PUB-KEEPER: Please calm down, sir. Why not allow me to sell you another bottle of wine?
KUO TZU-YI: Tcha!
(Sings)
Where I to down a thousand cups and drain a hundred bottles,
How could it swill away this leaden load of sorrows!
(Starts to depart)
I won’t drink any more now. Clear away these wine-cups.
PUB-KEEPER: (Clearing up) (Recites)
Others come and, for a couple of pence, out grief goes, but, one upset, and this customer fills the world with his woes.
(Exit)
KUO TZU-YI: (Descends the stairs, turns, and walks) I think I’ll go back to my lodgings.
(Sings)
Seeing such wretched happenings, shock after shock,
And coming across that cryptic poem, ill omen every line exuding,
I fear that Heaven’s will and men’s intentions are alike impalpable,
And it plunges me into useless brooding, distorts my brow with gloomy foreboding.
Now look,
The slanting sun gilds all the ground, and dusk comes on,
As, still faltering with doubt, I return to my cheerless inn.
(Reaches lodgings, enters, sits down. Enter military retainer.)
MILITARY RETAINER: (Presents himself before him) Beg to report, sir, that a communiqué has arrived from the imperial government.
KUO TZU-YI: (Reading it)
“Issued by the Ministry of War, and concerning the promotion and appointment of officers: In accordance with the decree of His Holy Imperial Majesty, Kuo Tzu-yi is hereby appointed Commissioner of the T’ien-te Army. Such is the Emperor’s command.”
(Says)
So, an edict has already been issued. I must quickly pack my luggage, and I’ll leave today to take up my post at once!
(Military retainer assents to this order)
KUO TZU-YI: Well, Kuo Tzu-yi, your rank may be low and your responsibilities small, but this will now enable you to repay your debt to the imperial court in deeds.
(Sings)
Now it’s just as if I’ve found
A foot of water wherein to spread my fins,
A thorn-shrub wherein to flutter my wings!
Let’s rejoice in this chance to ascend Celestial Roads and soar to the Empyrean!
I shall persevere till I re-aright the world,
And work the noblest deeds of a hundred thousand years.
Though I be beset by witching miasmas and venomed ills,
Yet shall I shoulder the “sun and moon”,292 and the Mighty T’ang once more raise.
(Recites)
Useless years my horse hoofed the lowly dust,293 the mighty always held the keys to power and trust.294 Far as from the welkin stands the man of lowly station,295 but what sort of man is he, who cares nought for his nation!296
Act Eleven: Hearing court-musical performance
(Enter Moon-goddess Constant-charmeuse, leading female immortals)
MOON-GODDESS CONSTANT-CHARMEUSE: (Sings)
With my pure shine, alone I occupy the fine nights,
Through ten thousand years past unsmirched by a single
Dust-mortal-world fibre;
Strewing the jasper sky,
Silver-toad Moon297
I sprinkle with breeze-blown dew,
One stream of my immortal music ripples gently like a zephyr.
(Recites)
Elixir-pestling for eternal life,298 I left the Kalpa Dust299 My pure, captivating facial looks of basic transcendality; In the clouds I minutely watch the celestial blossoms fall, As I stay lolling against this one wheel’s dark-grey aged cassia-tree.
(Says)
I’m Moon-goddess Constant-charmeuse. I have from the origin been Mistress of the Grand-female Force Moon,300 though loose legend has it that I was the wife of Hou-Yi301 the Archery-god. Within the thirty-six thousand years I’ve been on the Seven-treasures Roundness302 moon, this whole wheel of candid-white clarity has circled the one-thousand two hundred Chinese-miles of Earth. The White-jade Rabbit303 and the Gold Toad304 have produced the Lasting-shine Ultimate Treasure305 elixir; and White Elm306 and Cinnabar Cassia-tree307 have borne magical blossoms throughout the ten thousand ages of the past.
Just recently I’ve had the court-music Rainbow-skirt and feather-jacket,308 which for a long time I’ve held secret in my Moon Palace, never having yet transmitted it to the mortal world. Now the T’ang dynasty Son of Heaven in the world below is a connoisseur of music and fond of court-music performances. His Most-prized-empress Yang Jade-bangle was in a previous life actually the Jade Most-prized-empress of Erigeron-Chenopodium Paradise,309 and she once came here. I must summon her soul in dream, to hear this melody once more, and have her when she wakes up recall it, and make a musical score, to fit it to wind and strings, so that at last this immortal music from up in Heaven may be left as a splendid topic of conversation in the mortal world. Wouldn’t that be fine!
Come here to me, Lady Wintry Flute-reed.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Present!
MOON-GODDESS CONSTANT-CHARMEUSE: Go now into the Tang dynasty’s imperial palace, and conduct Yang Jade-bangle’s soul in dream here to listen to the melody. After the melody’s finished, then escort her back again.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: As you command!
MOON-GODDESS CONSTANT-CHARMEUSE: (Recites)
So that through one pillow’s dream-trip to immortality, I can discreetly hand over the music of a thousand-autumns Taoist Melody.310
(Exit, leading ch’ou)311
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: In respectful receipt of Queen Moon-goddess’s command, I must go out of the Moon Palace, and into the T’ang dynasty imperial palace.
