A man gave a headscarf
To the woman he was in love with
Oh, how fortunate this woman was
Because she could at last get married
With the man whom she truly loved
And her heart would be filled with feelings of affection
From morning till night
As time passed, day by day
The woman would be lost in fond memories
At the mere sight of the headscarf
A man gave a headscarf
To the woman he was in love with.
But the parents of this girl
Wanted her to marry another man
Whom she had never met
From that time on, she shed tears too many to count
And had nightmares too terrifying to depict
So she used the scarf to wipe away the dust of her dreams
And that was the only thing she could do
A man gave a headscarf
To the woman he was in love with
Perhaps because of the wind
Perhaps because of the rain
And perhaps because of a major flooding in the mountain
They heard of each other no more
After many a year
The woman suddenly ran into the man
At an intersection of roads leading to the marketplace
They stood face to face in utter silence
Because neither of them wanted to mention the past
And each of them hand in hand with their child
A man gave a headscarf
To the woman he was in love with
Perhaps because of a thunder in the distance
Perhaps because of a cold wave early in summer
The woman left her village with a man from another village
And she thought she could return as early as a midsummer evening
But it was in the morning of the winter when she did return
Thenceforth every night when the moon rose in the sky
She would secretly count the beautiful patterns on the scarf
And that was the only thing she could do
A man gave a headscarf
To the woman he was in love with
But for the sake of an everlasting pledge of waiting
The heaven said let there be betrayal
And the earth said let there be betrayal
But actually there were two seashores
Gazing at each other
Although ships had come and gone
The shores kept murmuring when awake
And the shores kept whispering when asleep
Until at last the woman died one day
And the people at her funeral
Picked out the scarf
From among her prized personal possessions
But none of them took any interest in it
And none of them knew anything of its story
So they just covered the pale face of the dead woman
With her prized scarf
And set fire to her twisted body
Burning everything into ashes in the mountain wilderness
