長恨歌 白居易

長恨歌       白居易(772 - 846)

漢皇重色思傾國，御宇多年求不得。

楊家有女初長成，養在深閨人未識。
天生麗質難自棄，一朝選在君王側；
回眸一笑百媚生，六宮粉黛無顏色。

春寒賜浴華清池，溫泉水滑洗凝脂，

侍兒扶起嬌無力，始是新承恩澤時。
雲鬢花顏金步搖，芙蓉帳暖度春宵；
春宵苦短日高起，從此君王不早朝。

承歡侍宴無閒暇，春從春遊夜專夜。

後宮佳麗三千人，三千寵愛在一身。
金屋妝成嬌侍夜，玉樓宴罷醉和春。
姊妹弟兄皆列土，可憐光彩生門戶；
遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女。

驪宮高處入青雲，仙樂飄飄處處聞。

緩歌謾舞凝絲竹，盡日君王看不足。
漁陽鞞鼓動地來，驚破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城闕煙塵生，千乘萬騎西南行。

翠華搖搖行復止，西出都門百餘里，

六軍不發無奈何，宛轉蛾眉馬前死。
花鈿委地無人收，翠翹金雀玉搔頭。
君王掩面救不得，回看血淚相和流。

黃埃散漫風蕭索，雲棧縈紆登劍閣。

峨嵋山下少人行，旌旗無光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青，聖主朝朝暮暮情。
行宮見月傷心色，夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。

天旋日轉迴龍馭，到此躊躇不能去。

馬嵬坡下泥土中，不見玉顏空死處。
君臣相顧盡沾衣，東望都門信馬歸。
歸來池苑皆依舊，太液芙蓉未央柳。

芙蓉如面柳如眉，對此如何不淚垂？

春風桃李花開日，秋雨梧桐葉落時。
西宮南內多秋草，落葉滿階紅不掃。
梨園子弟白髮新，椒房阿監青娥老。

夕殿螢飛思悄然，孤燈挑盡未成眠。

遲遲鐘鼓初長夜，耿耿星河欲曙天。
鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重，翡翠衾寒誰與共？
悠悠生死別經年，魂魄不曾來入夢。

臨邛道士鴻都客，能以精誠致魂魄。

為感君王展轉思，遂教方士殷勤覓。
排雲馭氣奔如電，升天入地求之遍，
上窮碧落下黃泉，兩處茫茫皆不見。

忽聞海上有仙山，山在虛無飄渺間；

樓閣玲瓏五雲起，其中綽約多仙子。
中有一人字太真，雪膚花貌參差是。
金闕西廂叩玉扃，轉教小玉報雙成。

聞道漢家天子使，九華帳裏夢魂驚，

攬衣推枕起徘徊，珠箔銀屏迤邐開，
雲髻半偏新睡覺，花冠不整下堂來。
風吹仙袂飄飄舉，猶似霓裳羽衣舞；

玉容寂寞淚闌干，梨花一枝春帶雨。

含情凝睇謝君王，一別音容兩渺茫。
昭陽殿裏恩愛絕，蓬萊宮中日月長。
回頭下望人寰處，不見長安見塵霧。

惟將舊物表深情，鈿合金釵寄將去。

釵留一股合一扇，釵擘黃金合分鈿。
但教心似金鈿堅，天上人間會相見。
臨別殷勤重寄詞，詞中有誓兩心知，
七月七日長生殿，夜半無人私語時。
在天願作比翼鳥，在地願為連理枝。
天長地久有時盡，此恨綿綿無盡期。

The Song of Everlasting Grief          Bai Juyi (772 - 846)
The Han Emperor had a penchant for good looks, and was always looking out for devastating belles,
In his many years of reign his search was to no avail.
The Yang family had just coming of age a young girl,
She was brought up in the women’s bowers and unknown to the outside world;
What beauty Heaven bestowed on her could hardly be ignored,
So one day she was selected to wait on the Supreme Lord;
With a mere glance and a smile on turning her head, she exuded enchantment of a hundred sorts,
She literally rendered the selected beauties of the Imperial seraglio colour naught;

In the spring chills she was granted to bathe in the Clear Pool Splendid,
The hot spring water washed her delicate skin of jade sort,
When maids helped her out from the pool, she emanated a fascinating fragile charm that was rivaled not,
That was the time she started to have had all his favour aught;
Her flowery face, with her velvety hair adorned with golden hairpins, made her even more enamoured,
They spent the spring nights in the warm lotus-colour upholstered boudoir,
The sun rose early as spring nights were short,
From then on the Emperor did not hold any more morning levees at court;

To avail herself to him anytime he wanted even in banquets left her little spare time slots,
In spring, she escorted him on his outings and served him night after night with no default;
There were three thousand glamorous women in the Imperial seraglio, but all the love was bestowed on her alone instead of them as he ought,
After she groomed herself in the golden chamber, she served him for the night without other thought,
They had feasts in the jade pavilion and were intoxicated with the sweet time they sought,
Her sisters and brothers were all enfeoffed,
Honour came to her family’s house with the Emperor’s dote,
This made parents in the world prefer daughters and sons rather not,

