作詞：阿信(五月天) 作曲：王力宏
Words by Ashin, Music by Leehom, Closing
Rap by Leehom
(Bring it back y’all, chinked-out man, bring it back y’all, beside the plum tree)
This side is Mengmei falling in love with the goddess in the drawing, that side
is Liniang who has because of love has pined away, perished (2)
once you’re smitten you pursue it, once you’re tired of it
you fly away
But my dear, I’m crazy for you, I’ll change for you
Just let me love you deeply, distantly, in the classical
style
Spring’s water has broken hopes, summer’s flowers hide the
damage, whoever hears autumn’s cicadas, he knows winter is coming (3)
A cold swing, like the sound of laughter, cut but not
broken, longing for reason but getting chaos
The past fate becomes a future love, Mengmei and Liniang,
the return of their souls (4)
The years trample over my hair, turning it white, just
calling me to be white-headed, iron-hearted as I wait and love
Beside the plum tree the blossoms fall like snow, one after another,
continuously, who pities me
Beside the willow tree the wind blows the suspended
memories, life and death, follow people’s wishes
The taste of a thousand years of waiting, sour suffering,
two people complain
On the Peony Pavilion I feel nostalgic, days and years,
still not stopping to rest
Not stopping to rest, don’t hate, don’t blame, don’t complain, especially
who, just waiting, the Peony Pavilion
becomes a resplendent heaven
Let the legend be forever seen by people, let the people of
the mundane world be moved by it, deeply understand it
What is love? Love is
definitely not once you get close you light up
once you’re smitten you pursue it, once you’re tired of it
you fly away
Just let this intriguing fable be acted out for you,
Just let me love you deeply, distantly, in the classical
style
A cold swing, like the sound of laughter, cut but not
broken, longing for reason but getting chaos
The past fate becomes a later love, Mengmei and Liniang return
from a spirit
The years trample over my hair, turning it white, just
calling me to be white-haired, iron-headed as I wait and love
Beside the willow tree the wind blows the suspended
memories, life and death, follow people’s wishes
The taste of a thousand years of waiting, sour suffering,
two people complain
On the Peony Pavilion I feel nostalgic, days and years,
still not stopping to rest
(repeat)
(excerpt from Kun Opera)
Beside the plum tree the blossoms fall like snow, one after
another, continuously, who pities me
Beside the willow tree the wind blows the suspended
memories, life and death, follow people’s wishes
The taste of a thousand years of waiting, sour suffering,
two people complain
On the Peony Pavilion I feel nostalgic, days and years,
still not stopping to rest
(repeat)
The romance portrayed in The Peony Pavilion is unimaginable,
especially to us, this brand new kind of person
The developments of technology are so efficient, that the rhythm
of life in 10 thousand times faster than it was in the Ming Dynasty
When will we finally be satisfied
When do children have time to sit and watch The Peony
Pavilion, spend 19 hours, singing until
the entire audience has grown old, (6)
Ride on the train, the subway, planes, freeways, there’s
another traffic jam
Intelligent people know time is money, you have to take
advantage of it
This is a dream, no one is more romantic than you, 400 years
of passing your work on, I can only praise you
Notes: I almost don't know where to begin. This is the first minor revision, but I'm there will be more. In the meantime:
(2) The Peony Pavilion is the name of a classical opera, often performed in the Kun style, written by Tang Xianzu. Kun refers to an ancient city, Kunshan, near modern Suzhou; it is the oldest of the Chinese operatic styles, and in no little danger of dying out completely for want of properly trained actors. (See Birch, reference below, p. xvii.) Tang wrote the piece around 400 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty. The opera is held up sometimes as a sort of Chinese Romeo and Juliet - that's not to say that it has the same plot (the two works were written around the same time, but on opposite sides of the globe), just that like Shakespeare's famous production, The Peony Pavilion's main topic is the nature of love. The story is about a young woman called Liniang (sometimes translated as "bridal") who dreams of a man, and then falls so much in love with him, that she dies of her longing for him (hence the "For love, don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t sleep"). Before she dies, she paints her own portrait, inscribes it with a poem: "However close the likeness/ viewed from near at hand/ from farther off one would say/ this was some airborne sprite./ Union in some years to come/with the 'courtier of the moon'/will be beneath the branches/ of either willow or [plum]." When she dies, she is buried beside a plum tree. Then there is a young man, Liu Mengmei (whose name means Willow Dream Plum) who dreams of a beautiful woman under a plum tree. He later finds the portrait of Liniang, and falls in love with her. Liniang appears to him as a ghost, convinces him that his love can bring her back to life, so he opens her grave and she wakes up. In the end (which is very complicated and action-packed), Mengmei is accused of grave robbing, but Liniang's father is finally convinced to withdraw the charges, admitting against his own reason ("longing for reason but getting chaos") that love can conquer death.
(3) These lines are written entirely in literary (classical) Chinese - so a true translation would capture the antiquity of the phrasing, like "Spring’s water hath broken hopes, the flowers of summer flowers doth hide the damage," etc.
(4) This line is actually a reference to reincarnation, and their love as being able to withstand multiple deaths and rebirths.
(5) The line from the Kun Opera is the only line that is not my own translation. My Chinese is not yet at the level that I can conquer classical operas - it was just good enough to locate the reference in Cyril Birch's classic translation. [Tang Xianzu, The Peony Pavilion,trans. Cyril Birch (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), p. 70.] Birch translates "plum" as "apricot," which was supposedly more accurate for the time in which the opera was written, but no longer the dominant one so I've made the substitution in the song. [This line in the original is here: 汤显祖, 牡丹亭 (北京: 人民文化出版社, 1978), p. 65.] I'd like to note that this is the first time in all my experience translating mandopop lyrics that I had to go to my university library to complete the translation.