Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father’s Day

Father’s Day’s coming up in a few weeks, and we’ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father’s Day video wher you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you.

Because this is a song, we have a couple of instances wher a similar sentence structure is used with different words – these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence:
脏 – Dirty
活 – Activity, work
累 – Tired
活 – Activity, work
他 – He
全包 – All included
了 – (grammar word)
What? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as “Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!” We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there’s nowher in this sentence wher the verb “does” as in “to do work” actually appears. We’re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 – “all included”.
We see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown:
剩 – Leftover
菜 – Vegetables
剩 – Leftover
饭 – Rice
他 – He
全包 – All included
了 (grammar word).
once again, that strange “all included” – we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means “Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!” or “He eats all the leftovers!” So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is “eats”.

爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好
爸爸的力气真不小
做得多说得少
脏活累活他全包了
爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好
爸爸的肚量真不小
挣得多花得少
剩菜剩饭他全包了
挣得多花得少
剩菜剩饭他全包了
Hide English »
Dad’s the best, Dad’s the best, dad’s the best!
Dad’s really got no shortage of strength
He does a lot but speaks little
He does all the dirty and tired work.
Dad’s the best, dad’s the best, dad’s the best!
Dad’s really got no shortage of generosity
He earns a lot but spends little
And he eats all the leftovers!
He earns a lot but spends little
And he eats all the leftovers!