(Sets off) (Sings)
The Shining River Milky Way glows slanting,
The profuse stars twinkle faint.
Bending over, I peep at the Dust World afar,
And just see the air covered by a drisk of scent.
I’ve already quit the awesome grace of the Jade Mansion moon,312
And let my jade waist-baubles shiver their shadows breeze-blown,
And my dress stirs in the roseate clouds’ shine.
With dainty steps I tread the mat of scarlet clouds,
And am going to hand over the Heaven’s court-music to imperial-palace Jade-bangle’s “bed-curtain”,
And secretly invite her fragrant soul into the many-coloured palace of Toad Moon.
(Says)
Ah, here I’ve now arrived within the T’ang dynasty imperial palace.
(Sings)
See, she’s closed off by Fish Locks,313
Shut away behind Dragon Bed-drapes,314
That Most-prized-empress Yang,
She’s like a crab-apple blossom beauty-sleeping her fill, augmenting her delicate pretty radiance.
I lightly call her awake,
And hug her round with a mat-of-ice.315
(Calls)
Get up, milady Yang.
(Sings)
Just now after pursuing coolth, weary from “rain-and-clouds”, love-making inundated,
It truly was a case of “from slumber’s highpoint her pink blusher’s smeared and her yellow-flower eyebrow makeup316 stickied”.
(Says)
There’s an invitation for you, milady.
EMPRESS YANG: Oh, who’s calling to me beneath the eaves, deep inside the imperial palace?
(Sings)
It’s quiet, no announcement from palace charmeuse,
Lightly hying to painting-ornamented eaves.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Hurry, milady, you’re being invited to a feast.
(Empress Yang looks weary, turns on her side to adopt a sitting position prior to rising)
EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)
Delicately and so shyly in a haze I hunch up into sitting position,
And so slowly rising unaided am about to get up my portiere to open.
(Comes out from bed-curtain and meets Wintry Flute-reed) (
Says)
Why it’s a palace lady!
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Sings)
I’m not attached out-of-favour to Tall-gate Palace,
And, serving with the broom, once disparaged.317
EMPRESS YANG. If you’re not a palace lady, I suppose you’re a beauty from a separate institute?
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED. (Sings)
I’m not ranked of Resplendent Looks,318
But at imperial throne have gazed.
EMPRESS YANG: In that case, who are you?
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: I’m a palace-attendant in Moon Palace, named Lady Wintry Flute-reed.
(Sings)
My personal name in Jasper Palace’s319
Moon Palace-hall is signed.320
EMPRESS YANG: (Astonished) So you’re an immortal from in the moon! What’s brought you here?
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Sings)
I’ve just now respectfully received
Constant-charmeuse321 the Moon-goddess’s verbal command to personally transmit her message,
Inviting you, milady, to a feast in Cassia-tree Palace from the summer-heat beneath its blossoms to seek refuge.
EMPRESS YANG: Oh, so that’s what it’s about!
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: You mustn’t hesitate, milady. I’ll lead you there. Come with me now, please.
(She leads Empress Yang off)
TOGETHER: (Sing)
As we head for the Azure Gathered-dwelling-place sky,322
Beneath our feet the clouds arise so leisurely shifting;
As we step the cerulean firmament,
We hear the wind in our ears shrilling.
All of a sudden as we freeze our eyeballs, fix our stare,
As if they could be taken between our fingers pinched, we see the stars and Dipper323 dangling
And already in the distance, the sparklingly effulgent form of Moon Palace faintly in the mirror-moon showing.
EMPRESS YANG: Oh, it’s now the mid-summer season, so why’s it so chilly?
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: It’s the Grand Female-force Moon Palace here, the Vast-cold Palace324 of mortal legend. I invite you to go straight in.
EMPRESS YANG. (Delighted) I think I’m most fortunate that my turbid substance and mortal figure this night have become able to come to the Moon Mansion.325
(She goes in and looks)
(Sings)
The trip to the Purity326 above’s superb,
And all my thoughts are boon.
(Thinks) (Says)
It’s as if I’ve already seen all these sights in the past!327
(Sings)
I wind the white-jade steps,
Circle the azure eaves round,
Feeling uncurbed doubts, so hazy’s the scene.
Over there, the cassia-blossoms have opened so soon!
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Those are the Cinnabar Cassia-trees on the moon, which are constantly luxuriant all four seasons, and both their blossoms and leaves are sweet-scented.
EMPRESS YANG: (Looking) Ah yes, they are pretty blossoms.
(Sings)
Can’t get my fill of looking at them,
And my delight’s added yet further.
The gold blooms are threaded with one another,
And the kingfisher-green leaves are bunched together.
The fragrant vapours of the cloud-spread penetrate the fine light silk of my clothing,
And one’s obscured amid the cassia-trees’ shady cover.
(Sounds of court-music backstage)
EMPRESS YANG: Look, a crowd of lady immortals, in plain white raw-silk robes and scarlet skirts, coming through the cassia-tree shade, performing court-music. It’s so beautiful to hear.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: That’s the melody Rainbow-skirt and feather-jacket.
