Lost in the Play

A gong and drum sound, and half a lifetime is lost in a dream. The performer on stage hasn't woken, but the audience is already engrossed. Shadows of lamps thinner than old window panes, the moon hangs low, illuminating an empty courtyard. I borrow a passage from someone else's story, singing my own old name. The wind whispers past the curtain, growing fainter; you outside the dream don't respond. I mistook the lingering affection in my unfinished glance for an echo in the rest of my life. 'Love' is too hard to write, half tenderness, half coldness. Knowing I shouldn't look back, I gently hold onto the old dream. I'm lost in the play~ taking illusion as my homecoming, Hearing your silence as an unfinished foreshadowing. I'm lost in the play~ hiding my longing in an old tune, Though the wind outside the curtain has quieted, I'm still trapped in the rain before the stage. Rouge fades on an old bronze mirror, sleeves drape past the cold Orchid Pavilion. I fold a silent farewell into the yellowed pages of an old play. Gatherings and partings in the human world are baseless, yet I deeply believe you were once here. You traded a casually written word of 'love' for my lifetime of repeated listening. 'Fate' is written too lightly, half meeting, half scattering. Knowing the lights are out and you're long gone, I still gently cherish the lingering warmth. I'm lost in the play~ taking illusion as my homecoming, Hearing your silence as an unfinished foreshadowing. I'm lost in the play~ hiding my longing in an old tune, Though the wind outside the curtain has quieted, I'm still trapped in the rain before the stage. (Chanting) If life is just a play, (Chanting) Who can distinguish dream from wakefulness? (Chanting) Was my recitation too earnest? (Singing) Or did you never truly enter the scene? One bow before the stage, one sigh behind it. Love etched into the bones, no one returns^. I'm lost in the play~ taking half my life as my homecoming, Singing that encounter as a tale no one dares to mention again. I'm lost in the play~ sealing my true heart in an old tune.