THE TANG DYNASTY

A historical drama
by Josef Maria Mayer


ACT ONE
THE YANG-PRINCIPLE


FIRST SCENE

(The Emperor Ming Huang on the dragon throne of the Son of Heaven. His bodyguards around him.)

EMPEROR
So We have the mandate of heaven,
The Heavenly Father has set Us
As the Son of Heaven on the dragon throne,
Having gone home to his ancestors
The old Emperor, Our sovereign Father.
We want to honor him in the ancestral temple
And yearly sacrifice to his ghost
In the temple, when We sacrify Father Heaven.
We are full of confidence to Our wisdom,
That his Majesty, the old emperor,
Now, on the island of the blessed
Lives with the immortals in peace.
So We have the mandate of Heaven
And so We enjoin the imperial guards.
SUPREME GUARDSMAN
(Lying on the floor before the throne, the face of the earth)
Ten thousand multiple peace, O Son of Heaven!
Comman, all we have to perform!
EMPEROR
The old emperor's other son is still
Alive to threaten Our sovereignty.
He do not sacrify Father Heaven in the temple,
He does not sacrify the spirit of the old emperor,
He does not believe the immortality of the soul
And demands for himself the imperial throne.
But We now have the mandate of heaven,
We must every opponent overcome,,
Because otherwise is threatened the Middle Kingdom.
The Heavenly Father reigns indeed alone
And brooks no adversary. Therefore,
Because We as Son of Heaven have to rule the kingdom,
We command to murder Our brother.
GUARDSMAN
The Son of Heaven has spoken. truly,
We do what commands our Emperor.
The Son of Heaven is his kingdom shall life,
The Son of Heaven commands his enemy to death!
EMPEROR
Now go and do as We commanded you.


SECOND SCENE

(The Emperor Ming Huang receives at the throne the supreme commander.)

EMPEROR
Reporte Us, Our war has been successful?
COMMANDER OF THE ARMY

Embossed all the barbarians!
All the barbarians, which the Middle Kingdom
Wanted to be smashed by barbarism,
All the devastators, all the foreign devils,
The legalistic tyrant servants,
The herd of fools and their dictators,
Slit eyes with the daggers in the garment,
The peasant mobs and demagogues,
Carnivores who drink the blood of horses,
Muslims who serve the god of hate,
Barbarians, which wanted the holy culture
To ruin and to smash down China
And wanted to demolish our wisdom,
Wanted to overthrow Yao, Shun and Yu,
They who wanted to destroy Confucius -
They are all completely subjected,
The dogs pinch their tails a coward!
EMPEROR
And Our neighbors in the golden west?
COMMANDER OF THE ARMY
The golden west comes and brings tribute!
The Turks from Holy Byzantium
Kneel in humility before the Son of Heaven
And bring in the Hagia Sophia
An incense sacrifice for His Highness!
The Persians of the Prophet Zarathustra
Adore His Majesty the Emperor,
Compare his Majesty with Xerxes,
Compare thee with their King Cyrus!
The kings of the west bring to thee,
Our Sun of Righteousness,
Tribute and very best offerings,
From Turkey the Sultan brings thee spices,
The king of Persia brings oil and ointments,
The Maharaja brings thee gems.
Thou art the Son of Heaven of the Orient,
The World Monarch of the whole Orient
And star of hope for the West!
EMPEROR
Has China tranquility, Our Middle Kingdom?
COMMANDER OF THE ARMY
All China rests, a baby in his mother's arms,
In thy Imperial Highness' arms!


THIRD SCENE

(The Emperor in a bamboo garden with his court philosopher.)

