Hello/We Are Happy
Country: Uganda
Lyrics:
We are happy, we are happy on this day.
Ni hao to Lily, hello hello
We are happy, we are happy on this day.
("Ni hao" is hello in Mandarin.)
More info: Wait, Uganda isn’t in Asia! We sing this Ugandan "hello" song every season. The Abayudya of Uganda are a small community of about 500 Luganda-speaking Bagandans who have been practicing Judaism for over 80 years. Abayudaya community members Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his brother JJ Keki wrote these two welcome songs that are combined here into one.
The Abayudaya have recorded four CDs of African-Jewish music, including
Shalom Everybody Everywhere and Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda.
Achim Baram
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Lyrics:
Sei sei sei
Outside in the cold morning wind
Seagulls stand on top of a rock
Teacher, how I you wish you were here!
Put a postcard into the mail
Scissors cut the postcard in half
Goori goori goori goori gawee bawee bo
Achim baram chan baram ae
Seagulls stand on top of a rock
Teacher, how I you wish you were here!
Put a postcard into the mail
Scissors cut the postcard in half
Goori goori goori goori gawee bawee bo
More info:
The hand motions that accompany this Korean kids' song are very much like rock/paper/scissors. Thanks to Patricia Sheham Campbell, Ellen McCullough-Brabson and Judith Cook Tucker for making this song part of their book, "Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children."
Ashibinaa
Country: Japan
Language: Okinawan
Lyrics:
At night we come in from the fields
Our hearts are beating loud as drums
Everybody's going to the ashibinaa now
We will dance and drum until the morning comes
Di wattaa shimauta
sanshin dikirachi
moorana tunugana
Let's jump!
Di wattaa!! Can't hear ya!
Di wattaa!! Much louder!
Di wattaa!! That's better!!
More info:
This song accompanies a bon odori dance from Okinawa: check it out!.
Bon odori is a Japanese folk dance most often performed outside and danced in concentric circles around a raised wooden platform called a yagura, where taiko drummers may keep the beat. The dance developed several hundred years ago from a Buddhist chant to welcome the spirits of the ancestors, and has long been a staple of Obon, a Japanese summertime festival which is a period for Japanese to appreciate their ancestors by returning to their hometowns and "visiting with" the spirits of those who have passed. Obon is sometimes called the Lantern Festival; at its beginning Japanese light chochin lanterns to guide the ancestors' spirits from their graves to the family home (a tradition called mukae-bon) and at the end, in okuri-bon, family members use lanterns to lead the spirits back.
I've seen online that “ashibinaa” either means “let's play” or refers to “a place of amity where people of all ages gather and exchange.”
Chit Tae Shan Yoe Ma
Country: Myanmar/Burma
Language: Burmese
Lyrics:
Chit tae, chit tae, Shan yoe ma
Chit tae, chit tae, Shan yoe ma
Seeing the mountains where I was born
I can't tell you how much I love
The Shan dance styles, the Shan drum sounds
I know I can never go back to my far away home
Chit tae, chit tae, Shan yoe ma
Chit tae, chit tae, Shan yoe ma
Back in my hometown with my best friends
Those were the times I adored
We ate sticky rice, we ate soy beans
I know I can never go back to my far away home
More info:
This is a popular Myanmar/Burmese pop song by Sai Htee Saing, who is one of the best known musicians in Burmese history. Saing started his career by defying the ruling dictatorship and ended it kowtowing to the military junta, even singing songs written by the propaganda minister, though his early material is still well-loved in Myanmar. He is from the Shan ethnic group but sang mainly in Burmese. This is a song about missing his Shan homeland. The Shan ethnic group feels jilted by the government because of an abandoned promise of independence. Songs by Shan singers, especially those sung in Burmes, therefore always have a tinge of politics woven into them.
Many thanks to Jason Carbine for providing a translation and Amporn Jirattikorn for sharing her research about Sai Htee Saing.
Check out this live performance on YouTube. Saing passed away not long ago but many of his songs are still famous throughout Myanmar.
