[English translation] 锦鲤抄 - Tale of the Koi

演唱// Vocal：云の泣/ 银临 (Yun zhi Qi / Yin Lin)

作词// Lyrics：慕清明 (Mu Qing Ming)

作曲// Composer：银临 (Yin Lin)

编曲// Arrangement：灰原穷 (Hui Yuan Qiong)

混缩// Compress：灰原穷 (Hui Yuan Qiong)

文案

宁武皇仁光九年锦文轩刻本《异闻录》载:

扶桑画师浅溪，居泰安，喜绘鲤。院前一方荷塘，锦鲤游曳，溪常与嬉戏。

其时正武德之乱，藩镇割据，战事频仍，魑魅魍魉，肆逆于道。兵戈逼泰安，街邻皆逃亡，独溪不舍锦鲤，未去。

是夜，院室倏火。有人入火护溪，言其本鲤中妖，欲取溪命，却生情愫，遂不忍为之。翌日天明，火势渐歇，人已不见。

溪始觉如梦，奔塘边，但见池水干涸，莲叶皆枯，塘中鲤亦不知所踪。

自始至终，未辨眉目，只记襟上层迭莲华，其色魅惑，似血着泪。

后有青岩居士闻之，叹曰:魑祟动情，必作灰飞。犹蛾之投火耳，非愚，乃命数也。

Story

Originated during the reign of Emperor Ning Wu, ninth year of Ren Guang, the ancient texts in “Record of Strange Tales” writes:

Qian Xi, a painter from Fusang who lived in Tai’an, was especially fond of painting koi. In the waterlily pond at his yard koi fishes swam. He played with them often.

During the Chaos of Wu De, land was divided, and wars frequent still. Evils of all kind wrecked havoc across the realm. When armies approached Tai’an, all of Xi’s neighbours fled, but him alone stayed, for he could not bear to leave his fishes.

Night fell when his house went up in a blaze. A person entered the fire to protect Qian Xi. The person claimed to be a koi fish demon who intended to take Xi’s life, but developed feelings for him and couldn’t bring itself to do the deed. When dawn broke the following day, the fire died down, and the person had disappeared. 

Qian Xi, thinking it was all a dream, ran to his pond, and found the water dried, the water lilies withered, and the koi fishes nowhere to be seen.

From beginning till the end, he could not recollect its appearance, except the layered colors upon its collar, overlapping like lotus petals, dazzling and striking, as if made of blood and tears.

Later when the Hermit of Qing Yan heard of the story, he sighed and commented, “when demons are moved by emotions, they’re doomed to become flying ashes. Akin to the moth drawn to fire, it’s not foolishness, but fate.”

***

蝉声陪伴着行云流浪

回忆开始后安静遥望远方

荒草覆没的古井枯塘

匀散一缕过往

Cicada cries travel with the wandering clouds

I quietly looked into the distance when memories began

The ancient well and dried pond hidden in overgrown weeds

Diffused a streak of the past

晨曦惊扰了陌上新桑

风卷起庭前落花穿过回廊

浓墨追逐着情绪流淌

染我素衣白裳

Dawn awakened young mulberry trees by the country path

Winds stirred fallen flowers in the courtyard and passed through its cloisters

Ink chases the torrent of emotions

And dyed my plain white robe

阳光微凉 琴弦微凉 

风声疏狂 人间仓皇

呼吸微凉 心事微凉

流年匆忙 对错何妨

Slightly cold was the sunlight, slightly cold were zither strings

Wild was the wind, and hastily goes the mortal world

Slightly cold was my breath, slightly cold were my thoughts

So hurriedly the years flow by, why matter with rights and wrongs

你在尘世中辗转了千百年

却只让我看你最后一眼

火光描摹容颜燃尽了时间

别留我一人 孑然一身

凋零在梦境里面

You’ve wandered through the mortal world for hundreds and thousands of ages

Yet you allow me but one final glimpse 

The flames sketched your likeness, then burned through time itself

Don’t leave me all alone, bare and desolate

to wilt away in my dreams 

萤火虫愿将夏夜遗忘

如果终究要挥别这段时光

裙袂不经意沾了荷香

从此坠入尘网

Fireflies would wish to forget summer nights

If in the end they had to say goodbye to these times

My dress and sleeves heedlessly caught the fragrance of water lilies 

And I since fell into mortal’s net

屐齿轻踩着烛焰摇晃

所有喧嚣沉默都描在画上

从惊蛰一路走到霜降

泪水凝成诗行

Wooden sandals gently stepped past wavering candlelights

All clamors and silences sketched onto the paintings

Walking from the season of spring bugs till snowfall
Tears condensed into poetic lines

灯花微凉 笔锋微凉

难绘虚妄 难解惆怅

梦境微凉 情节微凉

迷离幻象 重叠忧伤

Slightly cold was the burnt candlewick, slightly cold was the drawing brush tip 

Difficult it is to sketch the surreal, difficult it is to resolve grief

Slightly cold was the realm of dreams, slightly cold was the story within

Disorientating illusions and phantasms, sadness overlapping upon sadness

原来诀别是因为深藏眷恋

你用轮回换我枕边月圆

我愿记忆停止在枯瘦指尖

随繁花褪色 尘埃散落 渐渐地渐渐搁浅

I only realized you bade farewell because of your deep hidden love

You incarnated to make me whole again

I wish memories would halt at the tip of these thin fingers

And fade with the flowers, scattered as dust, and slowly, slowly, be washed ashore

多年之后 我又梦到那天

画面遥远 恍惚细雨绵绵

Many years later, I dreamt of that day again

The scene was distant, like an endless drizzling rain

如果来生太远寄不到诺言

不如学着放下许多执念

以这断句残篇向岁月吊唁

老去的当年 水色天边 有谁将悲欢收殓

If our coming lives prove too distant for promises

Why don’t we learn to let go of our many obsessions

With these broken verses I mourn bygone years

Those aged years, by horizons the hue of water, who will lay down our joys and sorrows for their eternal rest

蝉声陪伴着行云流浪

回忆的远方

Cicada cries travel with the wandering clouds

To distances of memories past

***

I love how vivid some of the lyrics here are. Some examples that especially struck home with me was "Many years later, I dreamt of that day again; the scene was distant, like an endless drizzling rain." Simple and powerful. (More so in the original language, where I feel that the imagery evoked is even stronger.) 

Anyway, the "Record of Strange Tales" is a fictional book. But there is a historical literature piece in this genre (horror, I guess? With a dash of paranormal romance?), "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" (聊斋志异). It has a collection of stories featuring relationships between humans and demons, some heartwarming, some sinister. Animal demons that cultivate into human forms is a prevailing figure in Chinese folklore.