Sung in English! | Carabao in English

“You open our songs to the world.” – Add Carabao (said upon hearing 13 of these songs right before the 35th Anniversary Concert in Los Angeles)

Singable translations are freely offered to the owners of the songs in Thai. Others can sing for fun at home. No copyright infringement intended.

“Wanipok,” (“The Beggar”) วณิพก by Aed Carabao แอ๊ด คาราบาว
A SINGABLE ENGLISH (AMERICAN) VERSION translated by Ann Norman
Covered by Michael Albert

At the time my eyes first went blind
I wasn’t yet in a dark frame of mind
Though my love who’d always been there
Would desert and leave my life bare
I set out on a difficult road
Not even feeling the passage of time
I begged change from those all around
You got quarters? dimes? . . . .yeah sometimes

In a dark and secretive place
Just listening, taking in sound
I looked out, it felt like dream
I got tired and then I laid down
[I] woke up feeling renewed . . .
I have breath, I’m still above ground!
I might see the sun once again
Why waste my life . . . . . . laying around?

So I sing . . . every day on the street
I travel around . . . singing songs to survive
After buying something to eat
I save the rest . . . to treat my eyes

A representative of the darkness
I’ll repay the life I hold dear
I’ll replay all those who show kindness
Tend to music for people to hear
I bring meaningful songs from the dark world
I will sing out loud and clear
If someone says to stop, no one cares
I say, “Those who DO are out there!”
If someone says to stop, no one cares
I say, “Those who DO are out there!”
When someone says to stop, no one cares
I say, “Those who DO … are still out there!”

ไม้ไผ่ (Maai Pai) “Bamboo”
by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman
Covered by Karl Osterhout

Note: OK, I’m pretty proud of this one. Instead of looking for a song that might be easily translated into singable English, I looked for an outrageously poetic song that showcases the poetic quality of many Carabao songs. Then I tackled that song it to see if it could be translated into rhyming English. It can! Karl Osterhout did a nice cover!

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.

ตุ๊กตา Duk Dtaa (Doll) in SINGABLE ENGLISH!!!
by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Thinking back to yesterday when I was just a child
My tiny doll, it seemed to hold such meaning as it smiled
My imagination roamed
wide as desert sands for miles
It blazed like sticks and logs stacked in a pile
But I must go on one set path
Compare it to a railroad track
Compare it to a railroad track

Thinking back to when I first arrived here in Bangkok
The city brimmed with meaning from the rural news we got,
They compared it to a car or ship,
Like our town must be a buffalo cart
Many paths . . . some we’ve no rights to walk
I hid the discontent of youth
And I walked out to search for truth
I walked out to search for truth

Recalling where I am, I know I’m not a little child
And so the doll means nothing now and hasn’t for a while
Passing like a car or ship,
Friends pass on, their numbers dip
They leave the world in keeping with the time
A doll a child holds brings to mind
many meanings I suppose
Like lead a workhorse by the nose
Like lead a workhorse by the nose
Like lead a workhorse by the nose

บัวลอย Bua Loy
by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

NOTE: Singable translated done for the 60th Birthday of Mr Yuenyong Opakul, P’Aed Carabao. The name “Bualoy” means “Lotus Leaf” which is meaningful in the Thai Buddhist tradition. A lotus grows underwater from the bottom of the pond and then comes up to the air and blooms at the surface and is a metaphor for one’s personal development (if I understand correctly).

Bua Loy, my good friend
You left too soon it’s true
Where are you, Bua Loy?
You know, sometimes I think of you . . . of BUA LOOOOYYYYYYY!

Bua Loy, this guy I know
He always limps, he’s got crossed eyes
He’s not that much to see
but his mind is high, like the Lotus Leaf
A friend when you need a friend
A cook when you need to eat
A doctor if you scream in pain
He’ll get you back on your feet

Bua Loy’s been handicapped
And so of course he escapes the draft
But still he volunteers
The man is brave and he endures
He works hard all the time
A humble, normal guy
Helps out every friend
He’s there through thick and thin

Bua Loy, my good friend
You left too soon it’s true
Where are you, Bua Loy?
You know, sometimes I think of you . . . of BUA LOOOOYYYYYYY!

