This song was a big hit for Taiwanese singer Jiang Hui (江蕙) but I first heard a cover version by Crowd Lu (盧廣仲) – the guy with the bowl-hair cut and socks up to his knees from that annoying breakfast song with “duiya duiya” consisting of at least half the lyrics.

The lyrics as they are often written in KTV are written with some characters that are simply rendered phonetically into Mandarin and aren’t the original Taiwanese characters:

1. a. 一暝夢攏看無你的人

b. 阮的心是夜夜在思戀

c. 情是風中的花叢

d. 去落袂凍照希望

e. 阮猶原為你塊清香

2. a. 是緣份乎雙人伴相隨

b. 是命運伊將咱來放離

c. 風吹一山過一山

d. 找無心愛的形影

e. 吹袂透我心內孤單

3. a. 人若是疼著一個無心的人

b. 情茫茫望你半生通也不通

c. 像東流水

d. 綿綿相思

e. 多情多怨嘆

f. 又擱想起

4. a. 人若是疼著一個無心的人

b. 當作是註定紅塵一場戀夢　

c. 偏偏為你

d. 夢也相思

e. 誰的人

f. 誰疼痛

g. 繁華攏是夢

 In this blog I’m going to look at the first verse, and then I’ll move on to the other verses and the chorus in subsequent posts.

1.

a. 一眠(暝)夢lóng(攏)看無你ê(的)人 – chi̍t bîn-bāng lóng khòaⁿ-bô lí ê lâng – In all my dreams, I can’t see you [I’ve replaced the popular characters with the real characters (according to the dictionaries I’m using) and the characters that are unknown with pinyin.]

Vocabulary:

一……lóng……  chi̍t … lóng (followed by neg) for the whole… (neg) even… ; Mando 整個……都……  Here I think it means “the entire” as in 整個, due to the 都看不到 structure that follows

眠夢 bîn-bāng a dream/ to dream; Mando 做夢／夢想  Not sure, but here I think it means “dream”, as in 夢想.

看無  khòaⁿ-bô not be able to see, to look lightly upon, to not understand something written; Mando 看不到, 看不起, 看不懂  Here it means “can’t see you” as in 看不到

你ê人  lí ê  lâng you; Mando 你 This seems to just be a more poetic way of saying you, as in 你的人

b. 阮ê(的)心是夜夜teh(在)思戀 – gún ê sim sī iā iā teh su-liām – My heart misses [you] every night

阮ê góan/gún ê My Our 我, 我們 Here with “my” (ê is like the possessive particle 的 in Mandarin)

心  sim heart

是 sī is

夜夜 iā iā every night 每夜

teh  to be, to be doing + verb 在

思念 su-liām to miss/long for 思念

c. 情是風中ê(的)花叢 – chêng sī hong tiong ê hoe-châng – Love is like flowers in the wind

情 chêng (sounds more like ㄐㄧㄥ jing) love, or feelings 情  *In Taiwanese characters have different pronunciations depending on whether you’re using their formal form or their colloquial form – these have become mixed up somewhat, so it’s really just good to learn cognates, as opposed to trying to assess whether the context is formal or informal (文讀音或白讀音) 情 can also be read chiâⁿ (it’s common form) but here it’s chêng.

是 sī is

風中  hong tiong in the wind 

ê indicator of adjectival clause 的

花叢 hoe-châng (sounds like ㄗㄤ) bunch of flowers or a flowering shrub 花束，花叢

d. 去落buē(袂)當照希望 – khì-lo̍h buē-tàng tsiàu hi-bāng – When they fall they can’t find hope

去落 khì–lo̍h Can’t find this version in the dictionary, but I’m assuming it’s the same as 落去 lo̍h-khì, which means 落下來 (fall down) in Mandarin.

buē當 buētàng Not be able to, 不能夠

照 tsiàu (similar to its Mandarin pronounciation) This is a verb which means to be hit by light, here “hope” fills in for light. 照

希望 hi-bāng hope 希望

e. 阮猶原為你塊清芳(香) gún iu-guân uī lí tè chheng-phang [Not so sure about this lyric] I still want for your scent

阮 góan/gún I 我

猶原 iu-guân still 仍然、仍舊

為 uī for/because 為

你 lí you 你

塊 tè Measure word

清芳 chheng-phang scent 清香

I’ll try and update soon with the 2nd verse and chorus in upcoming posts.