Tea Culture and Nature Harmony Translated in Enshi Folk Songs: The Case of “A Young Maiden Sends Tea” and “Ode to the Four Seasons of Tea Mountain”

: The inheritance and promotion of Chinese traditional culture have received increasing attention in the past few years, which is a big part of the blueprint of China cultural soft power. And tea culture as one important component is treated as the research focus. Through the translation, and interpretation of two Enshi folk songs: “A Young Maiden Sends Tea” and “Ode to The Four Seasons of Tea Mountain”, two great themes: tea culture and nature harmony are analyzed in connection with the ethnic custom and the ecological environment of the people in Enshi. And the nationality and regionality characteristics of the two folk songs are also stressed. Furthermore, as tea culture and nature harmony are closely related, this paper has explained aspects such as the division of labour between men and women, love relationship between young men and women, the characteristics of the growth of tea trees, the industry of growing tea, and the life of the girls picking tea. After all, the generation of the tea industry in Enshi has everything to do with the ecological environment there, and the way people live both shapes and is shaped by the way people make a living. The folk song in Enshi is the vivid representation of the local residents’ life, and the people there gradually formed their current way of life. As a whole, it is with the help of medio medio-translatology that facilitate the communication and circulation of folk songs, and the precious tea culture as well as culture harmony are better presented to the public.


Introduction
Nowadays, there is growing attention towards the inheritance of the precious culture created by generations of predecessors, whose wisdom as well as the splendid civilization leads us to the status today. China, as one of the most ancient civilizations today, has a possession of a lot of brilliant culture, and some of it is included in the list of World Cultural Heritage. However, the attention drawn to folk songs is far less satisfying than expected. In this paper the analysis focuses on the tea culture and nature harmony transmitted in two Enshi folk songs, with one titled "A Young Maiden Sends Tea" and the other "Ode to The Four Seasons of Tea Mountain". As the imagery tea has received wide acceptance to be one of the most important symbols of Chinese culture, the historical and cultural tradition it involved is conducive to the more logical and deeper understanding of those two folk songs.
Enshi is a place where folk song culture thrives, and one of the most widely sung folk song "Dragon Boat Tune" emerges from here. [1] Enshi has a possession of much Cultural Heritage, like Enshi Yangqin, Enshi Tusi City, Tujia hand-waving dance and so on. And Enshi is the only ethnic minority autonomous prefecture in Hubei Province, with 29 ethnic groups including Tujia, Miao, Dong, Han, Hui, Mongolian, Yi, Naxi, Zhuang and so on. 1 The diversity of the composition of the ethnic minority naturally engendered brilliant culture.
But the scope of the acceptance of folk songs is limited, which is inevitable in that with the development of information technology, there is an influx of options available for people to amuse themselves. While the successful performance of "Dragon Boat Tune" by Song Zuying at Vienna Golden Hall indicates that music is a universal language which surpasses the boundaries of language. However, the connotation of the lyrics does need to be understood if it is to be appreciated by a larger audience. For instance, the ancient poems by the great poets like Li Bai is receiving growing attention from both at home and abroad, with many excellent researchers working on the translation of those beautiful poems. Therefore, the promotion of the traditional culture, folk songs for instance, can also take its reference from poems. That is to say, the research concerning the translation and interpretation of folk songs should also be widely conducted.

