<ol>
<li>来负担系好<strong>愁</strong> = to burden oneself is very <strong>worrisome</strong></li>
</ol>

<blockquote>
  <ol start="2">
  <li>Is my reading of 早晨由暗做杉几十穷 correct?</li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p>It is not Mandarin or Cantonese,  I am not sure if your pinyin is correct or not, but sound like O.K to me. </p>

<ol start="3">
<li>当= 典当 (to pawn); 借= to borrow. The two verbs together means "to pawn and borrow"</li>
</ol>

<p>[周时][爱][当][借][靠老朋友]= Often pawn, borrow and rely on (support from) old friends </p>

<p><strong>Edit:</strong></p>

<p>MickG wrote:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>Would I then be right in translating «完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁» as «All my family, older and younger [people], is a big tree, and burdening myself [with it] is very worrysome»?</em> </p>
</blockquote>

<p>完家大细 = the entire family (old and young) ; 一大楸 = a big bundle  来负担系好愁 = it is very worrisome to burden myself (with all of them)</p>

<p>"完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁" means " the entire family old and young, is a big bundle, to burden (myself with it) is very worrisome"</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:41:27.730Z
The transliteration is an approximation of what I hear. In particular, the pairs c-ts, ch-tsh and sh-s may exhibit switchings w.r.t. Minhakka. The rest should be correct.
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:48:55.007Z
Would I then be right in translating «完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁» as «All my family, older and younger [people], is a big tree, and burdening myself [with it] is very worrysome»?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:58:16.903Z
See my edition at the bottom.
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T13:41:50.540Z
So it's using the name of a tree as a metaphor for a heavy burden. Does such a thing happen in Mandarin too or should I provide a gloss on a blog post where I gloss every non-Mandarin word with matching Mandarin translations?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:19:36.083Z
`週時愛當借靠老朋友`  in Hakka has nothing to do with simply pawning or borrowing.  `愛` mean needs or `需要`,  當 has nothing to do with pawn， it should be read as 當借靠老朋友 , it means you should get help from your folks when in needs.
mootmoot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:38:28.927Z
2018-05-09T12:57:52.233Z
2018-05-09T12:57:52.233Z
Tang Ho
<p>The following should settles it?</p>

<p><a href="https://youtu.be/GrzCAlssHoI" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/GrzCAlssHoI</a></p>

<p>BTW, for years this has been my favourite Hakka karaoke song.</p>

<p>There is also the "original" Hokkien version and a Cantonese version, though the lyrics of all 3 are different, they share the same general theme, i.e. "one has to work hard, endure hardships and not depend too much on mother luck to succeed in life"</p>

<p>Since I could sing all 3 versions, I put the Hokkien and Cantonese versions below for anyone interested.</p>

<p>Hokkien version"-</p>

<p><a href="https://youtu.be/wflMFaDSJDo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/wflMFaDSJDo</a></p>

<p>Cantonese version:-</p>

<p><a href="https://youtu.be/r5lFyMS1Mh8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/r5lFyMS1Mh8</a></p>

<p>Enjoy, I hope.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-17T06:58:01.560Z
The hidden problem or linguistic trap when using one set of written Chinese characters to verbalize a certain dialect is that the dialect speakers merely borrows the "sound" of the Character and not its meaning. A good example is the very first line which has brought about much confusion and arguments for non-Hakka speakers, and it is the common "mandarin" word, 爱, as in  人穷爱肯捱 . A non-Hakka speaker would be forgiven for saying it means -- "A poor person loves to suffer or endure hardships..." The 爱 here dose not mean "love" or "have affection for", but means simply -- "be willing or need to"
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-17T07:03:20.300Z
Oh, BTW, when Hakkas write "love" they use "爱" as well.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-17T06:32:33.577Z
2020-03-17T06:32:33.577Z
Wayne Cheah
<p>I'm transcribing this out of my memory from years ago.</p>

<p>人穷爱肯<strong>挨</strong>正晓出头 (same as 捱 endure -- i prefer 挨 as it's more common)<br>
When you are poor, only by being able to endure can you succeed</p>

<p>平时努力人系饿毋瘦<br>
Working hard daily, you might be hungry but not gaunt</p>

<p>完家大细一大<strong>湊</strong> or 潮<br>
The whole family, big and small, a big group</p>

