Two songs appear frequently in my life recently in two totally different ways. It only strikes me tonight that they shared similar sentiments, circumstances, and emotions. It’s my pleasure to bring together these two stories, 32 years apart in two islands.

Music and Society, Episode 7

北国の春 & 南国的孩子

Spring in the North:

白樺 青空 南風
亭亭白桦，悠悠碧空，微微南来风
White birches, azure sky, and breezes from the South

Spring, such a mysterious thing. You never know when it comes quietly, along with warmer breeze and new hope.

Ann Arbor is indeed still very cold. Last week we witnessed one of the heaviest snow storm I have been through in these years, but this weekend, traces of spring began to sprout.

The snow piled up along the curbs is silently melting, the wind is no longer freezing but has a neutral gentle touch, flocks of ducks, geese, and swans are forced out of thick ice on the banks of the Huron river, chasing each other along the water flows…

Although there’s no birch tree exactly and the sky is not exactly azure but a bit white, N’s urge to sing 北国之春 out loud is perfectly justifiable.

北国の春, a song of 千昌夫 released in 1977, is an all-time Japanese classic. The song is translated and sung all over East Asia and has great popularity. For Chinese listeners, the first popular versions might be Teresa Teng‘s covers in 1979 and 1984 in Mandarin and Japanese. However, Teng’s Chinese version did not reflect the original meanings of the Japanese lyrics.

Another version, more familiar to the Mainland Chinese audience, is written by 吕远 (Lyu Yuan) and performed by 蒋大为 (Jiang Dawei) in 1987. The lyrics kept the meanings of the original ones, which is about

A Wanderer, an expat, or a worker or student away from home (游子)
Living in a northern territory, perhaps a big metropolitan, cold and unfamiliar
When the winter is transitioning into spring
They think about their parents, their lover who are set apart
and the Hometown they left to fight for…

How suitable to the current situation. Or should I say, it’s always like this?

A side note: Lyu Yuan and Jiang Dawei are both famous for producing mostly mainstream songs in China. Having this particular song re-translated and covered is somehow a reflection of the openness and the Sino-Japanese relationship during that era.

Youth from the South:

你是南國來的孩子 有著不能縛的性子
身上披覆了寓言而渾然不知
奔跑著 忘我的 快樂悲傷都放肆
陽光也不願阻止

You are a son of the South, untamed, destined by the fables yet unaware,
Running, lost in fierce freedom no matter joy or sorrow,
That the Sun and you are reluctant to stop each other…

Why this song? I only have Spotify to blame.

She is known by two names: 安溥、张悬 (Deserts Chang / Anpu). Personally, for a long time, my few impression of her had been the beautiful song 宝贝, the National Flag incident during the concert in 2013, and the banned song written for social activists.

She stepped away from public for awhile and faded in my knowledge too during the time, until one day I added all her songs into my Spotify list as well as a few favorite singers, which leads to this occasional burst of broadcasting in my random shuffling player…

Back to the song. It is another perfect example of our topic: Music and Society. According to Anpu’s interviews, it is written for the indigenous people of the Island, as well as for the people, willingly or forced, fighting for a living in an unfamiliar land and trying to gain a sense of dignity and happiness.

They are sons and daughter of the South
Wounded by the overwhelming shocks of the New World,
Blood oozed from the wound, carrying the ancient souls from home
or something Unknown…

It might be some universal feelings shared by lots of wanderers around the globe, or perhaps everyone has a bit different tale to tell. Just hope, from time to time, year to year, when one senses the signals of the spring from the birch trees, azure sky, and southern breeze, one may recall this Unknown yet Similar feeling…