(Sighs)
Ah me, when I start thinking of my Most-prized-empress,
(Sings)
It’s me who deceived her vowed pledge deep,
Who proved unfaithful to her love so vast,
And rawly split apart us wing-to-wing phoenix couple.
What was that talk about “life after life, age after age” and “never casting aside”!
I never thought halfway along our route we’d encounter an Evil Obstacle!737
I bitterly regret that the incursors pressed us into panic,
And I was forced to set my carriage hastily in motion.
I detailed three thousand Feather Forest738 soldiers and officers,
And we issued forth through Inviting-autumn Gate.739
Then they were boiling boiling rearing rearing in turmoil and commotion.
We’d just after my grief of the first league of road,
Come to Ma Wei’s posting-station house’s side,
When abruptly, like exploding thunder, they began in unison to yell in warlike shout,
And already one just saw, like an iron bucket,
swords and spears encircling us all round.
Evil and so vicious, their leader simply flaunted his great awesome prestige as their commander-in-chief,
And before my very eyes they coerced me onto the back foot
to lose my power impetus,
and my imperial breath-energy didn’t prevail,
All at once I ended up my limbs in a panic a-flail.
(Says)
I bitterly regret that Ch’en Yȕan-li
(Sings)
He didn’t hurry on his chariots and horses,
But all the time gazed into the distance,
procrastinating,
Stubbornly with his words and talk persisting,
All the while bellow-bellowing
louder and louder, slandering.
And furthermore set out poleaxes and dagger-axes,
Which with one collective roar
came towards me in crest on crest.
They rawly pressed in on my person and my life,
In a trice, in such alarm and consternation,
my wits went west.
(Weeps)
(Sings)
Oh but it so terribly pained one, lack-a-day,
Oh but it so terribly lack-a-day pained one,
Casting down this body and shadow of mine,
To make this one all so lone and so forlorn.
(Says)
And now I feel such great remorse and regret!
(Sings)
It so terribly shames me that I cover my face with my sleeve,
and lament and grieve,
That how to save my moon-looker flower-face
I didn’t know.
It was because
I had absolutely no control of the situation,
But I shouldn’t I have lightly let her go!
At that time, if I’d been willing bodily to fend them off,
There’s no telling but that they might have gone so far as to transgress against their ruler.
Even had they so transgressed, what would it have mattered?
Up on Springs Terrace,740
I would though have won our becoming a pair forever.
Now I’m on my own, and even though I’m unharmed,
I ask what lustre’s in what of my life remains!
I just end up with ten thousand lines of tears,
Sorrows of a thousand aspects!
(Weeps) (Says) Oh, my Most-prized-empress,
(Sings)
Up in Heaven, or in the mortal world,
How can this bitter regret be repaid!
(Enter Eunuch-chamberlain Kao together with two palace ladies and two eunuch attendants bearing incense-burners and flower-pennants741 on their hands, leading servants bearing the statue of Empress Yang, all proceeding to the sound of music being played)
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao meets emperor)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: I submit to you, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor: the precious statue of Empress Yang has been ushered here.
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Quickly usher it in here, will you.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: As you command! (Goes out) We’ve received the emperor’s command that the statue of Empress Yang be brought in!
PALACE LADIES: We receive the command!
(The statue is borne in, facing the emperor. The palace ladies kneel. They support the statue by its arms, and make it bend over slightly)
PALACE LADIES: Empress Yang comes for audience with Your Majesty.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Arise!
(Palace ladies stand up)
(Emperor stands up, stands facing the statue, and weeps)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Oh, my Most-prized-empress,
(Sings)
All this time since we parted,
And now I suddenly see your dainty-pretty looks.
I shall to you recount my feelings of wrong,
Tell you of my distraught wits,
And speak of my sorrowful feelings.
(Goes closer and cries out) My Most-prized-empress, my Most-prized-empress! How is it I don’t see you
(Sings)
Turn your smiling face to me,
Ring out a response,
Move yourself nearer to me?
(Looks minutely at the statue. Weeps loudly) Oh!
(Sings)
Why, it proves to be a god-statue carved out of timber of white sandalwood tree!
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Your gold-bells carriage is now ready. Please, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor, mount your horse, and see the empress into her temple.
(Enter captains, and imperial gold-bells carriage band of men742 with melons,743 flags, parasols and fans)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, transmit my edict: With my horse to the left and the carriage to the right, I and my favourite empress shall proceed side by side.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Command received!
