Guest Post: 牛仔很忙 (Niuzai Hen Mang) by 周杰倫 (Zhou Jie Lun/Jay Chou)
March 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm (***** Damn near impossible, Chinese lyrics, Guest Posts, Male Singers, Pinyin lyrics, Taiwanese) (Jay Chou, Zhou Jie Lun, 周杰倫)
Another guest post by Anna, with apologies to her for taking so long to get this up. I’ll be using this post to learn the song myself, as I see it as the Mt. Everest of Chinese songs and am determined to conquer it someday. In line with that, I’ve added a new level of difficulty: “Damn near impossible.” Here’s Anna’s advice on how to master this song:
Jay Chou never smiles, but this song (and its music video) shows that he does have a sense of humor. At first I didn’t believe it was even possible to sing this song in karaoke, but then I heard a friend of a friend sing it, and thought: if he can do it, then I can learn it too; I’ll be the first foreigner to master this song, and much admiration will be my part. But by the time I did master it, it didn’t seem such an amazing feat anymore.
The key here is knowing the song by heart. There’s no time to read the characters as they appear on the screen, the speed is just too high, you have to know what’s coming before Jay sings it. The other key is to pronounce only half of most of the words, just slur everything together like Jay does, otherwise there’s just no way you can sing fast enough.
There’s one line of Taiwanese in it, I’ll romanize it in POJ. And there’s a Taiwanese accent: Jay pronounces 日記 riji with an L, producing something like lh-ji.
And here’s the video. Watch the instrumental part in the middle: I’ve worn exactly such a dress. Twice in my life. On fairs held in Taipei to promote Dutch education and Dutch flowers, respectively. On these occasions, I borrowed a dress from the Dutch representative office, and I suspect that’s where the costume designer of this video got them, too.
嗚啦啦啦火車笛
Wu la la la huoche di
隨著奔騰的馬蹄
Suizhe benteng de madi
小妹妹吹著口琴
Xiao meimei chui zhe kouqin
夕陽下美了剪影
Xiyang xia mei le jian ying
我用子彈寫日記
Wo yong zidan xie riji
介紹完了風景
Jieshao wan le fengjing
接下來換介紹我自己
Jie xia lai huan jieshao wo ziji
我雖然是個牛仔
Wo suiran shi ge niuzai
在酒吧只點牛奶
Zai jiuba zhi dian niunai
為什麼不喝啤酒
Weishenme bu he pijiu
因為啤酒傷身體
Yinwei pijiu shang shenti
很多人不長眼睛
Hen duo ren bu zhang yanjing
囂張都靠武器
Xiaozhang dou kao wuqi
赤手空拳就縮成螞蟻
Chi shou kong quan jiu suo cheng mayi
Chorus
不用麻煩了 不用麻煩了
Bu yong mafan le bu yong mafan le不用麻煩不用麻煩了 不用麻煩了
Bu yong mafan bu yong mafan le bu yong mafan le你們一起上
Nimen yiqi shang我在趕時間
Wo zai gan shijian每天決鬥觀眾都累了
Meitian juedou guanzhong dou lei le英雄也累了
Yingxiong ye lei le不用麻煩了 不用麻煩了
Bu yong mafan le bu yong mafan le副歌不長你們有幾個
Fu ge bu chang nimen you ji ge一起上好了
Yiqi shang hao le正義呼喚我
Zhengyi huhuan wo美女需要我
Meinü xuyao wo牛仔很忙的
Niuzai hen mang de(心愛ㄟ 妳走去叨位 我那ㄟ攏沒看到妳)
(Sim-ai-e, chau-khi to-ui, goa na-e long be khoann-kau li)
我啦啦啦騎毛驢
Wo la la la qi maolü
因為馬跨不上去
Yinwei ma kua bu shang qu
洗澡都洗泡泡浴
Xizao dou xi pao pao yu
因為可以玩玩具
Yinwei keyi wan wanju
我有顆善良的心
Wo you ke shanliang de xin
都只穿假牛皮
Dou zhi chuan jia niupi
喔跌倒時盡量不壓草皮
O diedao shi jinliang bu ta caopi
槍口它沒長眼睛
Qiangkou ta mei zhang yanjing
我曾經答應上帝
Wo cengjing daying shangdi
除非是萬不得已
Chufei shi wan bu de yi
我盡量射橡皮筋
Wo jinliang she xiangpi jin
老闆先來杯奶昔
Laoban xian lai bei naixi
要逃命前請你
Yao taoming qian qing ni
順便餵餵我那隻小毛驢
Shunbian weiwei wo na zhi xiao maolü
Repeat chorus 2x
Lyrics at KKBOX: http://www.kkbox.com.tw/funky/web_info/F6Pl13j7VVUKWOw00OEA008l.html#1
Jay Chou’s Record Company, JVR Music: http://www.jvrmusic.com/
改變自己 (Gai Bian Zi Ji) by 王力宏 (Wang Leehom)
April 5, 2008 at 12:11 am (** Medium, Chinese lyrics, Japanese, Male Singers, Pinyin lyrics, Taiwanese) (王力宏, Wang Leehom)
Wang Leehom is, with Jay Chou, one of the first singers I began to listen to when I arrived in Taiwan. It would have been impossible to miss him, with his face plastered on billboard advertisements, on commercials (one of my favorites being the 黃綠紅 commercials for McDonald’s, his name being a play on words with the yellow, green, and red dipping sauces for McNuggets), and in the video for his song “Kiss Goodbye,” which played nonstop on MTV that year.
