All The Way To Paradise (Honoring Yang Chang) 

From the Album Well May The World Go (Smithsonian Folkways)
(Honoring Yang Chang)

I lost my leg
In the jungle
Had to get carried
Back to the village
My wife she was scared
When she saw me coming

I thought for sure I’d die
Kuv xas lias kuv yuav tuag lis laus
I was way too scared to cry
Kuv atshai daus kuv quaj tsis taus jhiab
But I made it
Tab tsis kuv ua tau lawm
I made it
Ua tau lawm
All the way to paradise
Kuv mus txog klag kev ywj pheej

Lived in a valley
Up in the mountains
So many children
Couldn’t even count them
Before the enemy
Came a-charing

I thought for sure I’d die
Kuv xas lias kuv yuav tuag lis laus
I was way too scared to cry
Kuv atshai daus kuv quaj tsis taus jhiab
But I made it
Tab tsis kuv ua tau lawm
I made it
Ua tau lawm
All the way to paradise
Kuv mus txog klag kev ywj pheej

Food and shelter
Doctors and water
Children crying,
“Where is my father?”
Down the West Side of S. Paul
You can see me coming

I thought for sure I’d die
Kuv xas lias kuv yuav tuag lis laus
I was way too scared to cry
Kuv atshai daus kuv quaj tsis taus jhiab
But I made it
Tab tsis kuv ua tau lawm
I made it
Ua tau lawm
All the way to paradise
Kuv mus txog klag kev ywj pheej

Words & Music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long

*Lyrics collectively written with children in St. Paul, Minnesota through Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song program in partnership with Community Celebration of Place. Inspired by Yang Chang,.

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Well May the World Go is exclusively available on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

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