Singable English transation of the lyrics by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao ( ยืนยง โอภากุล Yuenyong Opakul);
Melody เล็ก คาราบาว Lek Carabao (ปรีชา ชนะภัย Preecha Chanapai)
Album: วณิพก Wanipok (The Beggar) (1983)
Covered by Karl Osterhout

Note: Thank you to my friend Karl Osterhout for this nice cover! This is the Singable rhyming version, which I am hugely pleased with. The rhymes fell out perfectly. For the direct translation, CLICK HERE. The album Wanipok, appearing two years before the band became hugely famous, is a classic and pretty much perfect. You should BUY IT HERE from the friendly people at eThaiCD, where you can shop in English.

It’s dark, and rain is sprinkling out of the sky
I stretch to ride along a stream of moonlight
The muffled rain is my friend tonight,
Reminding me of the days gone by

A sad, lamenting phrase from this flute made of bamboo
I tease a song from the fingers that flutter,
from the rain’s pitter-patter, from the heart that cares . . . about you

The notes from the flute erase all other sound
The moonlight spreads to embrace one ground
This bamboo section was originally bound
with others in a clump a long time

And people, each single one, are rela-ted similarly
The force of air across a piece of a tree
One’s own wind power, the wood all together, combined*

combined, combined . . . combined, entwined

Its a sound that reverberates far
On one wavelength whistling clear,
A note even transcending death
the heart’s loneliness . . suffering, distress,
one’s evil and pain, and the ground disappear

On one wavelength whistling clear,
It’s a sound reaching those far apart
A sound even transcending death
I leave it to stay, I leave it to stay
Store it safely away . . . in your heart.

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*He sings one word wrong here. It is the wood altogether. Bamboo sends out runners and grows like a weed. Therefore all the bamboo in  a patch of bamboo is related.