le pavillon aux pivoines - Maison des Cultures du Monde
le pavillon aux pivoines - Maison des Cultures du Monde
le pavillon aux pivoines - Maison des Cultures du Monde
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Judge Hu: With ever-open eyes, majestic<br />
beard and black gauze cap, I survey the<br />
underworld. Guarding the pass between<br />
life and death is no light responsibility.<br />
Demon guard: Your Honour, that wisp of<br />
smoke drifting over there must be a lonely<br />
shade wandering about.<br />
Judge Hu: In this realm of purity and peace,<br />
how can we allow lonely sha<strong>des</strong> to wander<br />
about? Demon guards, go and arrest it.<br />
Demon guard: Yes, sir.<br />
Judge Hu: Young woman, what is your name<br />
and what is the reason for your death? You<br />
must tell me the truth.<br />
Tu Li-niang: Your Honour, my name is Tu Liniang.<br />
In the garden behind Nan-an prefectural<br />
residence I dreamed an encounter<br />
with a scholar. He was affectionate and<br />
gent<strong>le</strong> and we loved each other dearly.<br />
After waking from my dream, my yearning<br />
grew so agonising that it put paid to my<br />
life.<br />
Judge Hu: Nonsense! Nonsense! Whoever<br />
heard of a mortal dying on account of a<br />
dream?<br />
Demon guard: Young woman, deceiving the<br />
judge is a terrib<strong>le</strong> crime.<br />
Judge Hu: Demon guards, take her off to the<br />
Act 3: Judgement of the Soul<br />
[At night.]<br />
–34–<br />
underworld and interrogate her more closely.<br />
Tu Li-niang: Oh Your Honour, I really did<br />
dream of an encounter with a scholar. We<br />
were so much in love, but all my attempts<br />
to recapture my dream were to no avail.<br />
And so I perished of a broken heart.<br />
Judge Hu: So, honest Tu Li-niang, you are telling<br />
the truth after all. But now you are in<br />
the afterlife, divorced from the land of the<br />
living. All passions of the past must vanish<br />
at a stroke.<br />
Tu Li-niang: Oh Your Honour, earthly love<br />
en<strong>du</strong>res eternally, even heaven cannot stif<strong>le</strong><br />
our wil<strong>des</strong>t passions. My love remains<br />
true here in the afterlife, and I shall search<br />
for my beloved no matter where I must<br />
roam.<br />
Judge Hu: Such sing<strong>le</strong>-minded devotion as<br />
this is rare indeed. Let us do what we can to<br />
help her. Tu Li-niang, I will now permit<br />
your spirit to wander freely in search of the<br />
lover in your dream. If within three years<br />
he digs up your grave and opens your coffin,<br />
restoring you to life, then you may<br />
marry him. Here is a joss-stick for returning<br />
souls. Take it and go.<br />
Tu Li-niang: Thank you, Your Honour.
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