(Emperor mounts horse, and captains carry statue, forming a line, and leading the procession)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
Rumble-trundle the phoenix carriage, closely cleaving we proceed,
To each other wafting dragon horse-whip in the air.
As of old, when we were side by side in our hand-carriages,
Our shoulders are level,
Our shadows are a pair.
I feel secretly grieved,
And my heart has its own ponderings.
I think how in those days we roamed for pleasure “our horse-bits joined”,744
How in the end actually we just became
as a couple so compliant bound?
(They arrive at the temple)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: We’ve arrived in the temple. Please dismount from your horse, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor.
(Emperor dismounts from his horse)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Eunuch-attendants, see Empress Yang into her temple.
(Exit gold-bells-carriage cortege)
(Eunuch-attendants lift statue, proceed together with palace-ladies and Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, following the emperor. Emperor goes into the temple, and looks.)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
In this temple I raise my head and gaze,
And ask how it is that in West Palace and South Hunting-park,745
Shimmering so bright is the Gold Room?
Where are the mandarin-duck-and-drake bed-drapes,
embroidered bed-canopy, and lotus-flower bed-screen!
I just see a shaking trembling god-screen futilely stretched on high,
And two on two clay-modelled palace-charmeuses,
And pair on pair of eunuchs in silk costume.
Scissored cluster-arrayed streamers and banners are blown upwards by the winds,
They can’t manage to beckon her fragrant spirit to turn back to me again,
But
she hauls and tugs at my heart and guts.
(Emperor sits in front of statue)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: The propitious hour has come: We wait your edict to invite the Empress to ascend to her throne.
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Palace ladies, humbly attend my empress to ascend to her throne.
PALACE LADIES: (Responding with their assent) Command received!
(String and woodwind music is played backstage. The palace-ladies take the statue by the arms and face it towards the emperor. As before, they make it slightly bow to him.)
PALACE LADIES: Empress Yang thanks you for your loving favours
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Arise!
(Emperor stands up. Court music played backstage. All assist the statue onto the throne.)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I just see the palace-charmeuses crowding tight,
The freshly attired one with their round fans to protect,
And it’s as if I mistakenly recognise it as the time when we established our love first,
And went into her “orchid” room that night.
(Laments) (Sings)
But why does she so cold and forlornly sit alone behind this many-colour-painted raw-silk screen!
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: I submit to you Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor: Empress Yang has completed her ascending to her throne.
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: See to the bringing of incense over here.
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao kneels and respectfully proffers him incense. Emperor takes incense between his thumb and finger.)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
This precious incense burning so fiercely upwards,
And the candle-light shining so sparklingly,
All of a sudden lure past happenings into my heart.
I remember that day when in Lasting-life Palace-hall beside the imperial incense-burner,
We spoke to Oxherd and Weaving-damsel of our fervent pact.
Then who’d have known that our sincere vows746 would be absurd,
Their survival or extinction like the stars Shen and Shan which never meet in the sky!
Futilely not forgetting it even for a while,
I’ve borne in mind our pledge past.
Today,
I’m over here,
You’re over there,
And grasping this severed-head incense in my hand,
I yet add to my forlornness and grievous upset.
(Says)
Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, see to the bringing of wine over here. I shall libate a cup of wine to my empress.
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao hands him wine)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: The first bestowal of the wine-cup!747
(Emperor holds the cup of wine in his hands, and weeps)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I reverently raise the cup,
But how can her sandalwood lips still taste it from my hands!
I can’t suppress my disquiet forlorn,
I give a call of “my Most-prized-empress!”
and personally offer up to her the wine.
My tear-pearls flood and flood into the brimming goblet,
And I fear they one drop more down into the grape-brew have no room to add.
This one cup, I hope that you will come from afar to enjoy it,
I grieve so terribly that you at the ancient posting-station died,
Amidst the mutinous soldiers, with a handful of soil you were buried,
And never even half a bowl of chill liquor was ever to you libated.
Today,
I bitterly wish I could execute all those lawless rebellious Three Armies soldiers,
And sacrifice them to you aching748 martyr for your land.
Facing this cloud-like-curtained statue,
I uselessly end up with your looks as if you were present,
And feel all the more pain that your spiritual and nervous souls have flown away,
to Heaven up-whisked.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: (Handing him another cup of wine) The next cup of wine bestowed!
