Daniel Cheng - Pianist and Instructor

This page contains pieces from a 1983 Daniel Cheng performance, passionately performed following eighteen years of persecution.

Introduction (full text-Chinese)

奇蹟，這不能不說是一個奇蹟！在無辜地遭受了長達十八年苦役的折磨之後，竟然還可以如此這般的演奏！

．．．揚子江畔，水在日夜嗚咽的流著。那望不到盡頭的蘆葦灘，那因萬千年腐朽的沉澱淤積而冒著白泡的沼澤地，那數不清的螞蝗，瘧疾，毒蠅，遍佈水中的血吸蟲；酷暑與嚴寒，饑餓與疾病，還有那奴隸般的勞役，十八載的青春，伴著血汗和淚水，被埋葬在那片黑色的窪地里，這是生命中永遠也揮之不去的夢魘．．．

曾幾何時，命運之神卻又讓他從煉獄回到了人間。觸摸著鋼琴，恍若隔世，隨著音符重新在心中跳動，枯槁僵直的手指在琴鍵上獲得溫暖而開始復甦。聽！滾滾的音流彷彿是在傾訴這人生的波濤起伏．．．

Miracle, this can only be claimed as a miracle!

After suffering through eighteen long years of labor camp

Without just cause, he still performs

With the caliber and passion of a young fiery concert pianist!

Along the Yangtze river, water relentlessly flows day and night.

Entangled reeds engulf the beach,

Covered with ageless white foam from ancient decaying deposits.

Leeches, malaria, poisonous flies fill the dark waters

Through hot summers and freezing winters.

Eighteen years of youth filled with blood, sweat, pain-filled tears,

Hunger and slave-like labor remain buried in these black swampy waters,

Nightmares from which one cannot run.

Endless eternity passes and the will of fate

Allows him to return from the devil's side to rejoin the mortal realm.

The piano's touch brings him back to a life of pleasure;

Music dancing in his heart, the stiff, dry fingers are revived from the warmth of the piano keys.

Listen! The thundering chords cry out in the rise and fall of the waves of this life.

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