Carabao, the band, the man and the song 'Mae Sai'
Carabao (Thor Jorgen Udvang / Shutterstock.com)
Carabao is perhaps the most famous singer and band in Thailand. Here I give a short description of his life, the nature of his songs and a video with lyrics of what I think is his most beautiful song 'Mae Sai' and with a more political song as an encore.
Short biography of Carabao and his band of the same name
Yuenyong Opakul, stage name Aed Carabao, was born in 1954 in Suphanburi province. From an early age he was influenced by both local and western music.
He studied architecture in Bangkok and later for a year in the Philippines where he met his two friends and colleagues Kirati Promsakha na Sakhon (Kaew) and Sanit Limsila (Kai). That is also where the name 'Carabao' originated, which means 'buffalo' in Tagalog, a name that stands for tenacity, strength and patience. In addition to their work in architecture, they performed in a restaurant and a hotel.
Carabao and his band achieved great success in 1984 with their album 'Made in Thailand'. Aed regretfully gave up his work as an architect and devoted himself entirely to music, including international performances in America, Japan, England and Switzerland. He also composed music for films and made several appearances as an actor.
His songs are part of what was called the 'Levenslied': many songs are about all kinds of social and political problems, about poverty, struggle and injustice. His total oeuvre consists of 900 songs, making him one of the most prolific lyricists in the world.
In 2002, he entered the energy drink business with the brand 'Carabao Dang Energy Drink' ('Red Carabao Energy Drink') which now has a market share of 20% and also sponsors the English League Cup.
The song 'Mae Sai'
The emotional song Mae Sai laments the fate of women from the north who are sold into prostitution in Bangkok. Such a young woman ('Nók Nói', Little Birdie) becomes addicted to drugs there to forget the pain of those 'thousands of men and an empty heart', receives a message that a family member is very ill, rushes home to Mae Sai but unfortunately comes too late.
Every time I ate at a restaurant with a live band, I asked them to play this song.
The text
Nuts:
* Boring in 'Mâe: Sǎai' can also mean 'late'.
: Indicates a long tone.
^ above a letter = descending tone (as in an emphasis: NO!).
ˇ above a letter = rising tone (as in a question: no?).
' above a letter = high tone.
` above a letter = low tone.
แม่สาย Mâe: Sǎai by คาราบาว Carabao
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fâak fáa yaam yen hěn sǎeng ram-rai
The horizon is shrouded in twilight, I see its dim light
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aa-thít tjà láp lôohk pai
The sun hides quietly behind the world
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phrá-tjan tjà plòoh khûn maa
The moon will travel upwards
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mòe: moewan wí-hòhk hěun lom yòe: klaang waeh-hǎa
A flock of birds flies on the wind, are free in the sky
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tjà klàp khuun sòe: chaai-khaa chaai pàa khuu làengphák phing
They will return to the shelter, the edge of the forest is their hiding place
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tàe nóng naang yai mâi hěn klàp maa
But the young lady, why don't we see her come back?
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tjàak pai tâng lǎai pìek wâa
She left so long ago
เราเหงาจัง
thóng-naa bâan rao ngǎo tjang
Our house in the country is so very lonely
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lom nǎao phát bòohk yôhk ruan tjon kláai tjà phang
A chill wind blows, makes the house creak as if it will give way
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phôe:-tâo taa-yaai long nâng
Grandfather and grandmother are sitting
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Mèu:h-looy dôeway-tjai luuan-looy
Lost in thought, their hearts full of unrest
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nók nóhj tjàak thóng naa raa-kaa tòe:k
Small bird, born in a simple paddy field
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thuh pen lôe:k thîe tòe:k phô mâe: khǎai pai
She is a child, sold by mother and father for next to nothing
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kà-tan-yoe: bì-daa mon-daa paan dai
Grateful to her parents no matter what
แม่ จาก เมือง เชียงฮาย ต้อง ไป สู่ สังคม ทราม ทราม ทราม ทราม
mâe:-sǎai tjàak muang chiang-shark tông pai sòe: sǎng-khom saam
From Mae Saai, Chiang Rai, forced to the lowest rung of society
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mûua róe:-sùk-tuwa kôh sǎai keu:n pai
When she realized her mistake, it was already too late
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mùun phan thîe thuh phàan chaai
Many thousands of men had possessed her
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hǒewa-tjai thuh tjung yen chaa
Her heart therefore became icy cold
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sǎng-khom krà-nàm sám sǒng thuh tông dtìt yaa
Society tormented her again and again, she became addicted to drugs
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mâi khít hǒewan kheun bâan-naa pràat-thà-nǎa phiang yaa mao
No longer thought about returning to the farm, only wanted drugs and booze
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phôe-tâo lóm-phòewaj khon chôewaj pai bò:hk
The parent(s) affected by illness, a helpful person told (her)
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thuh tjung tjàak muang bangkòk
She then left Bangkok
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wǎng pai hâi than-waeh-laa
Hoped to be on time
About Us
ao yaa pai fàak ao màak ao ploe: sûa-pâa
Brought them medicines, betel nut and clothes
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mâe:-sǎai thîe thuh tjàak maa mǔuan waa-tjaa wâa sǎai keu:n-pai
The Mae Saai where she comes from seems to speak accusingly: 'too late' *
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nók nóhj klàp-maa khae than phrá suwat
The little bird returns, just in time to hear the monks pray
About Us
khrai lâo tjèp-pòewat rôewat-ráaw thâo sǎao muang nǔua
Who is aware of the pain and suffering endured by the young women of the North?