<p>来负担系好愁<br>
Is a burden, really worrisome</p>

<p>早晨又暗做<strong>三二十塊</strong><br>
Morning and night working (for) 30-20 dollars</p>

<p><strong>挨</strong>到<strong>發</strong>病骨头痛又做到瘦  </p>

<p>The rest is correct :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-16T15:34:24.337Z
2020-03-16T15:34:24.337Z
iamanigeeit
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCFjOG6a2tY" rel="nofollow noreferrer">张少林个“肯涯正晓出头”</a><br>
<br>
人穷爱肯涯正晓出头<br>
平时努力人系饿毋瘦<br>
完家大细一大楸<br>
来负担系好愁<br>
早晨由暗做杉几十穷<br>
涯到拨病骨头痛又<br>
做到瘦<br>
还惊饿死老婆屋又臭<br>
做到 汗流<br>
周时爱当借靠老朋友<br>
年轻爱食苦 做事莫怕羞<br>
出头个日子还有<br>
<br>
Nyin khiung oi hen ngai tsang hiau chut-theu<br>
Phin-sii nu-lit nyin he ngo m seu<br>
Won ka thai-se yit thai chiu<br>
Loi fu-tam he hau seu<br>
Tsau-sin yu am tso sam ki sip khiung<br>
Ngai tau pot-phiang kut-theu thung yiu<br>
Tso tau siu<br>
Han kiang ngo-si lau-pho wuk yiu chiu<br>
Tso tau hon liu<br>
Tsiu-sii oi tong cia khau lau phen-yiu<br>
Nyien-khiang oi sit-khu tso-sii mok pha siu<br>
Chut-theu ke nyit-tsii han yu<br>
<br>
When poverty allows me, I will succeed<br>
People who work hard in common times are not scarce in hunger<br>
The whole family, young and old people, are a big tree<br>
And holding it up is rather sad (?)<br>
In the morning from when it's still dark I make clothes in the tens.<br>
If I fall ill and my bones hurt, I still<br>
Work till I'm thin<br>
I still fear I'll starve to death and my wife abd my house will be poor again<br>
I work till my sweat flows<br>
I often have to rely on old friends for borrowing [stuff]<br>
When you're young you must suffer work and not be afraid of disgrace<br>
There will still be a day of success<br></p>

<p>The above is my character approximation, transliteration, and translation attempt for a Hakka song by Zhang Shaolin. I am unsure about the following:</p>

<ol>
<li>Translating 愁 as sad is the only option given the character, but I would expect something more like "hard, difficult" than "sad"; is that correct, or is there another seu/siu which fits best? Or maybe 楸 is the wrong character?</li>
<li>Is my reading of 早晨由暗做杉几十穷 correct?</li>
<li>That 当借 feels a bit like it should be a single verb, but I can't find it; is my translation fine?</li>
</ol>

<p>Any other inputs are of course welcome.</p>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>

<p>The first line is extremely prone to misinterpretation, because:</p>

<ol>
<li>人穷 is reported by Minhakka… um, seems to be reported by Minhakka as "poverty", the culprit being «人窮起盗心», translated to «poverty leads to thievery» when a more literal (i.e. structure-reflecting) translation is «if a man is poor he will grow a thief's heart»;</li>
<li>肯 also means "allow";</li>
<li>The sound "ngai" is, in my mind, automatically matched to the pronoun "ngâi", meaning "I"; however, it is also the verb 捱, meaning "to endure, to suffer".</li>
</ol>

<p>So after clearing up point 1, only one option is left:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>人穷爱肯捱正晓出头 | If a man is poor, only when he is willing to endure hardships will he succeed</p>
</blockquote>

<p>With point 1 not cleared, the obvious interpretation is what I gave at the beginning. If we change the interpretation of 肯捱 without clearing up point 1, we end up with:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>人穷爱肯捱正晓出头</p>
</blockquote>

