A musician played and sang Jiang Kui’s “First Song of the Middle Prelude of Rainbow Skirt” for me yesterday. It was the first time I had heard that song played on the guitar, and I found it unbearably sad. I think Jiang Kui would have been both surprised and delighted that a musician, nearly a thousand years after his time, was still playing his timeless melody. Even though the musician doesn’t understand it because of cultural differences—just as I don’t fully understand Western poetry—he was still moved by its beauty. “I think back to my youth wandering, Mountains and passes to the sound of the flute, The entertainment house under the willows.” When I was young, I once heard someone playing Jiang Kui’s melody. Perhaps only those who move frequently can truly understand his wandering life and the frustrations he lamented in his later years. Tomorrow, I have to move again because my landlord wants to remodel. Tonight is my last night here. I wonder how many more last nights I will have to endure.