Perfect performance! Everything is beautiful. The music, the words, and the singing, everything! This song is one of the most popular songs in China.

The singer is Jane Zhang (ZHANG Liangying), one of the most popular Chinese pop singers. She rose to prominence after her third-place performance in the 2005 season of the Super Girl contest, a national all-female singing competition in China. Her magnificent high-pitch voice is called "Dolphin's Voice" (海豚音) in China. One might want to compare her performance with Vitas' Opera 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjO_VXHxsRw&feature=re...

The music is written by Kitaro (Masanori Takahashi), a Grammy award-winning Japanese musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

The words are written by WANG Chaoge, a well-known female Chinese director. The lyrics of this song is a very beautiful Chinese poem. It is hard to believe that WANG Chaoge is not a full-time poet. Her poem tells a touching story. I nearly burst into tears when I translated it to English. I have already done all my best to keep the beauty of this poem but my translation still cannot expose 100% of the beauty of this poem.

After reading the whole poem, we need to use our imagination to get the whole story of the girl. Basically she met her love on the West Lake. Unfortunately, they were separated (maybe by war or other unexpected things) shortly after their marriage. The girl was waiting for her husband on the West Lake but he did not come back till she died. After she died, her soul was still lingering on the West Lake for 1000 years, waiting for her love back...

A key feature of Chinese poems is "describing emotions via describing scenes" (寓情于景). Rain in this poem does not refer to the real rain, but refer to the girl's tears. When you read "wetting one thousand years", you will know that "rain" actually refers to "tears".

Jane Zhang:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Zhang
Kitaro:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kitaro
WANG Chaoge (in Chinese)
http://baike.baidu.com/view/1303328.htm
Buy Kitaro's CD: Impressions of the West Lake
http://www.amazon.com/Impressions-West-Lake-Kitaro/dp/B00...
http://www.domo.com/kitaro/index.html
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To read English or Pinyin subtitles, click the triangle icon on the right bottom, click "CC" (or "__") until it turns red, click the arrow icon besides "CC", choose English or Chinese.
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[Chinese Romantic Songs English & Pinyin Lyrics] Jane Zhang - Impressions of the West Lake
English Lyrics (translation provided by zhouzhzh 英文歌词)
Rain is dripping; foggy is the lake.
Broken bridge, silk umbrella; aged is my missing.
Who is on the boat, writting my past?
The marriage oath, buried in our parting.

Raining...I standing on the lake side.
Raining...I watching the north bank from afar.

Rain is dripping; foggy is the lake.
Broken bridge, silk umbrella; aged is my missing.
Who is on the boat, writting my past?
The butterfly couple, destined to be parting.

Never stop are my farewells.
Again and again, on the West Lake.

White wings, flying with the flowing time.
A long sigh...echoing in the heaven.
Rain still falling, wetting one thousand years.
Connecting sky is the lake; faded is our meeting.
Who is on the boat, writing my past?
A story about love, a story about landscape...

Chinese Lyrics
《印象西湖雨》歌词
作词：王潮歌，作曲：喜多郎，演唱：张靓颖

雨还在下，落满一湖烟
断桥绢伞，黑白了思念
谁在船上，写我的从前
一笔誓言，满纸离散

雨～～～ 站在湖边
雨～～～ 遥望北岸

雨还在下，落满一湖烟
断桥绢伞，黑白了思念
谁在船上，写我的从前
一笔蝴蝶，满纸离散

我的告别，从没有间断
西子湖上，一遍一遍

白色翅膀，分飞了流年
长叹一声，天上人间
雨还在下，淋湿千年
湖水连天，黑白了相见
谁在船上，写我从前
一说人间，再说江山 (less info)