素箋無寄 · The White Letter Paper With Nowhere to Send

An original 古風 song for day seventeen — late autumn, a solitary lamp burning low beside a stack of white letter paper. A woman has written, re-written, and again written the same words to the one who departed; but there is no messenger, no road, no way for the letter to reach him. The dizi opens alone — its voice plaintive as a question with no answer. Finally she folds the last sheet and touches it to the flame. The words rise as ash into the night air, and she watches them scatter toward the far horizon, thinking: perhaps this is the only way a letter can travel when every road is closed.

Lead instrument: dizi 竹笛 (first time for the love & separation theme). Erhu enters in the second verse with trembling sorrow; guqin holds sparse undertones throughout; a light frame drum marks quiet time. Pentatonic scale, ~65 bpm. Literary Chinese lyrics.

[引子] 素箋一疊置燈旁 墨痕未乾已成霜

[主歌一] 西風吹入竹簾裏 寒氣沁透紙上行 提筆數度復掩下 此心難付尋常字 君行萬里無音訊 山川阻隔路難尋

[主歌二] 舊日情懷猶如昨 紅葉題詩誰與傳 寒鴻過盡雁行斷 千言萬語付東流 欲遣驛使無蹤跡 欲托江風江不語

[副歌] 素箋無寄 字字成灰 一燈搖曳映空階 此情此意 無路可達 只化輕煙散天涯

[橋段] 展紙凝眸憶往昔 別後光陰似流水 深秋夜雨打窗紗 孤燈殘焰伴相思

[副歌] 素箋無寄 字字成灰 一燈搖曳映空階 此情此意 無路可達 只化輕煙散天涯

[尾聲] 素箋付火成輕灰 字字飄零入夜台 願君他日夢中見 此心早已渡山來