Gili Gio
Country: Indonesia
Language: Lio
Lyrics:
Gili gio kee-tah gili gi
Thankful for the harvest, thankful for the sky
Thankful for the rice and thankful for our lives
Gili gio kee-tah gili gi
Gili gio kee-tah gili gi
Thankful for the harvest, thankful for the sky
Thankful for the rice and thankful for our lives
Sea sidu seda sahee dulah gayah
Sea sidu seda sahee dulah gayah
Now all the rice is clean, before we start to eat
Now all the rice is clean, before we start to eat
We're thankful for the harvest, thankful for the sky
Thankful for the rice and thankful for our lives
More info:
A drumming song from Maraloko on the island of Flores in Indonesia. This is actually two songs mashed into one -- "Gili Gio" and "Seu Sidu Seda". Many thanks to Francis Corpataux and his extraordinary collections of children's songs from around the world for introducing me to these and so many other great songs. (This one appears on "Les Chants Des Enfants Du Monde vol. 4" which features children's songs from Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.) Learn more about Corpataux and his wonderful work by watching this short YouTube video.
Hai Hoa
Country: Vietnam
Language: Vietnamese
Lyrics:
My friend my friend the flower time has come
You have to pick the flowers pick them one by one
Pick them one by one, 'til flower time is done
A ring ting ting ting ting, a ring ting ting ting ting
My friend my friend, the butterfly is here
The butterfly is here to bring the flowers love
To bring the flowers love, to bring the flowers love
A ring ting ting ting ting, a ring ting ting ting ting
Hai hoa, hai hoa, my friend my friend
We sing the flower song and then we sing again
'til every flower's gone, 'til every flower's gone.
A ring ting ting ting ting, a ring ting ting ting ting
More info:
Check out Tran Quang Hai's quite exciting version of this traditional Vietnamese folk song, performed on the coin clappers.
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I Am Looking for a Friend
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Lyrics:
Zhao a zhao a zhao peng you,
Zhao dao yi ge hao peng you,
I am looking for a friend
There you are you'll be my friend
Let's salute and then shake hands
Zhai jian!
More info:
A well-known, oft-sung kids song from China. Take a look at this page about Chinese Children's Songs and Singing Games to hear pronunciations of the Mandarin lyrics and see a video of children enjoying the song.
I Look Up When I Walk
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Lyrics:
Ue o muite arukoo
I look up when I walk
So my tears won't fall
Because tonight, I'm all alone
Hitoribotchi no yoru
Ue o muite arukoo
I look up when I walk
So my tears won't fall
I remember carefree spring days
Hitoribotchi no yoru
I am truly so happy inside
But everyone feels sad sometimes
More info:
A famous song, both in Japan and in the United States in the early '60s; it was the first, and maybe only, Japanese language song to top the American pop charts. It's quite a sad song, especially when you know of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the demise of its singer, Kyu Sakamoto.
When this song became popular in the U.S. the record company releasing it didn't call it by its original title, but instead labeled it “Sukiyaki,” which was the only Japanese word most people in the U.S. knew. There's nothing about sukiyaki in the song.
Thanks to Jessica Arntson, mom of music class student Milo, for help with suggesting and translating this song.
check it out
I'm Shy
Country: Malaysia
Language: Mon-Khmer
Lyrics:
Hey-ey eh eh ey eh eh ey ah
I love the woman in the market
I love the woman in the market
I love the woman in the market
But I'm shy, I'm shy, I'm shy
I love the woman who is dancing
I love the woman who is dancing
I love the woman who is dancing
But I'm shy, I'm shy, I'm shy
If I could talk with one or with the other...
If I could talk with one or with the other...
If I could talk with one or with the other...
