中文原文﹕
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；
侍儿扶起嬌無力，
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。
后宮佳麗三千人，
三千寵愛在一身。
金星妝成嬌侍夜，
玉樓宴罷醉如春。
姊妹弟兄皆列士，
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，
仙樂風飄處處聞。
緩歌謾舞凝絲竹，
盡日君王看不足。
漁陽鼙鼓動地來，
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，
西出都門百余里；
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。
天旋地轉回龍馭，
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。
梨園子弟白發新，
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；
為感君王輾轉思，
遂教方士殷勤覓。
排空馭气奔如電，
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，
山在虛無縹緲間。
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，
九華帳里夢魂驚；
攬衣推枕起徘徊，
珠箔銀屏迤邐開。
雲鬢半偏新睡覺，
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。
昭陽殿里恩愛絕，
蓬萊宮中日月長。
回頭下望人寰處，
不見長安見塵霧。
唯將舊物表深情，
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，
此恨綿綿無絕期。
英文翻譯 / English Translation﹕
Tang Emperor Xuanzhong lusted after a beauty worthy of taking a country to war for,
For so many years of his reign, unfulfilled his wish remained.
There was a Yang family whose daughter had come of age,
She was well kempt in her boudoir unknown to the social scene.
Yet her natural beauty had spelt her destiny that could not be forsaken,
Into the palace she did go and by the Emperor's side she was received.
As she turned her head, one smile enchanted all,
Outshining all women in the Palace who in comparison had their colour lost.
In spring chill, the Emperor bestowed on her a bath in the Splendid Pond,
A natural thermal spa with salubrious waters to her milky skin cleanse;
A maid helped to support her lady-like delicacy,
Thus began the Emperor's adoration of this fair lady.
She had a florid face and cloud-soft hair adorned with glittering golden beads that swayed,
Behind bedchamber curtains painted with lotus, springtime passion was in play;
Springtime passion made speed of night and in no time the sun had risen high,
The Emperor stopped attending the morning assembly on state affairs.
Pleasing the Emperor and accompanying him at banquets took up all of her time,
Springtime is for garden wayfaring and the night-time for bedchamber private affairs.
The Emperor's beauty mansions held three thousand fair ladies,
Whom the Emperor could have adored but he chose to dote on Lady Yang alone.
In her gilded chamber she prepared for the Emperor's night entertainment,
After a banquet on a majestic pavilion she'd waver down in sensual high.
All of her brothers and sisters were awarded with prominent official titles,
All the power and glory because of her on one family fell.
Hence all fathers and mothers of the world,
Would rather than boys girls bear and raise.
The Li Palace soared into the sky among clouds,
From there heavenly music drifted in the wind far and wide.
Soothing singing and amatory dancing intertwined with strings and pipes,
The Emperor indulged day and night ever wanting more.
Until suddenly war drums from Yuyang had the capital's earth quaking,
Sprung out of tune was Lady Yang's dance in the Rainbow Dress and Feather Robe.
The revolt stormed near bringing smoke and dust to the palace towers,
The Emperor decided to south-west retreat with his cavalry of tens of thousands.
The Emperor's coach with a jade flower flag made way and stops now and again,
West of the capital for mere tens of miles they rode;
Then the army refused to continue course, the Emperor in dilemma had to consent
To the now wailing Lady's execution at once in front of horses for all to see.
Strangled she was, her bejewelled hair pieces were left scattered on the ground,
Jade and golden ornaments that used to adorn her hair.
The Emperor could not the fair lady rescue nor bear to watch,
When he did look back, he wept tears that flowed also blood.
The bleakness lingered in the bitter wind storming the yellow earth sky high,
The retreat continued through alpine passes from the Cloudy to the Sword-like.
The foot of the Emei Mountains in the Shu region used to little traffic see,
Yet lacklustre was the feel of the Emperor's flag and daylight appeared weak.
The waters of Shu were blue and its mountains green,
The Emperor however was day after day consumed by the remembrance of love lost.
At his temporary residence, the moon offered nothing but added to his grieve,
The rain and bells at night rang the sound of his heart broken in pieces.
After moving heaven and earth, the Emperor returned in his dragon coach,
Stopping at where his Lady died, unable to move on, long he lingered.
