I've come across Zhang Shaolin's Hoi-nam kai-fan (characters 海南鸡饭, lyrics only in subtitles), a song in Hakka. It is split into three parts. This question concentrates on part 3, part 2 being here and part 1 here. I have trouble translating it. The lyrics from the subs are:
海南鸡饭
# 涯正宗嘅鸡饭
唔系客家偏偏出名海南
人人都知有间龙门星店
按好吃讲只只来帮衬
你要嚓最靓鸡饭
价钱係普普通通讲来好平
客仔招呼一流
吃饱又送支牙签
*##
Ha-ha-ah-ha (两次)
Listening to the video carefully and accurately representing the sounds I hear, and subsequently tweaking the spelling for a "standard" spelling, I got the following transliteration:
Hoi-nam kai-fan
Ngai cin-zung ke kai-fan
M he hak-ka phen-phen chut-miang Hoi-nan
Nyin-nyin tu ti yiu kan Lung-mun-sing pian
An hau sit kong cak-cak lei pong-cham
Nyi oi chat cui liang kai-fan
Ka-chien he phu-phu-thung-thung kong loi hau phiang
Hak-cai cau-fu yit-liu
Sit-pau yiu sung ki nga-cia
This is a possible mandarin rendition:
海南鸡饭
# 我正宗的鸡饭
不是客家偏偏出名海南
人人都知有间龙门星店
很好吃说个个来帮衬
你要吃最好鸡饭
价钱是普普通通讲来好平
客人招呼一流
吃饱又送支牙签
*##
Ha-ha-ah-ha (两次)
Notes:
- 涯 is actually meant to have a person radical rather than a water radical, but I can't input it on my computer so I used the closest match; it means "I" and is pronounced "ngai"; replaced with "wǒ";
- 讲 is kong, Hakka standard for "say"; replaced with "shuō";
- 唔 is m/ng, a standard Hakka negation; replaced with "bù" in many cases;
- 只 can be used as a classifier; according to my reference, it's cak when classifier and cii when "only"; doubled, it should mean "every", like doubled classifiers can in Mandarin; replaced with gègè, since I interpreted it as "everyone" = "every person";
- 晓 is hiau; I have learnt this means "can", though this meaning is in my reference only under "晓得"; replaced with "néng";
- 按 is an; my reference says 恁 (an) means "very"; replaced with "hěn";
- 嘅 is ke; my reference spells that 个, distinguished from classifier 個, and says it means "de"; replaced accordingly;
- 仔, cai, is a common noun suffix, like 子; after kè it should mean "kèrén"; replaced accordingly;
- 系 and 係 are both he; that is "shì"; replaced accordingly;
- 嚓 is cat, or the likes; according to my reference, 擦 means "módòng, kāishì", i.e. "rub"; supposing a misspelling, I interpreted it like Italian "spazzolare", which means to eat thoroughly, cleaning out every bit of something; replaced it with "chī";
- There are some strange pronunciations: 张惠妹 is pronounced with Mandarin pronunciation (save for sh = s), 来 is sometimes pronounced lei instead of loi, 好 and 无 (actually 冇) are hau and mau, and the reference states they should be mo and ho, 两 is lioeng (compare Cantonese loeng).
With all that, my attempt would be:
Hainanese Chicken rice
# My actual chicken rice
Is not Hakka, but always the famous one from Hainan.
Everyone knows there is a Long-meng-xing-dian
It's very good to eat, so everyone helps financially.
If you want to eat the best chicken rice,
The price is very common, and one may say even rather low.
Guests look for first quality,
Eat their fill and leave a toothpick (as a tip).
*##
Ha-ha-ah-ha (两次)
As you can understand, the problems are many. I will make a few points. I am going to split this tomorrow, but I really wanted to lay down all the points, so feel free to answer only those related to the first verse if you see this question complete.
- Is that interpretation of chat right?
- I know zhāohu is "say hello", but it was natural for me to "mistranslate" it that way; is it right?
Edit: A translation in a comment reads thus:
Hainang Chicken Rice
# Ah traditional Hainang Chicken Rice,
not the place of invention but became famous there anyway,
everyone knows of the shop selling delicious rice,
customers enjoys the rice and chatters in the village,
you can enjoy the best chicken rice,
the price is reasonable and everyone likes,
best customer services,
free toothpicks serving when you're done with your meal,
ha-ha-ha-ha (repeat # excerpt twice)
It ought to be Hainan
as far as I know, not Hainang
. Anyway I gather the following points:
cing-cung
(zhengzong) istraditional
orold-school
; OK that's right;ngai
becameah
; now it is true thatngai
is also the reading for挨
, but that means "to suffer"; can it be used as an interjection too? And why was it spelt with the standard character for thengai
meaning "I" then?- The second line I can't understand how it is formulated; maybe it is "Is not Hakka [in origin] but [anyway] became famous in Hainan [which is a Hakka place]"? So
chut-miang + place
=become famous in + place
? lung-mun-sing-tiam
was translated to "the shop selling delicious rice"; is that a loose translation taking into account that that is the name of a restaurant, probably the one in which the singer开一间海南鸡饭
? Or is it a literal translation? And if the latter, how does that "name" have the translation in it?- What happens in the 4th line? I can guess the first part is "It's very good [for people] to eat [the rice] and speak [with others in the restaurant]", but what about the rest? How does it "code" the translation given, which is "chatter in the village"?
- Given the translation "enjoy", I guess my interpretation of
chat
wasn't that wrong after all :); - The 3rd-to-last line became "the price is reasonable and everyone likes";
phu-thung
translates to "reasonable", better than my "common"; but "everyone likes"? Was it supposed to be "alike for everyone", i.e. "similar for everyone", "without big differences from person to person"? And then why should the price be different from person to person? And otherwise, how is that translation present in the original? - So
cau-fu
is "service"? It does mean "take care of", so maybekeren zhaohu
does mean "customer service"; - The last line is "After you've eaten your fill [they, the customer service] give you toothpicks [for free]". OK.
Edit 2: That "Nyi oi chat" should be "nyi oi cak", spelt "汝爱摘", which translates roughly to "你要吃", I should think, but I'm waiting for confirmation on a fb group.