Yè Lái Xiāng: Fragrance of the night

This is a song that I remember from my childhood, probably from watching Hong Kong TV mini-serials on dodgy videos. It immediately conjures up the smoky blue of a lonely evening in 1940s Shanghai.

While yè lái xiāng usually means a flower that gives off its scent at night – the tuberose – it was also a phrase used in Hong Kong during the 1950s and 60s to humorously describe the night stench of open sewers and emptied chamber pots.

It makes me think of a decadent passion conducted in the dark and dirty alleyways of Shanghai, now long past. Of the full moon lighting up a white flower in the gutter.

“Yè Lái Xiāng” was famously recorded by Lǐ Xīanglán, one of the Seven Great Singing Stars of Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

Lǐ Xīanglán was in fact Japanese, born and raised in China. Originally called Yoshiko Ōtaka, she was given the stage name Lǐ Xīanglán for political reasons.

Her ambiguous nationality and involvement as a singer and actor in pro-Japanese nationalist films led to her arrest for treason at the end of World War II. She escaped execution by fleeing to Japan, and later to Hong Kong and Hollywood.

The song was also a hit for Teresa Teng and, as a star in Taiwan, China and Japan, she recorded and performed “Yè Lái Xiāng” in both Japanese and Chinese too.

For me, though, this version is definitely the most haunting.

夜来香 (Yè Lái Xiāng)
Fragrance of the Night

那南风吹来清凉
(nà nán fēng chuī lái qīng liáng)
The southern wind’s freshness and coolness

那夜莺啼声淒怆
(nà yè yīng tí shēng qī chuàng)
Nightingale’s mournful cry

月下的花儿都入梦
(yuè xià de huā er dōu rù mèng)
Under the Moon the flowers dreaming,

只有那夜来香
(zhǐ yǒu nà yè lái xiāng)
Except for the fragrance of the night,

吐露着芬芳
(tǔ lù zhe fēn fāng)
Whose perfume fills the air,

我爱这夜色茫茫
(wǒ ài zhè yè sè máng máng)
I love this boundlessly picturesque night

也爱这夜莺歌唱
(yě ài zhe yè yīng gē chàng)
And the nightingale’s melody.

更爱那花一般的梦
(gèng ài nà huā yī bān de mèng)
Most of all I love a flowery dream,

拥抱这夜来香
(yōng bào zhè yè lái xiāng)
Embracing this fragrance of the night,

吻这夜来香
(wěn zhè yè lái xiāng)
Kissing it.

夜来香
(yè lái xiāng)
Fragrance of the night

我为你歌唱
(wǒ wèi nǐ gē chàng)
I serenade you.

夜来香
(yè lái xiāng)
Fragrance of the night,

我为你思量
(wǒ wèi nǐ sī liáng)
I think of you.

啊我为你歌唱
(ah … wǒ wèi nǐ gē chàng)
Ah.. I serenade you.

我为你思量
(wǒ wèi nǐ sī liáng)
I think of you,

夜来香…
(yè lái xiāng…)
Fragrance of the night…

[Translation and pinyin from hkship and Christopher]