南山南
This is one of the most influential Chinese pop-folk songs in the past few years. The popularity can be understood through two factors: the rich metaphors created an immense open space for listeners to imagine, interpret, and narrate their own stories; the compelling spatial dialectic of North-South (the main axis of Chinese landscape and culture, as opposed to e.g. the American East-West) and the sharply reversed seasons became a widespread cliche for people to express the sense of perpetual separation, untenable longings. Due to the season reversal, what you have is always not what you want.
With these in mind, the translation tried to preserve the "fuzziness" of the metaphors, so English readers, hopefully, can have as open an imagination space as possible.
Fun Fact:
你在南方的艳阳里，大雪纷飞
我在北方的寒夜里，四季如春
如果天黑之前来得及，我要忘了你的眼睛
穷极一生，做不完一场梦
他不再和谁谈论相逢的孤岛
因为心里早已荒无人烟
他的心里再装不下一个家
做一个只对自己说谎的哑巴
他说你任何为人称道的美丽
不及他第一次遇见你
时光苟延残喘无可奈何
如果所有土地连在一起
走上一生只为拥抱你
喝醉了他的梦，晚安
他听见有人唱着古老的歌
唱着今天还在远方发生的
像在他眼睛里看到的孤岛
没有悲伤但也没有花朵
你在南方的艳阳里
大雪纷飞
我在北方的寒夜里
四季如春
如果天黑之前来得及
我要忘了你的眼睛
穷极一生，做不完一场梦
你在南方的艳阳里
大雪纷飞
我在北方的寒夜里
四季如春
如果天黑之前来得及
我要忘了你的眼睛
穷极一生
做不完一场梦
大梦初醒荒唐了一生
南山南，北秋悲
南山有谷堆
南风南，北海北
北海有墓碑
南山南，北秋悲
南山有谷堆
南风南，北海北
北海有墓碑
北海有墓碑
Lyrics
When the Southern sun gleams on you, with a blizzard howling;
When the Northern night engulfs me, in this year-long spring;
If I can make it before dark, I would forget about your eyes.
A life thrown away to fall short of this dream.
He no longer talks about the isle to meet,
when the heart is a barren waste,
that can't even fit a house,
only to be mute to lie to no one else.
All of your acclaimed vanity, he said,
are dwarfed by the first sight.
The rivers of time all wither and sigh.
When Pangea overtakes the continents,
he'd embrace you after a journey of life.
Drunken in the dreams, he says goodnight.
He heard someone's old ballads,
of what still happens far away,
like the isle in his eyes,
void of sadness or blossom.
When the Southern sun gleams on you, with a blizzard howling;
When the Northern night engulfs me, in this year-long spring;
If I can make it before dark, I would forget about your eyes.
A life thrown away to fall short of this dream. (x2)
South Mountain south,
North autumn mourns,
South Mountain bears a heap of grain.
Southerly south,
North Sea north,
North Sea harbors a long stone.