One day the guns resound
Bua Loy is lying on the ground
Mumbles “Are y’all OK?”
The very last words Bua Loy will say
From that day ’til this day
In a farmhouse on a hill
Bua Loy is absent still
It’s listless there and grey

Spoken:

This world is all messed up
‘Cause some care just about their own needs
How many people in this world
Rise as high as this lotus leaf?

Sung:

This world is all messed up
‘Cause some care just about own needs
How many people in this world
Rise as high and become free . . . . as Bua Loy!!!!!

รักคุณเท่าฟ้า Rak Kun Tao Fah (Love You to the Sky!)
Lyrics by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao, Melody by Add Carabao and เทียรี่ เมฆวัฒนา Thierry Mekwattana
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Note: For demo purposes only.

If I could fly away like a bird
I would soar way up in the sky
If I could float and ride on the wind
I’d look back around on the ground

Our big, wide world below is quite a sight
The more you look, the more delight

The expanse of sea’s colored blue
The expanse of land’s colored green
Perhaps you’ve heard some people complain
Where can this world’s beauty be seen?

The world spreads out below so vast and wide
The more you look, the more surprise

Beauty and love they both from nature start
People then paint in colors from their heart
The sky, the sea, the dirt, rocks, sand, and we
Through good and bad, building our country

If you fly away like a bird
When you soar way up in the sky
When you ride and float on the wind
Look back down around on the ground
Our big, wide world below is quite a sight
The more you look, the more delight

This song is from the sky … so far up high
Sending my thoughts to people far and near
A message true from viewing way up here:
The sky goes on and on; people don’t live there.

ทะเลใจ Telay Jai (Ocean Heart)
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Here is a voice memo to help you match words to music. For demonstration purposes only:

Back in the days I’ve left far behind,
days spent dreaming without any end
I learned how to live just by body and mind
being each other’s best friend

It’s like life drifts along: lonely days, lonely nights
It’s my body, but whose is this heart?
I survive just to fight the cruel days and cruel nights,
Nights when body and mind are apart

Some nights the heart lets itself down
Days and nights, defeated as fears play
Amidst bright city lights of downtown
Maybe some lose their way.

Those times the heart, it dreams wildly
Slips this world, flies off for distant parts
A small bird blown about by strong winds
finally drops down in the middle of the ocean heart

Every life struggles, searching just for a goal
Heart and body pass by absently
The suffering repeats from a delirious soul
Find your heart and you can live happily.

Some nights the heart lets itself down
Days and nights, defeated as fears play
Amidst bright city lights of downtown
Maybe some lose their way.

Those times the heart, it dreams wildly
Slips this world, flies off for distant parts
A small bird blown about by strong winds
finally drops down in the middle of the ocean heart

Back in the days that I’ve left far behind,
days spent dreaming without any end
I learned how to live just by body and mind
being each other’s best friend.

I learned how to live just by body and mind
being best friends for all time.

คนล่าฝัน “Khon La Fun” (Dream Chaser)
by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Note: I believe this was my first singable translation. The first line was hard because nothing rhymes with “horizon” (the word that is supposed to go at the end of the first line). I substituted in “a distant hillside” and the rest of the lyrics just fell into place.

Morning light bursts from that distant hillside
Saying much more time has arrived
Take your life onwards toward the goal that you choose
You might win, you might lose, you should try!
Watch the crows flying off and out of our sight
each looking for something to eat.
A reminder that each soul is born to this world
To search, to struggle, to fight

O life is so full of so much to do
We are born, suffer, die, every man
But what isn’t the same is the dream we pursue
Don’t stop till it’s held in your hand.

