一生所愛 The love of a lifetime

一生所愛 The Love of a Lifetime by 盧冠廷 莫文蔚:

一生所愛

從前現在過去再不來
紅紅落葉長埋塵土內
開始終結總是沒變改
天邊的你飄泊白雲外

苦海翻起愛浪
在世間難逃避命運
相親竟不可接近
或我應該相信是緣份

情人別後永遠再不來（消散的情緣〕
無言獨坐放眼塵世外〔願來日再聚〕
鮮花雖會凋謝〔只願〕
但會再開〔為你〕
一生所愛隱約〔守候〕
在白雲外（期待〕

苦海翻起愛浪
在世間難逃避命運
相親竟不可接近
或我應該相信是緣份

苦海翻起愛浪
在世間難逃避命運
相親竟不可接近
或我應該相信是緣份

The Love of a Lifetime

The Past-Present what came before, never to come again
Crimson fallen leaves long buried within the dust and earth
The Beginning Ending, always remaining unchanged
You are at the edge of the sky, floating beyond the white clouds

The Ocean of Suffering foments with waves of Love
In this world impossible to escape Fate
Entwined with love and tenderness, yet unable to embrace and hold each other close
Perhaps I ought to believe this is Destiny

The lover, upon farewell, never to return (a love and destiny that fades away)
Wordless, sitting alone, gazing beyond this dusty-sentient world (may we reunite in our next lives)
Fresh flowers may wither (wishing only)
But they shall bloom again (for you)
The love of a lifetime remains veiled (awaiting)
Beyond the white clouds (in expectation)

The Ocean of Suffering foments with waves of Love
In this world impossible to escape Fate
Entwined with love and tenderness, yet unable to embrace and hold each other close
Perhaps I ought to believe this is Destiny

The Ocean of Suffering foments with waves of Love
In this world impossible to escape Fate
Entwined with love and tenderness, yet unable to embrace and hold each other close
Perhaps I ought to believe this is Destiny

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（消散的情緣〕
（願來日再聚〕
（只願〕
〔為你〕
〔守候〕
（期待〕
(a love and destiny that fades away)
(may we reunite in our next lives)
(wishing only)
(for you)
(awaiting)
(in expectation)
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The most heart-breaking and plaintive movie theme song in HK film, from the epic two-part movies, A Chinese Odyssey I and II.

For those who dissed the two movies as just another of Stephen Chow’s madcap 無厘頭 Mo lei tau nonsensical comedies, as I did at that time in my youth, watch it again. Then again.
Stephen Chow may well be the greatest mad genius of them all.

For many, we watched A Chinese Odyssey I and II in our youth and laughed at them as comedies. Then, we grew up and discovered Love for ourselves and watched A Chinese Odyssey again, crying rivers of tears down our faces, and realized its a romantic tragedy. After more years have passed and through numerous hurts received and countless more dished out, and when the rose-tinted glasses have finally been lifted from our eyes, we watched it once more and this time, stoically see that it is all about Life.

Perhaps one day, the scales of this 苦海 suffering sentient world shall fall from our eyes and we can see what it truly is about – 苦谛 Dukkha Suffering.
The movies are like the 真经 True Scriptures themselves which Sun Wukong was travelling to the ends of the world to obtain in the first place.
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What faces did we used to wear in our past lives, or even within this present one? A lackadaisical but happy go lucky 至尊宝 Joker and/or a 盖世英雄 peerless warrior hero 孙悟空 Sun Wukong (Monkey King)?
Who are the 紫霞仙子 Zixia Immortal, 白晶晶 Bai Jing Jing, 春三十娘 Thirty Taels of Spring Blossom Lady, of my life?
Just what mark had she left in my heart?
Even if I have the 月光寶盒 Moon Ray Magic Box and could cross on the moon rays and travel back in time, what can I change? What would I change anyway?
I want to ride on my 七彩云 Seven-Coloured Rainbow Cloud and descend upon the scene like a 盖世英雄 peerless hero and sweep her off her feet and carry her away in my arms on the wind…
But, she is gone and I have already shackled and placed the 金箍圈 Gold Ring around my head.
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The creator/editor of the music video above, perhaps taking a leaf out of the movies’ themes of the Samsara Cycle and time travel, stitched together different scenes from the two movies overlaid onto the theme song repeated 3 times; giving rise to the beguiling questions: Just who met who first and where and most importantly, when and in what reincarnation? Did a fearless swashbuckling Sun Wukong@Joker meet Bai Jingjing first before Zixia, here in the present or back 500 years ago? Or did a time-travelling Joker@Sun Wukong meet Zixia first 500 years ago in front of 水濂洞 Waterfall Cave, before it was renamed 盘丝洞 Spider Web Cave?

And the curse and burden Sun Wukong has to bear, is that having been reincarnated from Sun Wukong to Joker, loved and lost Bai Jingjing, went back in time again and again in vain to save her, then went back in time 500 years to find a way to save and meet her, only to meet Zixia in front of 水濂洞 Waterfall Cave and receive the branding from her marking him as her man (truly!), have Zixia like a 飞蛾扑火-moth drawn to flame and fall in love with him, to meet and be reunited with the younger Bai Jingjing, and only at the point of his death and having his chest slashed open and his still-beating heart reveal that his one true love who left her tear and mark in his heart is actually Zixia, to be reincarnated back into Sun Wukong again and this time willingly lay down the fetters and emotional ties of the sentient world and place the Gold Ring around his head, to face Zixia no longer as the effusive Joker but as the Immortal Monkey King/Sun Wukong who has cut off all ties with the red-dusty world, deny her and her love again and again, then unable to save her and to watch her die, wanting to hold onto her but grasping her tighter makes the Gold Ring clench tighter still around his head, until he cannot help but let her go…

And at that point of utmost agony and pain, he screams – not just the cries of an immortal or man or monkey, but the plaintive ghoulish howls and shrieks of a million sentient beings and souls in the kalpa-aeons, past present and future: what every sentient being has been suffering in this sentient world/苦海 since aeons past.

But a little reprieve at the end. The Heavens take pity on Sun Wukong/Joker: gifting him with the images/mirages/silhouettes in the setting sun of Joker and Zixia standing atop the town gate. Under the guise of this pantomime, what he couldn’t say to Zixia before he can now declare boldly: I love you soooo much and shall never leave you. Once he had rejected and pushed her away, now he shall embrace her and kiss her and hold her close…if only for this moment.

And the biggest curse and burden Sun Wukong has to bear at the end, is that having gone through multiple reincarnations and loved and lost across different times and lives, he is forced to have to remember everything.

That is the most painful agony and burden of all.