Penne Davidson wrote asking for help with a song from Taiwan. Here’s what she wrote:
“I teach ESL online and one of my Taiwanese students sang Chinese words to the tune of ‘Oh, My Darling, Clementine.’ I found the ‘Happy New Year’ version (in Mandarin) and another on the website, but her dad said this one sings about a rabbit or bunny. Anyone know this version?
Later Penne wrote, “The mom found the lyrics for me. Need a translation now because this doesn’t seem to be true Pinyin:
Xiao bai two ya Xiao bai two ya
hong hong yen jin bai yu mao
wao ba law bo song gay ni ya
ni pay wao one how bu how
One of my adult students from Hong Kong helped me translate (definitely a mix of Pinyin and Phonetics!) Here’s what we came up with, then I arranged the words into lyrics that work with “Clementine.” I hope someone recognizes the song and has the English version:
Small white rabbit
Eyes are red
White fur
Carrot-law (lo) bo
I give the carrot to you
Can you play with me?
————–
Small white rabbit, small white rabbit
Eyes are red and fur is white.
I have a carrot for you,
Can you play with me tonight?
If anyone can help with the correct text and/or translation, please email me or comment below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2020 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, China, Chinese, Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, Mandarin, Questions, Readers Questions, Taiwan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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