EMPEROR
O philosopher, speak of the philosophers,
We want to go in the school of wisdom.
PHILOSOPHER
Thy Majesty is the Son of Heaven,
Thy Majesty comes from heaven.
But be wary of all the false teachers,
Because Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu
Announce escapism, return to nature,
They do not care about the Middle Kingdom.
But also do not follow the sermons of the Buddha,
Because Buddhism makes people slack,
Buddhists are tired of life
And only want to go out into nothingness.
Let not teach thee Mo Di about love,
For his general philanthropy
Rejects all hierarchy and order
And promotes anarchy and communism.
EMPEROR
When Yao, Shun and Yu now will come to Us,
Which of the philosophers they would praise?
PHILOSOPHER
Certainly the Holy Confucius!
He is the heir of antiquity,
He has studied the Book of Changes
And knew the secret meaning of the Odes.
EMPEROR
What can We learn about the way of Father Heaven?
PHILOSOPHER
Father Heaven had a bell,
Father Heaven gave his word to the world,
That was the wisdom of Confucius.
EMPEROR
Rate to Us the teachings of Confucius
In one word, in one dogma only.
PHILOSOPHER
The first-born is the beloved of his father.
EMPEROR
Just as the Son of Heaven is beloved of Father Heaven?
PHILOSOPHER
And as his wife loves the husband.
Through this love the kingdom will be fine.
EMPEROR
What do you think of the master Alopen?
PHILOSOPHER
Silent on metaphysical fields
Am I, as well as Confucius was.


FOURTH SCENE

(Ming Huang and the first of the ladies of the harem.)

EMPEROR
We have chosen, to live in virtue
All Our life. In the heavens the virtue walks
Crowned. We long for virtue
And take Us virtue herself as a model.
HAREM LADY
We, Thy Highness' women, want
To sweeten ty heavy office of the Supreme Lord.
EMPEROR
Even Lao Tzu once said in his wisdom:
Music and yummy food all people love,
But wisdom no one wants to listen!
Confucius once said in his wisdom:
I have not met a man yet,
Who loved the immaculate virtue
So much as a young beautiful girl!
HAREM LADY
The wisdom herself is but like a woman!
In thy most beautiful women of your harem
See lady wisdom's icon in the parables!
EMPEROR
Seductress! Attracted on the path of virtue
By ye women of sensuality!
HAREM LADY
How can we thy Majesty
Satisfy? What the Lord wants from us?
EMPEROR
In one word: We solve our men in the harem
From all concubines and send all away
From the forbidden palace of heaven!
It is not appropriate to Our pffice
As a Son of Heaven, three thousand prostitutes
To keep as concubines for Us,
We are the model for the people of the Chinese.
The noble ruler acts by example,
And as the Emperor with only one Empress
At his side, before the Chinese people
Holy Family honours again.
The husband was master in his own house
And loves his wife in faithfulness,
And his wife was his help
And honoured her husband as an emperor,
The sons are their fathers honour,
The younger brothers honoured the older brothers,
Grandmothers we believe again to be holy,
Then comes back the right to the Middle Kingdom.
HAREM LADY
What will become of the three thousand concubines?
EMPEROR
They are what they were: flower girls,
They shall make love in the streets of red dust!


FIFTH SCENE

(The Emperor and the Buddhist bonze.)

EMPEROR
What do Buddha's monks do for the kingdom?
BUDDHIST
O Majesty, life is suffering!
Yes, that the creature exist
Is nothing but suffering, is birth and death
And again, birth and death, suffering!
Thou art the father of a great empire,
Allow but thy servants, Buddha's monks,
To preach the road of salvation.
EMPEROR
What do you preach to the people with black hair?
BUDDHIST
O Majesty, forgive the simple objection,
We preach to the whole creature,
And do not listen to us the people with black hair,
Then the people with yellow hair will listen to us!
EMPEROR
How will you save our little ones then?
BUDDHIST
We want to make good people,
Full of mindfulness in every moment,
Full of sympathy with all creatures,
People who do not kill other people,
Who do not kill animals to eat them,
People who are merciful, because they
Their bad fate so atone.
EMPEROR
Promise you because of the good deed of man
Also a reward in this life or the afterlife?
BUDDHIST
Who has compassion for all creatures,
Already here on earth a Buddha can be.
He will no longer be born
And after death be extinguished in Nirvana.
EMPEROR
If We ever become a Buddha on earth,
How We will live on earth then?
BUDDHIST
Extinguished is then thy life's urge,
Thou then do not have a thirst for life anymore,
Extinguished is then any desire.
EMPEROR
We want to allow you to preach,
We Ourselves do not believe in this doctrine.


