LI KUI-NIEN: Because I too fled the troubles, I drifted around, and ended up in Yangtse-south. The other day, in Vulture-peak Buddhist Monastery, I encountered the young gentleman Li Mo, and was hospitably invited by him to stay in his house. I never imagined I’d meet you two as well.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: Which young gentleman Li Mo is that?
LI KUI-NIEN: Well. it’s remarkable to explain. That day you and me were rehearsing Rainbow-skirt up in Homage-to-the-Origin Chamber, who’d have known, Li Mo was eavesdropping on us outside the palace wall, and using his iron flute to steal a record of several passages of our freshly composed music. Now he wants me to pass on the whole score of it, which is why he asked me to stay.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: (Lamenting) Oh dear, the Rainbow-skirt melody must be passed on, though, but unexpectedly the person who composed the score’s now dead and buried, and even we who performed the melody have all drifted away and ended up in different localities. It grieves one so!
(Each laments)
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: (Sing)
Talk of it causes me aching griefs,
I recall when we sat in attendance upon the emperor in Florescence-purity Palace,
And together performed Rainbow-skirts.
Her white-jade fibre-slender fingers copied out the secret score,
And she taught the new music with her sandalwood lips.
She nowadays has new vegetation growing beside her green green tomb,
And we drift and drift, willow-flowers fluttering, along the paths and roads.
TOGETHER: (Sing)
As all of a sudden we meet each other,
we each soak our clothing with tears,
White-haired man and Carmine Countenance women,
Conversing of political vicissitudes.
LI KUI-NIEN: I’m glad the weather’s cleared up. I’ll say goodbye now.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME. Relax, won’t you. Might we please ask you, maestro, how are all the old members of the Pear-orchard Conservatoire now?
LI KUI-NIEN: The venerable He Huai-chih and me travelled together, but he died of an illness en route. Huang Fan-ch’o went along with the emperor in his retinue. Ma Hsien-ch’i was trapped in the city, and I don’t know what became of him. Only Lei Hai-ch’ing stood up to the rebels, ranted at them, and died for it.
(Sings)
Thinking back to our Superior August-emperor bright,
He so spread his loving favours throughout the Pear-orchard
Conservatoire, That nobody can him requite.
(Says)
Dear old Lei Hai-ch’ing,
(Sings)
His service-faithful souls lit up the bright daylight shining,
So terribly shaming me this surviving loyalist that I sob in the sun’s declining.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: Maestro, did you know that the Queens of the States of Ch’in and Kuo were both killed by the mutinous soldiers.
LI KUI-NIEN: (Sings)
Even the charming ladies of vermilion doors all deserve our grief,
Who now strolls for enjoyment by the Ch’ang-an river’s twists!
TOGETHER: (Sing)
As all of a sudden we meet each other,
we each soak our clothing with tears,
White-haired man and Carmine Countenance women,
Conversing of political vicissitudes.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: I wonder when Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-our-emperor will turn back his gold-bells carriage to Ch’ang-an?
LI KUI-NIEN: The young gentleman Li Mo was recently in Ch’ang-an, and he says that recently, commander-in-chief Kuo Tzu-yi having recovered the capital, and the warfare having abated, the emperor will at last be able to return there. I imagine that any day now our Sublime August-emperor will be turning back his gold-bell carriage.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: Then we thank Heaven and Earth for that!
LI KUI-NIEN: It’s getting late, and my road’s a long one, so I’ll be off now.
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: Wait until you’ve burned some paper-coins to Empress Yang, and had a vegetarian repast and a little chat.
LI KUI-NIEN: (Recites)
Coming south I’m the only survivor,892
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: (Recite)
We’ve lately changed from Rainbow-skirt moonlight dresses;893
LI KUI-NIEN: (Recites)
How many times in a human life, one grieves for things past,894
DAME EVER-NEW and DAME REMEMBER-ME: (Recite)
We’ll meet you sir once more at the time when fall the flowers.895
Act Forty: Immortal reminiscences
(Enter Empress Yang dressed as an immortal and female immortal in her retinue)
EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)
Riding cranes and charioting rocs,
I depart not to return,
Pointlessly turning my head to look back at Heaven or the mortal world.
On top of Upright-and-just Tower,896
And within Lasting-life Palace-hall,
Past events there tug at my emotions without bound.
(Recites)
High, distant and faint, deep in the clouds, I’m locked in jade room, Just now returned to immortal registration, so far-rolling are my thoughts; I turn my head, and inevitably strain my mind, Suddenly see amid the Fine-jade Trees897 by the Jasper Steps, Where many-coloured rocs perching their forms are pair on pair, Time on time I’ve cast that away, but again it tugs at my guts with longings.
(Says)
I’m Yang Jade-bangle. Blessed to receive the Jade Edict, I’ve been restored to my position among the immortal throng, and am once more dwelling in Great-truth Convent on Mount Erigeron-chenopodium. But I’ve never, even for a moment, let away from me the tokens securing our love, and my heart finds it impossible to be unfaithful to our Seventh Night love-pledge. At the mention of it, I’ve got so much to say!
