漢皇重色思傾國，The emperor of Han preferred women of great beauty,
御宇多年求不得。He sought them out for years but in vain.
楊家有女初長成，A girl in the Yang family just grew up,
養在深閨人未識。Not known to anyone, being raised in deep boudoir.
天生麗質難自棄，Born too beautiful to give herself away easily,
一朝選在君王側。She was eventually chosen at the side of the emperor.
回眸一笑百媚生，One glance back from her beams one hundred kinds of charm,
六宮粉黛無顏色。And the beauty of all the ladies in the six palaces1 was shadowed.
春寒賜浴華清池，In still cold spring she was granted a bath in the pool of Hua Qing2,
溫泉水滑洗凝脂。Her smooth skin bathed in the warm spring water.
侍兒扶起嬌無力，So delicate, she was helped up by her maids,
始是新承恩澤時。That’s the first time she enjoyed the love of the emperor.
雲鬢花顏金步搖，Cloud-like hair, flower-like face, golden dangling ornament,
芙蓉帳暖度春宵。Spring3 nights all spent under the warm lotus canopy.
春宵苦短日高起，The night was too short and the sun rose high,
從此君王不早朝。The emperor neglected his morning levee ever since.
承歡侍宴無閑暇，Pleasing and waiting on the emperor at feast, she got no moment to spare,
春從春遊夜專夜。Outing in spring every day, sleeping with the emperor every night.
後宮佳麗三千人，The emperor had three thousand fairs in the harem,
三千寵愛在一身。But his love of the three thousands centered on one
金屋妝成嬌侍夜，In the golden boudoir she made herself up for the evening,
玉樓宴罷醉和春。After a feast in the jade pavilion she’s drunk in spring3 action.
姊妹弟兄皆列土，Her brothers and sisters all got fiefs,
可憐光彩生門戶。Her family was admirably endowed with Imperial glory.
遂令天下父母心，This made all the parents under the heaven
不重生男重生女。Desirous of having girls instead of boys.
驪宮高處入青云，The palace on the Li Mountain towering high into the clouds,
仙樂風飄處處聞。The fairy music carried by the wind, heard everywhere.
緩歌謾舞凝絲竹，Charming songs, graceful dances with string and bamboo instruments,
盡日君王看不足。The emperor could not enjoy enough all day long.
漁陽鼙鼓動地來，The war drums came from Yuyang4, shaking the ground,
驚破霓裳羽衣曲。Breaking the Melody of Rainbow Dress and Feather Garments5.
九重城闕煙塵生，Smokes and dusts rose from nine gates6 of the capital,
千乘万騎西南行。Thousands of coaches and horses marching southwest.
翠華搖搖行復止，With emerald coach canopies swaying, they moved, then stopped
西出都門百餘里。Only a hundred miles west outside the capital.
六軍不發無奈何，As the troops refused to advance, the emperor could do nothing,
宛轉蛾眉馬前死。And the sobbing beauty died in front of his horse.
花鈿委地無人收，Pearl-inlaid headdress fell on the ground, but none cared to pick it,
翠翅金雀玉搔頭。Also hair ornaments of emerald and gold in bird shape, and jade hairpins.
君王掩面救不得，The emperor couldn’t save her, only covering his face,
回看血淚相和流。When looking back, there flew tears and blood.
黃埃散漫風蕭索，Yellow dusts floated up in the air, the wind soughing,
雲棧縈紆登劍閣。They scaled to Sword Pavilion7 on zigzag wooden board way up into clouds.
峨嵋山下少人行，At the foot of E-Mei Mountains8 travelers are seldom seen,
旌旗無光日色薄。While the banners lose brightness and the sun looks pale.
蜀江水碧蜀山青，The river of Shu9 is green and the mountains of Shu9 are blue,
聖主朝朝暮暮情。The mood of the emperor morning and evening imaginable.
行宮見月傷心色，In the temporary palace as the emperor watches the moon, its light seems grievous.
夜雨聞鈴斷腸聲。In the night rain the sound of bells is heart-rending.
天旋地轉回龍馭，Like heaven and earth whirling, the dragon coach10 returning,
至此躊躇不能去。But at that moment, he hesitated to leave there.
馬嵬坡下泥土中，In the earth at the foot of Mawei Mound11
不見玉顏空死處。There’s no body of the buried beauty seen.
君臣相顧盡沾衣，Emperor and courtiers look at each other, their clothes wet with tears;
東望都門信馬歸。Their horses canter eastward to the gate of the capital.
歸來池苑皆依舊，When returning, the pond and gardens are still the same,
太液芙蓉未央柳。Also the peonies in Taiye Pond and willows in Weiyang Palace.
芙蓉如面柳如眉，Her face like the peonies and her eyebrows like willow leaves,
對此如何不淚垂。Confronting these, how can the tears not be trickling?
