2Spun so fast,
But time passes so slow.
Through the lush gardens,
Over the Bo Tree,
We fled.
You were a man,
Ten-thousand in one,
By name.
A handsome man, virtuous and good,
You brought honor to your family.
You helped build the Emperor's wall that would
Defend all of China. Yet it could not be completed
Unless a sacrificed could
Be produced to bind a
Guardian soul to the stones.
Through the lush gardens,
Over Quigcheng Mountain,
We fled.
I was a woman,
Once more
The lotus-bloom.
A woman born not of woman's blood,
But hatched from out a pumpkin shell
And raised in beauty, like the cherry bud.
Then one night, you came to me-
Weary from hiding and covered in mud,
But my heart soared like a dragon's flight.
And into wedlock we were joined.
We fled into the night, my love.
But the Emperor's men hunted us down
For your name, 'ten-thousand'.
You were an obvious sacrifice to the spirits.
The wall now stands, unbeatable forever,
While you have fallen
And no one knows where your bones lie.
I mourned you, my love.
Your murderer asked for my hand,
And imperial will I could not deny;
I asked him to honor you
For forty-nine days of mourning.
And on the eve of the forty-ninth day,
I denounced his cruelty and cast myself into the river.