A Simple Song
This is a simple song by Wáng Lìhóng 王力宏. It’s called just that: yī shǒu jiǎndānde gē 一首簡單的歌 (“A Simple Song”), which can lead to all sorts of clever lines if you’re ever asked what you’d like to sing for everyone (it happens in China–not “Would you like to sing?” but “What will you be singing?”).
As simple as the song professes to be, there is still some interesting vocabulary to learn from this little piece. At the very least, you can master the correct measure word for songs: shǒu 首.
After much deliberation, I’ve decided to actually provide the link for you to download the mp3 by doing a search at Baidu) As much as I don’t think Western artists would appreciate free downloads of their music, this is China and “rù xiāng suí sú” 入乡随俗, right?
A Simple Song (994 hits)
(requires Adobe Reader)
If you like learning Chinese pop songs, check out the other song translation I’ve done.
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7 Responses to “A Simple Song”
Jessica
said:
NICE! I love learning through music…so I think I’ll be printing this out this week and trying to learn it.:D
Comment date: Sep 9, 2007
Anne Eichler
said:
I had problems finding and playing “A Simple Song.” I had layers of pages with no results. Any suggestions? I will check out your translation page because I am looking for translations for a few songs. Thanks for your website!
Comment date: Oct 22, 2007
Albert
said:
Anne,
Sorry about that. I tried just posting a link to the baidu search, but now my link should be updated to the mp3 file itself. Unfortunately, the name of the file once it’s downloaded is gibberish–feel free to rename it.
Comment date: Oct 22, 2007
Anne Eichler
said:
Albert, thanks! I still had a little trouble. The song stopped part of the way through. Then it ended on its own. The singer has a wonderful voice. I appreciate this song, both the music and the lyrics. Now, do you know of any way to get the musical manuscript so that I could play it myself? I could figure it out by ear, but I am trying to take the easy way. Annie
Comment date: Nov 13, 2007
Albert
said:
Anne,
Do you want just the chord chart (lead sheet) for a guitar or piano? If so, I can whip that up in a jiff.
Comment date: Nov 13, 2007
RodgerS
said:
Two really beautiful, yet simple songs, that are well worth memorizing and a lot of fun if you sing Karaoke with a girlfriend are: Yue4 Liang4 Dai4 Biao3 (The moon represents my heart) and Xiao3 Wei1. Very easy to research the internet for the Mandarin, Pinyin, and English. Use YouTube for the songs.
You can even sing a bit in a Chinese restaurant for the waitresses who just love it.
Comment date: Nov 19, 2007
Vicky
said:
wow nice post. my roommate really loves want li hong a lot, keeps singing his song like non-stop.
let me send this post to her…
Comment date: Nov 27, 2010