This song is probably familiar to many of you. I couldn’t have thought of a better musical theme than the song title itself.
梧桐樹, 三更雨, 不道離情正苦。
wútóng shù, sāngēng yǔ, bùdào líqíng zhèng kǔ.(溫庭筠《更漏子》)
Wen Tingyun, ‘Gēnglòu zi’
Wutong trees*, third watch rain, care not for the utter bitterness of separation’s sorrow.
Source: Pleco
After a while, it was still Yi Liankai who spoke first as he said, ‘Don’t worry so much. I’ll definitely do what I promised you.’
Qin Sang had been lost in her own thoughts. On hearing this, she asked somewhat blankly, ‘What did you promise me?’
— Ch. 18.3
Yi Liankai’s reply was, ‘I have something for you.’ … ‘This is something I had as a child. My mother didn’t leave much behind. Just the pair of bangles which were part of your betrothal gifts and this spoon which my wet nurse kept for me as a sort of remembrance.’
Qin Sang knew that everything boded ill for this journey of his. Her heart was full but she could not bring herself to say the words. Yi Liankai himself did not seem overtly reluctant to part either for he did not turn back for a second glance when he left.
— Ch. 18.4
* 梧桐 wútóng: Chinese parasol (tree); phoenix tree (a beautiful tree which figures prominently in literature, and whose euphonious Chinese name is often left untranslated).
Photo from Terry Lin’s blog entry on performing this song.
EDIT 03 Feb 2020: Replaced the YouTube link with a working video. So sad, the original video isn’t available any more. 😭 Luckily there’s still this one.
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