Literature Review
Folk songs translation is very professional and technical, as folk songs are a special kind of music and literature involving multiple interdisciplinary subjects. [2] Its particularity should not be ignored as folk songs are a kind of vocal art with profound nationality and regionality, which is on the basis of the close combination of music and dialect. Meanwhile, the translation of the lyrics is one of the most important ways for the promotion and circulation of folk songs. And to translate folk songs well, to understand the characteristics of folk songs is also essential. Zhao Juan discussed that folk songs have three major characteristics: popular and rustic music style, beautiful and harmonious language rhythm, and colorful ethnic customs. [3] Therefore, when doing the translation of the lyrics, the translators are supposed to keep in mind those characteristics and try to preserve them as much as possible. Meanwhile, Li Linbo proposed that the understanding of the translation of folk songs in northern Shaanxi is generally in two possible forms of existence, one is a song and the other is a poem. [4] Through the creative work and artistic efforts of the translator and on the basis of maintaining the charm of the original folk songs, the charm of English language and some of the elements that can be accommodated in English poetry are melted. And the text of the folk songs in northern Shaanxi can be translated into English, revive in English, and then be appreciated. However, there can be intrinsic difference between the understanding of the language of both folk songs and poems. Because one of which is communicating the depth of thought, and the other is focusing on the language used. Therefore some of the elements shared by those two cultural forms may not be able to be equivalently translated.
Researches have been done on the translation of folk songs, using various theories. For example, Wang Pei performed the translation of the folk songs in northern Shanxi from aesthetics view, so the aesthetic characteristics of folk culture translation in folk songs are thoroughly discussed, and in his research the reconstruction of phonological beauty, structural beauty and cultural heritage beauty are realized. [5] Likewise, Pan Guangqin and Cui Jing have explored the translation of folk songs sung by the well-known singer Song Zuying under the guidance of functional translation theory. [6] Ding Ning researched the translation of the folk songs of Northern Shaanxi from the perspective of relevance theory, [7] and Zhang Xingling and Zhang Jian explored the Chinese-English international publicity translation of the Yi nationality's folk song "The Stream Flows" from the perspective of eco-translatology. [8] What's more, Gu Feng studied the English translation of Huizhou Folk Songs and Huangmei Operas from the perspective of SKOPOS theory. [9] The above mentioned researches demonstrate the fact that translation can be performed from various perspectives according to different research focuses. However, translation research involves two levels: one of the research level is based on the comparison of two languages between bilinguals, hence exploring the conversion of meanings and the mechanisms and laws guiding the conversion of languages. The other level is to study and examine the translation in the context of culture and literature, and to study the nature of literary translation and re-creation. [10] In comparison, medio-translatology is not as extensive as other contemporary translation studies. Instead, it examines and studies translation from a literary and cultural level, from a cross-language, transnational, and cross-cultural perspective. The essence of medio-translatology research is literary in essence, and the translation research is set against the larger and broader national and cultural backdrop, and examines and explains how these different nations, cultures and societies communicate. [10] This paper explores the translation of folk songs from the perspective of medio-translatology, which according to Xie Tianzheng is not essentially equivalent conversion at the linguistic level. [11] Instead, the study will cover the investigation and study of translation from a cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-language perspective, and to study the "loss and deformation of information in the process of bilingual conversions", including "adding, expanding" and other issues. The focus of it is on literary and cultural research and the mutual influence between two kinds of literature and culture, and exploring whether or not the image, emotion and artistic effect in the translated work have the same appeal as in the original text. It is understandable that the research field of medio-translatology is broader and more aesthetic. [12]Folk songs are the synthesizer of various local culture. Furthermore, the authors of these folk songs are mostly inspired by the natural ecological environment or the labor work or their traditional festivals, and the authors are not so highly educated. There can be certain deficiency in the beauty of literary language and the wording may be simple and straightforward with supplementary modal words. Tian Ling discussed in her exploration of the translation of folk songs following the guidance of medio-translatology. [13] According to her, the folk songs of northern Shaanxi have attracted the mass attention because of their original language form, rich connotation, and unique cultural characteristics. Therefore, when translating the folk culture of northern Shaanxi folk songs, the translation strategy of alienation is mainly applied to reserve the characteristics of the original text. And naturalization and flexible translation are supplemented to better preserve the folk songs and folk culture of northern Shaanxi. The combination of various translation strategies indicates the principle that text comes first. As the due respect for the cultural connotation of folk song is necessary to lay the groundwork for the further development of folk songs, and their culture shall receive wide appreciation and increasing acceptance. Following the footsteps of previous outstanding scholars, the exploration of these two folk songs will be of higher reference value.

