Spring Nostalgia 思春曲

Spring Nostalgia 春思曲 By Huang Zi 黄自

This is one of the oldest art songs in Chinese. It has become a classic that almost every female voice student has to learn. The lyric is in archaic Mandarin that nobody could comprehend the meaning by simply listening to the enunciation.

Unusually, it uses the lower registers of a soprano singer. Changing the keys could be a good exercise for developing the sense of melodies. Both are challenging technically.

The backdrop of the lyric is a quite common scene of a husband away from home alone in ancient society.

I believe this Westernized melody is considered a recognizable Chinese style. One of the main characteristics perhaps is in the smooth movement between notes that carry the same words. The sudden drop down one octave could be considered a highlight that vividly displays the passivity of the whole song and the mood change – without an onlooker, why bother to look attractive?

The simple runs of 6 16th-note, imitating the string instrument of Pi-pa, provide some hints about the potentials of joy and hope given the described scenes encountered, leading to some unrealistic ideas of actions.

Overall, it is supposed to be dreamy, powerless, without any hope for fact-changing decision. Generally, it reflects and illuminates the traditional Chinese sense of hopelessness and helplessness.

To some people, this is not supposed to be sung with power or joy, but with some taste of complaints and passive anger, which also characterizes the Chinese moods conventionally.

Here is a good performance with good and very clear accompaniment.

The sound of rain dropping on the front steps
along with the cool bed and lone pillow
have kept me awake all night
In the mirror this morning
My hair must look lazily lining
my shallow dimples without makeup.
Alone in the house, I must avoid the view next to the drapes
of the birds in the trees.
The naive chatting of a couple of swallows in front of the garden railstriggers my jealousy.

By now my love one has been away for a year.
Why couldn't I turn into a bird
to peck on him and nag him to come back soon
(to quickly fix the horse-riding whip for coming home soon).

瀟瀟夜雨滴階前，寒衾孤枕未成眠。今朝攬鏡應是梨渦淺，綠雲慵掠，懶貼花鈿。小樓獨倚，怕睹陌頭楊柳，分色上簾邊；更妒煞無知雙燕，吱吱語過花欄前。憶個郎遠別已經年，恨只恨，不化成杜宇， 喚他快整歸鞭

Xiāo xiāo yè yǔ dī jiē qián,

hán qīn gū zhěn wèi chéng mián.

Jīn zhāo lǎn jìng yīng shì lí wō qiǎn,

lǜ yún yōng lüè, lǎn tiē huā diàn.

Xiǎo lóu dú yǐ, pà dǔ mò tóu yáng liǔ, fēn sè shàng lián biān;

gèng dù shā wú zhī shuāng yàn, zhī zhī yǔ guò huā lán qián.

Yì gè láng yuǎn bié yǐ jīng nián, hèn zhǐ hèn, bù huà chéng dù yǔ, huàn tā kuài zhěng guī biān

拼音--拼音: pin yin 注音: ㄆㄧㄣ ㄧㄣ, a phonetic transcription; to combine sounds to form words or syllables; to pronounce a word by following its phonetic symbols

注音--拼音: zhu yin 注音: ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ [Phonetics] a phonetic notation; a phonetic transcription

https://yun.dreye.com/dict_new/dict.php is the dictionary used here.