<p>interpreted as:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Only when (正) [I] will (爱) be willing (肯) to endure (捱) [my] poverty (人穷) can (晓) [I] succeed (出头).</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:20:31.277Z
It should be 人穷爱肯[捱][至]晓出头
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T12:25:07.833Z
@TangHo concerning ngai, I follow the convention of the fb group Hakka Verse, which uses that character, and I also have a source with yet another radical (the person radical) suggested, so unless that is not the pronoun ngai I will keep that character. Concerning tsang, [Minhakka](minhakka.ling.sinica.edu.tw) actually supports my spelling for the word "chàng" meaning "just, exactly", and only reads 至 as chì, which is not what is heard in the song, so why should I use 至?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:06:32.357Z
I agree with @tang ho , 肯`捱` is the proper term.  both 捱 and 涯 pronounce as ngai in hakka, this is Hans character, you cannot simply use 涯 because it pronounce the same.
mootmoot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:11:51.460Z
@mootmoot On what basis are you suggesting I change the spelling of this pronoun?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:16:27.453Z
Go check out zdic.net if you insist to use  涯. 
All the Chinese dialect are using the same unified mandrain character, you cannot simply redefine the meaning.
mootmoot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:24:41.427Z
@mootmoot So now I have 3 dictionaries and one Facebook group with 4 different suggestions for this pronoun: [zdict](https://zdic.net), you say, suggests 捱, [Minhakka](https://minhakka.ling.sinica.edu.tw) suggests 我, [hakka.dict](https://hakka.dict.edu.tw) suggests (亻厓), and the Facebook group Hakka Verse (or at least its founder Anton Xie) uses 涯. «All the Chinese dialect» in what sense? I only use 涯 because my keyboard won't let me input the hakka.dict one, and because it appears as a square on some computers.
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:28:43.807Z
Also, inputting 捱 produces the explanation «put off, procrastinate; endure», so where does zdic suggest that character?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:29:59.830Z
涯 doesn't has the meaning of 捱(to endure) that's why you must choose 捱 in this context,  涯 is not even a verb
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:31:31.803Z
@TangHo So you are saying this "ngai" is not the Hakka pronoun "ngai" meaning "I" but a verb meaning "to endure"?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:32:30.427Z
Yes "肯捱 "means "willing to endure"
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:33:17.157Z
捱 is used interchangeably as “挨” , http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/js/6328.htm
mootmoot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:34:30.230Z
@TangHo So what is l. 1 saying? «Only when [I] will be willing to endure poverty will [I] succeed»?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:38:49.010Z
人穷 (when a man is poor) 爱肯捱( you must be willing to endure hardship, meaning to  work hard) 正(only then) 晓(would) 出头(you succeed)
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:38:56.040Z
如果你肯`挨/ 捱` , actually carry the meaning of `挨苦` : enduring the hard works. 
Philosophically,  I don't believe such, as serious poverty is an act of struggling to survive, it will not change one status without external helps.
mootmoot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:42:19.850Z
My gosh that sentence has so many ambiguities! 人穷 is reported as meaning "poverty" on Minhakka, 肯 can mean "allow", "ngai" is a very-often-misspelt pronoun, leading me to a completely wrong reading of that sentence. Time to edit my question to address this issue.
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T14:50:24.013Z
ngai (I) should be written as 我
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T15:03:05.577Z
@TangHo On what basis should I create a duōyīnzì in Hakka when this pronoun is never spelt 我 in lyrics and both [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%A0%8A%8E) and [hakka.dict](http://hakka.dict.edu.tw/hakkadict/index.htm) (search for ngai, it will appear) suggest ? If that only were inputable via keyboard and properly rendered on my mobile I would use it, but since I need a fallback I choose something that looks similar and doesn't cause pronunciation ambiguities, hence 涯.
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T19:29:55.383Z
@MickG In Cantonese, the verb "to come' is pronounced as "嚟" as in "返嚟" (come back)," 嚟搵人" (Come to look for someone), But  "嚟" is a colloquial word, the literary word  "to come" is still "來". Even  the noun "I" in Minhakka is pronounced as "涯" but the literary writing of "I" is still "我";  "涯" is a colloquial word that's being accepted as literary one, just like Cantonese accepting 嚟 as a  literary  word. but the original words are still "來"and "我"
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T19:35:15.160Z
@TangHo Well then, since the song is, I believe, written in a colloquial dialect and not meant to be literary, there is no need to use a literary word, and the colloquial one is more appropriate, right?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T19:35:48.207Z
Also, I guess the ngai in line 6 should also be spelt the other way.
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T19:38:00.187Z
Is it possible that the "won ka", which I respelled 完家, was actually correct as 宛家?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T19:54:30.283Z
@MickG I don't speak Minhakka, but 完家 (colloquial) sounds like 全家(literary ) to me. However, 完 has the meaning of "complete" therefore "完家" might also be a legit term (use in both colloquial and  literary) for "whole family" in Minhakka
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T20:08:42.317Z
@TangHo and that is exactly why I decided to write 完家 instead of the 宛家 I saw in the video's karaoke captiona. So do you think I was right in assuming the 宛 in the captions was just a phonetic loan or could it have a distinct meaning?
MickG
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-09T20:11:56.910Z
Yes I think 宛 is a phonetic loan sound for 完 (complete) ; 宛 itself doesn't carry any related meaning in this context
Tang Ho
<translation><hakka>
Help understanding "Hen ngai cang hiau chut-theu" by Zhang Shaolin
# Help understanding "Hen ngai cang hiau chut-theu" by Zhang Shaolin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-09)

