Before you read this, do keep in mind that although I’m a native speaker, I’m not all that good with actually writing chinese songs, or any songs at all for that matter. Plus, I had to make very weird phrases to make some of them work, so apologies if any of this really bothers you. I also formatted it as code so I could have normal paragraphs. The re-translation to english is also probably unrecognizable.
Chinese
我们习惯从开车得到欢乐
很快我们就会忘记曾是怎么走着
对我们来说走两步就是折磨
但十万米对汽车不算什么
摩托汽车,摩托汽车
覆盖了世界,也覆盖了你我
就算是寂静,干枯的古河
也躲不过飞奔的摩托汽车
我们的音乐是发动机的喧闹
汽油对我们来说闻起来像香料
我们需要什么?四条车道的大桥
还有用来维护车子的材料
摩托汽车,摩托汽车
覆盖了世界,也覆盖了你我
就算是寂静,干枯的古河
也躲不过飞奔的摩托汽车
有一个矛盾显得格外突兀
就是车子应该为我们服务
可是我们爬到车下,闻着难闻的烟雾
像我们是这些机器的奴仆
摩托汽车,摩托汽车
覆盖了世界,也覆盖了你我
就算是寂静,干枯的古河
也躲不过飞奔的摩托汽车
English w/notes
We are accustomed to taking pleasure from driving
Soon we'll forget how we once walked
(In the original song these two lines are inverted. I swapped their places, partly for rhythm, and partly because I was going off memory for this part)
For us, two steps is agony
But a car can handle a hundred kilometers with ease
The refrain, which is the paragraph below, is sung twice here.
Automobiles, automobiles
(literally 'motor cars'. I don't think this is an actual expression in Chinese, but I had to get enough syllables somehow.)
have covered the world, have covered you and me
(The original lyric only mentions automobiles 'literally covering everything. I changed it partly to rhyme, and partly to get enough syllables.)
Even the quiet, dried ancient riverbed
(The original lyric is about places where dust has laid for centuries. I changed it so it would rhyme with the next line.)
Cannot stop the speeding automobile.
(I used the term 'feiben', which can't be directly translated to english afaik, but roughly means 'going really fast'. Again, the original lyric is about automobiles leaving their mark, but I changed it for, you guessed it, syllables.)
The sound of engines is music to our ears,
And gasoline smells like spices.
(These two lines are fairly faithful to the original, but the first line has its structure inverted.)
What do we need? Four lane highways!
(The original line bemoans lanes being too narrow. I changed it to bridges to rhyme.)
And materials to repair our cars.
The refrain is sung twice here.
A contradiction is particularly obvious,
(There is no mention of this in the original. I added it to have enough syllables. I do that a lot, don’t I.)
Cars were supposed to serve us
(This is the real first line)
But we crawl under the car, and inhale disgusting smoke
(This should be two lines, and the part about smoke is nowhere in the song. But I had to make it rhyme somehow. A side effect was that I ended up with an absurd amount of syllables.)
Like we are the slaves of these machines
(Again, no mention of this in the original, but I had to rhyme, and it’s heavily implied anyways.)
The refrain is now sung four more times.
spoiler
I’M JOINING THE WAR ON CARS ON THE SIDE OF THE CARS
spoiler
I’m just joking please don’t kill me
:::