赤壁夜吟 · Night Verses at Red Cliff

Huangzhou, third year of exile. Su Shi takes a small boat out onto the Yangtze at midnight, alone with the autumn wind and the Red Cliff's shadow. The great current runs east without pause. Somewhere on this same water, Zhou Yu once burned Cao Cao's fleet to white froth — but that youth is a thousand years gone now, and the river has swallowed it all without a word.

The erhu opens alone: one voice questioning the dark water. The guqin answers slowly from beneath — not comfort, but company. This is a song about what remains when history drains away: the river, the moon, one man in a boat too small to be remembered.

[引子] 大江東去浪千堆 赤壁磯前月色開 石壁崢嶸穿雲起 亂石驚濤白浪回

[主歌一] 遙想當年周郎志 羽扇輕搖破敵師 灰飛煙滅英雄事 今夜江風入我衣

人生如夢幾回首 一樽還酹江月流 千古風流皆水去 獨留清輝照沙洲

[副歌] 赤壁夜吟寄何處 一葦舟橫天地孤 江月不問興亡事 年年照我赤壁渡

滄浪之水洗塵憂 夜風吹散萬古愁 此心已與江月老 何須更問去與留

[主歌二] 黃州謫居三載久 抱甕澆花不問秋 壁間題詩墨未乾 鶴唳一聲天地幽

夢裡猶聞鼙鼓急 醒來但見水雲悠 英雄白髮成今古 舉杯對月各自愁

[副歌] 赤壁夜吟寄何處 一葦舟橫天地孤 江月不問興亡事 年年照我赤壁渡

滄浪之水洗塵憂 夜風吹散萬古愁 此心已與江月老 何須更問去與留

[尾聲] 大江依舊東流去 月色依舊照古今 一曲夜吟誰人聽 江山如畫夢中尋