59.A Hoe

(Sung by Women)

My mother married me to the wrong man.

She sent me out into the wilderness,

To a place where there are no rice paddies.

If you take the wrong road,you can still turn around.

If you marry into the wrong family,your life is ruined.

Like a strip of green bamboo,ruined forever,

Like a strip of yellow bamboo,ruined forever,

A fifteen-year-old girl whose life was ruined forever!

Ruined like a horse without a saddle,

Living and eating in a ruined household,

Eating nothing but bitterness.

Anxious day after day until I die.

When that day comes,who will carry me?

On the day I die,no one will cry for me.

Who will keep wake for me?

Who will wash my face?

Who will tie my hands?

Who will comb my hair?

My head will be messy and stiff,

As though I died hanging in the fork of a tree!

Oh,how I regret that day!