbreaks exist in this world
藍色的海洋不平靜
lan se de hai yang bu ping jing
The blue ocean is not calm
我的心情 也像海浪一樣 動亂
wo de xin qing ye xiang hai lang yi yang dong luan
Like the ocean waves, my heart is in turbulence
是愛是恨 我不知道
shi ai shi hen wo bu zhi dao
I do not know whether it is love or hate
過去的事 真是叫我忘不了
guo qu de shi zhen shi jiao wo wang bu liao
I just cannot forget the sad affairs of the past
Translated by sam pan
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
Khmer version - Chhun Vanna (1963)
លាហើយរាជធានី - Lea Heuy Reach Theany (Goodbye Phnom-Penh)
0 comments:
Post a Comment