無與倫比的美麗/Unparalleled/incomparable beauty

無與倫比的美麗 (Wúyǔ lúnbǐ dì měilì/ Unparalleled/incomparable beauty) is the first song that I'd like to learn and sing without missing a word :-) I heard this song a year ago fom my daughter, 16, who is a big fun of Sodagreen, 蘇打綠
Click the link below to watch the official MTV on youtube, 無與倫比的美麗 MV 大首播
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDeus3TraM0&p=293AE226C78B5DEB&playnext=1&index=27

The MTV has lyrics on it, but it's too small for me to read. So, I searched online and here's what I found.
Lyrics Source: http://bit.ly/agGyQ0

Below is a rough translation of the lyrics.

作詞：吳青峰 作曲：吳青峰

天上風箏在天上飛      地上人兒在地上追
Tiānshàng fēngzhēng zài tiānshàng fēi dìshàng rén er zài dìshàng zhuī
(in the Sky)         (kite)       (in)  the (sky) (flying) (children on the ground) are (chasing...)
The kite flying in the sky, while the children on the ground are chasing after it

你若擔心你 不能飛你有我的蝴蝶
Nǐ ruò dānxīn nǐ bùnéng fēi nǐ yǒu wǒ de húdié
If you're worried that you can't fly, (literal translation: you have my butterfly, which could metaphorically speaking mean, You have my 'wings' (help/support?) to fly
天上風箏 在天上飛      地上人兒在地上追
Tiānshàng fēngzhēng zài tiānshàng fēi dìshàng rén er zài dìshàng zhuī
The kite flying in the sky, while the children on the ground are chasing after it

我若 擔心我不能飛我有你的草原
Wǒ ruò dānxīn wǒ bùnéng fēi wǒ yǒu nǐ de cǎoyuán
If I'm worried that I can't fly, I have your prairie (plain field)..perhaps to land on

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 你形容我是這個世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ nǐ xíngróng wǒ shì zhège shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì
Your description of me/You describe me as....I'm the most beautiful person in this world (I possess unparalleled beatuy)

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~我知道你才是這世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ wǒ zhīdào nǐ cái shì zhè shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì
                          I know     that you   are     the most beautiful person in the world

天上風箏    在天上飛  地上人兒在地上追
Tiānshàng fēngzhēng zài tiānshàng fēi dìshàng rén er zài dìshàng zhuī
The kite flying in the sky, while the children on the ground are chasing after it

你若 擔心你不能飛你有我的蝴蝶
Nǐ ruò dānxīn nǐ bùnéng fēi nǐ yǒu wǒ de húdié
The kite flying in the sky, while the children on the ground are chasing after it

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~   你形容 我是這個世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ nǐ xíngróng wǒ shì zhège shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì                         
Your description of me/You describe me as....I'm the most beautiful person in this world (I possess unparalleled beatuy)

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 我知道你才是這世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ wǒ zhīdào nǐ cái shì zhè shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì
                       I know     that you   are     the most beautiful person in the world

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 妳知道當你需要個夏天我會拼了命努力
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ ni zhīdào dāng nǐ xūyào gè xiàtiān wǒ huì pīn le mìng nǔlì
                        You know  that if you need 'a summer', I will try my very best to give it to you
'a summer' here could mean feeling of warmth, how else would you describe 'summer'?


嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 我知道你會做我的掩護 當我是個逃兵
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ wǒ zhīdào nǐ huì zuò wǒ de yǎnhù dāng wǒ shìgè táobīng
                          I know that you will protect me (or cover for me) when I'm not here/when I've desserted/left the place

The rest of the translation for the lyrics below is the same as above. It was just repeated.

嘿 ~ 耶 ~ 耶 ~ 嘿 ~ 耶 ~ 耶 ~ 嘿 ~ 耶 ~ 耶 ~ . . .


嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 你形容我是這個世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ nǐ xíngróng wǒ shì zhège shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì

嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 我知道你才是這世界上無與倫比的美麗
Hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ wǒ zhīdào nǐ cái shì zhè shìjiè shàng wúyǔlúnbǐ dì měilì 嘿耶 ~ 耶~ 嘿耶 ~ 耶~

天上風箏在天上飛 地上人兒在地上追
Tiānshàng fēngzhēng zài tiānshàng fēi dìshàng rén er zài dìshàng zhuī

你若擔心你不能飛 你有我的蝴蝶
Nǐ ruò dānxīn nǐ bùnéng fēi nǐ yǒu wǒ de húdié

我若擔心我不能飛 嘿耶 ~ 嘿耶 ~ 我有 你的 草原
Wǒ ruò dānxīn wǒ bùnéng fēi hēi yé ~ hēi yé ~ wǒ yǒu nǐ de cǎoyuán
-------------------------------
These are the new words/phrases that I learned in this song:

1. I know how to say 'kite' in Chinese, 風 (wind) 箏, but I didn't know how to write '箏'
2. I also know the word '追'- chase, but I didn't know how to write it
3. This was an entirely new phrase, 無與倫比, but I know what each character means. so when I see this phrase put together, i'd know what the words suggest. That's how I get by with my Mandarin.
4. 你若, I know 'if' in Chinese is 'ru guo' but here it's simplified as 'ruo'- and different in writing too. Cool to know ;-)

5. 拼了命- this is new to me, I know 'ming'- life, so even without the '拼了; I know that it has something to do with one's life, either suggesting death or my whole life

6. 掩護 I know 'hu' (the second character means to protect) but 'yan' is new to me, so 'yan hu' is the complete phrase, hmmm

7. 逃兵, táobīng, I know 'táo' means to run- so you see I get it, but without knowing what the other character is/means I won't be able to completely understand the phrase.

I'll sing this song again untl I get sick and tired from singing it ;-)

/a

This Blog

The purpose of creating this blog is to help me get back on track with learning Mandarin. Took a long hiatus... Now that am not teaching and almost done with my dissertation, I thought it's high time to continue where I left off. This time, however, I'm not going to memorize sounds but rather produce sounds through songs. Yes- songs. I'm a music lover by heart, and not a single day go by without listening to music. I just have got to have music around me. It's in the family, I guess, so blame my mom!

Anyway, what I'll be doing is to learn Mandarin using music videos. I think my level is upper intermediate to advanced- give and take. So I can pretty much understand most of the words. If I don't understand a word, then I'd post it here and then relayed to my Twitter and FB accounts so my network of student-teacher-mentors could help. Simple.

Let the learning begin...again :-)