Illustration based on the poem “Song of Everlasting Regret”

Prompt

Create a painting based on the following classical poem, and include the original text. {argument name="full text of classical poem" default="The Tang Emperor, devoted to beauty, longed for a kingdom-toppling enchantress, yet for many years of ruling the realm, he could not find her. A daughter of the Yang family had just come of age, raised in the inner chambers where no one knew her. Born with such exquisite beauty, she could hardly remain hidden; one day she was chosen to stand beside the ruler. With a single glance over her shoulder and a smile, a hundred charms came to life, and the powder and rouge of the Six Palaces lost all color. In the spring chill, she was granted a bath at the Huaqing Pool; the warm spring water washed her smooth, creamy skin. Her attendants helped lift her frail, delicate body; only then had she newly received the emperor’s favor. Her cloudlike hair, flower-like face, and golden step-shaking ornaments glowed; in the hibiscus-curtained bed, she spent the warm spring night. Spring nights are bitterly short, and at sunrise he rose; from then on the ruler no longer held court early. She attended banquets and entertained him without leisure; by day she went on spring outings, by night she was devoted to him all night. Among the three thousand beauties of the inner palace, all three thousand favors were concentrated in her alone. In the golden house she was made up to serve the emperor at night; in the jade tower, after the feast ended, they were drunk on spring. Her sisters and brothers were each granted fiefs, and their household was blessed with such splendor that even parents across the world came to prize daughters more than sons. Thus, at Liji Palace high in the sky, one could hear fairy music drifting on the wind everywhere. Slowed songs and languid dances, with silk and bamboo strings intertwined, kept the emperor watching all day without ever tiring. Then war drums from Yuyang shook the earth, startling and breaking the “Feather Robe and Rainbow Skirt” dance. Smoke and dust rose over the imperial palace, and a thousand chariots and ten thousand riders set out toward the southwest. The imperial banners swayed on and on, then stopped again and again, traveling more than a hundred li west of the capital gates. The Six Armies refused to march, and there was nothing to be done; with brows curved like moths, she died before the ...