SIXTH SCENE

(The Emperor and the Christian monk Alopen.)

EMPEROR
Alopen, monk, you are coming from Syria.
Who is the God whom you believe, ye Syrians?
ALOPEN
We believe in the Creator of the world,
The Father of all creatures,
And believe in the only begotten Son,
The god-man Jesus, our Savior..
EMPEROR
Was this Jesus a wise man?
ALOPEN
He was wisdom in person, my Emperor!
EMPEROR
What was the wisdom of this man Jesus?
ALOPEN
He taught us to love God with all our strength,
To love all men as we love ourselves,
Even the enemies we should still love!
EMPEROR
Why did you come into Our kingdom?
ALOPEN
The Christians of Rome, they have driven us out.
The founder of our Christian community,
Nestorius, they say he is a heretic.
EMPEROR
What, you proclaim heresy in China?
ALOPEN
We sons of Nestorius, we believe
Mary was the human mother of Jesus,
And that's why we call her the mother of Jesus.
Rome's Christians call her the Mother of God,
They call her the Mother of our Creator!
EMPEROR
You can proclaim this man Jesus.
We also hope as the Son of Heaven,
Rome's Christians may come once to China.
If God, the Creator of the world,
If God has a mother,
Thus, China is pleased to welcome this Mother
As Our Lady in the Middle Kingdom.
ALOPEN
Here, thy Majesty, the book of the words
Of the Master Jesus, full of the wisdom of God.
EMPEROR
We are gracious to you, Master Alopen.


SEVENTH SCENE

(Ming Huang with Lady Yang Gue-Fei in the garden at the pavilion on a garden bench under a sycamore tree.)

EMPEROR
O Lady Yang, with twenty-two years
You are as beautiful as a heavenly virgin!
The girl in the rainbow dress
Was with the Yellow Emperor Huang Di.
You can command the ocean of the soul
Like the beautiful sea goddess Ma-Ku.
You are as beautiful as a young fairy,
Yes, like the beautiful queen of the fairies,
The lovely Xi Wang Mu from the Kunlun Mountains.
You look so gracious and so loving
Like the goddess of mercy Guan Yin.
LADY YANG
My Emperor, tou with your sixty years,
Be wise as Confucius
And as Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu

And speak of love as Mo Di,
Be the savior of thy people as Yui,
The Son of Heaven full of piety as Shun,
In thy wheelchair Emperor as the noble Yao,
A man full of wisdom and justice
As once the Yellow Emperor Huang Di.
EMPEROR
The ideal of the hermit is,
The elixir of life and youth
To find in the chymical laboratory,
So the wise man of a hundred years
Still is young and blooming as fifteen years.
We are the wise old hermit,
You are the youth and immortality.
In your beauty, young girl goddess
Love We to meet eternity.
LADY YANG
In thy graceful and venerable age
I know was the Heavenly Jade Emperor.
Yes, fatherly friend and well-beloved,
In thee I see Father Heaven.
EMPEROR
If We are the Father Heaven, the old man,
You the heavenly youth forever and ever!
LADY YANG
O Emperor, please kiss my cheek!
EMPEROR
Come, darling, we rush to the bridal chamber!...


EIGHTH SCENE

(Lady Yang in the garden in front of the pavilion on a garden bench, the Turk An Lu-Shan occurs to her.)

