Mid-Autumn Trilogy - Part 3 - Wishing We Last Forever - Teresa Teng

Mid-Autumn Trilogy, Part 3 | "Wishing We Last Forever" For the final piece, I want to dedicate it to Teresa Teng's "Wishing We Last Forever." Su Shi's "Shui Diao Ge Tou" is about the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also about longing for his distant brother. Liang Hongzhi set this poem to music, and Teresa Teng included it in "A Touch of Sentiment," arranged by Hsiao Wei-chen. This album itself is her representative work of setting Song Dynasty poetry to song. In the first two pieces, we listened to how instruments depicted the autumn scenery. Here, the scenery recedes into the background. The prelude is not boisterous, allowing Teresa Teng's voice to naturally stand at the forefront. Her voice doesn't deliberately emphasize the "longing"; instead, with a very light breath and delicate vocal transitions, she brings out the emotions in the lyrics layer by layer. "When will the bright moon appear?" isn't a question, but rather a soft, low murmur. Singing "I wish to ride the wind and return," her voice expands slightly upwards, as if the mythical Guanghan Palace is truly pushed before our eyes; upon reaching "How can it be like the human world," she pulls back. This "return" is crucial. Because Su Shi's ultimate choice wasn't to flee to the moon palace, but to remain in the human world. Thus, when it comes to "There should be no resentment, why does the moon wax and wane when people part?" the moon is no longer just scenery, but becomes the distance between people. In the final line, "Wishing we last forever, sharing the moon's beauty across a thousand miles," Teresa Teng doesn't sing it as a sorrowful farewell, but as a wish. If people cannot be together, at least they can share the sight of the moon. This is perhaps the best blessing for the Mid-Autumn Festival: May those we miss be safe and live long, and though separated by a thousand miles, may we still share this moonlight.