Poetry in a cappella (by the Beautiful Voices)

 

Song title: Full River of Red 

Song selected by : Oliver

Original poem:(Chinese-English reference)

怒髮沖冠,憑闌處,瀟瀟雨歇。My rage is bristling I could barely hold my cap, I lean against the railing. The rushing rain has ceased.

抬望眼,仰天長嘯,壯懷激烈。Lifting my eyes, I look towards the sky and shout; my blood is boiling for my country.

三十功名塵與土,八千里路雲和月。Thirty years: rank and honor, just so much dust;Eight thousand leagues: travelling with the moon and clouds.

莫等閑、白了少年頭,空悲切!Do not let it slip away; When a young man"s hair turns grey, Regret will be too late.

靖康恥,猶未雪。The national insult is yet to be avenged;

臣子恨,何時滅?Your servants’shame: When will it be erased?

駕長車踏破,賀蘭山缺!Let us ride the long chariots to crush those mountain strongholds.

壯志飢餐胡虜肉,笑談渴飲匈奴血。Glorious quest: to feast on the flesh of the invaders.We laugh and chat and quench our thirst with barbarian blood.

待從頭,收拾舊山河,朝天闕。 Let us start to take back the lost property, and report to the royal place.


About the poet: Yue Fei

Yue Fei was born in a poor pleasant family. Legend had it when he was born, a huge bird flew over the rooftop. Hence his father gave him the name ‘Fei’, courtesy name ‘Peng Ju’. Yu Fei studied very hard ever since he was little; he had read ‘Chronicles of Zuo’ and ‘The Art of War’. He loved martial arts, and he was a very well-trained martial artist. His most famous writing was ‘Full River of Red’.
| Cited from epochtimes.com / Picture : Wikipedia |

   

About the poem:

During the South Song Dynasty ear, the country was getting constantly defeated by the Jin Dynasty due to shortage of soldiers and army generals, causing the country’s land to kept on diminishing. Yue Fei joined the army when he was twenty. By the time he was thirty, he still couldn’t get his troops to defeat the Jin soldiers. Hence, Yue Fei wrote ‘Full River of Red’ to vent his anger. In the poem, we could see how much Yue Fei wanted to defeat the Jin soldiers, and hence his mounting anger.

‘Full River of Red’ afterthoughts:

This song has a very lively prelude, and it wakes people up. The song is very up-beat with a fast tempo, and it made listeners’ blood boil. Therefore, this is our favorite song. When it comes to chorus, it feels like we are having a duet, like Yue Fei in the past grieving to Yue Fei in the past. The song is so special that I think the band really showed what Yue Fei was like at that time.

Text: the Beautiful Voices Compiled by Oliver │ Pictures: the Beautiful Voices