Few things stir up high school nostalgia for me quicker than Thom Yorke going on about how un-special he is. Even now, Pablo Honey is a regular shuffle on my iPod (and still my favourite Radiohead album). Throw in the fact that I’ve been trying to re-dedicate myself to learning Chinese lately, and I was quite chuffed to stumble across this Chinese cover of Creep by Dawen:
(h/t to Aaron Posehn for sharing the video)
Chinese lyrics:
Dawen’s subtitles in the video are all in traditional characters, and considering my simplified hanzi is lackluster on a good day, apologies if I’ve flubbed things converting it all to simplified below:
| æ±‰å— |
Pīnyīn |
English |
ä½ ä»¥å‰æ¥çš„时候
我ä¸èƒ½é¢å¯¹ä½
ä½ åƒä¸€ä¸ªå¤©ä½¿
ä½ çš„è„¸è®©æˆ‘å“
在这个美丽的世界*
ä½ æ¼‚æ¥æ¼‚去**
ä½ çœŸçš„å¥½ç‰¹åˆ«
我没什么特别 |
NÇ yÇqián lái de shÃhou
WÇ’ bùnéng mià n duì nÇ
NÇ xià ng yÄ«gè tiÄnshÇ
NÇ de liÇŽn rà ng wÇ’ kÅ«
Zà i zhège měilì de shìjiè*
NÇ pià o lái pià o qù**
NÇ zhÄ“n de hÇŽo tèbié
Wǒ méishénme tèbié |
When you were here before
Couldn’t look you in the eye
You’re just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You’re so fucking special |
我好奇怪
有点å˜æ€
我干å—在这里?
我ä¸åº”该在这里 |
WÇ’ hà o qÃguà i
Yǒudiǎn bià ntà i
WÇ’ gà nma zà i zhèlÇ?
WÇ’ bù yìng gÄi zà i zhèlÇ |
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here |
我ä¸åœ¨æ„å—伤
我è¦æŽ§åˆ¶æƒ
我è¦å®Œç¾Žçš„身æ
我è¦å®Œç¾Žçš„çµé‚
æˆ‘å¸Œæœ›ä½ æƒ³æˆ‘
当我ä¸åœ¨å®¶
ä½ çœŸçš„å¥½ç‰¹åˆ«
我没什么特别 |
WÇ’ bù zà iyì shòushÄng
Wǒ yà o kòngzhì quán
Wǒ yà o wánměi de shēncái
WÇ’ yà o wánmÄ›i de lÃnghún
WÇ’ xÄ«wà ng nÇ xiÇŽng wÇ’
DÄng wÇ’ bù zà ijiÄ
NÇ zhÄ“n de hÇŽo tèbié
Wǒ méishénme tèbié |
I don’t care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice when I’m not around
You’re so fucking special
I wish I was special |
我好奇怪
有点å˜æ€
我干å—在这里?
我ä¸åº”该在这里 |
WÇ’ hà o qÃguà i
Yǒudiǎn bià ntà i
WÇ’ gà nma zà i zhèlÇ?
WÇ’ bù yìng gÄi zà i zhèlÇ |
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell I’m doing here?
I don’t belong here |
她 – è¦ç¦»é—¨ï¼Œå¥¹è¦é€ƒè·‘
她æ£åœ¨
逃跑，跑
跑。。。
逃跑。。。 |
TÄ – yà o là mén, tÄ yà o táopÇŽo
TÄ zhèngzà i
Táopǎo, pǎo
PÇŽo…
TáopÇŽo… |
She’s running out the door
She’s running out
She runs
Runs
Runs |
éšä½ 高兴
éšä½ çš„è¦çƒ
ä½ çœŸçš„å¥½ç‰¹åˆ«
我没什么特别 |
Suà nÇ gÄoxìng
Suà nÇ de yÄo qiú
NÇ zhÄ“n de hÇŽo tèbié
Wǒ méishénme tèbié |
Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You’re so fucking special
I wish I was special |
我好奇怪
有点å˜æ€
我干å—在这里?
我ä¸åº”该在这里
我ä¸åº”该在这里 |
WÇ’ hà o qÃguà i
Yǒudiǎn bià ntà i
WÇ’ gà nma zà i zhèlÇ
WÇ’ bù yìng gÄi zà i zhèlÇ?
WÇ’ bù yìng gÄi zà i zhèlÇ |
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here |
* – Dawen switches the phrasing and wording here so that it’s more “in a beautiful world / you float around”. He also reverses the “I wish I was/you are so special” lines — not sure why.
** – The 漂 used is for floating in water. The original, I assume would actually be 飘, as I think the feather would be floating in air. I could be wrong though. Interesting to note that one has 三点水 as it’s left-side radical, and the other 风 as it’s right-side radical — sort of denoting “water” and “air”.