Rising into the clouds was the high Palace Tower,
From there fairy music could be heard everywhere,
Displayed were melodies and dances tuned to flute and zither,
The Emperor was still not sated though he watched it all hours.
Suddenly war drums from Yuyang thundered,
The Melody of Rainbow Colour and Feathery Apparel was shattered,
Warring smoke and dust rose in the nine-fold city wall interiors,
To the southwest thousands of carriages and horses were driven afore,

Fluttering forward for a while stopped the emerald imperial banners,
Just a hundred miles or so out to the west of the capital areas,
The armies refused to move forward anymore,
Unless the Emperor promised to have the Lady slaughtered;
Hence the Lady with knitted eyebrows was strangled to death in front of the Emperor
With nobody collecting them her hair jewelleries all around the ground were scattered,

Failing to save her, His Majesty‘s face with his hands covered,
Gazing in anguish, tears mixed with blood oozed from his eyes sored;
A galling gale bringing yellow dust came their way’s course,
Following the winding trail they mounted the mountain to Jiange,
Passengers  under Mt Emei were very scarce,
The sun dimmed away, rendering the banners with no luster,
The waters of River Shu was blue while Mt Shu looked azure,
The Supreme Lord could not put down his affection for her day in and day out at this juncture,
In his sojourn palace he saw the moonlight filled with dire sore,
The sound of the bells in rainy nights cut him to wires,

When the unrest died down, and his imperial carriage embarked on its return trip, he felt heaven and earth all in chaos,
When they reached Mawei where the Lady died, he stalled the carriage and was unwilling to go further,
While being unable to see her jade-like countenance anymore,
The Lord and his courtiers looked at each other and tears pour,
Gazing at the East Gate, to bring them back on they entrusted their horses;
They found the ponds and gardens remained as they were,
Especially the lotuses in Taiye Pond and the Weiyang Garden willows and flowers,

The lotuses resembled her look and the willows her eyebrows,

On seeing that how could he hold back his tears?
Spring breeze brought peach and plum flowers,
Wudong leaves fell under the bitter autumnal rain showers,
In the inner south of the West Palace where His Majesty lived, autumn grass abound in clusters,
Nobody swept the red fallen leaves that had the steps covered;
The hair of the troupe of opera actors all turned hoar,
Aso were attendants of the Queen’s old chambers,

Fireflies in the palace at night-time had the emotions stirred,
The lone lamp burned out many times before he could finally fall into slumber,
The late drums and bells evidenced the length of the vespers,
The twinkling Milky Way seemed to keep dawn waiting at the corner,
Great chills brought by heavy frost on the interlaid roof tiles threatened with shivers,
Now who to share with him the quilt exquisitely embroidered?
Death had now separated the living and the dead for a year,
Her soul had not yet visited him in his dreamy vespers.

Taoist monks from the Hongdu Tao Academy in Linqiong said by exerting bona fides and perseverance they could contact a person's anima,

To save the Emperor from his dire sore,
They offered earnestly to seek for her anima,
Riding the clouds and mounting the airs, like lightening they whizzed afore,
They intended to search exhaustively the heaven and the terra.
Up in the blue sky and down in the Yellow Springs they scoured,
But nowhere had they a glimpse of her persona,

Suddenly they heard there was a fairy mountain beyond the oceania,
It was in the void zone between being and non-being areas,
There five-colour clouds surrounded the exquisite pavilions and towers,
Delicate fairies inhabited the fairy quarters,
One of them was Taizhen, the name she was adhered,
Her snowy skin and flowery face resembled the Lady’s entire,
The Taoist monk went straight to knock at the jade door on the west of the golden boudoir,
He begged the maid Little Jade to report to the Lady’s private maid Shuangcheng as required,

As she heard that the Han Emperor had sent a messenger,
She was startled from her dream in the nine-fold upholstery,
She grabbed a dress and pushed away her pillow and started to atroll over,
Unveiling the pearl curtains and pulling aside the panels silver,
With her velvety hair still ungroomed and her flowery crown disheveled after her sleep, into the hall she entered,
In the breeze her fairy dress resembling the steps of the Dance of Rainbow Colour and Feathery Apparel fluttered,

Her jade countenance soaked with disconsolate tears,
She was literally in the rain a spray of blossom pear,
In expressing her gratitude to the Supreme Lord her eyes were infused with amour,
Since she parted with His Majesty, their voices and faces to each other became too afar,
The deep affection in the Zhaoyang Palace was no more,
Life in the Heavenly Palace seemed extremely long and stalled forever,
As she looked down on the dusty terra,
She could not see Chang’an but only dusty cloud layers,

She could only post her deep affection via a love reminder,
She took out a gold hairpin from a little golden box locker,
Splitting the two arms of the hairpin and the golden locket severed,
She gave these to the monk to hand over to the Emperor to evince their unchangeable love swear,
She believed they would meet again in future either in heaven or on the terra,
When she bid the messenger farewell she had a very important message for the Emperor;
The message included a vow only they themselves aware,
On the seventh night of the seventh month in the Palace of Life Forever,
While whispering to each other alone in the depth of the vesper,
They did pledge to become pair-winged birds in the sky to soar,
And trees with intertwined branches on the terra;
However lasting are heaven and earth, there will be an end to them all after,
But this everlasting grief there is no way to expire.