The pitfalls of my Voice of China addiction: a mini-education in Mandarin pop. Here’s one of the saddest modern Chinese pop ballads ever, by Taiwanese Chyi Chin.
Basically it’s a deeply tragic ballad of unrequited love and a feeling of hopelessness, of just giving up on the past and the future.
It’s so tragic it’s beautiful.
Translation from this link.
夜夜夜夜 (Night after night after night after night)
詞曲：熊天平
想問天你在哪裡我想問問我自己
I’d like to ask God where you are or ask myself instead
一開始我聰明結束我聰明
I was smart at the start, smart at the end
聰明得幾乎的毀掉了我自己
So smart that I almost destroyed myself
想問天問大地或者是迷信問問宿命
Would like to ask Mother Nature, or ask a fortune teller
放棄所有 拋下所有
Giving up everything in the future and what passed before
讓我漂流在安靜的夜夜空裡
Let me drift in the silent night after night after night…
你也不必牽強再說愛我
Don’t push yourself into saying you love me
反正我的靈魂已片片凋落
My soul anyway has withered to pieces
慢慢的拼湊慢慢的拼湊
Tried putting myself back together slowly, slowly
拼湊成一個完全不屬於真正的我
Me, but not the whole me, finally pieced together
我不願再放縱
I don’t want to indulge myself anymore
我不願每天每夜每秒漂流
I don’t want to drift one night, day, second anymore
也不願再多問再多說再多求我的夢
Not one word, prayer, quest for my dream anymore
The original version by Chyi Chin:
A version by Fish Leong: