This is perhaps the most famous theme song from the 1987
CCTV Dream of the Red Chamber. I am attempting a translation for those who don't read Chinese.
葬花吟The Flower Burial SongSung and written by Lin Daiyu 林黛玉 in the novel.
Lyrics by Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹
Music composed by Wang Liping 王立平
Sung by Chen Li 陳力 and Choir
(The entire poem is much longer. The lyrics of this song are extracts from the original poem.)
花謝花飛花滿天,紅消香斷有誰憐?
Flowers wilt, flowers fly, fluttering all across the sky.
The crimson wanes, the fragrance ceases—who's pitying them?
遊絲軟系飄春榭,落絮輕沾撲繡簾。
Loose gossamers softly sway by the terrace house in spring;
Falling petals brush lightly, lunging on embroidered curtains.
一年三百六十日,風刀霜劍嚴相逼;
One year has three hundred and sixty days.
The wind is a sabre, the frost is a sword—the bitterness threatens.
明媚鮮妍能幾時,一朝漂泊難尋覓。
How long will radiant beauty and fair looks last?
Drifting away one day, they can no longer be traced.
花開易見落難尋,階前愁殺葬花人,
It's easy to see a flower in bloom, hard to find one that's fallen.
By the terrace steps, she who's burying the flowers is grieving deeply,
獨倚花鋤淚暗灑,灑上空枝見血痕。
leaning alone against the flower hoe, shedding tears in secret,
splashing them like bloodstains on empty branches.
願儂脅下生雙翼,隨花飛到天盡頭。
I wish I had wings under my arms,
so I could fly to the furthermost reaches of the sky with the flowers.
天盡頭,何處有香丘
The furthermost reaches of the sky—where to find a scented mound?
天盡頭,何處有香丘?
The furthermost reaches of the sky—where to find a scented mound?
未若錦囊收豔骨,一抔淨土掩風流。
I'd rather keep their fair bones in a satin pouch,
burying the carefree and unconventional in a handful of clean earth.
質本潔來還潔去,強於污淖陷渠溝。
To return untainted nature to purity
is better than casting filthy muck down a ditch.
爾今死去儂收葬,未卜儂身何日喪?
You're dead now and I'm collecting and burying your remains.
Who can foresee the day when my own body perishes?
儂今葬花人笑癡,他年葬儂知是誰?
Now that I'm burying the flowers, they call me foolish.
In a certain year to come, who will be the one burying me?
天盡頭,何處有香丘?
The furthermost reaches of the sky—where to find a scented mound?
天盡頭,何處有香丘?
The furthermost reaches of the sky—where to find a scented mound?
試看春殘花漸落,便是紅顏老死時;
When you see flowers gradually falling in spring's last days,
it’s time for her rosy face to perish after aging.
一朝春盡紅顏老,花落人亡兩不知!
When spring ends one day and the rosy face grows old,
the flowers will fall, her life end—and neither be found again.
Notes:
A year has three hundred and sixty days: according to the traditional Chinese calendar.
Scented mound: the burial mound of scented flowers