恨别

秋雨打灯 莲花落满坞中
少年心 隔水仍发好梦
一朝火海惊动 血漫舟中莲蓬
烈火无事却向西风

扬涛雷弄 三毒挥紫电纵
高台上 看世事更错综
任由他凡尘千众也难以抵我重
欲经此 身后尸骨再远送

难将前尘都随风
天光一醉万里红
山遥水远坞中可有人在等
几回庭前儿时梦
寒剑锋冷谁独拥
只余血海孤灯

血溅门灯 杯中淡茶早冷
他年人 一觉惊万里梦
剑指昔年旧友 方知寻道不同
昨日情分不似众朋

骤雨送声 惊惧剖丹相赠
当年人 教我如何能憎
江湖别后谁似青山飘蓬 不留踪
再相见 依稀是旧友新容

应恨前尘万事空
血将天地一抹红
故人作别口中有辞言不能
作茧之人缚千层
无一可辩恨早终
只任 寒灰 扬穷

如朝露来去匆匆
如那长天万里风
何因此生聚散不过一场梦
紫电无情可感痛
三毒锋冷难再送
本是 秋意 正浓

English #1 – Goodbye Filled With Hatred

Autumn rain hitting the lanterns, lotus petals filled the pier
The young man was having a good dream on the river
Startled by the sudden sea of flames, blood flooded the lotus pods on the boat
I was unharmed in the flames, but all was lost

Waves surging, thunder roaring, Sandu brandishing, Zidian swinging
Watching from the high ground, the happenings of the world seemed even more complex
Even a thousand people of the mortal world cannot be of greater importance than me
After this, I would have to send away even more dead bodies

It’s hard to let everything that happened be gone with the wind
Under the drunken sunlight, miles of land was tinted red
Far over the mountains and across the rivers
Would there be still someone waiting at Lotus Pier?

In my dreams, I returned numerous times to my childhood at the courtyard
Who was hugging the cold sword with the icy blade all along?
All that’s left was the sea of blood and a lone lamp

Blood splashed on the lanterns by the door
The bland tea in the cup had already gone cold
That person from the past was startled awake from his dream

Pointing my sword at my old friend
I realized we were seeking different paths
The bond that we shared back then was unlike that with other friends

Under the sound of heavy downpour
I was shocked by the truth of the golden core
How could I hate that person from the past?

When we parted our ways
Who disappeared and left no trace like a flying dandelion on a green mountain?
When we met again, my friend was vaguely recognizable behind a new appearance

Should I hate that everything I had from my past were all gone with the wind?
The sky and earth were stained red by blood
When my old friend bid his farewell, I had words to say but couldn’t utter them

Like a silkworm, I was enmeshed in a web of my own spinning
He died with regrets of not being able to explain himself
I could only let the cold ash fly away with no avail

Coming and going in haste like morning dew
And like the wind that blows for a thousand miles in the vast heaven
Our gatherings and partings in this lifetime seem just like a dream

Zidian has no emotions so how can it sense my pain?
I cannot point the cold blade of Sandu at him again
This should have been the time when autumn vibes are the strongest

Submitted by Rajkumari Jessy

English #2 – Resenting Parting

Autumn rain patters against lanterns
Lotus flowers fall, filling the pier
The heart of my youth,
separated by water, still dreams of pleasant things1
Come morning—an ocean of flames startles me awake
Blood rises, drowning the lotus pods in the boat
I emerge from the fierce flames, unharmed, and turn toward the western wind

Waves rise, thunder crashes
Sandu swings, Zidian lashes
From a high platform,
the affairs of the world are even more complex and tangled
Even the weight of crowds and mortal dust cannot outweigh those I hold dear2
I wish, after all of this ends, to once more send body and bones far away

It’s hard to let the past drift away with the wind
The sky brightens, and I wake to ten thousand miles of red3
The mountains are distant, the waters wandering—is there anyone in the pier, still waiting?
How many times, childhood dreams before this hall?
Cold blade of wintry sword—who wields it alone?
All that remains is an ocean of blood, a lonely lantern

Blood spatters the lantern by the door—
weak tea long gone cold in the cup
That person from years past4
startles awake from ten thousand miles of dreams
I pointed my sword at an old friend
Only then, did I know that the paths we walked were different
Our relationship did not resemble the friendships of the many

The sudden sound of rain
Shock and horror—the gift of a cut-out core
How am I to hate that person of years past?
After parting in the jianghu, who drifts like seeds on the winds, leaving no footprints as he passes?5
When we see each other again,
it is like seeing old friends with new faces

