Let us revisit the nursery rhyme 雨落落 hou6 loh8 loh8 again.
雨落落 hou6 loh8
loh8
雨落落 hou6 loh8
loh8
阿公去柵箔 a1gong1 ke3
zah8boh8
柵著鯉魚共苦初 zah8 dioh4
li2he5 gang7 kou2co1
阿公哩欲烳 a1gong1 li7
ain3 bu5
阿婆哩欲炣 a1pua5 li7
ain3 ko2
二人相拍相挽毛 no2nang4 sio1pah4 sio1mang2mo2
挽去見老爹 mang2 ke2
gin2 lao2dia1
老爹笑呵呵 lao2dia1
cio3 ho1ho1
呾恁二老好笑絕 dan3
ning2 no2lao6 ho2 cio3 zoh8
好笑絕。 ho2 cio3 zoh8
I imagine everybody knows what 雨落落 hou6 loh8 loh8 mean and we all should know what is a'gong and ke3.
However, what is zah8boh8 柵箔? I heard Zia Bhung Bang 謝文榜 singing a Lia tig'to 來踢跎 and he sung a'gong ke zah'boh but it was obvious nobody knew the characters for zah'boh.
Professor Lim LungLung in one of his books showed the character for zah'boh but explained that it is a type / method of fishing.
From the characters of zah'boh 柵箔 given by Professor Lim, we know it is some kind of fence and something which is weaved like a net. Therefore it must be a way of trapping the fish because in the next line it song and nursery rhyme write zah4 dioh4 - i.e. trapped.
Li2he5 is a type of fresh water carb and we Teochew people used to call it li2gou1 鯉姑 and in our ancient custom this fish was eaten on Chinese New Year. There is a Chinese idiom which is 鯉魚跳龍門 li2he5 tiao3 lêng5mung5 and its meaning is having a quantum leap in one's career.
The next word is gang7 共 which Professor Lim explains as "and" the Chinese equivalent is 和 and kou'co is a type of small fish.
The next interesting character is li7 哩 and Prof Lim says that its meaning is however, same as the Chinese 卻
I think we all should know the meaning of ain3 and it means want or desire or fancy same as the Chinese 想要
What is new for me is a1pua5 and I thought it is grandfather's concubine but Professor Lim explains this as grandfather's wife.
I imagine everybody knows what is bu5 - we know this as in bu5zui2 烳水 - to boil water, bu5teng1 烳湯 as to make soup. In Mandarin, bu5zui2, to boil water, is said as 燒水 and bu5teng1 is said as 煲湯 and Professor Lim wrote in his book that bu5 is said in Mandarin as 煮
I do not expect you to know the meaning of ko2 judging by the number of native speakers not being able to get the character right for ko2. The most famous use of the character ko2 is ko2bung7 炣飯 and it is a way of cooking rice in our homeland.
For ko2bung7 one cooks the rice separately and fry all the ingredients separately and then add the fried ingredients into the hot cooked rice and bhung1 燜 it slowly in a covered pot.
Ko2 is actually cooking something in a closed vessel using low heat over a period of time. The nearest Mandarin equivalent is 燜
However, more importantly 阿公哩欲烳 阿婆哩欲炣 "a1gong1 li7 ain3 bu5 a1pua5 li7 ain3 ko2" has a very special meaning which is that one cannot satisfy everybody translated into Chinese as 眾口難調
I have only explained part of the nursery rhyme and do you really think that you know the meaning of the nursery rhyme?
I leave you to translate the rest. It is only when you appreciate that you do not know the whole of Teochew that you have an opportunity to learn and master our mother tongue which is said as bho2ghe2 母語 otherwise it would be like throwing pearls before swine !
