渔歌 (yúgē): fisherman's song

Meanings

1 fisherman's song
2 fishing folk song

Characters

渔

Examples

傍晚时分,江上传来悠扬的渔歌。

Bàngwǎn shífēn, jiāng shàng chuán lái yōuyáng de yúgē.

At dusk, mellow fishermen's songs drifted across the river.

这首渔歌流传了几百年。

Zhè shǒu yúgē liúchuán le jǐ bǎi nián.

This fisherman's song has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Tips

culture

Classical poets used 渔歌 as an image of detached freedom — the fisherman-poet drifting apart from officialdom. Liu Zongyuan's 《渔翁》 and Su Shi's ci 《渔歌子》 cemented it as a literary trope. Today the living tradition survives along the Pearl River delta (疍家渔歌, Danjia boat-people songs) and in coastal Fujian.