Translation
These two songs selected are both related to tea, with one being a love song and the other describing the four seasons of the tea mountain and the life of the young girls picking tea. And the following are the original text and the translation scripts of these two folk songs, in which C means Chinese and E means English: In bay walks a maiden The date shows her affection 2) Chashan Siji Ge (Ode to The Four Seasons of The Tea Mountain) Ode to The Four Seasons of The Tea Mountain 1) The tea (that is) turns green (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) in spring (woo-hoo) 2) Girls picking tea (ma-ei-hei-yo) start to sing (na-jie-mei-she) 3) The sun's (so-so) scorching (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) in Dog days (woo-hoo) 4) Girls picking tea (ma-ei-hei-yo) are pretty busy (na-jie-mei-she) 5) Chrysanthemum's (so-so) yellow (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) when wind's blowing (woo-hoo) 7) The snowing (so-so) winter is (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) as always (woo-hoo)

Interpretation
First of all, the characteristics of Enshi folk songs refer to the verse in the works created by people in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, reflecting the people's labor and emotional life, and can be sung or recited. [14] When expressing thoughts and emotions, folk songs also have a unique narrative function and are a mirror of social life. Those two folk songs are narrated from different perspectives. The first folk song takes on the first-person perspective, with the narrator being the absolute protagonist expressing her thoughts and feelings. While the second folk song takes on the third-person perspective, and the narration is from an omniscient perspective without temporal limit or spatial limit. The free and flexible presentation of the people and things is easily received by the readers/listeners.
Then, it is also essential to analyze the content of these folk songs, the title of these two folk songs shows that they are both related to tea culture. It is in line with the ecological environment of Enshi, where the tea industry is thriving and has developed into a mature stage. Understandably, Enshi is in the southwest of Hubei, between the branch mountain of Wuling Mountain and Daba Mountain in the east of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Furthermore, the diversity of climate there shows the characteristics of subtropical humid climate and of the mountain three-dimensional climate, with four distinct seasons. Meanwhile, there is no severe cold in winter nor scorching heat in summer, with comparatively big altitude difference and obvious micro-climate characteristics. [15] Therefore, the local biodiversity and good ecological environment provide favorable conditions for the development of the local tea industry. As the saying goes: Different environment always gives different characteristics to its residents. Therefore, the content of Enshi folk songs naturally represent their daily life, in this context it indicates that many people there make a living by growing tea.
In the first folk song, it tells a story of a young girl who cares for her lover who is working in the field in the scorching summer. The young girl loves the young man so dearly that she can't help going out on a scorching summer day. Therefore, she holds a green oil paper umbrella in her left hand to protect herself from getting suntanned and takes a pot of good herbal tea for her beloved to release him from the heat and fatigue, for her beloved is working outside in the scorching summer. In the meantime, the division of labour between men and women is typical of Chinese agricultural society where men take up the role of breadwinner, here means working in the fields, while women take charge of the housework like cooking and washing.
When the young girl is walking out on the hot day, she complains to her lover that she would not be able to bear the heat at noon if it were not for him. The way she complains vividly depicts the image of a pretty young girl who would suffer for her sweetheart and bear some difficulties that she would not originally accept. And the complaint can be understood as flirting between lovers. The sincere love shown between the lines adds to the emotional charm of this folk song. The folk song is sung by the young girl as she is walking from home to the field, and the beautiful voice reverberates among the valley, and echos simultaneously in the heart of the young girl's lover.
In the second folk song, it sings about the different things that the young girls picking tea would do or experience in spring, summer, autumn and winter. In spring, the tea trees turn green as the weather is getting warmer, and they are showing a good sign of growing. As the temperature is moderate and the rainfall abundant in spring, the tea trees are recuperating and rejuvenating after a long time in winter. Therefore, there are spring shoots and the leaves are plump and green. The girls picking tea happily find that the tea trees have survived the cold winter and are growing in a good state. Therefore they all feel joyful as the tea trees are closely related to their livelihood as they get paid by picking tea.
In the southern China, tea-picking generally starts before Qingming festival in spring and ends before the beginning of summer. Therefore, when it comes to summer, the weather is extremely hot and the young girls are busy with picking tea. Walking among the tea mountains, their footprints are found all over the mountain ways. The busy work rhythm does not spoil the young girls' good mood, they sing along while working. The cheerful working atmosphere complement each other with their beautiful singing. Then it follows the rewarding autumn, when the picked tea is fried to make it dry and to keep the original flavor of the tea. The tea fragrance overflows when the tea is being fried and the young girls picking tea smell the scent will spontaneously sing together. They feel like their hard work is repaid when knowing the hard labor contributes to the good quality of the tea. The convivial atmosphere makes the girls sing out loud, and their touching voice and the tea fragrance are circling around. When winter arrives, it is snowing heavily, and there is an old saying in China goes like this: "A timely snow promises a good harvest." It is important to know that the benefits of snowing for farming include heat preservation of the crops, increased moisture and improved crop's resistance to freezing. In winter the young girls picking tea don't have to work outside, they just need to stay at home, sitting by the fire and enjoying their leisure. They are secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city, and they do not have many ways of amusement.
But singing, as one of the best ways of amusing themselves, has received certain amount of popularity among the people there. Staying by the fire and enjoying the beautiful scenery covered by thick snow, they enjoy themselves so much that their singing broke the silence of the snowy days. The young girls picking tea love singing, and their life have close relationship with tea and, thus the importance of both singing and tea in their life is beyond comparison. And there are times when they would instantly think of tea: when they are joyful, when they are working, when they smell the tea fragrance, and when they feel like amusing themselves. Those moments of tea-related life not only show the harmony between human and nature, but also tea culture. Furthermore, there are still situations where they sing to express themselves that are not represented in this folk song. Therefore, the folk songs are the diary of their life, in which various traces of themselves are found.