A person combines both the good and the bad
The noble include rich and poor
We know love is a beautiful thing to be had
Disappointment will happen for sure
In our way is the sky, the land, and the stream
Cross over to grab for your dream
Life comes to us once
Once and that’s all!
Make sure it is something you mean

O life is so full of so much to do
We are born, suffer, die, every man
But what isn’t the same is the dream we pursue
Don’t stop till it’s held in your hand.

Through months when it seems that everything’s dark
We still have the right to dream bright
Like a candle will light up the path far ahead
Like a firefly sparkling at night
To stand still afraid you are kidding yourself
Is the same thing as failure itself
You haven’t done anything yet, good or bad
You’re burned by your fear, nothing else

O life is so full of so much to do
We are born, suffer, die, every man
But what isn’t the same is the dream we pursue
Don’t stop till it’s held in your hand.

The sky, and the mountain, you’ve crossed both before
I ask have you crossed to your dream?
Go off to your dream far away on the shore
In the end you will catch it and more
Try out being a person who chases your dreams
The prize of dreaming is dreams
Life comes just once
Once and that’s all!
Don’t let it be boring and mean

Morning light bursts from that distant hillside
Saying much more time has arrived
Take your life onwards toward the goal that you choose
You might win, you might lose, you should try!
Try out being a person who chases your dreams
The prize of dreaming is dreams
Life comes just once
Once and that’s all!
Don’t let it be boring and mean

O life is so full of so much to do
We are born, suffer, die, every man
But what isn’t the same is the dream we pursue
Don’t stop till it’s held in your hand.

Reng Koi (The Vulture Waits) แร้งคอย
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

For demonstration purposes only:

Right now, a vulture quietly waits
To see who falls and who may die
In jungle named “The Lord of Fire”
He views his land and passersby.
A stream flows wide and out of sight
A ridge of cliffs defies the sky
The town beneath a sheet of blue
By rapids my heart waits for you

By rapids my heart waits for yours
Right where the vulture often waits
By rapids my heart waits for yours
Right where the vulture waits, I wait.

Right now rain strikes the side of the cliff
While far away birds sing and drift
The jungle fauna chirp and shout
Who knows how music comes about?
Sing out like streams roll out of sight!
Like cliffs defy sky and sunlight
The town beneath a sheet of blue
By rapids my heart waits for you.

By rapids my heart waits for yours
Right where the vulture often waits
By rapids my heart waits for yours
Right where the vulture waits, I wait.
I wait and wait and wait and wait.
Right where the vulture waits . . . I still wait .. .

โลกแห่งความรัก Lok Haeng Kwaam Rak (World of Love)
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Note: There are two addition to the original Thai: the phrase “Each one has worth” which I needed to rhyme with “Earth” and “just out of our sight” to make a line scan.

While I still have life, I will do the same things
that through ages people do
Up until the very last day that I’m still breathing
I’ll accept the coming changes too
Though my heart breaks, I’m almost crushed
I’ll move towards goals that one pursues
Help me take just one step
towards some common things we dream
One step first is all I ask for
From here on, I’m sure I’ll walk on secure

So many forests, species alive
Blossoms cheer and help us to thrive
When the sky turns to gold, seasons they change
Towards a greater day, that’s just out of our sight
People will blossom, each one has worth
The world smiles brightly
Each has love on this whole Earth

While I still have life, I will do the same things
that through ages people do
Up until the very last day that I’m still breathing
I’ll accept the coming changes too
Though my heart breaks, I’m almost crushed
I’ll move towards goals that one peruses
Help me take just one step
towards some common things we dream
One step first is all I ask for
From here, I’m sure I’ll walk on secure
on a world full of love
One love that we share

Walk on a world full of love
It’s one love that we share

คนแบกเป้ Kon Baek Bpay (The Backpacker) Bby แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman. Bonus feature: Follows Thai rhyming style!

