The Monkey King grips his staff and rages at the heavens: why imprison all living beings?
Yang Jian grips his axe, standing alone on the riverbank as he silently asks the Heavenly Dao: why leave no room for tenderness?
Born with a celestial eye, he can see through every disguise in the Three Realms,
yet he cannot unravel the fate that binds him.
A blaze at Taoshan forged a lifetime of regret;
a thousand years sitting alone at Guanjiang left him with nothing but solitude.
Everyone accuses him of coldness, compromise and aiding evil.
No one sees him shouldering their endless condemnation alone in the depths of darkness.
One way to defy fate is to smash the cage for all the world to see.
Another is to remain inside it, searching alone.
Eternal life through the ages, glory bestowed upon him.
He commands the clouds and waters of a river, and wields the divine axe that cleaves mountains.
Yet this vast universe has never had room for a free Yang Jian.