But I'm shy, I'm shy, I'm shy
Maybe I will talk with them tomorrow
Maybe I will talk with them tomorrow
Maybe I will talk with them tomorrow
'Cause I'm shy, I'm shy, I'm shy
More info:
A rather obscure Malaysian/Teminar folk song found on a Smithsonian Folkways recording called, “Dream Songs and Healing Sounds in the Rainforests of Malaysia”. The story in the original is about a man who has fallen in love with two women, a local woman who he sees dancing and a visiting ethnographer. Any rhythmic similarity to Queen's "We Will Rock You" is coincidental...probably.
Jocelynang Baliwag
Country: the Philippines
Language: originally Tagalog
Lyrics:
Sweetest darling who I love, purest flower of delight
You have been the only one to give me hope in the dark of night
In the morning I adore you, all day long my heart beats for you
Oh my darling who I love won't you love me too?
Sweetest darling who I love, won't you ever love me
I will never leave you dear, darling please believe me
for I've waited oh so long just to have you for my own
Oh my darling I love you one day you'll love me too
More info::
“Jocelynang Baliwag” is the Philippines' most famous “kundiman,” which is a Spanish colonial-era romantic folk song. This song is from the late 19th century and was popular during the era of the Philippine independence movement. On the surface it's a love song but in reality everyone understood the object of the songwriter's longing to be the nation of the Philippines.
Listen to this lovely recording. (The music starts 40 seconds in.)
Many thanks to Jack, Johnny, Inez and Christina for the Tagalog translation help.
Kappa Boogie Woogie
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Lyrics:
Kappa Odori wa boogie woogie
There's a kappa, see it dancing?
Dancing in the sunlight then it goes for a swim
Jump into the water, let's all go in
Pacha pacha pacha pacha splashing all around
Kappa boogie woogie kyah!
Jump into the water let's all go in
Kappa boogie woogie kyah!
More info:
This is a song from postwar Japan of the late 1940s that made the singer, twelve year old Hibari Misora, a superstar. Misora went on to have a fifty year career and become Japan's best loved Japanese modern folk singer . “Kappa Boogie Woogie” marked the Japanese embrace of American jazz/bop music, and also American culture, after the war. A “kappa” is a Japanese water spirit/demon that swims very quickly, has a duck beak on its face, a turtle shell on its back and frog hands. Apparently, “The kappa drags other animals, drowns them into the water and then drinks their blood.” I have learned, through extensive research, that the kappa's favorite food is the cucumber.
Listen to Misora's original version.
Let's Write a Song
Country: Laos
Language: originally in Lao
Lyrics:
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Let's write a song, let's write a song
Let's write a song, let's write a song
Let's write a song, the words will be poem
Until we start to sing them we won't even know 'em.
More info:
A Laotian “Morlam,” which is a kind of a bluesy improvised poetry song. Morlam singers will have a prescribed rhythm but make up a story as the song goes along. The words of these songs often border on the bawdy, as do the lyrics of the song in this great original version found on YouTube.
Little Pond
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Lyrics:
There was one a little pond
Hidden on a mountainside
And two fish lived in it
You would think they'd share
All the water in their little pond
Gipeunsan ohsolgilyeop
jageu mahan yeonmoten
And two fish lived in it
You would think they'd share
All the water in their little pond
But the fish began to fight
And they fought until the end
One was gone forever and would not come back again
For the fish who won the fight
The pond grew dark and then
He was lonely and realized he didn't really win
There was one a little pond
Hidden on a mountainside
And two fish lived in it
You would think they'd share
All the water in their little pond
More info:
A famous South Korean political song ("Norae Undong") from 1972 by prominent activist/songwriter Kim Min-ki. The anti-war moral refers most directly to the Korean Civil War of the '50s, but is applicable to wars everywhere. In the original, the two fish fight and one kills the other, but when the losing fish dies the water in the little pond becomes polluted and nothing can live there anymore.Listen to this version on YouTube.
A recent South Korean film about the Korean War called "A Little Pond" has repopularized the song.
Many thanks to JungWoong Kim (dad of music class student, Ari) for help with the translation.