(Sings)
Helpless to do otherwise, we, all in an hour, were separated,
That time to each other we were so crucial.
In life and death uncuttable in twain our love and guts are bridled together,
Bitter regrets like mountains futilely I pile.
His yearnings are drawn by our old love-destiny,
sorrows unable to cease,
My tears drip from my remnant soul,
their blood never dry.
Futilely I sigh and moan.
Before we’d completely become Twin-eyed Fish,
we met with dire plight,
Mandarin duck and drake were torn apart,
and what talk was there of immortal throng, what mention!
(She brings out the hairpins and casket, and looks at them)
(Sings)
The love of these gold hairpins and gold-strip-flower casket still exists,
Already it’s impossible to think that,
as long as Heaven and as enduring as Earth,
our love-pledge will eventually turn cold.
When shall I obtain Green Roc’s898 dispensation,
Join up again our love-destiny,
And we meet again,
The two of us our sorrows and vexation to each other to confide!
(Enter Wintry Flute-reed)899
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Recites)
I’ll just go up onto the summit of paradise Mount Erigeron-chenopodium, and gaze, To see the crane come flying across the limpid shallow sea-waves.
(Says)
I’m Wintry Flute-reed. I’ve received a command from Her Majesty the Goddess of the Moon to request from Grand-truth Jade Queen the new music-score of Rainbow-skirt.
Ah, here I am. I must go straight in.
(Goes in and meets Empress Yang)
I kow-tow to you, Jade Queen.
EMPRESS YANG: What brought you here, immortal lady?
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Laughs) Jade Queen, do you
still recognise me Wintry Flute-reed?
EMPRESS YANG: (Thinks) Oh, surely it’s the immortal lady from the moon?
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Yes, that’s me.
EMPRESS YANG: Please be seated.
(Wintry Flute-reed sits down)
EMPRESS YANG: Since we parted, several years have slipped by unawares. Today, now you’ve come to visit me from so far away, I beg you tell me what your purpose is.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Listen to my submission to you, Jade Queen:
(Sings)
Just because of the Rainbow-skirt court-music in Vast-cold Palace,
Your Heaven-endowed heart admired it,
And you with minute care produced a score of it.
(Says)
I’ve received a special command from Her Majesty the Goddess of the Moon,
(Sings)
To seek out you, you connoisseuse of music, and petition you on Mount Erigeron afar,
To try and borrow and look at the illustrated score of yesteryear.
EMPRESS YANG: Ah, so that’s how it is! On that day, I was grateful through a dream to be able to hear the immortal music, but even though I imitated it with wind and strings, I still feel to my shame that I vaguely seem to have made errors.
(Sings)
How could I have bothered Toad Palace for my erroneous selection with forgotten tunes?
Pondering on it, I find myself bursting into tears.
(Sheds tears)
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Oh dear, why are you shedding tears, Jade Queen?
EMPRESS YANG: (Sings)
I ache that I went through violence and encountered attrition,
And now cold and tattered are the musical notes.
My vermilion strings are now severed,
And I’m too ashamed on my lute to re-play those tunes.
(Says)
May I trouble you, lady immortal, to memorialise back to the ruler of the moon, telling her that my old music-score of the Dusty mortal world is unworthy to respond to her requirement, and I prostrate myself and beg her affectionate forgiveness.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: You mustn’t stubbornly refuse, Jade Queen. My Moon Goddess
(Sings)
Admires your intelligence, which is rare, unique in this age,
For composing music anew, you utterly crown the mortal world.
We regret we’ve been so tardy seeking to peruse it,
But don’t disappoint our delighted reverent gaze900 from amid the cloud.
EMPRESS YANG: Since I’m honoured by Moon Goddess’s deigning to inquire. When I formerly came to this Immortals Mountain, I chance to recall that I wrote out a copy which I have here.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: That would be excellent.
EMPRESS YANG: Attendant maid, could you fetch it here.
(Immortal lady retainer responds with assent, exits, and re-enters having fetched it)
IMMORTAL LADY RETAINER: Here’s the music-score.
EMPRESS YANG: (Taking it) Lady immortal, though it’s been fetched here, it just still really needs to be re-copied.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: Why?
EMPRESS YANG: Look at it,
(Sings)
The notes are decrepit and shambled,
Blurred and of broken sequence,
And all with my tear-marks stained.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: That doesn’t matter, though.
(Empress Yang hands her the music-score)
EMPRESS YANG: In that case, I would trouble you to present it to Moon Goddess, and to explain how I stole it in a dream, so the note and rhythms are often wrong, and I’d beseech her to correct them.
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: I receive your command, and now take my leave of you.
