Seven Lifetimes of Love: Which Will Be the Last?

Is there any time left to look back and see me one more time?

I can't tell whether the clouds on the horizon are red, or the flames you have kindled.

Which life will be the end? I have awakened, yet cannot say goodbye.

Is there any time left for these burning years to turn into longing?

Is it a worldly bond or a nightmare, the ashes of a trial or the smoke from your fire?

Which thought can endure forever? Is it nirvana, or an eternal yearning?

Transformed into starlight in the Western Heaven, is that the end of your cycle of rebirth?

From annihilation to eternity, how much time has passed in the turning hourglass?

By the River of Three Crossings, you gaze at the face I will have in my next life.

I planted mandrake flowers, letting memories of a past life take root.

How many farewells must it take to kindle the fire in the paulownia branches?

How many five-hundred-year lifetimes have I walked through this mortal world?

When the mandrake flowers bloom, who can still remember the past?

Who answered whose calamity, and who became whose obsession?

"Phoenix's Tribulation"

A love story spanning seven supposed lifetimes. In truth, the stories aren't very connected to one another; they're simply dressed in the trappings of past and present lives.

From the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China and modern times: seven short stories, seven brief romances.