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This is a Sokyoku piece in the Uta mono style from the Yamada Ryű school . This piece was composed for koto by Yamada Kengyo .

History (from Tsuge Gen'ichi)
'Chokonka no kyoku' (or Chogonka) is one of Yamada Kengyo's 'Four Greatest Works.' The song-text is a free translation of Ch'ang hen ko ('The Song of Everlasting Sorrow') by Po Chu-I (772-846), a Chinese poet, which deals with the tragedy of the Emperor Hsuan Tsung and Yang Kuei-fei, his favorite court lady during the T'ang dynasty of China. In his grief over the death of Yang Kuei-fei, who was murdered during An Lu-shan's uprising, the emperor sends a sorcerer in search of the whereabouts of the departed soul of his mistress. The sorcerer finally meets her soul on the island of eternity. She tells the long story of her regret and everlasting love for the emperor.

Poem (translated by Tsuge Gen'ichi)
Long ago,
In T'ang China,
There lived an emperor
Who treasured
Beautiful women.
The daughter of the Yang family
Had the honor to be summoned
By his majesty.
And to become the object
Of his deepest affections.
Day and night-
She attended him,
Always
At his side.

In the palace
Were three thousand
Graceful maidens,
But the imperial favor
Was concentrated
On one flower of spring.

Soon the blossom faded-
A sorcerer was sent
By the emperor
To search for her departed soul.
Poling a boat
Sleeping each night
He journeyed to
A far-off island,
In the land of eternity
The sorcerer found
A soaring palace
Glittering
In five-hued clouds.
Inside, alluring
Fairy-maidens dwell.
Most beautiful of all
Is Yang Kuei-fei -
Her snowy skin
And flower-face
Like a branch of pear blossoms
Drenched with spring rain.
When she saw the sorcerer
Her words and tears
Overflowed
With sweet memories
Of the past,
And washed the balustrades.

'I recall
The past in Li Shan.

Ah, how happy I am -
Someone from the capital!
Though embarrassed,
I recall lovers' talk
Of a bygone night.
I want to lament
For our vows of love -
Vanished like the dew.
If I may regret -
How blindly
You love me,
Like a deep inlet.
But I resent the little time we had
Like the thin ice of spring.
At night, when
We long for each other,
Cherish the heart of she
That trusts you,
Who, waking from sleep
Does not smooth over
Her disheveled hair.
My feelings are
As deep-dyed
As the crow's wings.
Fate unraveled
The deep-dyed threads
Of our lover's vow -
In vain
I returned
To this Island of Immortality.
I grow melancholy
When I recall the past,
Still longed-for,
Recall dancing to
Rainbow Skirt and
Feather Jacket.

'Unique! Turning her sleeves,
The dancing-girl!
Unique! Turning her sleeves,
The dancing-girl!'

Did he know the heart
Of the one who turned
Her sleeves? Anyway,
I cannot see the emperor
In the mortal world -
I am a bird
On the Island of Eternity.
Bitter world though it was,
How I long for the past!
This is the story
Of the past I long for!'
In telling the old story,
Months and days pass by.
At last she entrusts
Her ornamental hairpin
To the sorcerer
As a token of everlasting love
For the emperor.
A better keepsake
Than a letter.
The sorcerer returns
To the capital
At midnight of the
Seventh Day of the Seventh Month,
The vow to share a wing in the sky
And a branch on earth, has
Now become an empty dream.

Though the heavens
Be eternal,
Though the earth
Grows old,
Will it ever end -
This never ending grief?
Ceaselessly,
Endlessly,
The story of her lament
Remains to this day.

Chogonka no Kyoku appears on the following albums:

Album	Shakuhachi	Koto	Shamisen
Sokyoku Jiuta Taikei 47  (Listen)		Suzuki Seiju
Yamada Kengyo o Utao Disk 2  (Listen)