AN LU-SHAN
O Lady Yang, the emperor's favorite
I observe now since moons already
And am from moon to moon in love
With the most beautiful girl of all girls
And am in love with you, my girl.
LADY YANG
But I am the emperor's favorite.
AN LU-SHAN
We Turks have a poetry
Of love, as the poets sing of
The rose, which is beautiful
And far out of reach, and the nightingale
Always sings longingly in solitude,
Consumed languishing in front of concupiscence
And pays homage to the eternal beauty of the rose
And again and again flies the nightingale
To the beautiful rose, but whether she speaks her vows,
The rose speaks her No again and again
And pierced the sharp sting of her thorns
The nightingale in her chest,
The nightingale, the sting in the chest,
Bleeds and bleeds to death, she sings woe
And sweet yearning anguish painfully languishing
And sings more beautifully with the pierced heart
Then all the other birds in the forest.
LADY YANG
My well-beloved emperor but calls me
Peony spotless and without thorns.
AN LU-SHAN
I do not play the game of the nightingale,
I'm not a foolish poet,
And when the floret wants to stab me also,
I would still pick my roses,
The floret will just have to suffer.
LADY YANG
Go away, go away, you Turkish barbarian,
You ask the Chinese Princess
For love and threaten her with violence?
AN LU-SHAN
If you're not willing, I will use force,
And will you not give me physical love,
I leap the Son of Heaven from his throne!
LADY YANG
Out of my sight, Turkish barbarian,
The good Heaven may punish you!


NINTH SCENE

(The Emperor Ming Huang on the throne, to his side the throne of Lady Yang. An Lu-Shan with a group of barbaric rebels rushes.)

EMPEROR
The Son of Heaven on the dragon throne reigns!
LADY YANG
The favorite is enthroned in the phoenix throne!
AN LU SHAN
(Entering armed)
The Emperor of China is now discontinued.
We revolutionary troup send you
In exile, your tyranny
Now has an end  China is now free.
I myself, head of the revolutionaries,
I am the Sun of Righteousness
And God on earth under free peasants!
(Ming Huang is captured by the rebels.)
EMPEROR
You know to depose the Emperor of China,
However, you do not know China to govern.
The highest flowering of human culture
Your revolutionaries will ruin!
AN LU-SHAN
Men, bring the old imperial away!
(Ming Huang is removed. An Lu-Shan to Lady Yang)
And now, O lady with the beautiful smile,
Are you ready to worship the emperor,
That now occupies the chair in the kingdom?
For your love I 've long promoted,
But now I reserve you the homage.
By your life, I, your God calls you
And you shall fall before your God on your knees!
LADY YANG
Barbarians Mob!Scum out of the gutter!
The phoenix does not bow in front of a rat!
AN LU-SHAN
(in the highest devilish anger)
You scorpion! Death on the favorite!
Murder her, your revolutionaries!
(Lady Yang is murdered by a mercenary.)
LADY YANG
(dying)
Heaven take my soul!
AN LU-SHAN
Triumph, triumph of the rebellion of the people!
We, the head of the rebellion, we are now God!


TENTH SCENE

(The Emperor Ming Huang alone, exhausted.)

EMPEROR
The revolutionaries eat their own children,
One eats each other and An Lu-Shan
Has also been murdered by rebels.
The rebellion devours its own children.
Smashed they have the Middle Kingdom,
The books of the poets are burned
And the poets exiled.
The painter should only An Lu-shan paint.
Those who wanted to paint mother nature,
Were sent away into exile.
The marble statues of philosophers
And golden Buddha images are shattered,
The picture of the goddess of mercy Guan Yin
And the Virgin with the Son of God
Were demolished and the temples.
Soldiers oppressed all people
And a regime of terror prevailed cruel.
But the dragon has even eaten them!
We now return, the Son of Heaven
Still have the mandate of Father Heaven.
But We are a poor old Emperor,
They have plagued Us and tormented Us.
Now Our soul is faint with sadness.
Only ugly moroseness, ugly weariness
We feel in Our soul in such a poison.
We are alone on this earth.
And We loved to be dead.
We want to settle to the Yellow sources,
We are ready for death, O Father Heaven.
(He grabs suddenly his heart.)
O God, whoever you are, forgive me!
(He falls to the ground, his limbs trembling.)
Have mercy on me, O Mother of Mercy!
(He dies.)


