Look. On my plate
is a blue garden
It happened in China
a long time ago.

There on a bridge
the soldiers are running
to capture the princess,
the Emperor’s daughter.

She left with the young man
she wanted to marry.
They fled to an island
that lay on a lake.

The Emperor was angry.
He ordered his soldiers
to capture the princess
and kill the young man.

But the man and the princess
were turned into bluebirds.
They flew from the island
and never returned.

The Emperor, in sadness,
turned into a willow.
And always he droops
as he weeps in his sorrow.

He weeps on my plate
in a blue garden.
It happened in China
a long time ago.