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Aug 31, 2010

A Not So Hokkien Poem

My good friend and classmate of yore, Carolyn, recently reminded me of an incident which resulted in this very hilarious poem. Unfortunately for those of you who are not fluent in the dialect, this won't make any sense, even with the bits and pieces of english in it. But just so you won't miss out on the story behind this brilliant and hilarious creation, I'll tell you what brought it about.
She has this mango tree out in her front yard that must be as old as we are (not telling), or even older, that still fruits like I've never seen a small, short and kinda bare mango tree fruit before. Believe me, I was in their kitchen with some of the harvest and I couldn't find a place to sit.
To cut a long story short, she woke up early in the morning one day, and found a young chap on her tree, stealing the mangoes. When she yelled at him, he said his wife is "bunting" (that's pregnant in malay) and was craving the fruit. So, okay, out of the kindness of her heart plus the abundance of the harvest, she allowed him to take some. Next thing you know, he came back the next day when they were all out, with huge trash bags. This was witnessed by the neighbor.
The funniest part was, when they went to the neighborhood village market the next morning, they found their own mangoes selling for $5 a kilo.

So here's the Not So Hokkien poem : with some attempts at translation...

Cha cha khee,
(Early in the morning)
Been chooi khee.
(Brushing my teeth)
Thiah teok chiu chang tan, khua khee. (Heard a noise in the tree & looked up)
Khua tiok sair mor ay kaki.
(Saw a pair of hairy legs)
Cho mik su pek wah ay mango tree?
(Why are u climbing my mango tree?)
Loke lai tiong kim immediately!
(Come down immediately)
Mango bo sek cho mik tao take nee?
(Mangoes are not ripe, why steal?)
Wa ay chu lai bunting ai seh baby.
(Wife at home pregnant going to have a baby)
Pak tao tho ka aunty mang thao curi.
(Next time just ask, don't steal)
Ok, aunty, wah sorry.
(Ok, aunty, I'm sorry)
Tiong kim wa chao liao tak Suzuki.
(I'm leaving now on my Suzuki)

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