ACT TWO
THE YIN-PRINCIPLE


FIRST SCENE

LI TAI-PO
O mother, the widow you have become,
I see myself as a child in my mind,
Because I see you as a young beautiful mother
And me as a small child on your arm
And your eyes look into mine
And my eyes look into yours
And between our eyes radiates love.
I also see myself as a child in spirit,
I see you as a young beautiful mother,
You sit comfortably on a soft sofa,
I sit beside you at your right hand
And lay my head in your lap
And you caress me tenderly my head.
MOTHER
My child, when you were born I saw
In the sky, precisely I the morning star,
The White Star, as he is called in Chinese,
The Romans call it the planet Venus,
And that is why I gave you also your name,
Which means: shining dawn.
LI TAI-PO
Ten years old was I, oh dear mother,
When you gave me the book with the talks
Of the Holy Confucius, I read,
I was impressed by the wisdom of China,
I wanted to serve the wisdom of China.
MOTHER
Because you come from the Great White Star,
From Venus Hsing Tai-Bo came down,
Did you know the wisdom again, when
Confucius preached wisdom.
LI TAI-PO
And that's why I 'm already twelve years old
And came in the school of wisdom
And lived as a hermit alone
In the Chinese mountains, fasting
And meditating and studying wisdom,
I realized the wisdom of nature,
I recognized her as the Great Mother Tao,
As Tao of heaven and earth,
As Tao of the people and as Tao
In my soul, Great Mother Tao.
MOTHER
But why do you always have to drink so much?
LI TAI-PO
Where's wisdom, O mother, there's grief!
Where's grief, O mother, there's wine!


SECOND SCENE

MOTHER
My son, how did you come to Chang-an?
LI TAI-PO
O mother, all the poets were there,
There were the painter and the monks.
I drove me through the streets, through the streets,
Gazed at some beautiful prostitutes
And some beautiful youthful nuns
And met my friend and brother,
The true holy poet Du Fu.
MOTHER
My son, that you'd found the favour of the Emperor!
How proud your mother is about her son,
That our emperor praised the poet!
LI TAI-PO
I knew all the languages ​​of the East
And the Korean culture.
The Emperor had received a letter
From the King of Korea, but the Emperor
Did not understand Korean. But the Emperor's
Privy Councelour recognized my gifts
And said to his Majesty the Emperor:
O Son of Heaven, the Chang-an poet
Is connoisseur of Korean culture
And language and provides a great poet
And young god of Chinese culture.
If thy majesty allows it to me,
I call the poet to the court,
He translates to thee this letter of the king.
So I came to the court and translated
The letter of the King of Korea for
The Emperor of China, and immediately the answer
I dictated to the Privy Councelour of the Emperor
And donated reconciliation between China
And North and South Korea through art
In the beautiful language full of true wisdom.
The Emperor was pleased and as a reward
He gave me a bag of silver coins.
MOTHER
My son, thy ragged coat of linnen
Show me, you need any new clothes.
That you at the court of his majesty
Be patient in such linnen coat,
How it alone bear poor peasants!
LI TAI-PO
The Son of Heaven is a Genius
And he also recognizes the genius!
Recognize would his Majesty
Even a god in poor people's smock!
But I am not God, I 'm an angel,
Banished from my beautiful paradise!
MOTHER
What you did buy for the silver coins?
LI TAI-PO
I bought young wild sparkling wine for me.


THIRD SCENE

(Li Tai-Po and his friend, the poet Du Fu.)

