いく里も続く　蓮の花に　 君は眠る
君はその夢から醒めぬがいい
醒めれば 　天上を穿つ　鏡の様な月に
多くの枯れた蓮池が　映るのを見るのだから

私は　空にそびえる楼閣に　君を待ちながら
静かな月の夜は　一人琵琶を弾こう

細い柄に張られた　三条の絹糸が　円体の胴を震わせ
流れ出る音霊は　深い夜を通り抜け　山河を渡り

千年の時を隔てた君に届く

君は或る夜　目を醒まし　天上に横たわるオリオンを見つけたら
両の手で　小さな池に凍り付いた　月を掬え

月は溶けながら　幽かな音をたてる
もし君がその音に　千年の風を感ずることが出来れば
私は又君と会うことが出来る

時を隔て　国を隔てても　人の想いは変わらない
嘗て私も　遥か古の人の思いに触れていた
今君が見ている夢は　遠い昔私も見ていた

連綿と続く人の営みの中で
私が音楽に捧げていた様に　君も又捧げ得るものを見つけ
その想いや祈りを　遥か未来に伝えよ

今日　空を見上げれば
月は天上に輝き　此岸の空に　銀河は流れて　西に傾く
そして又、明日　空を見上げれば
星は天上に瞬き　彼岸の空は　彼方に霞みて　まだ見えず

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A Thousand-Year Dream

You sleep among lotus blossoms
stretching for miles upon miles.

May you never awaken from that dream.

For if you do,
you will see upon the mirror-like moon
that pierces the heavens
the reflection of many withered lotus ponds.

While I wait for you
in a lofty pavilion rising into the sky,
on quiet nights beneath the moon
I shall play the pipa alone.

Three silken strings,
stretched along its slender neck,
set the rounded body trembling.

The spirits of sound
rise from it,
pass through the deep night,
crossing mountains and rivers,

until they reach you
across a thousand years.

One night, when you awaken
and find Orion lying across the heavens,

reach down with both hands
and scoop up the moon
frozen upon the surface of a little pond.

As the moon melts,
it makes the faintest sound.

If you can feel within that sound
the wind of a thousand years,

then I shall be able
to meet you once again.

Though ages divide us,
though countries lie between us,
the human heart does not change.

Once, I too
touched the feelings
of one who lived in the distant past.

The dream you are living now
was once mine,
long ago.

Amid the unbroken passage
of human lives,

as I once devoted myself to music,
find something
to which you, too, can devote yourself,

and carry your thoughts,
your prayers,
far into the future.

Today, when I look up at the sky,
the moon shines in the heavens,
and the Milky Way flows
across the sky of this shore,
tilting westward.

And tomorrow, when I look up again,
the stars will glitter in the heavens,

the sky of the farther shore
veiled in the distance,

still unseen.