IV
挑水的哥
聽着我說
南河沿兒
有你的窩
睛天晒蓋子
陰天把脖兒縮
NOTES
These words are adressed by the chinese boys to the water-carriers who are generally people of the Shantung province. As no water-ways of any kind exist in Peking, a great many of these fellows take the water from the wells into the houses. Their bad pronunciation, and their awkward manners delight extremely the Peking cockneys. The boys have therefore composed for their benefit this special song, which they hum at their back, and whose general aim is to define them as turtles. The word turtle in China is used for one of the most direst insults, as this animal is phantastically empeached of an unnatural crime. The insult is however so largely used that people are not shocked by it. 哥 ko1 means elder brother, but here is used in the meaning of man, fellow in the same way as the Russians use the word brat (latin frater) . 窩 uo1 means not only a nest but also a den, a hole. 晒蓋子 shai4 kai4-tzŭ, to dry the shell in the run, as turtles do. 縮 suo1, to withdraw one's head, to retreat. This last phrase is allusive to the fact that the water-carriers do not go out when it rains, as the turles do too.
TRANSLATION
Water carrying fellow ― hear what I say ― on the bank of the south river ― is your hole ― when the weather is fine, you dry out your shell ― and when it is bad weather then you draw in your neck.