My Dear Mama
Country:China
Language:Mandarin
Lyrics:
Oh my dear mama, mama you work so hard
taking care of everything, oh my dear mama
Mama you must be so tired
Mama you must be so tired
Oh my dear mama
I want to kiss you mama, I want to kiss you mama,
Oh my dear mama
Oh my dear papa, papa you work so hard
taking care of everything, oh my dear papa
Papa you must be so tired
Papa you must be so tired
Oh my dear papa
I want to kiss you papa, I want to kiss you papa,
Oh my dear papa
More info:
Thanks to Francis Corpataux for recording a version of this song on his
CD, Les Chants Des Enfants Du Monde Vol. 5: Tribal Minorities of China" and for my neighbor (and music class frequenter, with daughter Liya) Jun Ma for helping with a translation.
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My Rickshaw
Country: Malaysia
Language: Malay
Lyrics:
Abang beca, abang beca di tengah jalan
I drive my rickshaw in the town
Abang beca, abang beca di tengah jalan
I pedal hard to keep those wheels going 'round
At sunrise I wake up and drive my rickshaw
When the sun sets I'll be driving too
Round and round go my feet as we glide down the street
Who will take a ride? Will you?
More info:
A about the rickshaw drivers in the tourist-friendly parts of the culturally rich Malaysian port city of Melaka. In its long history, Melaka (Malacca) has an indpendent sultante, a Portuguese colony and important trading point with other Asian nations. Check out a version of this song, complete with highly adorned rickshaws, on YouTube.
Poong Paang
Country:Thailand
Language:Thai
Lyrics:
Poong paang oey, poong paang taa baud
Plaa khao laud, ta baud poong pang
More info:
"Poong Paang" is a chant that accompanies a traditional Thai children's game involving blindfolding a kid in the center of a circle and having him/her try to identify the children who are around the circle by asking them questions.
A poong paang is several foot long stick that stands in water and is a place for fishermen to secure nets so they can catch fish. Children in this game are referencing the poong paang which stands unaware in the middle of a waterway while all the little fish swim around it trying to avoid being caught.
Thanks to Pornprapit "Ros" Phoasavadi and Patricia Shehan Campbell for including this chant in their collection, ""From Bangkog and Beyond: Thai Children's Songs, Games and Customs."
Potato Pride
Country: North Korea
Language: Korea
Lyrics:
There was a feast in the village today, let me tell you my friend
The elder received some some potatoes and then -- oh what a glorious day!
He made soba noodles, mouth-watering snacks and, of course, potato pancakes!
Gamja jalang! Gamja jalang!
We are so proud on this glorious day,
oh oh oh oh Oh potatoes!
There was a feast in the village today, let me tell you my friend
The elder received some some potatoes and then -- oh what a glorious day!
He made soba noodles, mouth-watering snacks and, of course, potato pancakes!
Oh potatoes! Oh potatoes!
Is this what I think or just what I say?
oh oh oh oh Oh potatoes!
More info::
A North Korean propaganda tune in which the elder of the village receives his government ration of potatoes and shares it with his fellow villagers. On one hand it's a cheesy song a la the big big smile on the guy singing it in the YouTube version, but on the other it makes a very serious statement about North Korean poverty and forced allegiance to the government. This video version is a live performance with English subtitles.
Many thanks to JungWoong Kim (dad of music class student, Ari) for help with deciphering the words "gamja jalang."
Sada Do
Country: Indonesia
Language: Batak
Lyrics:
Sada do, matani ari bissar
Boi do i manondangi sasude
There's only one sun in the sky
That shines down upon us
You are the sunshine
Sada do, matani ari bissar
Boi do i manondangi sasude
There's only one moon in the night
The world is dark without it
You are the moonlight
There are a billion stars and then some, I know that,
But of the stars I see above
There are a billion stars and then some, in the sky dear
Yours is the only one I love.
