“The Other Generation” LYRICS

Wang:
I am puzzled by the attitude
Of children over here.
They are often disobedient,
They seem to have no fear
Of the father.

Madam Liang:
They come home when they are tired out
Or when they want to eat.
And they act as if their coming home
Were quite a special treat
For the father.

Wang:
My older son, at twenty-one,
Has just discovered love,
A complicated subject
He knows very little of.

Madam Liang:
Your younger son confuses me,
The way he uses words,
He tells me I am “cukey”
And “something for the birds!”

Wang:
What are we going to do about
The other generation?

Madam Liang:
How will we ever communicate
Without communication?

Wang:
You don’t know where they go or what they do—

Madam Liang:
And what peculiar thoughts they think,
They never reveal to you.

Wang:
A very discouraging problem is
The other generation.
They want to lead a life that’s all their own.

Madam Liang:
Perhaps we ought to let them,
Forsake them and forget them!
But then we’d only find ourselves alone

Both:
With one another!
I don’t believe we’d like to be alone!

Wang:
When you speak from your experience,
You meet with cool disdain.
Every child is born with knowledge
Beyond the puny brain
Of the father.

Madam Liang:
Every child is born with confidence
A parent can’t achieve
And the kind of intuition
That compels him to believe
What he’d rather.

Wang:
My older son has chosen a daughter-in-law for me,
A dancer in a nightclub is my daughter-in-law to be!

Madam Liang:
She dances and undresses till she’s naked as a flea,
And everyone can look at—

Both:
What he alone should see!

What are we going to do about
The other generation?
How will we ever communicate
Without communication?

Madam Liang:
They never take the blame for one mistake—

Wang:
Oh, no!
Their parents are responsible
For every mistake they make!

Both:
A very discouraging problem is
The other generation—
And soon there’ll be another one as well!

Madam Liang:
And when our out-of-hand sons
Are bringing up our grandsons,
I hope our grandsons give their fathers hell!

Wang:
Can’t wait to see it!

Both:
I hope our grandsons give their fathers hell!