胡笳辭 · Ode to the Barbarian Flute

Theme: Historical figures & dynasties (round 2) — Cai Wenji (蔡文姬), Eastern Han Lead instrument: Guqin (古琴)

蔡文姬，名琰，字文姬，東漢末年女詩人，蔡邕之女。董卓之亂後，文姬流離至北方，為南匈奴左賢王所獲，在塞外羈居十二年，育有二子。後曹操遣使以重金贖回，文姬得以歸漢，然二子留於匈奴，終身未再相見。其所作「胡笳十八拍」，千古傳誦，字字皆血淚。

This song imagines Cai Wenji at the moment of crossing back over the Han border — camel bells fading behind her, her two young sons standing in the frost-grass outside the felt tent, growing smaller as her horse carries her south. The guqin, her father Cai Yong's instrument, is both her anchor to the Han world she is returning to and the sound of everything she is leaving behind. Joy and grief are indistinguishable at the border marker.

〔引子〕 （古琴獨鳴，駝鈴遠去）

〔主歌一〕 霜草無邊馬蹄輕， 氈帳燈昏夢不成。 十二年霜染鬢角， 兩兒牽袖問歸程。

〔副歌〕 胡笳聲斷兮天邊冷， 漢關烽火兮遙遙明。 去留兩難兮心如割， 此恨綿綿兮訴無聲。

〔主歌二〕 河冰初解馬行急， 回首帳外兒啼立。 漢宮殿閣已是故， 懷中空處一點泣。

〔副歌〕 胡笳聲斷兮天邊冷， 漢關烽火兮遙遙明。 去留兩難兮心如割， 此恨綿綿兮訴無聲。

〔尾聲〕 （古琴輕撥，漸遠漸滅） 歸雁南飛無回翼， 霜草年年掩舊跡。

Lead: Guqin (古琴) — the seven-string silk-string zither plucks the opening prelude alone, its resonance carrying the weight of Cai Yong's lineage and the scholar's exile. Counter-melody: Dizi (笛) — breathy and mournful in the verses, tracing the distance between the steppe and the Han passes. Drone & weep: Erhu (二胡) — sustains beneath the choruses, rising at 此恨綿綿. Texture: Sparse frame drum, distant camel-bell reverb fading through the intro, silent in the coda.