1. 前巷

古・今

宋詞南音x客家話x 數碼混音

北隴田高踏水頻   西溪禾早已嘗新   隔墙沽酒煮纖鳞  

忽有微凉何處雨   更無留影霎時云   賣瓜聲過竹邊村

小院閒窗春色深   重簾未卷影沈沈   倚樓無語理瑤琴

遠岫出雲催薄暮   細風吹雨弄輕陰   梨花欲謝恐難禁

一曲新詞酒一杯   去年天氣舊亭臺   夕陽西下幾時回

1. Front Lane

Ancient・Contemporary

Naamyam x Song Dynasty Lyrics x Hakka Dialect x Digital Mixing

Farmers in the northern knolls work hard in their fields.

Rice at the western creek is ready to harvest.

My neighbour pours wine to cook the skinny fish.

The rain from somewhere brought a sudden chill,

And swept away the clouds,

Leaving behind the sound of hawkers, from the village over the bamboo forest.

The idle window in the small courtyard casts a deep colour of spring.

Heavy curtains, undraped, reflecting sombre shadows.

Leaning silently against the wall, I tune my mandolin.
 

Clouds below the distant peak form a veil of sunset.

Drizzles brought by a soft wind brushes a tone of grey.

The pear blossom is going to wither, I’m afraid.

With a song of lyrics and a goblet of wine,

I sit at the same pavilion in the same weather as last year.

The sun is setting, but when will it return?

關於歌詞

前巷娓娓道來的是否真正的南音，並不重要。

我要的只是那種讓我思鄉的聲音。

2014年暑假在檳城聽過的那種歌聲，覺得很熟悉，可能是從我父母那裡聽過，

他們都是來自東南亞的僑民 。

請Steve 重做那種感覺的聲音。歌詞方面，我用現成物(Ready-Made)拼貼：

選用宋詞《浣溪沙》作編排，因和時代遷徒、水和洗有關。

三首詞的排列是我對三棟屋由興盛到凋空、至回望的無限傷感。

由實到虛，由外到內，由朝到暮，由樂到幽。

再先請李文生用客家話演繹。他反覆哼了多遍，達到思古之意，再邊聽自己的

錄音邊用不同樂器彈及吹奏。最後經Steve 的編整，成了那首似是疑非的曲調。

事後文生說，他其實是在唱客家山歌的慢板。

About Lyrics：Naamyam

It doesn’t matter whether the murmuring sound from the alley is authentically Naamyam.  All I wanted is a nostalgic sound.  I heard this sound in Penang in the summer of 2014, and thought it very familiar.  Perhaps I have heard it before from my parents.  Both of them were Chinese migrants in South East Asia.

I invited Steve to create that sound.  For lyrics, I did a collage with Ready-made.  It was a rearrangement of various versions of Song Dynasty lyrics to the Melody of the Sandy Creek.  I chose the lyrics because it is about the change of time, water and cleansing. The line up of the three verses relates to my immense sadness about Sam Tung Uk:  once a thriving place, it was emptied, and now one can only look back.  The sequence is from solid to intangible, from outside to inside, from dawn to dusk, from bliss to melancholy. 

I then invite Lee Man-sang to sing the lyrics in Hakka dialect.  He hummed it, over and over again, until it sounds ancient.  He then listened to his own voice and played different instruments to the melody.  Steve mixed the recordings afterwards, resulting in a hybrid tune.

Man-sang said he was really singing a Hakka folk song, though in a very slow tempo.

2. 中廳及天井

靜・湧

不銹鋼雕塑 x 新三棟屋村祠堂水源

2. Assembly Hall and Light Well

Peaceful・Surging

Stainless Steel Sculpture x Water from New Sam Tung Uk Village