Review
Folk songs, which have a unique narrative function, are the oral diary of the people living in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. The folk songs are deemed as the detailed record of the daily life of the local residents, and the recreational function and colloquial characteristics make it possible for them to be widely circulated. Not only the culture form accounts for the popularity of folk songs in the local area, but the cultural connotation transmitted contributes to the wider appreciation of them. When conducting the analysis of the the two folk songs, the themes of tea culture and nature harmony are the research focus of these two folk songs.

Tea Culture in Folk Songs
The combination of folk songs and tea culture is a true reflection of the daily production life of the working people, and the the customs and feelings of the people in different historical contexts. The combination of folk songs and tea culture has produced tea songs that are an important heritage of China's tea drinking culture, and the musical works are rich in historical connotation and high in artistic value. [16]The two folk songs selected for analysis are both related to tea, with one showing love with tea and the other describing the daily routine of the girls picking tea, whose life are all about the local tea industry. When it comes to tea culture, three aspects are included for discussion: the origin of tea, tea harvesting and how to make tea.
To start with, the Chinese tea sage Lu Yu in his "Tea Sutra" speaks of the fact as follows: The quality of tea leaves is better when grown naturally in the mountains, and less so when planted in gardens. [17] Tea trees grown on sunny slopes under shady forest cover are of better quality. Those growing on shady slopes or valleys are not of good quality and are not worth picking. Because of its stagnant nature, it can cause abdominal distention when drunk. While the features are vividly represented in the folk songs. In the folk song of "A Young Maiden Sends Tea", the first line：sun shines into the canyon, implies that the young maiden's boyfriend is working on sunny slopes, as it's naturally the ideal choice for growing tea. Meanwhile, it is elaborated in the previous text that people there are used to growing tea to make a living. They choose their way of life as they live in the mountains and they try to follow the rule of nature to strive for better conditions.
As for the harvest of tea, it is written in "Tea Sutra" that tea is picked in the months of February, March and April (of the Tang calendar). From an old branch, three, four or five stems occur, and those that grow tall are chosen for picking. The tea is not picked on a rainy day, nor on a sunny day with clouds, but only on a clear day. From picking to packaging, the tea goes through seven processes. In "Ode to The Four Seasons of The Tea Mountain", lines like: "the tea (na-ge) turns green (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) in spring (luo-ye)", "The sun's (na-ge) scorching (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) in Dog days (luo-ye)" and "Girls picking tea (ma-ei-hei-yo) are really busy (na-jie-mei-she)" are all in line with the biological rhythms described by Lu Yu. Though the composer or singer is not so highly educated, he/she loves life and can vividly yet logically represent the local life.
And the part of tea-making: the buds and leaves are picked, steamed on a retort, pounded in a disobedient mortar, put into a model and pressed into a certain shape by hand, then roasted and finally threaded into bunches and packaged so that the tea can remain dry. From picking to packaging, there are seven processes. The comparatively complicated procedures keep the girls picking busy, and the pre-determined way of making tea makes it boring sometimes. Therefore, the girls picking tea are trying to amuse themselves by singing the folk songs while at work.

