Nanhai Chao

"Nanhai Chao" (Chinese: 南海潮; pinyin: Nan2 Hai3 Chao2; Cantonese Yale: Naam4 Hoi2 Chiu4), or "Southern Sea Tides", is a Cantonese song of sung by Overseas Chinese. Its melody is based on the folk songs of the boat people in the Pearl River Delta and its adjacent coasts.

Traditional Chinese

紅霞滿灑粵天東破曉，

蒸蒸日上序華章，

紅棉紫荊又添千百朶，

欣欣萬世象。

我見江潮依然推起那舢板，

卻是穿過玉宇瓊樓新靚景，

我叫海潮波濤不要這洶湧，

隔住一片萬里大洋歸心切。

English Translation

Red clouds are overtaking the Cantonese sky at daybreak,

The rising sun preludes an elegant prose;

The silk-cotton trees (symbolizing Guangzhou) and Hong Kong orchid trees (symbolizing Hong Kong) adds hundreds and thousands of blooms again,

What a prosperous picture to last forever!

I see river tides still pushing that "sampan" (an Asian boat),

But it rafts through a refreshing scene of edifices of jade.

I tell the ocean not to be so turbulent,

Across from thousands of miles of ocean I am home sick.