[张少林个“肯涯正晓出头”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCFjOG6a2tY)  
  
人穷爱肯涯正晓出头  
平时努力人系饿毋瘦  
完家大细一大楸  
来负担系好愁  
早晨由暗做杉几十穷  
涯到拨病骨头痛又  
做到瘦  
还惊饿死老婆屋又臭  
做到 汗流  
周时爱当借靠老朋友  
年轻爱食苦 做事莫怕羞  
出头个日子还有  
  
Nyin khiung oi hen ngai tsang hiau chut-theu  
Phin-sii nu-lit nyin he ngo m seu  
Won ka thai-se yit thai chiu  
Loi fu-tam he hau seu  
Tsau-sin yu am tso sam ki sip khiung  
Ngai tau pot-phiang kut-theu thung yiu  
Tso tau siu  
Han kiang ngo-si lau-pho wuk yiu chiu  
Tso tau hon liu  
Tsiu-sii oi tong cia khau lau phen-yiu  
Nyien-khiang oi sit-khu tso-sii mok pha siu  
Chut-theu ke nyit-tsii han yu  
  
When poverty allows me, I will succeed  
People who work hard in common times are not scarce in hunger  
The whole family, young and old people, are a big tree  
And holding it up is rather sad (?)  
In the morning from when it's still dark I make clothes in the tens.  
If I fall ill and my bones hurt, I still  
Work till I'm thin  
I still fear I'll starve to death and my wife abd my house will be poor again  
I work till my sweat flows  
I often have to rely on old friends for borrowing [stuff]  
When you're young you must suffer work and not be afraid of disgrace  
There will still be a day of success

The above is my character approximation, transliteration, and translation attempt for a Hakka song by Zhang Shaolin. I am unsure about the following:

1. Translating 愁 as sad is the only option given the character, but I would expect something more like "hard, difficult" than "sad"; is that correct, or is there another seu/siu which fits best? Or maybe 楸 is the wrong character?
2. Is my reading of 早晨由暗做杉几十穷 correct?
3. That 当借 feels a bit like it should be a single verb, but I can't find it; is my translation fine?

Any other inputs are of course welcome.

**EDIT**

The first line is extremely prone to misinterpretation, because:

1. 人穷 is reported by Minhakka… um, seems to be reported by Minhakka as "poverty", the culprit being «人窮起盗心», translated to «poverty leads to thievery» when a more literal (i.e. structure-reflecting) translation is «if a man is poor he will grow a thief's heart»;
2. 肯 also means "allow";
3. The sound "ngai" is, in my mind, automatically matched to the pronoun "ngâi", meaning "I"; however, it is also the verb 捱, meaning "to endure, to suffer".

So after clearing up point 1, only one option is left:

> 人穷爱肯捱正晓出头 | If a man is poor, only when he is willing to endure hardships will he succeed

With point 1 not cleared, the obvious interpretation is what I gave at the beginning. If we change the interpretation of 肯捱 without clearing up point 1, we end up with:

> 人穷爱肯捱正晓出头

interpreted as:

> Only when (正) [I] will (爱) be willing (肯) to endure (捱) [my] poverty (人穷) can (晓) [I] succeed (出头).

