(67)      THE EVERLASTING REGRET

The beauty-loving monarch longed year after year

To find a beautiful lady without a peer.

A maiden of the Yangs to womanhood just grown,

In inner chambers bred, to the world was unknown.

Endowed with natural beauty too hard to hide,

One day she stood selected for the monarch’s side.

Turning her head, she smiled so sweet and full of grace

That she outshone in six palaces the fairest face.

She bathed in glassy water of warm-fountain Pool,

Which laved and smoothed her creamy skin when spring was

  cool.

Upborne by her attendants, she rose too faint to move,

And this was when she first received the monarch’s love.

Flowerlike face and cloudlike hair, golden-headdressed,

In lotus-flower curtain she spent the night blessed.

She slept till sun rose high, for the blessed night was short;

From then on the monarch held no longer morning court.

In revels as in feasts she shared her lord’s delight,

His companion on trips and his mistress at night.

In inner palace dwelt three thousand ladies fair;

On her alone was lavished royal love and care.

Her beauty served the night when dressed in Golden Bower

Or drunk with wine and spring at banquet in Jade Tower.

All her sisters and brothers received rank and fief

And honors showered on her household, to the grief

Of the father’s and mother’s who’d rather give birth

To a fair maiden than any son on earth.

The lofty palace towered high into blue cloud,

With wind-borne music so divine the air was loud.

Seeing slow dance and hearing fluted or stringed song,

The emperor was never tired the whole day long.

But rebels beat their war drums, making the earth quake

And “Song of Rainbow Skirt and Coat of Feathers” break.

A cloud of dust was raised o’er city walls nine-fold;

Thousands of chariots and horsemen southwestward rolled.

Imperial flags moved slowely now and halted then,

And thirty miles from Western Gate they stopped again.

Six armies would not march---what could be done?---with

    Speed

Until the Lady Yang was killed before the steed.

None would pick up her hairpin fallen to the ground

Or golden bird and comb with which her head was crowned.

The monarch could not save her and hid his face in fear;

Turning his head, he saw her blood mix  with his tear.

The yellow dust spread wide, the wind blew desolate;

A serpentine plank path led to cloud-capped Sword Gate.

Below the Eyebrows Mountains wayfarers were few;

In fading sunlight royal standards lost their hue.

On Western waters blue and Western mountains green

The monarch’s heart was daily gnawed by sorrow keen.

The moon viewed from his tent shed a soul-searing light;

The bells heard in night rain made a heart-rending sound.

Suddenly turned the tide.  Returning from his flight,

The monarch could not tear himself away from the ground

Where ‘mid the clods beneath the slope he couldn’t forget

The fair-faced lady Yang, who was unfairly slain.

He looked at ministers, with hears his robe was wet;

They rode east to the capital, but with loose rein.

Back, he found her pond and garden in the old place.

With lotus in the lake and willows by the hall.

Willow leaves like her brows and lotus like her face,

At the sight of all these, how could his tears not fall

Or when in vernal breeze were peach and plum full-blown

Or  when in autumn rain the planetree’s leaves were shed?

In Western as in Southern Court was grass o’ergrown;

With fallen leaves unswept the marble steps turned red.

Actors, although still young, began to have hair grey;

Eunuchs and waiting maids looked old in palace deep.

Fireflies flitting the hall, mately he pined away;

The lonely lampwick burned out, still he could not sleep.

Slowly beat drums and rang bells; night began to grow long;

Bright shone the Milky Way; daybreak seemed to come

   Late.

The lovebird tiles grew, chilly with hoar frost so strong,

And his kingfisher quilt was cold, not shared by a mate.

One long, long year the dead and the living were parted;

Her soul came not in dreams to see the brokenhearted.

A Taoist sorcerer came to the palace door,

Skilled to summon the spirit from the other shore.

Moved by the monarch’s yearning for the departed fair,

He was ordered to seek for her everywhere.

Borne on the air, like lightning he flew;

In heaven and on earth he searched through and through.

Up to the azure vault and down to deepest place,

Nor above nor below could he e’er find her trace.

He learned that on the sea were fairy mountains proud

That now appeared, now disappeared amid the cloud

Of rainbow colors where rose magnificent bowers

And dwelt so many fairies as graceful as flowers.

Among them was a queen whose name was “Ever True,”

Her snow-white skin and sweet face might afford a clue.

Knooking at western gate of palace hall, he bade

The porter fair to inform the queen’s waiting maid.

When she heard that there came the monarch’s embassy,

The queen was startled out of dreams in her canopy.

Pushing aside the pillow, she rose and got  dressed,

Passing through silver screen and pearl shade to meet the

Guest.

Her cloudlike hair awry, not full awake at all,

Her flowery cap slanted, she came into the hall.

The wind blew up her fairy sleeves and made them float

As if she danced the “Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat.”

Her jade-white face crisscrossed with tears in lonely world

Like a spray of pear blossoms in spring rain impearled.

She bade him thank her lord, lovesick and brokenhearted;

They knew nothing of each other after they parted.

Love and happiness long ended within palace walls;

Days and months appeared long in the Fairyland halls.

Turning her head and fixing on the earth her gaze,

She saw no capital ‘mid clouds of dust and haze.

To show her love so deep, she took out keepsakes old

For him to carry back, hairpin and case of gold.

Keeping one side of the case and one wing of the pin,

She sent to her dear lord the other half of the twin.

“ If our two hearts as firm as the gold should remain,

In heaven or on earth we’ll sometime meet again.”

At parting she confided to the messenger

A secret vow known only to her lord and her.

On seventh day of seventh moon when none was near,

At midnight in Long Life Hall he whispered in her ear,

“On high, we’d be two lovebirds flying wing to wing;

On earth, two trees with branches twined from spring to

Spring.”

The boundless sky and endless earth may pass away,

But this vow unfulfilled will be regretted for aye.

Bo Ju-yi 712 - 846