牛郎织女话七夕：两情若是长久时，又岂在朝朝暮暮
The story begins with the handsome but poor orphan who lived with his older brother and sister-in-law. After his parents passed away, the boy’s brother got the house and land. But all he had was an old ox. As a cowherd (牧牛人), the boy had to work the farm fields with his ox every day.
The seventh daughter of the Emperor, also known as the Weaving Maid, was good at handcrafting, especially weaving clothes. The Emperor particularly appreciated her skills of weaving clouds with rainbows to make the world more beautiful.
The cowherd’s ox, which was actually an immortal (神仙) from heaven, made mistakes in heaven and was reincarnated (使转世) as an ox to toil on earth. One day, the ox suddenly said to the cowherd: “You are a nice person. If you want to get married, go to the river and your wish will come true.”
The cowherd went to the river and watched the seven pretty daughters of the Emperor come down from heaven. Fascinated by the youngest and most beautiful daughter, the cowherd hid her fairy clothes. When the other six fairies went away, the youngest could not fly back to heaven without her fairy clothes.
The cowherd then appeared and told the Weaving Maid that he would keep her clothes until she agreed to be his wife. After a slight hesitation, mixed with shyness and eagerness, the Weaving Maid accepted the handsome man’s proposal. The couple was then married and had a son and a daughter two years later.
Meanwhile, up in heaven, the Emperor missed the beautiful skies once woven by his seventh daughter. He ordered the Goddess of Heaven to find her and bring her back to him. As the seventh princess was flying to heaven with the Goddess of Heaven, the cowherd put their children into two bamboo baskets with his wife’s magical fairy clothes to chase after his love.
But the Goddess of Heaven created a Milky Way (银河) in the sky. The seventh princess was forced to move to the star Vega. And the cowherd and their two children stayed on the star Altair. They were only allowed to meet once a year on the day of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month — Chinese Valentine’s Day.
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