LI TAI-PO
My friend Du Fu, as we were with the Emperor,
Those were days but of the greatest graces!
DU FU
You're always looking only to the Empress,
She was the muse of your poetry!
LI TAI-PO
Oh, if you knew how she delights me!
DU FU
I sang even more from the affliction of my people
And our wisdom of the old masters.
LI TAI-PO
When in the evening I drank my wine,
Then I only ever saw before me the lady,
The Lady twenty-two years young.
DU FU
And didn't you remember the Great Mother Tao
And the ancient wisdom of our ancestors?
LI TAI-PO
What do we know of are our Mother Tao?
If she now takes shape of a human being
And smiles from the lips of a lady
And lights from the eyes of a lady?
DU FU
Sing again your immortal poem,
That you in love for the Lady Yang sung!
I heard yet, the old nun said,
Your song insulting the Lady Yang?
LI TAI-PO
She was too kind to be offended.
DU FU
How do you praised Our Lady in love?
LI TAI-PO
I praised her as the pure lotus flower,
The rose arising from the mud of the pond,
In the womb of the cup of the pure lotus flower
Hidden was the divine jewel!
I praised her as a rose without thorns,
Peony with the name New Dawn!
I sang the jade mountain with jade buds
As a golden blossom of secret wisdom!
I celebrated the winter's pure plum,
The eternally immaculate and undefiled,
And initiated me of the immaculate plum!
DU FU
And so saying, those old nuns,
Your song is a song of a bad finger?
LI TAI-PO
But Lady Yang understood and smiled.


FOURTH SCENE

(Li Tai-Po alone, before him a cup of rice wine, on his lap the Chin.)

LI TAI-PO
At the water stood a sycamore tree,
The sweet girl gathered the leaves,
The white gentle hands of my girl
Light rushed through the dark leaves of the tree,
The black dress full splendours in the glare of the sun.
Let me, she said, let me, my dear, let me free,
I must look after my silkworms,
Your stallion, however, is so impatient!
ECCHO
Your stallion, however, is so impatient!
LI TAI-PO
I think of you for all eternity,
I think of you wherever I am.
The green cricket chirps its song in the fall,
Its chirping sounds at the edge of the marble fountain.
From the sky gently trickles down the frost
And penetrates through my blankets and robes.
Alone with my old lamp's glow,
It dims the light and wants to go out soon.
I pick up the curtain on the window
And look at the lady moon white and cool.
The golden age is remote as well as the sky.
Full of melancholy at the sky hangs the night
In the dead of night, in black silky night.
The gray lake expands so lonely!
How far is still the way? How far, alas!
The wings of my souls lead,
In confused dreams is striving my soul,
The way to see by the sea and the storm.
I think of you for all eternity!
ECCHO
I think of you for all eternity...
LI TAI-PO
And full of sadness is my soul.


FIFTH SCENE

(A hut of a hermit. Li Tai-Po as a hermit, visited by another hermit.)

HERMIT
How blessed we are, we Hermits
From the bamboo-valley,

Redeemed from the dust of the world!
LI TAI-PO
I am long in the wheel of life turned on,
Foolish always at the same circuit.
What I found in the world's great gear?
Not love, but I found a wild passion,
Instead of friendship I found naked egoism,
Instead of faith I found empty rituals,
Instead of son-and-father-love I found money,
Instead of pious rule I found rebellion,
Instead of chastity I found adultery and fornication,
Instead of piety I found the faithless!
I loathe to the hustle and to bustle of these people!
HERMIT
Remember, my friend and brother, to drink the wine,
To drink plenty of rice wine of oblivion!
In the morning, wash yourself in the pure spring
And let the fools with their folly alone
And let the sinners with their sins alone
And take your Chin and lift your voice
And sing alone the Great Mother Tao!
LI TAI-PO
People hear my songs well,
They say: He hath a pleasant voice,
He knows to underline the Chin.
They listen to my songs with the ears,
With their hearts but are hardened and
Filled with radical self-love!
HERMIT
Let you heal the wounds by the beauty
Of heaven, from the deity of nature,
By the beloved wisdom of old masters,
Consider always the wisdom's cannon,
Be a scholar of the classic poets!
LI TAI-PO
From people unnoticed, unseen,
They think I'm a good-for-nothing,
But I suck at the full bosom
Of the Great Mother Tao and sing praise
To the beloved of my soul only,
I sing the eternally beautiful God-nature!