For beneath the soil of the Mawei Slopes must be where his lady lied,
Though her beautiful face of pure jade might have in vain sacrificed.
The Emperor and his courtiers looked on, their collars damp with tears,
Their loosely reigned horses sauntered eastward towards the capital gates.
The palace gardens and ponds were as they had always been in their comeback,
The hibiscus in the Taiye Pond blossomed, the willows in the Weiyang Mansion thrived;
The hibiscus was like the late Lady's face and the willows her eyebrows,
With such scenery, how could the Emperor not be reminded of the Lady's countenance?
How they had seen together the peach and plum blossoms in the spring breeze,
How they had watched the leaves leave phoenix trees in autumn rain.
The Emperor now resided in the south-western mansion full of autumn vegetation,
Where stairs were covered in reddened leaves and no one would come by to sweep.
The operatic circle students' hair had begun to turn grey,
Eunuchs and maids at the late Lady's mansion had aged and faded away.
The palace had a lonely place become, even fireflies of night could not it enliven,
The Emperor's lament would wear a lone candle to its end on sleepless nights.
Night-hour gongs gonged the start of long nights,
Starry light lighted so bright resembling daybreak time.
Palace roof figurines of mandarin ducks were covered cold in heavy frost,
With whom could the Emperor share the now warmth-lacking kingfisher feather quilt?
In a daze, the passing of the late Lady had been a year in time,
Yet her spirit never once the Emperor's dream entered for a rendezvous.
A Taoist priest from Lingqiong of the region of Shu,
Claimed to with his sincere and pure faith dead spirits reach;
As the Emperor seemed forever engrossed in the remembrance of the late Lady,
The priest was summoned to seek attentively for her spirit.
In lightening speed he glided in thin air and navigated the clouds,
He searched everywhere in the sky and on the earth but failed to her spirit find;
He exhausted all avenues in heaven and the nether world,
Boundless and vast as they were, he could not her existence bring to light.
Then he heard of tales of a celestial mountain in the sea,
That lay in the mid of misty nowhere.
In the mountains amongst clouds of rainbow colours existed delicate architecture,
And there lived many beautiful fairies.
Of them there was a fairy named True Faith, same as the late Lady,
With whom the fairy shared much similar snow-white skin and flowery face.
The priest came to the gate of the golden West Hall to knock on a door of jade,
And asked the heavenly maid and matron to their fairy lady notify.
Upon hearing the arrival of the Emperor's envoy,
The Lady resting behind her canopy of nine flowers was startled and aroused;
She pushed aside her pillow to get dressed, then she hesitated and paced,
Surrounded she was by veils of golden beads and silvery mirror panes.
Her luxuriant mane was lopsided from having just woken up,
She came to the main hall with her crooked laureate unadjusted.
Her clothes and sleeves were fluttering in the breeze,
It was like a scene from the Lady's dance of the Rainbow Dress and Feather Robe.
Her beauty is marred by loneliness with her tears in streams,
Muck like a pear flower blooming after the rain.
She gazed at the priest in silence to her gratitude to the Emperor convey,
Since parting they could not each other's voice hear nor visage behold.
Their warmth and love were left behind in the Mansion of Morning Sun,
Her days in the fairy court were long and indefinitely prolonged was time.
When she looked back to the temporal world,
She could not see Changan the capital but dusty and misty skies.
What remained of the bygone days were two keepsakes,
A jewellery casket and a golden hairpin for the priest to the Emperor take.
One half of the hairpin and one tray of the casket she would keep,
Breaking the pin and the box into parts;
She hoped the Emperor's love would be as unflinching as their pledge,
So they could be reunited in heaven or on earth in another life.
Upon bidding farewell to the Emperor's emissary she reminded him repeatedly,
To relay to the Emperor a poem wherein contained their secret oath,
Once on the seventh night of the seventh moon in the Hall of Eternity,
When no one was around they whispered words of love in the depth of night:
"In heaven above let us be one-winged birds and only in pairs fly,
On earth let us be neighbouring trees with our branches intertwined."
Yet even if eternal heaven and earth ever had an end,
Never-ending would be this couple's immortal regret.
.