I carry a backpack up over ridge rocks
Branches may knock, but can’t block our way
Arrive at the side where we stand in sun rays
And while we stay, it’s just all of us
Bright flowers and butterflies drift

I shoulder a backpack crossing the road
Finish, unload, and wait for a lift
Carry these souls, such a generous gift
Be like a ferry quickly carrying us home
which eases all our pain

Bend down kiss sweet mother earth
for all she’s worth on her cheek
Face mud-streak’d looking down
Smiles profound and honestly
‘Cause she’s a strength for me

I’ll carry a backpack all my lifetime
struggling fine whatever may be
Withstanding wind and storms readily
While I’m alive, I’ll still push on through
‘Cause that’s what backpackers’ do.

Bend down kiss sweet mother earth
for all she’s worth on her cheek
Face mud-streak’d looking down
Smiles profound with honesty
‘Cause she’s a strength for me

I’ll carry a backpack all my lifetime
struggling fine whatever may be
withstanding wind and storms readily
While I’m alive, I’ll still push on through
‘Cause that’s what backpackers do.

ไม่อยากให้เพลงนี้จบลง “Mai Yaak Hai Playng Nee Jop Long” (I Don’t Want This Song to End) by ทิวา สาระจูฑะ Teewa Sarachuta (for Add Carabao to sing at the end of a concert)
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman. Bonus feature: Follows Thai rhyming style!

Suppose that life is just a song, though sweet or painful it may be
It comes along and then it flees. One last word ends the night.
Sometimes that song is really sad. Sometimes it’s cheerful and so bright
Brimmed with hope, saying “it’s alight,” to ease the loneliness you had

In your heart while we’re distant, may love set down beside a dream
It’s so great to be RIGHT HERE in this scene. In a world where so easily [friends] part,
Here I get to bond with other hearts
As days and nights go by, I won’t forget

Suppose that life were just a song, though sweet or painful it may be
It comes along and soon will flee. What to the world will you bequeath?

In your heart when we’re distant, may love set down beside a dream
It’s so great to BE right in this scene. In a world where so easily friends part,
Here I get to bond with other hearts
As days and nights go by, I won’t forget

The world revolves just like a clock. May I dissuade it, hold it fast?
Suspend the time from going past
‘Cause I don’t want this song to end
I don’t want this song to end

ความหมาย (Kwam Mai) Meaning
by ทิวา สาระจูฑะ Teewa Sarachuta (for an Add Carabao solo album)
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman. Bonus feature: Follows Thai rhyming style!

Life’s meaning is up to those alive
Thoughts have meaning driving things you do
Bright white has meaning in dark gloom
Words’ mean something too from your intent

Questions have meaning in the answers,
Whose meanings advance from questions sent
Minutes have meaning in the hours
The seconds when used have meaning then

Everything has meaning based on your look around
While fire hits the cold, hidden meaning’s to be found
‘Tween smiles and the tears, meaning’s there to slay fragility

The sky has meaning in having stars
Cold nights have meaning for the brave
Gentleness has meaning in severity
Competition can mean you will not cave
(2X)

Everything has meaning based on your look around
While fire hits the cold, hidden meaning’s to be found
‘Tween smiles and the tears, the meaning there will slay fragility

Life’s meaning’s determined by those with life . . .

ทุ่งฝันตะวันรอน Tung Fun Dtawan Ron (The Meadow Dreams of the Sunset)
by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Add Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman. Bonus feature: Follows Thai rhyming style!

Note: This song is out of my range. The voice clip is for demo purposes only so you can learn to sing along with the official Thai video.

If dreams are in fact real, it’s still nothing we keep
If dreams are just dreams, they’re the product of sleep
But who, after they wake, their dreams still can caress
A meadow dreams of sunset. Its colors impress

Now life, it is real. It has some things that are great.
Both empathy, love. The whole world needs to relate.
Dream of blossoming love. For the whole world, suppose
There’s only life that flows, ruling the dreams in one’s heart

Store a harvest of love, a field of dreams set apart
Dream flowers in your heart, love’s consequence show
A love that is huge . . . I want each person to know
Earth’s love-flowers blow, people’s flower-dreams reel

If dreams could be true. One thing that appeals
I’d make a sunflower field become a meadow of dreams
There’s no Earth number two. We’re born just once it seems
May all the world’s hearts’ dreams, bloom and flowers reveal
May dream sunflowers team, spread across a dream field
Meadows dream of sunset
Meadows dream of sunset
Meadows dream of the show
As sun slowly goes

วันชัย Wan Chai (The Day of Victory) by แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

By each new day and night, your road becomes less long
From when you started this fight, you’re almost there, so stay strong
While walking down this road, though troubles take their toll,
Wade on through hot and through cold. You’ll soon arrive at your goal.