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sǎng-khom-muang thai khrai fang khǎo khong mâi chûua
The Thai townspeople who hear them will probably not believe it
More information ่จ้าง
khǎai kin mòt-láe:w ûuang nǔua hâi kàp chaai thîe ôe: bòh tjâang
The women of the north, sold to lying men
Photo: Wikipedia
The videos
Karaoke version of 'Mae Sai': www.youtube.com/watch?v=1USvKYgZGPY
Only Thai lyrics of 'Mae Sai': www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9FD4yycOs
With partial English text, easiest to follow: www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcDn_2Fzsw
As an encore:
A video with Caraboa's song 'Khrai khaa pràchaachon' or 'Who killed the people?'. The dispersal of the red shirt demonstrators by the army in April-May 2010. Warning: gruesome images! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZFkKNwV0Ew
Many thanks to Rob V. for the difficult but clever and excellent phonetics and translation of the song 'Mae Sai'.
About this blogger
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Born in 1944 in Delfzijl as the son of a simple shopkeeper. Studied in Groningen and Curacao. Worked as a doctor in Tanzania for three years, then as a general practitioner in Vlaardingen. A few years before my retirement I married a Thai lady, we had a son who speaks three languages well.
Lived in Thailand for almost 20 years, first in Chiang Kham (Phayao province) then in Chiang Mai where I liked to bother all kinds of Thai with all kinds of questions. Followed Thai extracurricular education after which a diploma of primary school and three years of secondary school. Did a lot of volunteer work. Interested in the Thai language, history and culture. Have been living in the Netherlands for 5 years now together with my son and often with his Thai girlfriend.
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The transcription follows the written text, but deviates enormously from the phonetics of the sung.
It is not for nothing that karaoke subtitles lack any Thai tone mark.
Sure, Alex, phonetics means representation of pronunciation and in Thai the tones are an important part of that. Here, of course, the pronunciation of what is written is reproduced and not the tones of what is sung. Yet you often also recognize the tones of spoken Thai in the sung. In addition, you have taught me that the tones and other pronunciation elements of what is spoken is not a law of the Medes and Persians: there are indeed changes and fluctuations depending on person, situation and emotion.
Read: missing in 'English' etc.
This song has been in my top 5 all time favorites for years.
The song was not written by Aed but by Thierry Mekwattana and is also performed by him.
You may well be right about that, Geert. I think a lot of the lyrics and songs were a collaborative effort. This song contains many words from kham meuang, the language of the kingdom of Lanna. Both performed this song.
This kind of life songs is called plaeng chiwit. There are/were more bands/singer(esses) who performed similar, especially very popular among the Isanse (and northern) guest workers in BKK.
In addition to that very sweet energy drink, they have recently launched more commercials - with varying degrees of success. Incidentally, in the UK that red buffalo (because of the irony with competitor red bull) is much more popular than here. And totally banned in FR.
Plaeng Chiwit,
What a beautiful name! The literature, especially from Isan with a rich tradition in this, is also called วรรณคดีเพื่อชีวิต wannákhádie phêua chiwít in the seventies and eighties of the last century. 'Literature for Life', with the same social and police slant.
The Isaan was and is a motor of Thai literature.
Psst, readers, Tino is actually a sadistic man. He asked me to translate this song. I started with a smile but in the end I was just sad. I could see how a poor young (minor?) lady is mentally and physically completely broken, demolished and has nothing left.
To name a few fun things:
If you look at the phonetics you will see that it says Chiang-Hai. That is not a mistake, in the Lao dialects spoken in the north and northeast we see that they use an H where Bangkok Thai (ABT) uses an R. Or perhaps we could say that these dialects are closer to ancient Tai and ABT is a less pure form of the languages spoken in the region.