(Enter four, six or eight328 lady immortals, in white boleros, scarlet skirts, brocade cloud-shoulder shawls,329 [jade or pearl] necklaces and long floating ribbons, each lady immortal performing some court-music. They sing, and advance circling the stage)
(Empress Yang and Wintry Flute-reed stand to one side, watching)
ALL: (Sing)
Carrying in their hands celestial court-music instruments, they vie to finger clusters of blossoms,
Brushing with their hands the dew that moistens their rainbow skirts.
Distantly cut off from the Red Dust330 mortal world, and slowly proceeding,
They depict quite all the pure sublimity of Jasper Terrace.
Even as they blow and strum,
Their tongue-tips.
Their white-jade fibre-slender fingers,
Can’t startle awake a mortal from her dream.331
And can’t halt the celestial palace’s clepsydra tallies.
In one pillow’s roaming amid immortals,
As the melody finishes, she hears its finale,
And, music connoisseurs, to revise and check it receives instructions.
(Exeunt musicians together)
EMPRESS YANG: Ah, that court-music’s exquisite! It’s so pure-toned and lofty and sinuously beguiling, moving my heart and souls, truly something that doesn’t exist in the mortal world!
(Sings)
I’ve seen, faint high in the far distance, the clustered immortals’ figures,
And heard right through the pure sense of their magnificent music so fully
I’ve counted their tinkling wan and yen jades;332
I’ve counted the tinkling of their wan and yen jades;
To their music’s every single note
I’ve lightly tapped my phoenix slippers,
In accord with the musical notes, I’ve rapped out and committed it with my finger-tips to memory;
In vain like this I’ve sung its gorgeousness, danced its prettiness dainty,
For, compared with this refined-court-music performance of Heaven parity,
I’m often unsatisfactory.
(Says)
Might I ask you, lady immortal, may I pray have one audience with the mistress of the moon.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: It’s still too soon for you to meet the mistress of the moon. The day’s gradually dawning, so I humbly request that you return to the imperial palace, if you will.
(Sings)
You had a path for climbing to the Toad Moon, that you’ll surely remember,
EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)
So I’ll able to recall the new music without any omissions,
in its entirety.
LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Sings)
To have left in the lurch the monarch on your pillow for half a night’s your only error.
(Exit Empress Yang) (Says)
Most-prized-empress Yang has now returned to the imperial palace, and I must just report back to milady the moon goddess.
(Recites)
The azure-tiled parasol-tree-wood porticos of the moon palace-hall open,333 I further spy the shining moon, see my ruler home returned;334 Even though the Heaven-equalling music’s now allowed to be heard in the mortal world,335 I’m by the mortal world’s clepsydras hastened.336
Act Twelve: Composing a music-score
(Enter Dame Ever-new)
DAME EVER-NEW: (Sings)
Having only just finished respectfully transmitting a call in the West Palace,
I organise for the waterside terrace-house to be airy and a splendid sight;
I’ll just roll up the crystal portiere, scattering the dawn blushed-clouds,
Its jade hooks shimmering, it hangs in the first sunlight.
(Says)
I’m Dame Ever-new. Together with younger sister Remember-me,337 in West Palace, I wait upon milady Most-prized-empress Yang. Since milady our empress has been re-admitted to the imperial palace bed-curtains, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor has yet more favoured her with his love. It’s truly a case of
(Recites)
“Amid the three thousand, his love was all on her alone,
In the Six Palaces, the powdered and kohled ones
had no countenance or tone.”
(Says)
This morning milady Most-prized-empress instructed us to clear up Lotus-flower Pavilion,338 as she wants to compose a melody-score there. Younger-sister Remember-me is over there serving her with her dawn attire, and I’ve come here ahead of them. I must start setting out the Four Treasures of the Literary Study339 ̶ paper, ink, brush and inkstone.
(Sings)
See, the writing-brush stand has just been brushed,
and the plain-white letter-paper’s gleam I divide,
The inkstone pond I’ve newly filled,
The perfume of the ink-florescence floats:
In the depth of dark-green shade it’s so very secluded and refined.
Bamboo breezes guide,
Lotus-flower dew’s strewed,
Facing ripple-patterns, portiere shadows are ragged.
(Says)
Oh, her epidendrum and musk perfumes drift, her breeze-wafted jade waist-ornaments and bangles grow stilled: It’s milady Empress Yang arriving,
(Enter Empress Yang, leading Dame Remember-me)
EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)
In deep dream on clear night to moon’s splendour I crossed over,
And heard right through the singing of Rainbow-skirt and jacket-of-feather.
When I awoke, I recalled the notes and rhythms, without any error,
Plan to produce a new music-score to while away the long days of summer.
(Recites)
I vie to paint my long eyebrows, their kingfisher-green faint and full, Their “distant mountains” forms into my mirror shifted; At my dawn window, sun beams on my rouged cheeks, One bloom of scarlet and cream on the verge of diffusing melted.
The Play Page 10