When you fall, get up and stand again
Don’t feel bad about old, past mistakes
Don’t waste tears about the pains and aches
We must continue forwards to the end

Once there’s a day you leave
Your journey should succeed
Though months or years have gone by
This bump won’t cause you to die.

Through hurt or pain, endure
Force yourself on once more
Fight on to victory day
A day good things come your way.

ดอกไม้สีชมพู (Dok Mai See Champoo) Pink Flower
By Aed Carabao แอ๊ด คาราบาว
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

HERE IS A VOICE MEMO, FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY:

As if heaven played a joke
Here’s what it gave me at the start:
A boy’s body; a girl’s heart.
Like, “A pretty flower ‘til you smell’”
I’ve a love that others tease
I want to fly so far away
In this world of ours today
Who’ll breathe in deeply and be pleased?

A fragrant, stimulating scent. I’m a flower bright and pink
Shimmering, sparkling alone. In depression I sink
I want to scream so all know
Ask just how am I wrong?
Wrong my heart is a girl?
Or wrong my body is male?
Me I don’t yet understand
Won’t someone come and understand?

Flowers have no right to choose
The scent attracts a swarm of bees
I bow my head and let them bruise
A pink flower in the breeze

*This is a saying in Thai.

ผ่านพบที่ผูกพัน Paan Pop Tee Pook Pan (The Encounter that is a Lasting Connection)
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Add Carabao
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

For demonstration purposes only:

If your life, more and more, seems like drama on TV
Shoulder love, struggle on. Cross sky, mountain, and sea.
Most of life disappoints, you’re failing like before. But sometimes, or just once, life’s everything and more
Then it’s enough. Life’s short. Things come, and quickly go.
But they may plow a row left deeply in the brain.
When you experience something and bond so quickly it’s insane
Time goes by, you dream away, never forget. . . . the connection you made

Mountain glaciers melt and flow down to sea. Life’s like that: you’re born, and soon you cease to be.
But love remains, as a legend, calling out a song. A tune of good times and the bad, of connections that are strong
And it’s enough. Life’s short. Things come, and quickly go.
But they may plow a row left deeply in the brain.
When you experience something and bond so quickly it’s insane
Time goes by, you dream away, never forget. . . . those connections you made

While we struggle on, can’t seem to get above– in the place we walk, it’s still good that we have love
If happiness has suffering that gets into our way. . . . It could be there we find . . . connections that stay.

เพื่อชีวิตติดล้อ Peua Cheewit Dit Lor (For Life on Wheels) [The Motorcycle Song]
By คาราบาว Carabao and เสก โลโซ Sek Loso (But I can’t find more specific credits)
A SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman. Bonus feature: Follows Thai rhyming style!

Demo for demonstration purposes only (so you can see how the English words fit with the music):

Forget the worries that pain your mind
Toss them behind on a highway
Come Harley friends let’s leave today
Two wheels? OK. Cool deal. For real, it’s swell . . . yeah

With dreams and hope, you have a path to ride
Friends at your side to heaven or hell
There’s just today. Other days, oh well!
If bad luck fell, we’d have friends and roads that bend, so why worry too?

