Scene 49: Receiving News
Scene 49: News Arrives
(Immortal Lu Leading Tune: Drunk and Fallen)
(Ill, the Emperor enters, supported by palace maids.)
EMPEROR: Longing has penetrated to my very marrow; a lingering illness grows heavier, and I waste away day by day. The asarum incense is burned to ashes—can her soul return? I gaze for celestial music in vain, and see only a stretch of autumn clouds.
“Gloomy sorrow is hard to dispel; the clinging illness gradually grows worse. The mournful cicada and the falling leaf alike stir my grief.” My longing for the Consort has brought on this illness. I therefore ordered the magician Yang Tongyou to summon her lovely soul, but who knows where to seek it? Tongyou has gone again to search on the divine mountains. Alas! I know not whether the magician speaks wildly or if he can truly find her. I toss and turn with anxiety, and my sick body grows heavier. I have already sent Gao Lishi to the altar to inquire, but he has not yet returned. Facing this courtyard’s autumn scene, how I wait and hope!
(Immortal Lu Passing Tune: Second Pattern of Laurel and Cassia)
(Laurel and Cassia)
Red lotus leaves wither, green willow branches grow sparse. Gradually the west wind rises everywhere, all bringing sorrow that is hard to bear. (Four Seasons Flower)
Restless, I long to sleep but cannot; I lean askew on my pillow. Is it real or not? I open my eyes and stare. I ask the shaman god, but he cannot determine anything at all. (Satin Gauze Robe)
In life it was hard to cure; in death, how can it cease? The next life is not yet achieved; this life is suddenly cut off. (Laurel and Cassia)
Pity her, her faint soul with no place to be found; I fear my own languishing sick body can never recover.
(Not the Road)
(Chou enters, holding the hairpin and box.)
CHOU: The immortal crane has flown to Yingzhou, carrying tokens to be sent from afar. I hurry back to report. (Kneels before the Emperor) The immortal altar sends word to comfort parting sorrow.
EMPEROR: Gao Lishi, you have come? Ask for news—has the lovely lady truly sent good tidings? Do not fabricate because of my suffering.
CHOU: Your Majesty, please listen. That immortal master searched for a very long time, wandering through the Yellow Springs and the Azure Vault, but found nothing.
(Emperor starts, weeping)
EMPEROR: Ah! If this is so, then the Consort will never be seen again. How this stabs me with pain!
CHOU: Your Majesty, please do not grieve.
That immortal master,
(Same Tune)
Riding on the primal force, he roamed and met the Weaving Maid, who told him of an immortal isle in the sea.
EMPEROR: Did he see her?
CHOU: On Penglai’s immortal mountain, he saw the tablet of the Supreme Perfection Immortal Convent hanging high.
EMPEROR: So the Consort has indeed become an immortal. Did she have any message?
CHOU: Speaking of the cause, with deep feeling she only thanked Your Majesty for boundless favor, and looking down on the mortal world, wept two streams of tears.
EMPEROR: Is this truly so?
CHOU: It is not false. There are the hairpin and box she personally gave to be divided, sent here as tribute.
(Offers the hairpin and box.)
These are the gold hairpin and the jeweled box that Her Ladyship, at her death, gave to me for burial. I never thought Her Ladyship would take them to the immortal mountain.
(Emperor takes them and weeps loudly.)
EMPEROR: My Consort!
(Long Beat)
The jeweled box is broken, the jeweled box is broken; the gold hairpin is parted, both like the beauty after separation. Lonely form and shadow, two years without a mate—the same sorrow brews. I still remember entrusting them to you for safekeeping, to help with morning hair and evening incense on the embroidered sleeve. Now they are lightly parted and sent from afar; boundless regret remains within. Seeing them, how can I let them go? In vain I long for the heart to be rejoined, the twin strands made one again.
Wait. This hairpin and box are human objects—how could they reach Heaven? The other day they were not in the tomb, and I wondered. Today, how do they come to be in her hands?
CHOU: Your Majesty, do not doubt. That immortal master had already considered this. He asked Her Ladyship about a secret matter from those years, and here it is.
EMPEROR: What matter is that? Tell me.
CHOU: Her Ladyship said:
(Short Beat)
In the Tianbao years, in the Tianbao years, in the Palace of Eternal Life, with boundless regret, she spoke of it from the beginning. On the Seventh Night, facing the Herdboy Star, it was the midnight hour when, shoulder to shoulder, they made their secret vow.
EMPEROR: This matter is indeed true. Who would have thought the hairpin would break and the box be parted! (Weeps) Only today, I have become a lonely swan in the autumn palace of Han.
CHOU: Your Majesty, for now set aside your sorrow. Her Ladyship has more to say.
EMPEROR: What more does she say?
CHOU: Her Ladyship said that on this year’s Mid-Autumn Night, in the Moon Palace the “Rainbow Robe” will be performed, and Her Ladyship will be there. She asked the immortal master to lead Your Majesty to the Moon Palace to meet her.
(Emperor, delighted)
EMPEROR: Since this is so, why did you not say it earlier? What time is it now?
CHOU: Now the seventh month is almost over; the Mid-Autumn Festival is only half a month away. I beg Your Majesty to rest and care for your dragon health.
EMPEROR: Since the Consort has promised a reunion, my sick body is completely cured.
(Coda)
The Palace of Vast Cold permits our meeting; my tenfold illness vanishes in a moment. Yet I can hardly endure the half-month of autumn in the human world!
“News from overseas, the strange crane delayed,” (Lu Lun)
“In the words there was a vow, known to both hearts.” (Bai Juyi)
“We wait again for the fifteenth night of the full moon,” (Xu Yin)
“Though the clear light shines, who is there to face?” (Dai Shulun)