Fool

憨人 Fool

詞曲：阿信　
Words and Music by Ashin

In my heart I feel how much seriousness there is in life, I don’t dare touch it
I’m not a good person, but I’m also not a bad person, I’m just someone who loves to dream
I’m not willing to float with the tide, like a drifting boat that cannot find a harbor
I don’t want to be a devious opportunist, I’d rather be a fool

It’s not that my head is empty, it’s not that I’m useless,
People, oh! A lifetime is so long, how can we happily pass the years

I have my road, I have my dreams
Is it possible the world of my dreams is just an illusion?
On the road that I’ve traveled, I only have hope
Hope that all we’ve talked about is in our hearts, believing one day it will all come true

Seeing gold dance through the sky, I reach out for it but grasp nothing, it’s like fate mocking me
My background’s not good enough, my talent’s not used enough, in everything I lose to other people
I’d best see through all this false splendor, I'm unafraid of how difficult the road ahead may be,
and unafraid of being drenched in the rain
On my heart, there is one word: daring, when confronting my dreams, I’m willing to be a fool
我的心內感覺　人生的沈重　不敢來振動
我不是好子　嘛不是歹人　我只是愛眠夢
我不願隨浪隨風　飄浪西東　親像船無港
我不願做人　奸巧鑽縫　甘願來作憨人

我不是頭腦空空　我不是一隻米蟲
人啊人　一世人　要安怎歡喜　過春夏秋冬

我有我的路　有我的夢　
夢中的那個世界　甘講伊是一場空
我走過的路　只有希望　
希望你我講過的話　放在心肝內　總有一天

看到滿天全金條　要煞無半項　環境來戲弄
背景無夠強　天才無夠弄　逐項是攏輸人
只好看破這虛華　不怕路歹行　不怕大雨淋
心上一字敢　面對我的夢　甘願來作憨人

Notes: First and foremost, C.C. gets the lion's share of the credit for going through the Taiwanese lyrics line by line and annotating them in Mandarin and checking through the English drafts to see how faithful they were to the Taiwanese. Before that, the whole translation did not make much sense. Many of the notes below also stem from C.C.'s explanations.

“Fool” strikes me as a particularly good translation for the term "憨人," so whoever at Rock Records came up with the English title gets extra bonus points. It’s not meant to imply "stupid," but to represent the idea of someone who quixotically follows his dreams. Idealists are often called fools, aren’t they?

"It's not that I'm useless" is the meaning of the idiom in the original lyric, 我不是一隻米蟲, which literally means "I'm not a rice bug."

“Seeing gold…” - this line comes from Taiwanese slang, and presents this image of gold (or money, though either could be representing dreams or ideals) dancing around in the sky, but no matter how you jump or reach for it, it remains elusive.

“On my heart, there is one word: daring” - The Chinese character for "fool" (憨) is the character for "daring" (敢) drawn immediately above the character for "heart" (心). But the sentence is also meant to imply that he will gather up his courage and bravely keep moving forward.

In 2005, Ashin wrote a Mandarin version of this song, "Salted Fish (鹹魚)." Though that song has a similar theme, and some rather well-formed metaphors, I still prefer the Taiwanese version. One reason is the difference in his voice as he sings it - this version has always made me think of John Lennon singing "Twist and Shout." When the Beatles recorded that song, it was very, very late after a long day in the studio. John's voice was essentially shot, so the scratchy, wild sound was him giving it all he had - just having fun with it, and not worrying too much about the quality. That's the same kind of feel I get from the original. The Mandarin version sounds much more refined - inhibited, almost - and polished. Made for mainland consumption, I suppose.