I should resent how the ten thousand affairs of the past all became emptiness
Blood turns heaven and earth into a smear of red
When bidding farewell to that person from the past, there are words in my mouth that I cannot say
These thousand threads, I’ve tied myself6
There is nothing left to argue about—resentment ended long ago
All that remains is scattering the rest of the cold ashes

Like morning dew, coming and going swiftly, hastily
Like the ten-thousand-mile wind, scouring the sky
Why are the reunions and partings of this life no more than a dream?
Can unfeeling Zidian still sense pain?
Sandu’s blade is cold—it is still hard to see someone off
The thought of autumn has always lain heavy on the heart7

1.The opening of this song reminds me a great deal of Jiang Cheng’s dream sequence in episode 19, just before he reawakens with a golden core restored. There is a doubling of himself in these lines—少年心 隔水仍发好梦 / the heart of my youth, separated by water, still dreams of pleasant things—in which the embittered Jiang Cheng of the present day looks back, wistfully, on his younger self, who “still dreams of pleasant things.”
2.This line gestures at the fundamental disagreement between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian; where Wei Wuxian, in 曲尽陈情 Qujinchenqing, declares that, “even should [he] sink into an ocean flames / [he] would still harbor this hope of helping the world in [his] heart,” Jiang Cheng instead notes that he would still prioritize “those [he] hold[s] dear” over “the weight of crowds and mortal dust” (i.e. passing human connections and acquaintances). It’s a classic Slytherin primary vs. Gryffindor primary disagreement.
3.In this line, Jiang Cheng specifically wakes up from a drunken stupor. Also, the word I’ve translated as “mile” is actually 里 li, a unit of distance that measures about half a kilometer. The actual numerical value of the distance is unimportant, as 万 wan / “ten thousand” is a number often used to indicate A Whole Lot.
4.Jiang Cheng, throughout this song, avoids naming anyone directly. The lyrics often use phrasings like 他年人 tanianren / “the person of those years,” 故人 guren / “friends/acquaintances/people of the past,” and 旧友 jiuyou / “old friends,” to refer to Wei Wuxian. These terms all connote a sense of distance, a feeling of “we once were, but now no longer.” 故人 guren can also refer to the dead/departed.
5.The comparison to 飘蓬 piaopeng / “drifting seeds” is likely intended to evoke the literary tradition of using 飞蓬 feipeng / “flying seeds” to refer to distant friends. I’ve elided the characters 青山 qingshan / “green mountains” in this line because I, for the love of all that was holy, could not fit them in the translation without stacking more prepositional phrases on top of an already overlong line. A more complete translation might be—“after parting in the jianghu, who drifts like seeds on the winds through the green mountains, leaving no footprints as he passes?”
6.“These thousand threads, I’ve tied myself” is a bit of a cop-out translation for the line 作茧之人缚千层, as a full rendering would require the explanation of the chengyu being referenced. 作茧自缚 zuojian zifu literally means “to spin a cocoon and bind yourself,” and generally occupies the same idiomatic space as English sayings like “you reap what you sow” or “you’ve made your bed, now sleep in it.” Despite what this English translation would imply, the lyrics rarely use the first-person pronoun, and do not do so in this line. As a result, the fully literal translation of this line is also in an ambiguous, distanced third person: “the person who spins cocoons is bound by a thousand layers.” From contextual clues in the lines around this one, it seems rather apparent to me that this line is intended to refer to Jiang Cheng’s inability to speak to Wei Wuxian after the events of the Guanyin Temple arc, but the room for alternate interpretations still remains for those who wish it.
7.This line was… hard to translate, and honestly, I’m not completely convinced that this is the best rendition. Broken down, we get 本是 benshi / “originally,” 秋意 qiuyi / “the idea/intent/concept of autumn,” 正浓 zhennong / “rather thick/viscous,” in a way that suggests the intensifying of some kind of autumnal vibes. My translation adds a particular melancholy to the line that it may not deserve. Autumn is a particularly poignant season in the Chinese literary tradition—home to particular festivals like Mid-Autumn, it evokes home and homecoming (and, correspondingly, homesickness and nostalgia for those in exile). At the same time, autumn is an invigorating season, with stunning scenery and the rise of brisk winds. Jiang Cheng’s names are both heavily associated with autumn as well, as per this post. [See translation source.]
Submitted by absolutelsewhere

恨别 Henbie is the eighth song on the CQL companion album, performed by Wang Zhuocheng as Jiang Cheng’s character song. Lyrically, this song appears to be in conversation with 曲尽陈情 Qujinchenqing.

The title is a reference to a Du Fu poem of the same name in which the poet surveys the countryside and mourns the ravages of war, all the while missing his hometown. Perhaps most significantly, Du Fu thinks of his younger brother as he tosses and turns throughout his sleepless nights.

The thematic resonances with Jiang Cheng’s character and journey are… potent.