Nature Harmony in Enshi Folk Songs
As have been discussed in previous texts, the growth of tea are generally on the sunny slopes to ensure better ecological conditions, and the picking of tea are in line with the biological rhythms of tea trees to ensure better quality. Other than that, the division of labour between men and women is also a case in point. The folk song "A Young Maiden Sends Tea" described the simple but sweet love between a young couple, as the young man has taken up the role of breadwinner, here means working in the fields, and the maiden takes charge of the housework like cooking and washing. The harmonious relationship between genders ensures the stable status of the agricultural society depicted in the folk song. The simple but pure love between couples and the love for work is touching and thought-provoking, as it is no longer easy to retain today.
Nature harmony is an eternal theme of humankind. While the transition of Chinese society breaks the harmony to some extent in that the urbanization and industrialization of society brings about environmental issues. Though people are generally improving their living standards and life is much more convenient than ever, environmental crisis like global warming and land desertification are also worrying. And people find it harder to feel happy as the fast pace of development is often achieved by sacrificing the simplest happiness. Therefore, when people are eager to chase after the material happiness, it is necessary to stop and question whether it is worth it.

The Circulation of Folk Songs in Translation
Folk songs as an traditional cultural form has been popular among the working people in general. And it is worth exploring the reasons accounting for its popularity and wide circulation. and the translation shall retain the original flavour. Therefore, in the translation of folk songs, colloquialism, sing nature, cultural fidelity and readability and supplementary words are emphasized.

Colloquialism of Translation
Folk songs display apparent colloquial features as they are the representation of the daily life of the people in the ethnic minority areas. Therefore, the translation retains the language style without sacrificing the national and regional features to better reproduce the artistic characteristics of the original text. Following these principles, the translation of the two folk songs in this paper uses mainly common vocabularies, and phrases like "in left hand", "in right" "on holidays" and so on are very commonly used in our daily communication, which vividly reflect the colloquial nature of the translation. Meanwhile, the sentence structure is relatively simple yet understandable. For example, the translation of the second folk song uses mainly subject clauses to describe the girls picking tea, together with some simple conditional adverbial clauses to express other different meanings. Also, colloquial language consists of many abbreviations, which is also used in the translation, like "The sun's (na-ge) scorching (ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei) in Dog days (luo-ye)".