1. 瀟 拼音: xiao，the sound of beating rain and whistling wind; the roar of a strong wind 
2. 瀟
3. 夜 拼音: ye, night or evening  
4. 雨 拼音: ye, rain  
5. 滴 拼音: di, a drop; to drip
6. 階 拼音: jie, steps; stairs; rank
7. 前 拼音: qian, front; forward; former; ago; before; the preceding; the foregoing
8. 寒 拼音: han, cold; poor; needy
9. 衾 拼音: qin, a large coverlet or quilt; garments or dress for the deceased
10. 孤 拼音: gu, [Formal] (of a child) fatherless; an orphan; solitary
11. 枕 拼音: zhen, to use sth. as a pillow; to pillow; a pillow
12. 未 拼音: wei, not or not yet; the eighth of the twelve Earthly Branches used by the ancients to denote years, months, or days in combination with the ten Heavenly Stems
13. 成 拼音: cheng, to accomplish; to succeed; to complete; to become; to achieve; completed; accomplished; fixed; settled; all right; acceptable; able; capable; one-tenth
14. 眠 拼音: mian, sleep; dormancy
15. 今 拼音: jin 注音: ㄐㄧㄣ, the present, contemporary or modern, now
16. 朝 拼音: zhao 注音: ㄓㄠ, morning; a day
17. 攬 拼音: lan 注音: ㄌㄢˇ, to take or bring to oneself or one's side; to grasp; to monopolize; to take on
18. 鏡 拼音: jing 注音: ㄐㄧㄥˋ, a mirror; a lens
19. 應 拼音: ying 注音: ㄧㄥ, should; ought to; need
20. 是 拼音: shi 注音: ㄕˋ, [Formal] that; correct; right; am, is, or are
21. 梨 拼音: li 注音: ㄌㄧˊ, a pear; 
22. 渦 拼音: wo 注音: ㄨㄛ, a whirlpool; a vortex; a dimple
23. 淺 拼音: qian 注音: ㄑㄧㄢˇ, shallow; superficial; not deep
24. 綠 拼音: lV 注音: ㄌㄩˋ, green
25. 雲 拼音: yun 注音: ㄩㄣˊ, to say; cloud 
26. 慵 拼音: yong 注音: ㄩㄥ, [Formal] lethargic
27. 掠 拼音: lVe 注音: ㄌㄩㄝˋ, to plunder; to pillage; to sack; to sweep past; to brush past; to graze; to skim over a long stroke; to the left in Chinese calligraphy
28. 懶 拼音: lan 注音: ㄌㄢˇ, lazy; lacking energy
29. 貼 拼音: tie 注音: ㄊㄧㄝ, to paste or stick on; to stay close to; a subsidy; an allowance
31. 花 拼音: hua 注音: ㄏㄨㄚ, a flower or anything resembling one; a design; a pattern; colorful; variegated (of vision) blurred; (of handwriting) too fanciful; to spend (money or time)
32. 鈿 拼音: dian 注音: ㄉㄧㄢˋ, [Dialect] a coin; money; (Wikipedia: decoration articles with gold and silver jewels, shells, etc., used on people or objects.)
33. 小 拼音: xiao 注音: ㄒㄧㄠˇ, small; little; briefly; for a short while; the young; (polite speech) my; our
34. 樓 拼音: lou 注音: ㄌㄡˊ, a multi-story building; a story (or floor) in a multi-story building
35. 倚 拼音: yi 注音: ㄧˇ, to lean against; to rely on
36. 怕 拼音: pa 注音: ㄆㄚˋ, to fear; to be afraid; to think that; to suppose that
37. 睹 拼音: du 注音: ㄉㄨˇㄝ, to see; to observe; to notice
38. 陌 拼音: mo 注音: ㄇㄛˋ, a path between fields; a road; a street
39. 頭 拼音: tou 注音: ㄊㄡˊ, head; hair or hairstyle; the top; the end; beginning or end; a stub; remnant; a stump; end; head; chief; boss; side; aspect; first; leading
40. 陌頭 拼音: mò tóu 注音: ㄇㄛˋ ㄊㄡˊ 拼音: mo4 tou2 相似詞: 1.街頭
41. 1.路旁。唐．王昌齡〈閨怨〉詩：「忽見陌頭楊柳色，悔教夫婿覓封侯。」Similar words: 1. Street; Roadside. Tang. Wang Changling's poem: "I suddenly see the color of the roadside willow, and regret that I encouraged my husband to work on becoming a government officer." Unfamiliar）
42. 楊 拼音: yang 注音: ㄧㄤˊ, poplar
43. 柳 拼音: liu 注音: ㄌㄧㄡˇ, a willow (tree)
44. 楊柳 拼音: yang liu 注音: ㄧㄤˊ ㄌㄧㄡˇ, willow; poplar and willow
45. 分 拼音: fen 注音: ㄈㄣ, to divide into parts; to separate into parts; to allot; to distribute; to distinguish; one-tenth (of something); a unit of length equal to one-third centimeter; a unit of area measurement equal to one-third square meters; the smallest Chinese money unit; a minute
46. 色 拼音: se 注音: ㄙㄜˋ, color; facial expression
47. 上 拼音: shang 注音: ㄕㄤˋ, above; on top of; up; upper; previous; preceding; superior; better; to go to; to install; to forge ahead
48. 簾 拼音: lian 注音: ㄌㄧㄢˊ, a screen; a curtain; (bamboo) blinds; a shop-sign flag
49. 邊 拼音: bian 注音: ㄅㄧㄢ, a side; the edge; rim; a border; a boundary; a limit
50. 更 拼音: geng 注音: ㄍㄥˋ, still more; even more
51. 妒 拼音: du 注音: ㄉㄨˋ, envy; jealousy; to be envious; to be jealous of
52. 煞 拼音: sha 注音: ㄕㄚ, to stop; to close; to halt; to check; to bring to a close; to brake; to tighten; to bind；to weaken; to reduce; to abate; to offset; to mitigate; in the extreme; exceedingly;
53. 拼音: sha 注音: ㄕㄚˋ, an evil spirit; an goblin; a fierce god; a malignant deity; [Informal] very; extremely; to bring to an end; to conclude
54. 無 拼音: wu 注音: ㄨˊ, without；nil; nothing
55. 知 拼音: zhi 注音: ㄓ, to know；to be aware of；knowledge
56. 無知 拼音: wu zhi 注音: ㄨˊ ㄓ, ignorant; innocent; illiteracy; to keep sb. in the dark (about sth.)
57.