I.    Lyrics (translated from Chinese)

Every night, stars come and draw water on my roof tiles.
I lie face up in a well. The well is so deep.
Ever since I have a skylight, it’s just like I uncovered the snow myself…
I am the must come Spring in the north. Stars are all beautiful.
They share the circulating seven nights. And what about the little blue star in the south? Water that comes from the spring of Spring has been hanging around the walls.
The clinking pottery vase is not yet hanging down.
Ah, the stars are all beautiful.
And the thing I want to see in the dream, has only one name.
That name is, as free as the flowing water.

Lyrics written by Cheng Chou-Yu (鄭愁予)

每夜 星子們都來我的屋瓦上汲水
我在井底仰臥著，好深的井啊。
自從有了天窗 就像親手揭開覆身的冰雪 －－
我是北地忍不住的春天 星子們都美麗，
分佔了循環著的七個夜，而那南方的藍色的小星呢 源自春泉的水已在四壁閒蕩著
那叮噹有聲的陶瓶還未垂下來
啊 星子們都美麗
而在夢中也想看的，祇有一個名字。
那名字，自在的如流水……

Audio
Li Tai-Hsiang (李泰祥)

II.    About this Song

Exposition of the music:
The song, “Skylight,” was composed from Cheng Chou-Yu’s poem. It imagines a man’s mood while looking up at the stars through a skylight and the beautiful thoughts are arisen from seeing different distributions of the stars in different seasons. Meanwhile, the poem was also Teacher Li Tai-Hsiang’s mood, so he started to compose the song. Composing with Chinese tonality, the song shows beautiful and tender ambiance.

III.    Manuscript

Handwritten manuscript of “Sky Window (Skylight) in G major” (1983)	Handwritten manuscript of “Sky Window (Skylight) in E minor” for viola (1983)

      

To view the story of Li Tai-Hsiang, please go to Li Tai-Hsiang, the Native Musician of Taiwan.
Text and images are provided by The Native Musician of Taiwan－Tai-Hsiang Li Digital Archive, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan