Long-Form Ancient Poem Painting

Create a painting based on the following classical poem, accompanied by the original text:

The beauty-loving monarch longed year after year
To find a beautiful lady without a peer.
A maiden of the Yangs to womanhood just grown,
In inner chambers bred, to the world was unknown.
Endowed with natural beauty too hard to hide,
One day she stood selected for the monarch's side.
Turning her head, she smiled so sweet and full of grace
That she outshone in six palaces the fairest face.

She bathed in glassy water of warm-fountain pool,
Which warmed and smoothed the creamy surface of her skin.
When, helped by attendants, she rose and left the cool,
She looked so frail and lovely, ready to begin
To reign supreme the mistress of her monarch's heart.
Her cloudlike hair, her flowerlike face and tinkling tread
Amid the spring delights the nights were sped too soon.
The monarch would no longer hold morning court in view.

She shared his pleasure, went with him wherever he went.
She never left his side from spring to summer day.
In inner palace reigned three thousand ladies fair;
On her alone was lavished royal love and care.
Her beauty served the night when dressed in Golden Bower;
She was drunk with wine and spring at banquet in Jade Tower.
All her sisters and brothers received rank and fief
And honors showered on her household, to the grief
Of the fathers and mothers who'd rather give birth
To a fair maiden than any son on earth.

The lofty palace towered high into blue cloud,
With divine music borne on the breeze the air was loud.
Seeing slow dance and hearing fluted or stringed song,
The emperor was never tired the whole day long.
But rebels beat their war drums, making the earth quake
And "Song of Rainbow Skirt and Coat of Feathers" break.
A cloud of dust was raised o'er city walls nine-fold;
Thousands of chariots and horsemen southwestward rolled.
Imperial flags moved slowly now and halted then,
And thirty miles from Western Gate they stopped again.
Six armies would not march--what could be done?--with speed
Until the Lady Yang was killed before the steed.
None would pick up her hairpin fallen to the ground
Nor golden bird nor comb with which her head was crowned.
The monarch could not save her and hid his face in fear;
Turning his head, he saw her blood mix with his tear.

The yellow dust widespread, the wind blew desolate;
A serpentine plank path led to cloud-capped Sword Gate.
Below the Eyebrow Mountains wayfarers were few;
In fading sunlight royal standards lost their hue.
On Western waters blue and Western mountains green
The monarch's heart was daily gnawed by sorrow keen.
The moon viewed from his tent shed a soul-searing light;
The bells heard in night rain made a heart-rending sound.
Suddenly turned the tide. Returning from his flight,
The monarch could not tear himself away from the ground
Where mid the clods beneath the Slope he couldn't forget
The fair-faced Lady Yang, who was unfairly slain.
He looked at his courtiers, with tears his robe was wet;
They rode east to the capital, but with loose rein.

Back, he found her pond and garden in the old place,
With lotus in the lake and willows by the hall.
Willow leaves like her brows and lotus like her face;
At the sight of all these, how could his tears not fall
Or bloom in vernal breeze or moonlit night in spring
Alone in his palace the monarch did nothing.
In southern palace summer grass o'ergrew the ground;
Unswept steps were littered with red leaves in autumn.
The artists' hair became white like new snow in their hands.
In Pepper Chamber eunuchs and maids looked old.
Fireflies flitting the hall, missing her, he felt sad;
The lonely lamp-wick burned out, still he could not sleep.
Slowly beat drums and rang bells; night began to grow long;
Bright shone the Milky Way; daybreak seemed to come late.
The lovebird tiles grew chilly with hoar frost so strong;
His kingfisher quilt was cold, not shared by a mate.
One long, long year the dead and the living were parted;
Her soul never came back to visit the brokenhearted.

A Taoist sorcerer came to the palace door,
Skilled to summon the spirit from the other shore.
Moved by the monarch's yearning for the departed fair,
He was ordered to seek for her everywhere.
Borne on the air, like flash of lightning he flew;
In heaven and on earth he searched through and through.
Up to the azure vault and down to deepest place,
Nor above nor below could he e'er find her trace.
He learned that on the sea there were immortals' hills
That were lost to sight in the vague and misty sea.
Pavilions of rainbow tints where cloudlets disperse
Were full of lovely sprites as fair as one could wish.
One of them was named Taizhen, with snowy skin
And flowerlike face, which reminded him of his queen.

He knocked at the jade door of the west hall to ask
A fair maid, Xiaoyu, to tell another, Shuangcheng.
On hearing the monarch's envoy, she was startle.
Moving her pillow, she rose from her bed in haste.
Pushing aside the screen and opening the shade,
Her cloudlike hair awry, not full awake,
Without arranging her flowery headdress,
She came into the hall, her incense fragrance borne.
Her jade-like face so sad with tears in pearly strings,
Like a spray of pear blossoms in spring rain again.
Controlling her emotion and looking away,
She thanked the monarch for his kindness after her death.
Her voice and smile could no more be heard and seen
Since she left his favor, life was cut in twain.
In the Fairy Queen's House the days and nights were long;
Turning her head and looking down on the world below,
She could not see the capital but mist and cloud.
To show her love was deep, she took out keepsakes old
And asked the messenger to take them to her lord.
One was a hairpin, the other a comb case of gold.
"I'll keep one wing of the hairpin and one leaf of the case;
Breaking the gold in two, each keeps one half as token.
As long as our love lasts like gold and jewelry,
We may meet again in heaven or on the earth."
Before they parted, she entrusted him with these words,
Which only she and the monarch knew in their hearts.
"On seventh day of seventh moon we met last year
In silent Hall of Life Long lasting we swore
That in heaven we would fly like birds side by side,
And on earth grow like trees with branches twined together."
The boundless sky and endless earth may pass away,
But this vow unfulfilled will be regretted for aye.