A Tale of Two Melodies – When Hymns Are to Be Sung in Cantonese
(Part V of V: The Road Onwards)
In the previous four blogs, I have explained the phenomenon of non-matching tones of translated hymns. I have also demonstrated how difficult it is to match or to compose lyrics for a melody using the tonal language of Cantonese. No wonder one Cantopop lyricist Wyman Wong has even advocated that Cantopop should be enlisted in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity due to the challenging creative process to keep both the pitches of the lyrics and the melody in tune. Therefore, it is imaginable that when one is translating a hymn from English to Chinese (with lyrics to be sung in Cantonese), the level of difficulty is further stretched since the meaning of the lyrics is pre-determined and only limited words can be used to a certain extent. I have also explained why there have been obstacles and myths relating to this issue and offered my two cents with theological reflections on why it is worthy to translate western hymns or songs into pitch-fitting Cantonese versions.
From Infancy to Maturity
Undoubtedly, each cultural movement will go through different periods, including infancy, development and forming etc. I suppose that all the familiar hymns we can find in our hymnals have stood against the test of time to exist until the present. Some people think that merely from the viewpoint of literature, the newly translated lyrics seem to have lesser literary value in terms of poetic beauty (which may not be true). However, if we add on the consideration of the matching of tones, the measurement of evaluation should not be only one-dimensional! After all, the re-translation of hymns with matching Cantonese tones is still in its infancy and thus the works we can find now may be varied in quality, either too heavily paraphrased or not up to standards. Nevertheless, we should not throw away the apple because of the core and see all newly translated hymns as zero-valued or second rate.
The Road Onwards
Looking forward, we expect more mature translated works. According to the characteristics of Cantonese tones, some hymns or songs are in fact untranslatable, so not every song in a foreign language can have a version of matching Cantonese tones. Even so, we still need to pay our best effort in the consideration of our own language features and contextualization of our faith to move forward in the translation of hymns. For the long run, besides translated works, the source of the congregational songs should also include new compositions by our own brothers and sisters. Of course, each church may design their biblically-based worship according to their own background, history, gifts and temperament, etc., to make decisions on the pace for the trial of singing songs with matching tones without being forced to do so. We do not want to provoke any more worship wars on top of different styles. What we should insist instead is moving towards the direction of true and barrier-free worship, but not only certain versions of hymns and songs. Today, when we honestly face the issue of singing songs with Cantonese tones, I believe that the Christians who speak Cantonese as their mother-tongue should continue to reflect and progress on the contextualization of our faith because this is not something that any foreigner can do for us. Maybe we are in the transformative stage of singing our congregational songs. And beyond all arguments, I believe for both believers and non-believers, we will all discover that we can sing the songs with more resonance in our hearts and be more enlivened than those who were before us.
May God raise up more gifted brothers and sisters to be willing to commit to the translation and composition of hymns and songs for the glory of God and the benefit for persons purchased for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!
And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Revelation 5:9, NIV)
In case you have missed Part I-III, you can find them here:
and Part IV of V
Blogger Yvette Lau has bachelor degrees in Chinese and Translation, and Music, a Master in Worship, and a Doctor of Pastoral Music. She has served as one of the executive committee members of the Hong Kong Hymn Society from 2011-2017. Her passion lies in choral conducting, song writing, hymn translation from English to Cantonese (main translator for New Youth Hymns), event organization, translation of books on worship including The Art of Worship, Beyond the Worship Wars, The Worship Architect, and Glory to God, and training and teaching on worship.