With hearts we'll love each other, forever, every day
Holong ni roha salelengna
With hearts we'll love each other, forever, every day
Holong ni roha salelengna
More info:
A song by Marsada, an increasingly internationally-known (and deservedly so) Toba-Barak vocal group based in Sumatra, Indonesia. ("Marsada" means "together" in Batak.) Watch Marsada perform "Sada Do" in concert, and also standing on a barge in the ocean. Many thanks to Herbin Franz Simamora for help with the translation.
Sarika Keo
Country: Cambodia
Language: Cambodian
Lyrics:
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird oh you're dancing with your wing
Euy koe keo euy, euy koe keo euy
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird with your beak you sing
Euy koe keo euy, euy koe keo euy
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird oh what are you doing right now?
Sarika keo bird you're dancing with your wing, and with your beak you sing
Euy koe keo euy, euy koe keo euy
More info:
A traditional Cambodian song about the common sarkia keo bird, which, apparently, is "a lovely bird which is not harmful at all." The sarika keo is a myna bird common in the countryside that some Cambodians raise in their houses and even train to speak.
Thanks to Patricia Sheham Campbell, Ellen McCullough-Brabson and Judith Cook Tucker for making this song part of their book, "Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children," and Sam-Ang Sam and Patricia Shehan Campbell for including it in their book, "Silent Temples, Songful Hearts: Traditional Music of Cambodia."
Sitsiritsit
Country: the Philippines
Language: Filipino
Lyrics:
Sitsiritsit butterfly
Sitsiritsit butterfly
Take this child my oh my
Sitsiritsit butterfly
More info:
Many thanks to Jake Irwin Estrada of Touchbase (Tagalog and Philippine Translation) for this song, and for Don Shin of the very helpful 1 Stop Translation for making the connection. Here is Jake's translation of the original:
Hey, hey, butterfly/beetle me, oh, beetle my/Watch that girl on the block;/she poses like a fighting cock.
Blessed child of Pandacan, Rice biscuits on a stall, Why won’t you give me a loan?, The pesky ants will get you soon.
Miss, miss, with parasol, keep this baby in the shade. When you get to Malabon, trade him for some fishy paste.
Sir, sir, on the boat, take this child and go off. In Manila, at the mall, trade him for a nicer doll.
The Tea Plantation
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Lyrics:
We pick tea this springtime day high up in the hills
We join the chirping birds as they sing
The mountain is a handsome boy, strong and serious he stands
The water is a girl so soft and gently sweet
We pick tea this springtime day
We pick tea this springtime day high up in the hills
Yun hai na ge meng meng yo man mian feng.
Below we see the dancing stream, like a girl so gently sweet
We can touch the clouds that flow in like the sea
We pick tea this springtime day.
More info:
Thanks again to Francis Corpataux for recording this song for his
CD, Les Chants Des Enfants Du Monde Vol. 5: Tribal Minorities of China" and to Ke-Jian Jin from China's Guizhou Unviersity for help with the translation.
Ti Oh Oh
Country: China/Taiwan
Language: Min Nan
Lyrics:
Ho oh beh loh oh!!
Ti oh oh beh loh oh
Grandpa digs for taro with his hoe
Dig and dig, dig and dig,
Does he find the taro?
Instead he finds a fish there and laughs.
Ha ha ha!!
Grandpa wants to cook it salty, grandma wants to cook it plain
The two of them have an awful fight, the pot it falls onto the ground and CRASH!!
Ha ha ha!!
More info:
Many thanks to Yenche (who frequents music class with Navlea and Adori) for helping with a translation of this traditional Taiwanese song.
Enjoy this version from YouTube. Taro is the so-called "potato of the humid tropics."
Goodbye/We Are Happy
Country: Uganda
Lyrics:
We say goodbye but we’re not sad because of all the fun we had
We are happy, we are happy on this day...
More info: We will be singing this "good-bye" song every season. In many African cultures there is an emphasis on positivity, or at least the appearance of positivity, that is unfamiliar to most Americans. In that spirit, this "good-bye" song is a celebration of the good times we had when we were together.
(And yes, Uganda is still not in Asia!)
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