Pekinese Rhymes/20

by Guido Vitale

XX

金軲轆棒
銀軲轆棒
爺爺兒打板兒
奶奶兒唱
一唱唱到大天亮
養活了個孩子沒處兒放
一放放在鍋台上
嗞兒嗞兒的喝米湯

NOTES

軲轆棒 ku¹ lu⁴ pang⁴, a child toy, consisting in a short wood mace with a handle. The wood above the handle is circularly worked as to give the idea of wheels 軲轆 ku¹ lu⁴. It is the imitation of an ancient Chinese weapon. 大天亮 ta⁴ t'ien¹ liang⁴, when the daylight was very bright. 嗞兒嗞兒, tzǔ¹ 'r tzǔ¹ 'r, imitates the sound produced by the lips of a person who is sipping broth. There was no character in the dictionary for it, but I was forced to adopt the above written as corresponding to the exact sound and having by side the radical 口.

TRANSLATION

Gilt wood mace ― silvered wood mace ― the husband strikes the castanets and the wife sings ― and they have been singing till broad daylight ― and she has born a child, and there was no place to lay him ― and they have laid him on the kitchen-stove ― where he is sipping the rice gravy.

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