In 2007, he released his latest album, 改變自己 – Change Me, which contains this title track. It has been on my iPod since the day after I heard it, and both the message and the energetic beat make great morning music. Plus, the video is, well, incredibly cute. Enjoy!
* Notes: (1) The term kuso in the song is borrowed from Japanese, and my own translation would be: so bad, it’s good. The Back Dorm Boys are a good example of this. And yes. I love those guys. (2) This song also contains Taiwanese pronunciation – the characters 龜毛, while pronounced gui mao in Mandarin, are pronounced ku mo in Taiwanese. Although Taiwanese folks seem to generally use the Mandarin pronunciation, this term (meaning high-maintenance or nitpicky) is said to have originated in Taiwanese. The history of the term is debatable.
Intro
很久沒 很久沒
hen jiu mei hen jiu mei
不如用 唱歌好了
bu ru yong chang ge hao le
我很久沒 聽見那
wo hen jiu mei ting jian na
又新鮮 又熟悉 的聲音
you xin xian you shu xi de sheng yin
請準備 改變 自己 ~ yeah ~ yeah …
qing zhun bei gai bian zi ji ~ yeah ~ yeah …
我回來了
wo hui lai le
+++
今早起床了 看鏡子裡的我
jin zao qi chuang le kan jing zi li de wo
忽然發現我髮型睡的有點KUSO
hu ran fa xian wo fa xing shui de you dian KUSO
一點點改變 有很大的差別
yi dian dian gai bian you hen da de cha bie
你我的力量也能改變世界
ni wo de li liang ye neng gai bian shi jie
最近比較煩 最近情緒很DOWN
zui jin bi jiao fan zui jin qing xu hen DOWN
每天看新聞都會很想大聲尖叫
mei tian kan xin wen dou hui hen xiang da sheng jian jiao
但髒話沒用 大家只會嫌兇
dan zang hua mei yong da jia zhi hui xian xiong
我改變自己發現大有不同
wo gai bian zi ji fa xian da you bu tong
新一代的朋友我們 好好的加油
xin yi dai de peng you women hao hao di jia you
大家一起大聲的說 Na Na Na Na Na~
da jia yi qi da sheng de shuo Na Na Na Na Na~
(Chorus)
我可以改變世界 改變自己
wo ke yi gai bian shi jie gai bian zi ji改變龜毛 改變小氣
gai bian ku mo gai bian xiao qi要一直 努力努力 永不放棄
yao yi zhi nu li nu li yong bu fang qi
才可以 改變世界 C’mon 改變自己
cai ke yi gai bian shi jie C’mon gai bian zi ji
今早起床了 覺得頭有點痛
jin zao qi chuang le jue de tou you dian tong
可能是二氧化碳太多 氧氣不夠
ke neng shi er yang hua tan tai duo yang qi bu gou
一點點改變 有很大的差別
yi dian dian gai bian you dian da de cha bie
你我的熱情也能改變世界
ni wo de re qing ye neng gai bian shi jie
只能代表自己 沒有政治立場
zhi neng dai biao zi ji mei you zheng zhi li chang
即使這世界讓我看得十分緊張
ji shi zhe shi jie rang wo kan de shi fen jin zhang
要調整自己
yao tiao zheng zi ji
恩~
en~
沒想到一點就能 畫龍點睛
mei xiang dao yi dian jiu neng hua long dian jing
新一代的朋友我們 好好的加油
xin yi dai de peng you wo men hao hao di jia you
大家一起大聲的說 Na Na Na Na Na~
da jia yi qi da sheng de shuo Na Na Na Na Na~
(Repeat chorus 2x)
Lyrics at KKBOX: http://www.kkbox.com.tw/funky/web_info/0QdEKoJ6m0tsiha00MG7008l.html
Wang Leehom’s Official Site: http://www.wangleehom.com/