Singing Nature, Cultural Fidelity and Readability of
Translation Speaking of the singing nature of translation, the length of the lyrics is basically in line with the original text, which makes the coordination of the lyrics and tune possible. What's more, the interlaced rhyme of translated texts is achieved to make them more suitable for singing. For example, the rhyme "on" and "en" in the first folk song and "ays" and "ing" in the second folk song. With the use of that, the English version of the folk songs not only coordinated in terms of the meaning but also the rhythm, in which case the fact that minority people express their spontaneous feelings by way of singing can be better understood.
Meanwhile, cultural fidelity and readability of translation matter as it can better communicate the tea culture in the folk songs. The ecological environment like the canyon, mountains and the scorching summer are necessary for growing tea with better quality, which should be equally translated to make it acceptable. The customs between couples, tea harvesting procedures and tea-making process are essential and important notes in the ethnic folk songs as well. And the English translation of ethnic folk songs should reproduce these cultural elements. When translating folk songs of ethnic minorities, the foreignization of translation should be the focus, and culture behind the original language should also be fully retained.
The translation of this paper is on no condition word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence: the last sentence of the first folk song which literally means: If it were not for my lover, I would not walk out on such conditions. But that will not display the connection between the love and "sending tea", and the whole thing of sending tea is just an excuse of the maiden who cares about her beloved one. In order to achieving the goal of translation of ethnic minority songs, it is important to maintain a dynamic balance between the faithfulness of cultural translation and the readability of the translation, taking both into consideration.

Supplementary Words
In the lyrics of the folk songs, in addition to the orthographic words that directly express the thought and other contents of the song, there are often some contrasting words and sentences composed of modal particles, pictophones, or appellation words. [18] They are combined with the orthographic words and sung together to become a complete song, they can express a distinct emotion and become an integral part of the entire song. Taking the supplementary word of the second folk song for instance, to strengthen the tone and attract the attention of the listeners, the folk songs often add several modal particles in the sentence. Though these modal particles have no specific meaning, they make the feeling and atmosphere of the song get further strengthened. For example, the use of "ma-yi-huo-ya-huo-hei" and "ma-ei-hei-yo" strengthens the rhythm and tune of the song, and makes the lyrics exaggerated and emphasized, so that the singing is more colloquial and expressive, and the emotion of the song is also well expressed.
The physical labour of picking tea means their life is closely related to the tea leaves, the pre-determined yet complicated procedures of making tea means they need some pleasure beyond work. Therefore, they sing to amuse themselves and the supplementary words also help them to sing along. During the process they gradually form the characteristics of their dialect. And the complementary function of supplementary words and the lyrics together represent the life of the girls picking tea in a vivid manner.

Conclusion
The circulation and acceptance of ethnic folk songs is important to Chinese cultural export, as ethnic folk songs are an important component of Chinese culture. The successful performance of Song Zuying in Vienna can give people the inspiration that music can really arouse the emotional resonance of people. Therefore, the translation of these folk songs should also facilitate the understanding among others. This paper has explored the translation of two folk songs of Enshi Tujia Nationality, which are both related to the tea industry there, and the factors of the ecological environment, the division of labour, the tea-growing industry and so on are considered to enrich the connotation of the translation. The style of the folk songs are retained in the translation to the greatest extent by using colloquial language. Then the theme of tea culture is accentuated by taking references from the "Tea Sutra" to retain the ecological environment and biological rhythm for tea growing in the translation. The tea industry is developed naturally in Enshi, and the interpretation of tea culture incorporated in the folk songs represents the local residents' life. Tea culture is represented in the daily life of people there, who make a living by growing tea. The ecological conditions shape the way people live, and the harmony of nature is also shown in the dynamic process of maintaining a balance between nature and development. Meanwhile, people's division of labor and the love relationship also represent nature harmony. The ethnic culture of the local people there is also well demonstrated, which facilitates the understanding of the audience and makes it more likely to be appreciated by more audience.
While this paper does have some limits. First, the research focuses have been put on the tea culture and nature harmony, but there are still other themes involved like love relationship between young couple and the diligence of the working people are not been elaborated on. However, they are supposed to be discussed to enrich the paper. The comprehensiveness of research is flawed from this point of view. Secondly, interviews with the local residents of these ethnic areas should be done to enrich the details concerning the emotional state and the life of them, though they are as fully as possible complemented by a wide range search of relevant literature and other data. While the paper is really the result of thorough study and wide reading, and have certain significance for the circulation and acceptance of ethnic folk songs and the culture.