SIXTH SCENE

(Li Tai-Po in prison.)

LI TAI-PO
Because I to the Emperor and the Empress
Had kept in loose changes loyalty,
Because I believed in the Mandate of Heaven,
The Father Heaven and the Son of Heaven,
Because I adored in my Empress
The Great Mother Tao as a young girl,
Than twenty-two-year-old beauty,
In short, because I loved God with all my heart,
So I must now sit in this dungeon.
What the hell! The whole life is a prison!
My body is the prison of my soul!
Yes, my soul dreamed a dream,
I saw Freedom, just like a goddess,
Freedom a young beautiful Goddess!
The young beautiful Goddess Freedom said:
You must empty to the bottom the bitter cup,
Became drunken with wine of the wrath of God,
You have to empty the cup to the last drop
And drank the yeast at the bottom.
And you're drunken now, but not with wine,
Drunken you are with the grief of God!
The God-man was suffering in you his loneliness,
Abandonment of all his friends,
He was sweating in you blood sweat of calamity,
He pleaded in you God for mercy:
O Father, let the cup pass by,
Yet not as I will, but as thou want!
So you shall empty the cup of his wrath,
The brim poured with wine of wrath!
But now I come, the goddess of freedom,
Now comforts the young beautiful goddess of freedom
Your misery, you have no more to be drunken from grief:
You have the wine of the wrath no longer to drink,
God gives the full cup of his wrath
Now to your oppressors that they drink,
They that have threwn you down on the floor
And trampled on your back,
They now must drink the wine of the wrath!
So the young beautiful goddess freedom spoke
In about great splendor of the dawn,
Then I woke up from my sleep.
DUNGEON MASTER
Prisoner number hundred and forty,
You can go now, you'll be released now!
LI TAI-PO
O freedom, your rosy mouth let me kiss you!


SEVENTH SCENE

(Li Tai-Po alone at the Dung-ting-lake, night, full moon.)

LI TAI-PO
Once again I raise the cup of joy,
The slender chalice filled with the spirit of life,
Once again I suck the wine of wisdom,
Spirit of unmeasurable love!
(He drinks)
I stagger drunk! Old man,
What do you care about your age, old man?
Your soul weeps for not getting younger?
Oh, what a vision! I see, I see,
As it would be my soul a girl goddess,
Hovers a virgin on the white moon!
O girl in the rainbow dress,
You Fairy of the Yellow Emperor Huang Di,
Is that you, and to me appearing on the moon?
O young beautiful sea goddess Ma-ku,
Are you there, emerging from the lake there?
O Guan Yin, Mother of Mercy,
Princess of God, pure grace's goddess,
Are you the shining light, which seems to me?
O beloved Lady Yang, O Empress,
You twenty-two years young beauty
In the Phoenix Throne, you pure phoenix girl,
I see you floating down from the sky?
O immaculate girl goddess you,
Whoever you are, you immaculate goddess,
Now I see behind you open the heavens,
I see the Phoenix city made of pure jade,
At the end of that white star stream
I see the Phoenix city made of pure jade,
Of jasper and jade and gold and pearls!
O immaculate girls goddess, O bride,
Dressed with the shimmering white moon,
Adorned with jade and shell beads,
Are you the bride who comes to love me?
I see, I see, and what I see, is
That Phoenix City at the milky way
With a white jade imperial throne
And on the throne the White Jade Emperor,
To his right, o joy of joys,
The girl in the rainbow dress!
(Li Tai-Po empties his last cup.)
Goddess of the moon in the lake, give me a hug!
My life is complete! O Mother, O Mother!
(He rushes into the lake and is drowned. A yellow crane settles on the banks of the Dung-Ting-Lake and floats majestically back into heaven.)