**Tags:** translation, hakka

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It should be 人穷爱肯[捱][至]晓出头  
> **username_0**: @TangHo concerning ngai, I follow the convention of the fb group Hakka Verse, which uses that character, and I also have a source with yet another radical (the person radical) suggested, so unless that is not the pronoun ngai I will keep that character. Concerning tsang, [Minhakka](minhakka.ling.sinica.edu.tw) actually supports my spelling for the word "chàng" meaning "just, exactly", and only reads 至 as chì, which is not what is heard in the song, so why should I use 至?  
> **username_2**: I agree with @tang ho , 肯`捱` is the proper term.  both 捱 and 涯 pronounce as ngai in hakka, this is Hans character, you cannot simply use 涯 because it pronounce the same.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 On what basis are you suggesting I change the spelling of this pronoun?  
> **username_2**: Go check out zdic.net if you insist to use  涯.  All the Chinese dialect are using the same unified mandrain character, you cannot simply redefine the meaning.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 So now I have 3 dictionaries and one Facebook group with 4 different suggestions for this pronoun: [zdict](https://zdic.net), you say, suggests 捱, [Minhakka](https://minhakka.ling.sinica.edu.tw) suggests 我, [hakka.dict](https://hakka.dict.edu.tw) suggests (亻厓), and the Facebook group Hakka Verse (or at least its founder Anton Xie) uses 涯. «All the Chinese dialect» in what sense? I only use 涯 because my keyboard won't let me input the hakka.dict one, and because it appears as a square on some computers.  
> **username_0**: Also, inputting 捱 produces the explanation «put off, procrastinate; endure», so where does zdic suggest that character?  
> **username_1**: 涯 doesn't has the meaning of 捱(to endure) that's why you must choose 捱 in this context,  涯 is not even a verb  
> **username_0**: @TangHo So you are saying this "ngai" is not the Hakka pronoun "ngai" meaning "I" but a verb meaning "to endure"?  
> **username_1**: Yes "肯捱 "means "willing to endure"  
> **username_2**: 捱 is used interchangeably as “挨” , http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/js/6328.htm  
> **username_0**: @TangHo So what is l. 1 saying? «Only when [I] will be willing to endure poverty will [I] succeed»?  
> **username_1**: 人穷 (when a man is poor) 爱肯捱( you must be willing to endure hardship, meaning to  work hard) 正(only then) 晓(would) 出头(you succeed)  
> **username_2**: 如果你肯`挨/ 捱` , actually carry the meaning of `挨苦` : enduring the hard works.  Philosophically,  I don't believe such, as serious poverty is an act of struggling to survive, it will not change one status without external helps.  
> **username_0**: My gosh that sentence has so many ambiguities! 人穷 is reported as meaning "poverty" on Minhakka, 肯 can mean "allow", "ngai" is a very-often-misspelt pronoun, leading me to a completely wrong reading of that sentence. Time to edit my question to address this issue.  
> **username_1**: ngai (I) should be written as 我  
> **username_0**: @TangHo On what basis should I create a duōyīnzì in Hakka when this pronoun is never spelt 我 in lyrics and both [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%A0%8A%8E) and [hakka.dict](http://hakka.dict.edu.tw/hakkadict/index.htm) (search for ngai, it will appear) suggest ? If that only were inputable via keyboard and properly rendered on my mobile I would use it, but since I need a fallback I choose something that looks similar and doesn't cause pronunciation ambiguities, hence 涯.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 In Cantonese, the verb "to come' is pronounced as "嚟" as in "返嚟" (come back)," 嚟搵人" (Come to look for someone), But  "嚟" is a colloquial word, the literary word  "to come" is still "來". Even  the noun "I" in Minhakka is pronounced as "涯" but the literary writing of "I" is still "我";  "涯" is a colloquial word that's being accepted as literary one, just like Cantonese accepting 嚟 as a  literary  word. but the original words are still "來"and "我"  
> **username_0**: @TangHo Well then, since the song is, I believe, written in a colloquial dialect and not meant to be literary, there is no need to use a literary word, and the colloquial one is more appropriate, right?  
> **username_0**: Also, I guess the ngai in line 6 should also be spelt the other way.  
> **username_0**: Is it possible that the "won ka", which I respelled 完家, was actually correct as 宛家?  
> **username_1**: @username_0 I don't speak Minhakka, but 完家 (colloquial) sounds like 全家(literary ) to me. However, 完 has the meaning of "complete" therefore "完家" might also be a legit term (use in both colloquial and  literary) for "whole family" in Minhakka  
> **username_0**: @TangHo and that is exactly why I decided to write 完家 instead of the 宛家 I saw in the video's karaoke captiona. So do you think I was right in assuming the 宛 in the captions was just a phonetic loan or could it have a distinct meaning?  
> **username_1**: Yes I think 宛 is a phonetic loan sound for 完 (complete) ; 宛 itself doesn't carry any related meaning in this context  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-05-09. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

