English中文
Nü Guanzi: The Seventeenth of the Fourth Month
四月十七，
正是去年今日，
别君时。
忍泪佯低面，
含羞半敛眉。
The seventeenth of the fourth month — it was just this day last year that I parted from you. Holding back my tears, I pretended to bow my face; half shy, I half knit my brows.
不知魂已断，
空有梦相随。
除却天边月，
没人知。
I did not know my soul was already broken; only in dreams do I follow after you. Save for the moon at the sky's edge, no one knows.
Reading notes
Nü Guanzi is the tune name here and does not identify the speaker as a Taoist nun. The seventeenth of the fourth month keeps the traditional calendar wording, without conversion to a Gregorian date. The lyric speaks of separation and longing; differing accounts of its background are not presented as established biography.