Welcoming You on Fort Canning Hill Peh Chon Seang welcoming you on Fort Canning Hill with a season of infatuation, a time of love like you, anticipating the advent of the world, from the depths of ancient times arrving arriving slow leisurely steps of a beauty elegant lights, you come welcoming you on Fort Canning Hill from the ancient times into the modern you come to fulfil the classics of another autumn a classical love classical love is a flower’s silhouette Heng’e flying to the moon, Diao Chan paying respects to the moon yet, there is yet Ying Ying waiting for the moon unclear, it is a meeting is hope, or is it parting? the moon, oh the moon, shining then and now loving, then and now
the moon is the Tang Dynasty moon it is the Song Dynasty moon, it is my moon moon, oh moon, you are here the romance of poetry, the heroism of verse you are here, with a touch of ancient glory but I don’t know, who is Su Dongpo? who is Li Bai? moon, oh moon, of the wilderness beyond it is the moon of mountain forts, the moon of garrisons you have been shining on the faces of the frontier forces the bleakness of the ancient battlefield is a cold memory now, the flames of war remain, the battlefields linger Vietnam, Afghanistan, Cambodia moon, oh moon, the tragedy of the scene is still unfolding moon, oh moon, you are the observer of the cruel shot
you know that the battlefield is different, the blood the blood is the same red a beast that tribes fought over shelling of aircraft, battleships, tanks the moon is the testimony of history, it is blood the testimony of blood the testimony of blood drains even the palest of its last colours the ancient sands are like the excess of blood you have lost your blood, mixed mixed with tears of the garrison, tears the tears of homesickness, the tears of blood relations the tears of a lover, a gathering of feats like a sea of clouds in the sea of clouds, where is the hero of the ages? where is the emperor? but let me sip a cup facing the moonlight unimpeded our eternal debt our debt of sorrow
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