*I’ll raise this glass: I love you guys
Though I’ve disguised just how much it is true
I’ve lived my life well with all of you*
With GOOD friends like this crew, en-courag-ing me through, bad dreams change into sweet

**Elephants in woods, Harleys on the road
Don’t load much stuff, I’m roaring down the street
We get one life. Use it complete,
So it’s enough. Two wheels, just pay for fuel, and drinking up

Solo *, **

All I need’s my bike. Just this, I’m alright
All I need’s a bike. The life that’s alright!

*Note this is a new, correct translation of “เสียชาติเกิด” which means I haven’t wasted the life I was born into (not “I haven’t abandoned my homeland”) as previously translated.

English-translation/version of Wan Waan Mai Mi Kow” (วันวานไม่มีเขา ในวันนี้ไม่มีเรา) “If It Weren’t for Her, Today I’d Not be Here”
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabao)

Note: I Americanized this song a teeny bit. Aed Carabao had the mothers getting up early to cook rice, eggs, and fish soup. I keep the eggs and added “packs a lunch.” The rest is VERY close to the original.

Here is a (very rough) voice memo, for purposes of helping you fit the words to the music:

If it weren’t for her, today I’d not be here
Who gets up first and cooks the eggs? We’re sleeping very near
Wakes us up and packs a lunch. Makes sure we’re clean and dressed
Takes us back and forth to school. Makes sure we pass our tests.
Chases us around. . . as sun sets.

If it weren’t for her, today I’d not be here
She tucks us into bed each night. Fights sicknesses and tears.
A familiar warm embrace, shares our troubles to the end.
The world is what it is. She helps us understand
Persevere, be strong . . . Fly against the wind!

Ever-lasting as the sky, her love keeps us secure,
‘Til the world wears away, a parents’ love is pure.
If not for them, this whole wide world we’d miss
If not for them, we wouldn’t exist.

If it weren’t for her, today we’d not be here
Young adults fly off to find their dream
Just knowing she’s back there
Their hearts are free of sadness, not a worry or a care
If IT were not for YOU! There be none of us, its true.
If not for YOU, We’d be nowhere

ซานตาน่าคาราบาว Santana Carabao
By คาราบาว Carabao
SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

Here is a VERY rough demo, to help one match English-language words to the music:

A teen in his room, just singing out loud
In a mirror performs, showing off with no crowd
I cared only to learn lead guitar,
Santana, the band we adore
Woodstock showed the world there was more
music to explore: Hippie, rock and roll.

From October 14th, was born P’ Nga Caravan
Out from Thammasat U., they lead the crowds on
College students and regular folks, were the ones who made dictators flee
We were just grains of sand in that sea
Grains that blossomed somehow . . . into our band Carabao

He wowed, that Latin lead guitar
Santana was for us such a star
“Wanipok,” opened doors; rock/sam cha
Carabao to this day: Thailand’s Santana

He wowed, that Latin lead guitar
Santana was for us such a star
“Wanipok,” opened doors; rock/sam-cha
Carabao to this day: Thailand’s Santana

Songs for Life serve, as if destined to be,
Encouraging Thais towards a path good and free
A mirror to reflect black and white,
honor, fairness, hu-man-ity
Our group creates songs, melody,
helping Thailand to see . . . a path forward for life

Santana Carabao, sam cha Carabao
Sam cha Carabao, Santana Carabao
Santana Carabao, sam cha Carabao
sam cha Carabao, Santana Carabao

Rohingya (โรฮิงญา) by Eed Opakul อี๊ด โอภากุล
An International, SINGABLE ENGLISH VERSION translated by Ann Norman

NOTE: I made some changes to make it International, including dropping the words “Thai.” Thank you to P’Eed for writing this important song and for giving permission to translate into English.

They’re out there in boats because they don’t have a land
Drifting, clinging to their humanity
Bangladesh doesn’t care. India won’t lend a hand.
Burma stomps on them with impunity

Near the border of Thailand
They’re pushed into camps, where they wait and wait indefinitely.
You lose your humanity, given no place to stand
Even lacking nationality, Rohingya!

