My brain was kind of tired after the intense happenings in our family for the last few months, so my wise Chinese teacher 明智中文的老師 (ming2 zhi4 zhong1 wen2 de. lao3 shi1) chose a simple and familiar children’s song to help me re-engage with my Chinese studies: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!
She suggested I learn to sing it from memory, and really, it is almost unavoidable with the tune being so stuck in my head now. I even accidentally wrote new lyrics to it, while I was running barefoot, that she is going to help me translate.
The translation, while being broadly along the same lines, is not literal from the English. Here is the best youtube version I found of the song, a good combination of the characters and sound quality that is good enough to understand the Chinese pronunciation. It seems to have been produced for Spanish speakers trying to learn Chinese, but that is not an issue. There does appear to be one typo in the pin yin in the second line. The “duo” is missing it’s “o”.
And here is my translation and explanation, as approved by my wise Chinese tutor:
一閃一閃亮晶晶。
(一閃)(一閃)(亮)(晶晶)。
(yi4 shan3) (yi4 shan3) (liang4) (jing1 jing1)
(one flash) (one flash) (bright) (sparkling)
Flashing sparkles and bursts of light.
滿天都是小星星。
(滿) (天)(都)(是)(小)(星星)。
(man3) (tian1) (dou1) (shi4) (xiao3) (xing1 xing1)
(full) (sky) (all) (is) (small) (stars)
The sky is completely full of small stars.
掛在天空放光明。
(掛)(在)(天空)(放)(光明)。
(gua4) (zai4) (tian1 kong1) (fang4) (guang1 ming2)
(to hang up, to suspend) (at, in) (sky space) (to let loose, to liberate, to disperse) (light, brightness)
Suspended in the sky to disperse brightness.
好像許多小眼睛。
(好像)(許多)(小)(眼睛)。
(hao3 xiang4) (xu3 duo1) (xiao3) (yan3 jing4)
(very much resembles) (numerous) (small) (eye)
They seem like many small eyes.
一閃一閃亮晶晶。
(一閃)(一閃)(亮)(晶晶)。
(yi4 shan3) (yi4 shan3) (liang4) (jing1 jing1)
(one flash) (one flash) (bright) (sparkling)
Flashing sparkles and bursts of light.
滿天都是小星星。
(滿) (天)(都)(是)(小)(星星)。
(man3) (tian1) (dou1) (shi4) (xiao3) (xing1 xing1)
(full) (sky) (all) (is) (small) (stars)
The sky is completely full of small stars.
