Let’s Sway Twin Oars 让我们荡起双桨

A nursery rhyme with a simple understanding of a happy life

Overview

Chinese Name: 让我们荡起双桨

English Name: Let’s Sway Twin Oars, Rang Wo Men Dang Qi Shuang Jiang

Music: Liu Chi 刘炽

Lyricist: Qiao Yu 乔羽

“Let’s Sway Twin Oars 让我们荡起双桨” is a theme song of the 1955 children’s movie Flowers of Our Motherland 祖国的花朵. The song describes the scene of young pioneers 少先队员 rowing boats in Beihai Park 北海公园, enjoying themselves and singing happily.

Composition Story Of Let’s Sway Twin Oars

In 1955, director Yan Gong 严恭 asked Liu Chi 刘炽 to compose the music for the film Flowers of Our Motherland. One day in July of the same year, the director led the staff and a large group of children to experience life in Beihai Park. Composer Liu Chi came with him, and he was inspired to write the song while playing with children.

In summer, the children of the motherland finished their homework and went boating on the lake. Surrounded by green trees, red walls, and white towers, facing the sun and blowing cool wind, this is the most simple understanding of the happy life of our revolutionary ancestors in the 1950s. This ideal remains unchanged today. It is the original aspiration of the Communist Party of China.

The song ” Let’s Sway Twin Oars ” embraces both personal and social ideals through a single scene. When a day’s work is done, every child can get an education. And the child is also very obedient, takes the initiative to finish homework; Children boating in the lake shows that our children, unlike cowherds of old, do not have to collect firewood and briquettes in their spare time. Green trees red walls and white towers show that our living environment is a very beautiful civilization, and also reflects the stability of the country.

” Let’s Sway Twin Oars ” can be widely sung for a long time because of its beautiful melody and artistic conception. Composer Liu Chi added many elements of folk music to his songs, but he also integrated the liveliness and vitality peculiar to the children of this era. And Qiao Yu 乔羽 along with Liu Chi’s melodic artistic conception and fill in the “push the wave” and “sunshine sprinkled on the sea”, more let the artistic conception so figurative, spring from the paper, close at hand.

At the same time, the lyrics set up the “suspense” of “who arranges a happy life for us”, which links the peace and tranquility of real life as well as the joy and happiness of children with the efforts of heroes and martyrs. So the song presents a beautiful picture of a new China in which people of all ages are united and connected.

Lyrics of Let’s Sway Twin Oars

Chinese Lyrics

English Translation

Let’s sway twin oars,

Our little boat’s plowing across the ripples,

The beautiful white pagoda casts its shadow,

In the lake surrounded by greenery and red walls.

The little boat’s freely floating in the water,

And the cool breeze’s caressing our faces.

The sun scatters its light on the lake surface,

And so striking in sunlight are red scarves,

Fishes in the water are looking at us,

And listening quietly to our joyous songs.

The little boat’s freely floating in the water,

And the cool breeze’s caressing our faces.

Having done the day’s homework,

We come here to enjoy happiness,

I asked you, my dear playmates,

Who has given us the happiness of life?

The little boat’s freely floating in the water,

And the cool breeze’s caressing our faces.

The little boat’s freely floating in the water,

And the cool breeze’s caressing our faces.

Let’s Sway Twin Oars