鹊桥仙

　　纤云弄巧，

　　飞星传恨，

　　银汉迢迢暗渡。

　　金风玉露一相逢，

　　便胜却人间无数。

　　柔情似水，

　　佳期如梦，

　　忍顾鹊桥归路。

　　两情若是久长时，

　　又岂在朝朝暮暮。

　　Immortals at the Magpie Bridge

　　Clouds float like works of art,

　　Stars shoot with grief at heart.

　　Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid.

　　When Autumn’s Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade,

　　All the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.

　　Their tender love flows like a stream;

　　Their happy date seems but a dream.

　　How can they bear a separate homeward way?

　　If love between both sides can last for aye,

　　Why need they stay together night and day?

　　(许渊冲 译)

　　Immortals on the Magpie Bridge1

　　Her love into th’ clouds the Maid subtly weaves,

　　And th’ shooting stars display how th’ Cowherd grieves.

　　When dew falls the Milky Way sees their meeting rare.

　　However, no secular love can e’er compare

　　With the holy sentiments they for a time share.

　　Their tender feeling is like a long stream;

　　Their rendezvous’s like a transient dream.

　　They may not bear to part at th’ Magpie Bridge! But nay,

　　So long as undying their affections will stay,

　　Whereat should they be bound up every night and day?

　　1. This tune name derives from the myth of the sincere love between the Cowboy(Niulang) andthe Weaver (Zhinu), who are separated by the Heavenly Queen with the Milky Way and allowed tomeet only once in a year at the bridge built by the magpies which sympathize with them.