Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger 2010 – Let’s Sing a Popular Chinese Rhyme “Two Tigers”
February 14th, 2010

Frank wrote…

Hello Mama Lisa,

I came across your web page, excellent site! Attached please find two mp3 files of two kids song of Two Tigers.

Two Tigers MP3
Two Tigers MP3 #2

 
The lyrics and translation are as follows:
 

Traditional Chinese:

兩隻老虎 兩隻老虎 跑得快 跑得快

隻没有耳朵

隻没有尾巴 真奇怪 真奇怪

Simplified Chinese:

两只老虎 两只老虎 跑得快 跑得快

只没有耳朵

只没有尾巴 真奇怪 真奇怪

Two tigers   Two tigers   Run fast.   Run fast.
One doesn’t have ears. One doesn’t have a tail.  
Really strange!  Really strange!

 
Happy New Year of Tiger – 2010!
 
Frank

*****

Here’s the Mandarin Transliteration:

liang3 zhi3 lao3 hu3
liang3 zhi3 lao3 hu3
pao3 de kuai4
pao3 de kuai4
yi4 zhi3 mei2 you3 yan3 jing1
yi4 zhi3 mei2 you3 wei3 ba
zhen1qi2 guai4
zhen1 qi2 guai4

James Yannucci gave us this key to the numbers in the transliteration:

The numbers are the tones used for each word. The Chinese use 4 different tones:

1. Is a high level tone (almost like your singing the word)
2. Is a high rising tone
3. The tone starts at a neutral point then drops down low then returns.
4. Drops fast and abrupt

*****

Thanks to Frank for this rhyme and recordings and to James Yannucci for the transliteration!

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Mama Lisa

This article was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 12:10 am and is filed under Children's Songs, China, Chinese, Chinese Children's Songs, Chinese New Year, Chinese New Years Songs, Countries & Cultures, Holiday Songs, Holidays Around the World, Hong Kong, Languages, Mama Lisa, Mandarin, MP3 Recordings, MP3's, Nursery Rhymes, Recordings, Recordings of Nursery Rhymes, Recordings of Songs, Two Tigers. 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.

One Response to “Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger 2010 – Let’s Sing a Popular Chinese Rhyme “Two Tigers””

  1. LS Says:
    July 18th, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    Hi

    I think the English variantion of “2 tigers” in English is

    Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
    Brother John, Brother John,
    Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
    Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

    Same tune, different meaning

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