(Recites)
From the start right until the melody was completed,901
EMPRESS YANG: (Recites)
I strove Constant-charmeuse’s detailed knowledge of it to gain;902
IMMORTAL-LADY WINTRY FLUTE-REED: (Recites)
Don’t blame your eager diligence, and lament for this melody,903
EMPRESS YANG. (Recites)
With whom will this “vivacious gorgeous one” rendezvous in the moon?904
(Exit Wintry Flute-reed holding music-score)
EMPRESS YANG: Attendant maidservant, close the door of my paradise cave, and follow me in.
(Attendant lady immortal responds with assent, follows her. Exeunt)
Act Forty-one: Seeing the moon
(Enter four generals and two eunuch attendants, leading Sublime August-emperor on horseback and Eunuch-chamberlain Kao as his retinue in procession)
TOGETHER: (Sing)
Ushering “Layered Splendour”,
Sublime August-emperor, 905
We hasten him along his route home,
as a retinue for his gold-bells imperial carriage returning;
Leaving the southern capital Ch’eng-tu, we don’t hear the cuckoo cry,
But fear that in the Western Capital, Ch’ang-an, there’ll still be displaced people: “swan-geese lamenting”,906
We delight that the mountains and rivers of China haven’t changed hands,
And the fair looks of our imperial domain once more to be viewing.
(Enter crowd of ordinary people. They kneel and receive the emperor)
CROWD OF ORDINARY PEOPLE: The ordinary people of Fu-feng welcome and receive you, venerable Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-the-emperor.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: You’ve put yourselves out too much for me. Go back home, won’t you.
(Crowd of ordinary people kow-tow, and call out “Ten thousand years of long life to you!”. Exeunt)
(Emperor and all proceed)
RESPLENDENT EMPEROR: (Sings)
Pell-mell the elders vie to bar the street,
And come kow-towing,
and “Ten thousand years to you!” in unison calling.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: I submit to you, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor: It’s now getting late and the sky’s darkening, so I humbly request that your imperial gold-bells carriage halt and station itself in Phoenix-grace Palace.907
(Emperor dismounts)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: all my soldiers, keep watch in the outer wing of the palace.
SOLDIERS: Command received!
(Exeunt)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Going into palace) Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, how many miles is it still from here to Ma Wei’s Slope?
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Only thirty miles or so.
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: I’ve already sent out my command that the local government here’s to construct a new tomb for my Most-prized-empress Yang. You’re to go on ahead there overnight, to supervise and expedite the building work, and wait for me to come, then rebury her.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: As you command!
(Recites)
For the while I say goodbye to Phoenix-grace Palace, And to Ma Wei’s Slope advance.
(Exit)
(Exit eunuch attendants unobtrusively)
SUBLIME AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Recites)
Going out on a tour of inspection to Shu, I abruptly return home east, And stationing myself in my Separate-palace,
face the gloom of dusk I remember, last year, I tasted wheat-dish, And every time I reminisce on it, my robe with tears I soak.
(Says)
Since I came to favour Shu with a visit, a year or more has slipped by unnoticed. To my joy, the western capital Ch’ang-an has been retaken, and I’ve set off back, returning as far as this. Look, how lonely and forlorn my Separate-palace is, and the evening scene so grey and bleak. It grieves and moves one so much.
(Sings)
Twilight’s close,
The courtyard’s frozen with slight vapours.
The crisp night’s quiet,
The bell and clepsydra have sunk silent their “empty void’s flutes”. 908
A man sorrowing alone, who ta
kes any heed of him!
I’m already finding things impossible to take,
So how can I bear it that beyond this wall,
That wheel of a bright moon is this way being sent!
Lone and solitary, it shines on the empty steps,
It seeps the jade-green moss with bleakness desolate,
Pacing alone, my sadness increases,
I often wipe away my two eyes’ tears,
But with my thousand ponderings and ten thousand broodings I haven’t dealt.
(Says)
Facing this wheel of a bright moon, I’m reminded of my Most-prized-empress Yang’s cold bones in deserted/ wasteland grave, and feel all the more grieved.
(Sings)
It’s as white as frost,
As clean-white like snow,
But it can’t reach and light up the tomb-terrace so chilly.
Grieves my bosom so,
As I all alone keep the moon company.
All at once, my thoughts turn back to that day,
When, by chance, you and I were parted,
Even for a little while, for a few minutes,
I just couldn’t endure it,
And how much more so now that today we’re forever cut off from each other,
you in the Shades and me in the living world.
(Sobs) (Says)
Oh, my Most-prized-empress, who ever expected that the love-securing gold hairpins and gold-strip-flower casket I gave you would come to be burial mortuary objects!
(Sings)
The love joy and happy diversion are no more around,
But why haven’t casket and hairpins been kept in the living world,
Instead left buried beneath the ground!
(Sighs) (Says)
Ah me, my Most-prized-empress, my Most-prized-empress! I recall your voice and looks when you were alive, as if it were yesterday. How could I forget them!
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