易安晚詠 · Evening Verses of Yi'an

Li Qingzhao (李清照, courtesy name 易安居士) stands apart in the Song dynasty: her ci poetry reached a height no contemporary could answer. This song imagines her final years in Lin'an — the Southern Song capital — after the fall of Bianjing, after the death of her husband Zhao Mingcheng, after the Yangtze crossing in which their life's collection of bronze vessels, stone rubbings, and calligraphy scrolls was scattered or sunk. She sits alone with a borrowed brush, an inkstone running cold, and verses still forming unbidden in her mind.

The guzheng (古箏) leads — its cascading strings the natural vessel for ci poetry texture, for the tension between beauty and loss that defined her life's work. Erhu sustains below, dizi wisps through transitions; a light frame drum marks the passage of verse sections. The final Outro lets the inkstone cool and the lamp die before the words are finished.

引子 硯冷秋光薄， 燈昏案上塵。

主歌一 南渡江頭失金石， 銅鼎沉波無處尋。 舊拓一紙猶在匣， 指痕猶是趙郎臨。 簾外梧桐葉初落， 硯邊殘墨未成吟。

副歌一 易安晚，詞千闋， 無人能和一字答。 秋深矣，酒甕空， 愁重難付小舟航。 執殘筆，書舊夢， 紙上山河皆成霜。

主歌二 臨安巷陌秋雨細， 借得孤燈度長夜。 他年佳句無問處， 唯有窗前菊尚斜。 半卷殘詞擱硯側， 一生書香付流沙。

副歌二 易安晚，詞千闋， 無人能和一字答。 秋深矣，酒甕空， 愁重難付小舟航。 執殘筆，書舊夢， 紙上山河皆成霜。

尾聲 霜葉落盡硯已冷， 詞未竟，燈先滅。 留得一縷墨香在， 化作秋風去無迹。