Shui diao ge tou

Shui diao ge tou is the name of a tune which is used to rhyme this famous poem, 水調歌頭·丙辰中秋, by the Song dynasty poet Su Shi, commonly known as Su Dongpo.

Text of the Poem

水調歌頭¹


丙辰²中秋³，
歡飲達旦，

大醉，

作此篇，

兼懷子由⁴。





明月幾時有？
把酒問青天。
不知天上宮闕⁵，
今夕是何年？


我欲乘風歸去，
唯恐瓊樓玉宇⁶，
高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影⁷，
何似在人間⁸！



轉朱閣⁹，
低綺戶¹⁰，
照無眠¹¹。
不應有恨，
何事長向別時圓？


人有悲歡離合，
月有陰晴圓缺，
此事古難全。
但願人長久，
千里共嬋娟¹²。

English translation

Bright moon, when did you appear?

Lifting my wine, I question the dark night sky.

Tonight in the palaces and halls of heaven

what year is it, I wonder?



I would like to ride the wind, make my home there,

Only I hide in a jade room of a beautiful mansion,

As I could not bear the cold of high altitudes.

So I rise and dance and play in your pure beams,

this human world — how can it compare with yours?



Circling red chambers,

low in the curtained door,

you shine on the sleepless.

Surely you bear us no ill will —

why then must you be so round at times when we humans are parted!



People have their grieves and joys, their togetherness and separation,

The moon has its dark and clear times, its waxings and wanings.

Situations are never ideal since long ago.

I only hope we two may have long long lives,

So that we may share the moon's beauty even though we are a thousand miles apart.

Notes on the Poem

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Tunes of the poem

In 1983, Liang Hong Zhi composed this poem into an officially produced song entitled "Wishing We Last Forever" by Teresa Teng in one of her albums ''Light Exquisite Feeling'' , filled with other poems from dynasties of and . In later years, singers like Faye Wong, Jacky Cheung and China Flowers covered this song in albums and concerts.