| Cast Your Dice |
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Kum Meh Lai ! Kum Meh Lai ! Cast your dice! Come and try! No try No Fatt Chye No money Neh my ! Here's my merchandise! No time to sigh Can work 'til die Nine to five Five to nine Pay the price Die die must buy! |
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Semakau can stack high-high!
Don't defy!
Everyone's marching by
No excuse No lie!
T'is The Life!
Children No cry
Listen to my lullaby
Cast your eyes on the dice
Not on stray dog's eyes
Or battery chickens or pigs in their sty
Or forest trees, fishes, worms or fungi
LOOK HERE our Shopping Paradise!
Our One Great Enterprise!
We will survive
Sure won't kana sai
No squeeze you dry
You must try
Cast your dice!
Kum Meh Lai !
Die die must buy!
My Oh My !
Footnote: This poem should be recited with a supporting chorus. Verses can be freely interposed with refrains -- 'don't know why, don't ask why' and 'we gonna die'.
Legend (H - Hokkien):
Kum Meh Lai (H) -- quickly come; Fatt Chye (H) -- prosperity; Neh my (Singlish) -- never mind; Semakau (Malay) -- one of the southern islands of Singapore, Pulau Semakau is used as a dumping ground for rubbish (in the form of incinerator ash); kana sai (Malay 'kena' with Hokkien 'sai') -- meaning literally 'hit by shit' to convey that 'you had it' or 'you got it coming', or simply 'you go to hell' (note: 'kena' usually mispronounced as 'kana' by non-Malay speakers); No (Singlish) -- used variably in a negative sense (often in jest) to mean 'not', 'never', 'don't', 'don't have' or 'won't'; Die die (Singlish) -- used when emphasizing 'extreme need to...'; 'til die (Singlish) -- often said in exasperation (by the working class) to convey the hopelessness and drudgery of labouring 'to the last breath'. In Singlish, 'die' is used interchangeably with 'dead' and 'old age'; high-high (Singlish) -- very high. In Singlish, word-couplets are used to denote a higher degree or extremes.