Rohingya Ro- Rohingya Ro-Ro-Ro Rohingya
Rohingya Ro- Rohingya Ro-Ro-Ro Rohingya

[We] have a land to walk on, a roof over our head
With two hands and two feet, we proceed
Life throws up a road block; our work won’t succeed
Though now we’re in debt, we still breathe.

We have citizenship, we vote and make our own rules
We’ve a nation, freedom, sovereignty
But what we don’t have is suffering so cruel
Our troubles can’t be compared to the. . . Rohingya!

Rohingya Ro- Rohingya Ro-Ro-Ro Rohingya
Rohingya Ro- Rohingya Ro-Ro-Ro Rohingya
So whenever you’re tired with the insanity
Remember the Rohingya and their plight
In this struggle with destiny that we all have to fight
Let’s not give up hope on humanity

SOLO

So whenever you’re tired with the insanity
Remember the Rohingya and their plight
In this struggle with destiny that we all have to fight
Let’s not give up hope on humanity

We have citizenship, we vote and make our own rules
We’ve a nation, freedom, sovereignty
But what we don’t have is suffering so cruel
Our troubles can’t be compared to the. . . Rohingya!

Rohingya Ro- Rohingya. Rohingya, Rohingya
Rohingya Ro- Rohingya. Hold on, hold on, Rohingya!
Rohingya, ask your heart to believe . . . you must believe still in humanity
And in your own! . . . Rohingya!

แค่คิดยังไม่เคย Kae Kit Yang Mai Koie (Only Thought About It, Still Haven’t Ever . . .)
Composed แอ๊ด คาราบาว Aed Carabaofor the band Assist แอซซิส, Champions of Season 1 of Bao Young Blood (2015)

If you have trouble matching the English words to the music, use this voice memo (for demonstration purposes only):

Inside each one, of course there is fear
Choose good or bad? It’s up to one to decide
Experience, gives us strength from inside
Some get to their goal. Some won’t survive.

I am a person with love and with dreams
Just starting this struggle, I get up, I drop
A coconut rolling with no way to stop
Just drifting on. . . that’s how it seems

Where there is a dream, to that place I’ll go.
Where there could be love, pushing onwards I strain
My body hurts but it’s worth all the pain
Others strengths and desires will be different than mine
So what if I fail? Though disappointed, I’m fine!
If I wake up tomorrow, why should I whine?
Lessons learned in the past, they’ll be my road sign
To a victory in life, I think of, but still haven’t seen.

Over the ocean one seagull flies
When at last, he’s caught a fish to eat
He squawks to the world to advertise his feat
So my fears fly off and disappear

Life is mainly a struggle, a fight
One fights to live, to feed the hunger inside
Let’s go to the land where our hopes reside
For which we’ve yearned . . . . for oh so long

The seagull’s like one’s heart. It carries us on towards the shore
Over a vast empty ocean, with no hope and no love
Press on now, don’t relax. Those fears, you must let go of
A land of love’s still ahead . . . that you think of, and need to know more . . .

พ่อภูมิพล Paw Pumipon (Father Bhumibol) [English version วอร์ชั่นภาษาอังกฤษ]
By แอ๊ด คาราบาว Add Carabao
Thai version published on YouTube October 17, 2016
This CarabaoinEnglish translation was used for the official English version of the song posted on YouTube November 3, 2016. Follows the rhyming style of the original Thai version.

Father roams both and far and near, treads on every inch of land
From peaks of mountains, tall and grand, down to shores with mangroves filled
Comes to teach, to tell, to build. Brings new methods he creates
Fixes problems, sets things straight, bringing hope to all Thailand

However hard, there’s no complaints. To make sure they have better fates
His royal body dedicates, and he rules with righteousness

The sky went dark October 13th. He closed his eyes and then was gone
His children’s tears will flood Thailand, they grieve for Father Bhumibol.

King of our hearts. Father Bhumibol
[. . .] Father to Thai people everywhere
To follow your trail will be a noble thing
Great, learned King, whose sweat has blessed our land

Great, learned king, whose sweat caressed our land

Lyrics Translations for the Band