A musician played and sang Jiang Kui's An Xiang for me, it was the first time
that I had listened to that song being played on a guitar. I almost shed a tear.
I think Jiang Kui would have been surprised and delighted that an Italian
musician, nearly a thousand years after his time, played this timeless melody.
Some things can only be understood firsthand. When I was young, I heard someone
playing the slower melody of “Lament in the Pavilion” and I liked it very much,
so I enrolled in a guqin class, but it was too far away. At that time in my life,
I was stressed so I had to give it up. I often move from place to place. Perhaps
only people who move frequently can understand the traveling in Jiang Kui's mid
and later life. “But now your poet is getting old, And he has forgotten the love
and lyrics; Yet, he still resents the few flowers beyond the bamboo, for their
chilling fragrance has crept into his chamber.”