1. 来负担系好**愁** = to burden oneself is very **worrisome**

> 2. Is my reading of 早晨由暗做杉几十穷 correct?

It is not Mandarin or Cantonese, I am not sure if your pinyin is correct or not, but sound like O.K to me.

3. 当= 典当 (to pawn); 借= to borrow. The two verbs together means "to pawn and borrow"

[周时][爱][当][借][靠老朋友]= Often pawn, borrow and rely on (support from) old friends

**Edit:**

username_0 wrote:

> *Would I then be right in translating «完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁» as «All my family, older and younger [people], is a big tree, and burdening myself [with it] is very worrysome»?*

完家大细 = the entire family (old and young) ; 一大楸 = a big bundle 来负担系好愁 = it is very worrisome to burden myself (with all of them)

"完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁" means " the entire family old and young, is a big bundle, to burden (myself with it) is very worrisome"

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The transliteration is an approximation of what I hear. In particular, the pairs c-ts, ch-tsh and sh-s may exhibit switchings w.r.t. Minhakka. The rest should be correct.  
> **username_0**: Would I then be right in translating «完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁» as «All my family, older and younger [people], is a big tree, and burdening myself [with it] is very worrysome»?  
> **username_1**: See my edition at the bottom.  
> **username_0**: So it's using the name of a tree as a metaphor for a heavy burden. Does such a thing happen in Mandarin too or should I provide a gloss on a blog post where I gloss every non-Mandarin word with matching Mandarin translations?  
> **username_2**: `週時愛當借靠老朋友`  in Hakka has nothing to do with simply pawning or borrowing.  `愛` mean needs or `需要`,  當 has nothing to do with pawn， it should be read as 當借靠老朋友 , it means you should get help from your folks when in needs.  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2020-03-17. Score: 0

The following should settles it?

<https://youtu.be/GrzCAlssHoI>

BTW, for years this has been my favourite Hakka karaoke song.

There is also the "original" Hokkien version and a Cantonese version, though the lyrics of all 3 are different, they share the same general theme, i.e. "one has to work hard, endure hardships and not depend too much on mother luck to succeed in life"

Since I could sing all 3 versions, I put the Hokkien and Cantonese versions below for anyone interested.

Hokkien version"-

<https://youtu.be/wflMFaDSJDo>

Cantonese version:-

<https://youtu.be/r5lFyMS1Mh8>

Enjoy, I hope.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: The hidden problem or linguistic trap when using one set of written Chinese characters to verbalize a certain dialect is that the dialect speakers merely borrows the "sound" of the Character and not its meaning. A good example is the very first line which has brought about much confusion and arguments for non-Hakka speakers, and it is the common "mandarin" word, 爱, as in  人穷爱肯捱 . A non-Hakka speaker would be forgiven for saying it means -- "A poor person loves to suffer or endure hardships..." The 爱 here dose not mean "love" or "have affection for", but means simply -- "be willing or need to"  
> **username_3**: Oh, BTW, when Hakkas write "love" they use "爱" as well.  

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### Answer by username_4 on 2020-03-16. Score: 0

I'm transcribing this out of my memory from years ago.

人穷爱肯**挨**正晓出头 (same as 捱 endure -- i prefer 挨 as it's more common)  
When you are poor, only by being able to endure can you succeed

平时努力人系饿毋瘦  
Working hard daily, you might be hungry but not gaunt

完家大细一大**湊** or 潮  
The whole family, big and small, a big group

来负担系好愁  
Is a burden, really worrisome

早晨又暗做**三二十塊**  
Morning and night working (for) 30-20 dollars

**挨**到**發**病骨头痛又做到瘦

The rest is correct :)


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