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Taking the cup of wine in his hands. Weeping) (Sings)
Again I present azure wine so brimming,
Blackness pervading,
my bitter regrets are never done.
Heaven’s dusky and the Earth dark,
and a man gazes in stupefaction.
This morning,
You stay in a temple in West Shu,
What day will your Mountain tumulus transfer to Mount North Mang!749
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao takes the cup back from him, and presents it to the throne ̶ the empress’s statue)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Weeping) I,
(Sings)
Together with you in the same grave-pit I’ll be buried,
And we’ll be Mingled-branches Love-trees beside our tomb,
Or transformed into a mandarin-duck-and-drake pair atop our grave-mound.
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao hands him another cup of wine)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: The final bestowal of a cup of wine!
(Emperor holds the cups of wine in his hands, and weeps)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
The rites of this Libation-to-spirit Feast750 are now finished,
But just now increasing are my words to confide my inner love-feelings.
Your dainty-pretty-ripples eyes don’t stir,
Can you see my sorrowful looks?
Just because of my letting down of our gold hairpins and gold-strip-flower casket love,
It brought about the far-rolling bitter regrets of your white raw-silk strip and Yellow Springs.
(Eunuch-chamberlain takes the cup from him and presents it to the empress’s statue)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Weeping) (Sings)
At this juncture, I beat my breast and ponder,
It’s just like a dagger assailing my lungs and viscera,
Flames scorching my liver and guts.
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, palace-ladies and eunuch attendants all weep)
(Emperor looks at statue in astonishment)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Hey, Eunuch-chamberlain Kao, look at my Empress’s face: why! she’s shedding tears!
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao and palace-ladies look)
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Oh! You’re right, the goddess-statue’s face is indeed covered with tear-marks! How strange! How strange!
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Weeping) Oh dear dear, my Most-prized-empress,
(Sings)
I see her shedding and shedding tears,
moistening all her chin,
Welling and welling tears held in her eye-sockets,
Pell-mell drip-dripping onto her god-dais.
Quite clearly, she’s the sorrowful looks of when they dragged at her dress, demanding her death,
Her miserable face looking back at me,
she swallowing her words.
Her grief’s truly unrivalled,
Don’t say she’s some clay model spilling tears,
She’d make even a man of iron feel distraught with griefs!
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor, I beg you don’t lament and grieve. Let me and your other servants kow-tow in audience with the empress.
(Together with palace-ladies and eunuch attendants they weep and makes obeisance)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I just see my venerable Constant Attendant751 on both knees knelt,
My old palace-ladies on the floor grieving laid themselves prostrate:
“A thousand years to you milady!” they can’t cry out,
Each and every one of them faces her sadness-pent.
(Weeps) Oh my Most-prized-empress,
(Sings)
Just because, that day in Resplendent-sunlight Palace-hall,
you were everywhere the recipient of my love,
The love I’ve retained for you endures today in a Brocade
River752 shrine.
The sad wind blows to and fro,
A few calls of the cuckoo,
so terribly gut-severing,
By half a wall of declining sun’s shine.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: Please Burn Silk753 for Her Majesty, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor.
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Have some more wine brought to me.
(Eunuch-chamberlain Kao serves him with wine, and Burns Silk. Emperor libates with the wine.)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: (Sings)
I pile gold and silver into a hundred mountains,
And transmute it into ten thousand stretches of Dark Shades silk.754
How can I to Earth of my celestial immortal buy the descent with paper copper- coins?
It makes me, a cuckoo hankering,
futilely have my robe dampened with remnant tears.
We cannot be spirits chasing the flying ash,755
transformed into a pair of butterflies,
My sadness and grief increase all of a sudden.
When shall I see your roc-steed in the azure sky.756
Or, “Ting Ling-wei757 returning to Liao-yang”,758
as a crane?
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: It’s already getting late, and growing dark: please return to your palace, Ten-thousand-years-grandfather-my-emperor.
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Palace-charmeuses, you may put down my Empress’s god-curtain.759
(Palace ladies put down the god-curtain. The eunuchs unobtrusively bear off the statue. Exeunt)
SHINING AUGUST-EMPEROR: Let us commence our journey.
EUNUCH-CHAMBERLAIN KAO: As you command!
(Emperor mounts his horse. Re-enter Gold-bells-carriage cortege. They lead off the procession)
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