春風桃李花開日，Also on the day when the blooms of peach and plum blow in spring,
秋雨梧桐葉落時。And at the time when the leaves of Chinese parasol fall in autumnal rains.
西宮南內多秋草，There’s a lot of autumnal grass in western and southern palaces,
落葉滿階紅不掃。And the ruddy fallen leaves all over the steps no one swept.
梨園弟子白發新，The performers of the imperial troupe have new white hair growing.
椒房阿監青娥老。The eunuchs and maids in her former chamber become old.
夕殿螢飛思悄然，As fireflies dart in the evening hall, the thought of her steals in,
孤燈挑盡未成眠。When the wicker in the single lamp burns up, sleeplessness lasts.
遲遲鐘鼓初長夜，The night grows long and the morning bell and drum sounds late,
耿耿星河欲曙天。The day is breaking and the Milky Way still seen across the sky.
鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重，The dews dense on the cold tiles of mandarin ducks,
翡翠衾寒誰与共。The emerald quilts also cold since no one to sleep in together.
悠悠生死別經年，During the lasting separation of life and death experience for years,
魂魄不曾來入夢。Her ghost has never come into the dream of the survivor.
臨邛道士鴻都客，The Taoist from Linqiong, the visitor from Hongdu12,
能以精誠致魂魄。Who can summon the ghost with his spirit of earnestness.
為感君王輾轉思，Touched by the whole-hearted thinking of the emperor
遂教方士殷勤覓。The Taoist sets his heart on searching her ghost far and wide.
排空馭气奔如電，He rides on the air into the other space as swift as lightning,
升天入地求之遍。Exploring everywhere in Heavens and in the other world.
上窮碧落下黃泉，He seeks in paradise and he seeks in Hades,
兩處茫茫皆不見。And her ghost is not there in either place.
忽聞海上有仙山，All at once he hears of the fairy mountains on the sea
山在虛無縹緲間。The mountains are situated in the vast void.
樓閣玲瓏五雲起，The magnificent pavilions rise among five-colored clouds,
其中綽約多仙子。In which there are a lot of elegant goddesses.
中有一人字太真，One of them is called Taizhen13,
雪膚花貌參差是。With snow-white skin and flower-beautiful face as she has.
金闕西廂叩玉扃，He knocks at the jade door of the west chamber in the golden pavilion,
轉教小玉報雙成。Asking Xiaoyu14, the maid, to tell Shuangcheng14, another maid,
聞道漢家天子使，When hearing the arrival of the messenger of the Han emperor,
九華帳里夢魂惊。Her ghost startled from the dream in splendid canopy.
攬衣推枕起徘徊，Lifting her dress, pushing away her pillow, she loiters forth,
珠箔銀屏迤邐開。The silver screen with pearly foils opens gradually.
云髻半偏新睡覺，With her piled-up hair tilting aside, just awake from the sleep,
花冠不整下堂來。She walks into the hall in disheveled wreath crown.
風吹仙袂飄飄舉，Her fairy dress flutters up in the wind,
猶似霓裳羽衣舞。Like in a dance of rainbow-colored feather-adorned garment.
玉容寂寞淚闌干，Her pretty face reflects solitude with tears trickling,
梨花一枝春帶雨。Like a pear blossom in the spring rains.
含情凝睇謝君王，She thanks the emperor with a gaze full of feelings,
一別音容兩渺茫。His voice and visage is so far away after parting.
昭陽殿里恩愛絕，Thus ended the love expressed in Zhaoyang Hall;
蓬萊宮中日月長。But here in Penglai Palace the time is eternal.
回頭下望人寰處，When looking down back to the human world,
不見長安見塵霧。Can’t see ChangAn, the capital, but mists and dusts.
唯將舊物表深情，To show her deep feelings she can only produce the old stuff,
鈿盒金釵寄將去。And wants to send the gold hairpin and decorated box,
釵留一股盒一扇，She keeps half of the pin and box for herself.
釵擘黃金合分鈿。That is: half of the pin gold, half of the box decoration.
但教心似金鈿堅，If only our hearts so sincere as gold and box so sturdy,
天上人間會相見。We’ll meet either in heavens or in the world.
臨別殷勤重寄詞，When parting, she sends words by the Taoist,
詞中有誓兩心知。There’s a vow in the words they both know.
七月七日長生殿，That’s on seventh day of seventh moon in Longevity Hall,
夜半無人私語時。They vowed to each other at midnight when none were near:
在天愿作比翼鳥，They wished to be birds flying side by side in the sky,
在地愿為連理枝。They wished to be two bough-interlaced trees on earth.
天長地久有時盡，Heaven and earth, though everlasting, may have an end,
此恨綿綿無絕期。The parting regret of theirs lasts without an end.

註﹕小玉,吴王夫差的女儿；双成，董双成，西王母的女儿。二人都是借指杨贵妃在仙境的侍女。
[3] The Chinese character spring can imply sex.