THE WANDERING SONGSTRESS

The moon is frosty above the street, like a hook curving over the willow trees. Singing does not requite the melancholy mood, tears fall.
A mother and daughter wander alone, cold and hungry.
Alas!

That, more or less, is the gist of one of the loveliest songs by Zhou Xuan (周璇), from a classic Shanghai tearjerker from the thirties (possibly 馬路天使 "Street Angel").
I did not remember that song from any of her movies.
But I saw them a long time ago.

It's been covered by several singers a number of times since then, and can be found on youtube.


街頭月
詞：吳村　　曲：張昊

街頭月　月如霜　冷冷地照在屋簷上
街頭月　月如霜　冷冷地照在屋簷上
母女淪落走街坊　饑寒交迫只得把歌唱
唱呀唱　唱呀唱　唱不盡悲歡離合空惆悵
唱不盡白山黑水徒心傷

街頭月　月如鈎　彎彎地掛在柳梢頭
街頭月　月如鈎　彎彎地掛在柳梢頭
母女相依沿街走　低彈緩唱唱到淚雙流
流呀流　流呀流　流到了心碎腸斷不憂愁
流到了天昏地暗有時休


Little Red (one of Zhou Xuan's nicknames: 小紅) really did have a lovely voice, as the song 銀花飛 makes very clear. There are times when her enunciation seems drenched with honey.

You may not find such songs to your liking.
They are perhaps a bit old hat.
As are my ears.



老國音

You could, I suppose, ascribe that to "Old National Pronunciation", that being a standardization of Mandarin as revised during the twenties and thirties, but, going out on a limb, I'm guessing it's more than just that.

Even so, it is primarily for that reason that I did not provide a phonetic transcription of the lyrics; you probably would not sing along, and the tone system might flummox you anyway.


FYI: I'm still having difficulty with the 入聲。
There are no glottal stops in Mandarin.

She also sang in Suzhou dialect, FYI.




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