Songs

I've put some extremely rudimentary recordings of the Mandarin songs I wrote onto Youtube with a view to making professional recordings as soon as I can afford to.

Here are translations of the titles and lyrics along with links to Youtube. Those of you with any experience of Mandarin will appreciate that it's a very easy language to rhyme in so it seems wasteful to play with the nets down.

Oh Well Never Mind
As he sees it, the guests at the party are all wonderful,
but so called civility closes the door on his head,
By the river side, he sits alone in the moonlight,
and drinks to the memories that never materialised.

Everything reminds him that death is persevering,
He has thought about this everywhere, including the bathroom floor.

He treats others as he wants to be treated, but can't be bothered learning people skills
The people who understand his deep, dark eyes, he can count on one hand.
On far-away roads, as if deep in thought, he walks terribly slowly,
racks his brain in thinking of ways to make the world a livelier place.

He's nostalgic for a time yet to come
Forever refusing to stop crafting gentleness.

Doesn't dedicate his life to saying what he doesn't mean
He seizes the opportunity to do the right thing.
Oh well never mind, oh well never mind, oh well never mind.

The Truth of Love
Give me a look at the truth, what does real love involve?
Some people believe love is an adventure,
Some people reply that's just seeing the world from one's own point-of-view
Some lovers feel their breath's been taken away,
Some lovers feel that their progress has been stunted.

Before I reach old-age I need the courage to discover,
The less I stick in the mud the more experienced I become
Let's appreciate the value of time, come and drift away with me
Let's really believe love can change our lives.

The poets would have us believe love is a baeutiful dream,
The doctors would have us believe it's a bodily function,
According to the broken-hearted love is just a form of weakness,
According to the wise, nobody knows the truth.

I've asked old men, I've asked madly-in-love teenagers,
To my disappointment it was the same story every time.
I've walked loves' forbidden zones and been a stranger in a foreign land
I formally announce that I will never think things through again.

Express yourself to this outsider, hug the zeitgeist, come with me back to our roots,
Let's not give a damn about fate, let's progress towards our ancestors.

Real love can't possible fix everything, the truth is not the slightest bit pure,
Let's end our ambitions, broaden our horizons, begin to acknowledge the whole wide world.

Please don't bother telling me that the recordings suck balls