據VOA報道,夏威夷有兩位高中歷史老師,一位叫艾美.波維爾(Amy Burvall),另一位叫赫伯.馬何羅納(Herb Mahelona)。兩人自編自導自演,將歷史教材放入流行歌曲,這種教學方法使得學生對歷史變得有興趣,學習效果變好。不少學生會在考試時哼著歌想答案,甚至有四年前的學生到現在都還能完整唱出整首歌。

四年下來,他們已經累積了50多首歌,當中還有一支教中國歷史的MV。這首有關中國歷史的MV用的是麥當娜的名曲Vogue,歌名改為Chinese Dynasties(中國的朝代),由女老師波維爾演唱。歌詞根據視屏字幕輯錄如下:

Early on, everywhere you turned was chaos for over 300 years
(遠古,有三百年亂世)
Legend says the Xia Kingdom was first to appear
(夏朝,是個傳說)
About them little was known
(知之甚少)
Along came Shang, a farming society
(商朝,農耕社會)
Left bronze and some oracle bones
(留下了銅器和甲骨)
They venerated their ancestors so it’s called Qing Ming.
(祭祀祖先,號稱清明)
Then came Zhou.
(輪到周朝)
Zhou Kings weren’t divine, they had to obey mandate of Heaven
(周王并非神靈,須從天命)
or else nature might send a great disaster your way
(天災報應)
No one to blame but yourself
(只能罪己,休怨他人)
Invasions, rebellions, then your dynasty falls
(外患不已,造反頻頻,改朝換代)
Civil war would sour Zhou’s control
(內戰(zhàn)削弱周王)
Qin would seize power
(秦朝趁勢崛起)
Roads and money, build a wall
(道路,金錢,建長城)

唱到這里,波維爾改用Rap式的念白:

Qin ruled by Shihuangdi
(始皇帝的秦朝)
Strictest of dynasties
(最嚴酷的朝代)
Liu Bang with peasant brawn
(劉邦率鄉(xiāng)民起事)
Overthrew then created Han
(滅秦建漢)
Northern invasion, civil war
(異族南侵,內戰(zhàn)不已)
300 years blood and gore
(300年的腥風血雨)
Sui stepped up to boost morale
(隋朝重振江山)
Forced to build Grand Canal
(構筑大運河)
Tang gave government exams,and gave peasants back some land
(唐朝興科舉、分田地)
Li Bo, Du Fu wrote their thoughts
(李白、杜甫賦詩)
Artisans made their porcelain pots
(匠人制瓷)
Song conquered by Kublai Khan
(忽必烈滅宋)
Mongols beat by Zhu Yuanzhang
(朱元璋滅元)
Ming worked hard to build a wall
(明朝苦建長城)
But they too, like all others, would fall
(難逃覆轍)

這首《中國朝代》有一段副歌:

Xia, Shang, Zhou
(夏、商、周)
Dynasties they come and they go
(王朝來了又走)
Xia, Shang, Zhou
(夏、商、周)
Don’t you know the Dao is “the way”
(你知道嗎?“道”就是“路”)
Lao Zi had his say
(還是老子說得對…)

(歌詞翻譯轉載自翟華的博客東方文化西方語)