If you take the Thai dictionary and translate the sentence 'หมื่น พัน ที่ เธอ ผ่าน ชาย' as:
Ten thousand, thousand, which/that/who, he/she/him/her, passed/through/assume/undergo/bridge, man(s). In other words, you could say that tens of thousands of men went over her, but that would sound very flat and out of tune in Dutch.
The last sentence was very difficult to translate, I also presented it to some Thai people but my friends in BKK didn't understand a word of it 'is this northern dialect? I don't understand this' , and a friend from the north couldn't give a good translation for it either.
Now I am quite a bit of a perfectionist myself, I know that I have a tendency to translate literally so that when translating back to the original language, the sentences are well preserved. Of course some small liberties were taken here and there so that they are also reasonable sentences in Dutch. You would throw a correction over that to make it even more beautiful Dutch vocals so that Frans Bauer or Marco Borsato can make it a hit. But really giving a free interpretation to a text is not in my nature. All in all, I am quite satisfied with my translation and phonetic text.
For completeness of Ed Carabao's life story:
1. Due to the IPO of his company that makes the energy drink, Ed became an instant multimillionaire in 2017, in dollars. Things are not going so well at the moment with sales in the UK and China and the stock has plummeted quite a bit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-31/energy-drink-billionaire-rises-in-thailand-with-a-red-bull-rival
2. The real name of Ed (Yuenyong Opakul) appears in the Panama Papers, the pile of millions of documents of companies and individuals who try to evade or avoid taxes in their own country through constructions in tax havens such as Panama. The long list of Thais could be a mere a boire for good journalists, but I hear and read very little. The NACC seems to be getting involved so that could take years (if only because only wealthy Thais are on the list).
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/1413-in-Thailand-named-by-Panama-Papers-30285640.html
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=773200206143680&id=758903820906652
(name is easy to find as it is the last name in the long row)
Something I've always wondered: Thai is a tonal language, where the meaning of words depends on the pitch. How does that actually work in sung texts? I can imagine that the melody of a song and the necessary pitch for a certain meaning can get in the way of each other.
Anybody who has a vested interest in this?
That's a good question. Every Thai who listens to a song understands the lyrics, a misunderstanding is rare. A tone can often be recognized in the sung word, for example in this song for Mother's Day, just listen:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/taal/liedje-moederdag/
As anyone trying to speak Thai will experience, the five theoretically distinct tones (three pitches plus ascending and descending) deviate from the actual pronunciation – which also includes the speaker's natural register and emotional charge.
Some examples.
The word go ไป (I go, we went yesterday, they go tomorrow) is pronounced and written with a meantone. The command go! normally takes on a high pitch, and is sometimes but not always notated accordingly ไป๊.
มากๆ stands for makmaak, according to the rules falling twice, but everyone except monks say: makmaak, short midtone and long falling.
A word that is poorly pronounced in tone is still often understood. This is because it functions in a context. Who wants to say: I love you, but with three midtones instead of rising-high-mid will still be understood by the loved one and bystanders.
Sometimes not. Who in front of a picture of a dog says uncertainly: maa? is well understood, a resolute: maa! leads to misunderstanding, people think that is meant: horse!
A word like wie-taa-laa-yai can theoretically be pronounced 5x5x5x5 = 625 ways, but whatever you say, a Thai will usually understand that you mean college or university.
Well, it's the same with music. The context often clearly indicates what is meant despite the so-called incorrect tones: I love you, or: my hair on my head cares a lot about my mobile phone. The native speaker “of course” hears it correctly.
Compare Dutch songs: wilhelmus vahan nahasououwe etc.
Penultimate paragraph read: I love your hand etc.
Clear explanation. Thanks.
Carabao are also the men of the better stealing work, like many Thai bands by the way. This number (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miUr9xKjxo4) is almost an exact copy of Eddy Grant's 'gimme hope Joanna'. What didn't they actually steal? Santana, The Scorpions, Bob Marley, Guns 'n Roses…
By the way, the most shameless stealing work comes from XYZ with 'Sabai Dee Reu Bplao', for those who remember Wham! with 'Last Christmas' from 1995. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBMAPSon07g
Did you mean 1985?
Too bad no one says anything about the song itself….how come?
Carabao always wonderful music, always longing to be in Thailand
Thank you Master Kuis,
Your explanation has made me a lot wiser, but just studying the translations and the Thai script phonetically is going too far for me.
I live in Ubon Ratchathani where the most beautiful discotheque of “Tawan Daeng” is located.
Carabao often performs there and of course we are there.