yÄ«, èr, sÄn, sì, wÇ”, liù, qÄ«, bÄ are the pinyin readings of the numbers 1 to 8 used in the song.
Now here's my personal interpretation of the lyrics (by doing some info-gathering around the net... namely Wikipedia)
''Xi Shi (Xizi being a nickname) was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China'' (Wikipedia). Apparently, Imogen Heap wrote this song shortly after spending time in Hangzhou, China, in which its West Lake is said to be the incarnation of Xizi.
By saying: ''Xizi she knows that once it's gone then it's gone!'', Heap is basically using this traditional folkloric figure as the embodiment of what makes Hangzhou beautiful.
Imogen is warning the people of Hangzhou through Xizi: Take the traditions away and they might get lost forever!
It seems Heap is speaking to the city as a friend, telling it it's beautiful the way it is and should be careful not to lose its beauty (its traditional aspects, both cultural and architectural) in the midst of its frantic changes.
The first paragraph starts as an introduction of the city being visited by strangers for various reasons, much like why people visited China.
Then she describes the daily life with words referring to movement and dance.
''Even your ten ton tone rings home for Marco Polo'', especially the ''ten ton tone'' sounds like how Mandarin Chinese sounds like, in which many expressions and play of words can be used with the many homophones of the language.
Marco Polo is a famous historian figure who explored China as part of his work as a merchant.
For the curious ones:
yÄ«, èr, sÄn, sì, wÇ”, liù, qÄ«, bÄ are the pinyin readings of the numbers 1 to 8 used in the song.
Now here's my personal interpretation of the lyrics (by doing some info-gathering around the net... namely Wikipedia)
''Xi Shi (Xizi being a nickname) was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China'' (Wikipedia). Apparently, Imogen Heap wrote this song shortly after spending time in Hangzhou, China, in which its West Lake is said to be the incarnation of Xizi.
By saying: ''Xizi she knows that once it's gone then it's gone!'', Heap is basically using this traditional folkloric figure as the embodiment of what makes Hangzhou beautiful.
Imogen is warning the people of Hangzhou through Xizi: Take the traditions away and they might get lost forever!
It seems Heap is speaking to the city as a friend, telling it it's beautiful the way it is and should be careful not to lose its beauty (its traditional aspects, both cultural and architectural) in the midst of its frantic changes.
The first paragraph starts as an introduction of the city being visited by strangers for various reasons, much like why people visited China. Then she describes the daily life with words referring to movement and dance.
''Even your ten ton tone rings home for Marco Polo'', especially the ''ten ton tone'' sounds like how Mandarin Chinese sounds like, in which many expressions and play of words can be used with the many homophones of the language.
Marco Polo is a famous historian figure who explored China as part of his work as a merchant.