Saturday, March 7, 2009

但願人長久 Chinese poem

但願人長久/水調歌頭 Prelude to the melody of water

isisip: 但願人長久/水調歌頭 "Prelude to the melody of water" is a famous poem written by an ancient Chinese poet Su Shi 蘇軾. I love it so much so I modified it a little bit and fit it into my original song "the unfinished story". Now I got one mandarin song :)



Lyrics:

明月幾時有,我把酒問青天,
不知天上今夕是何年。
我欲乘風歸去,唯恐瓊樓玉宇,高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影,何似在人間。
轉朱閣,低綺戶,照無眠。
人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全。

明月幾時有,我把酒問青天,
不知天上今夕是何年。
我欲乘風歸去,唯恐瓊樓玉宇,高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影,何似在人間。
轉朱閣,低綺戶。照無眠。
人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全。

轉朱閣,低綺戶,照無眠,
不應有恨,何事長向別時圓?
何事長向別時圓?
人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,
但願人長久,千里共嬋娟。

明月幾時有,我把酒問青天,
不知天上今夕是何年。
我欲乘風歸去,但願人長久,千里共嬋娟。



The original poem:

明月幾時有,把酒問青天?
不知天上宮闕,今夕是何年。
我欲乘風歸去,唯恐瓊樓玉宇,高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影,何似在人間。
轉朱閣,低綺戶。照無眠。
不應有恨,何事長向別時圓?
人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全。
但願人長久,千里共嬋娟。

English translation of the poem:

With a wine cup in my hand,
I wonder when the moon first appeared.
I wonder what year it is now high above in heaven.
I long to ride with the wind,
but I fear the jaded terrace,
too serene and chilly to reside.
I dance with my lone shadow,
and I doubt if it is down on earth.

The moon moves round the court,
shining through the window.
A sleepless night...
The moon should not dislike people,
but why is there always a full moon when people are apart?
People have happiness and sadness, people be together and people be apart,
The moon also has phases, wax and wane.
It has been like this for ages.
Hope we will live longer and be healthy,
even if we are thousands of miles apart from each other,
we can still see the moon at the same time together.