Song Translation & Adaptation - The Moon Represents My Heart

The Moon Represents My Heart


Originally sung by Teresa Teng

 Cast & Song: Gene


 English lyrics: Gene

Last updated in 2022

 

You ask me whether I love you

And if my love is true

All my love is real

Nothing to conceal

The moon represents my heart

 

You ask me how much I love you

And if my love is true

My love will not change

Not with time or age

The moon represents my heart

Remember how we were

And the memory of your kiss

Sweet love that we shared

I still long for and miss

 

You ask me how deeply I love you

And if my love is true

Think about it, my dear

Look around where you are

The moon represents my heart

---

 

Story behind song translation and adaptation

 

The ancient Chinese poets and songwriters have embodied a range of messages and meanings in the moon. The moon is associated with gentleness and brightness, expressing the beautiful yearnings of the Chinese. It can be a pretty girl who loves, an emblem of homeland that one expresses nostalgia, or a simple character that the poet uses to convey his or her best wishes to mankind.

For instance, let us read an excerpt from a Song poem by SU Shih, which was translated by LIM Gi-tong:

The moon does wax, the moon does wane,
And so men meet and say goodbye.
I only pray our life be long,
And our souls together heavenward fly!

Moreover, there is a saying in Chinese that marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon. As a result, lovers spend a romantic night together while watching the full moon, tasting the delicious moon cake and drinking wine. Even couples who are unable to be together can enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time, giving the impression that they are together at that moment. The romantic festival "Lantern Festival" has inspired reams of poetry.

The song "The Moon Represents My Heart" is a popular song by Teresa Teng. It has been popular for decades since its birth in Taiwan. Gene chose this song to translate and adapt for the purpose of transmitting good wishes and words to English audiences. Besides, the song itself bears sweet and romantic melody.

While Gene was doing translation and adaptation, she found most are just literal translations and none of them can be sung as lyrics. Thus, Gene decided to start "translate" it into a "singable" song so that she can perform at some public and musical events.

At the outset, Gene was a little worried if audiences would like this song as it is distinctive from western pop music and young people particularly prefer rock or electronic music nowadays. However, what surprised her happened after she performed the English version twice in London, UK. She received very positive feedback from audience. "Wow, I love this song, it is so beautiful!" "Oh my god, are you a professional singer?" "You're superb! Will you perform at other places? I'll go to see your performance!" No pain, no gains. All efforts Gene made paid off and even it is beyond her imagination.

Therefore, Gene also learned from it that one should be confident of oneself and maintain a normal attitude to everything as long as one tried his or her best and is prepared.


---

SU Shih (also SU Shi), one of the greatest poets, essayists and calligrapher who is also a public official, gastronomer, pharmacologist, and travel writer in the Song dynasty.

LIM Gi-tong, a Chinese inventor, linguist, novelist, philosopher, and translator. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linguist & Musician: Gene Hsu

Image
[This webpage is updated in July 2024] Gene Hsu @copyright Gene's wish is to bridge the gap between the West and the East by singing East Asian literature aloud in English!   Gene is a multilingual singer-songwriter , ethnomusicologist and researcher as well as a linguist , translator , interpreter based in the UK. She started multilingual song writing in 2013. Her first singing performance dates back to primary-school era. She is a born singer and has been working so hard on her career in music and languages . Gene Hsu’s research focuses on music and translation/ languages, which involves intercultural and interdisciplinary studies. Her independent project “Music and Translation” was awarded the CIOL certificate and qualification for its innovative nature and the high mark achieved. Her papers have been presented at research conferences globally. 🎤 Gene has performed as a singer worldwide where she gained lots of experience singing solo in front of large audiences, so being
Read more

Voice of Music-lover

Image
Voice of Music-lover In 2016, I created and now have managed the original WeChat (also: Weixin) Subscription Account, “Voice of Music-lover” (Formal name in Traditional Chinese: 音樂心聲 Music, Formal name in Simplified Chinese: 音乐心声 Music) and its WeChat ID is “Music_52099”. There are more than 400 original articles and videos posted (updated in May 2022).  --- WordPress: https://voiceofmusiclovers.wordpress.com/ Blog:  https://genejo.blogspot.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Voiceofmusiclover ---  The main purpose To share music with audiences, classical, pop, jazz, folk, rock and roll and other types of music at home and abroad. Furthermore, I also write articles, commentaries and reviews on songs and music in English and Chinese (traditional and simplified), as well as introduction, background and analysis. Music events are normally organized once a month. Hundreds of musicians and audiences (Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania) attended and watched events. In successf
Read more

English Therapy

Image
English Therapy   In 2019, a language group “English Therapy” was established to make local community events diverse and help residents study English to enhance language and communication skills. Motto: It is not only an English speech activity, but also a place where you can berth your heart. The name of this platform obtained inspiration from an American friend, “It would be great if you can organize such events because it is more than an English event, but a place for people to enjoy the freedom of speech and relax themselves”. Thus, “English Therapy” was born and I am one of the three founders. We organized this type of events simply because we are all passionate about sharing good things with others and English speech. This is a bi-weekly event without duplicate topics. Every audience may share opinions and stories and speakers can deliver speeches in English only. Topics discussed : Music, movie, book, art, trip/travel, an impressive person, celebrity, work/study-li
Read more