自悲自嘆歹命人，父母本來真疼痛，乎我讀書幾落冬，出業頭路無半項，暫時來賣燒肉粽，
燒肉粽，燒肉粽，賣燒肉粽。
欲做生理真困難，若無本錢做昧動，不正行為是不通，所以暫時做這款，今著認真賣肉粽，
燒肉粽，燒肉粽，賣燒肉粽。
物件一日一日貴，厝內頭嘴這大堆，雙腳行到欲稱腿，遇著無銷上克虧，認真再賣燒肉粽，
燒肉粽，燒肉粽，賣燒肉粽。
欲做大來不敢望，欲做小來又無空，更深風冷腳手凍，啥人知阮的苦痛，環境迫阮賣肉粽，
燒肉粽，燒肉粽，賣燒肉粽。

I lament that I'm an unlucky person. When I was little, my parents treated me like the apple of their eye. They worked hard to provide for me so I could go to school. After graduation, I couldn't find a job, so I decided to sell rice dumplings temporarily.
Rice dumplings! Rice dumplings for sale!
It is difficult to start a business, especially if you don't have a startup fund. I don't want to do anything illegal, so I've settled for selling the rice dumplings temporarily. I will work hard today.
Rice dumplings! Rice dumplings for sale!
Everything gets more and more expensive everyday, and I have
many mouths to feed in my family. I walk until my legs ache. If I don’t sell, I don’t make money. I have to work hard.
Rice dumplings! Rice dumplings for sale!
I don’t have the fund to start a large-scale business, but a small business will not profit much. The cold wind freezes my hands and feet. No one understands my pain of being forced to sell rice dumplings.
Rice dumplings! Rice dumplings for sale!

Learn how to make rice dumplings here.

Rice Dumplings

Rice Dumplings was written in the years right after the end of WWII when unemployment was high and life was tough. The song writer’s wife recalled one night sitting in the living room with her husband, who was a school teacher and just finished grading assignments from students, hearing calls outside selling steamy-hot dumplings. Even though it was a nice treat to have fresh dumplings delivered at home, she lamented the fact that the seller had to carry a heavy cart through streets and alleys in the middle of a freezing winter night, in order to make a living. She urged her husband to write something about it, and the song was born. The song was subsequently banned by the government because its pessimistic view life, which according to the government, did not reflect reality.

Thanks to singer Chin-Fa Guo, the song rose to populairty. Trying to evade the punishment of singing a banned song, Guo made subtle change of the lyric and the title, and sang the melancholic melody in a lively and hopeful style. His name has been forever associated with the song in the minds of many Taiwanese people. At the age of 72, he collapsed on stage singing Rice Dumpling, and passed away on the same day.