Volume 1

An ancient fragmentary scroll excavated from desert ruins by scholars of the Akademiya's Vahumana Darshan; the author's identity cannot be determined.

...The mistress of the floating-tray kingdom of Pari-gita heard of this, and deigned to lower her dignity

to go to the great palace of (...), intending by hard riddles to test the princess's wisdom.

Countless maids, attendants, and officers thronged about that mistress of everlasting radiance;

they all wore fine linen and silk, like ten thousand day-stars adorning the one moon.

[Haravatat Darshan Herbad Tafazzoli's note: There is a mistranslation here. In the last sentence of this section, "silk" should be rendered "a fabric never seen by any," lest it be confused with Liyue's specialty. Also, the "great palace" in the second sentence of this section, in the original tongue, does not mean "palace" or any concrete "building," but "a stretch of land where a god is present." The Vahumana scholar who translated this volume seems not truly to understand that age's language; still, I will carefully write these notes.]

...Sweet fragrance coiled about the queen of that (fence? garden? battlefield?),

like a stream winding past silver-shattered moonlight under tree shade.

From ancient times to now, none had ever beheld such beauty,

as none had ever seen morning frost fallen in the seventh month.

[Haravatat Darshan Herbad Tafazzoli's note: The word of temporarily uncertain meaning in this section's first sentence may also be rendered "farmland" or "graveyard."

Vahumana Darshan Herbad Ashtart's note: Many thanks for your notes, Master Tafazzoli; now we are even less clear whom this book's author was writing about.]

...Then the mistress of the floating tray spoke:

"Praise the winged one, king who rules the myriad lands upon the earth.

I am a spirit made in the beginning; I am a glittering phantom; I am a thread of faint light from the Creator's eye.

Far peoples all sing your wisdom; might you dispel for me the confusion that has long troubled me?

These spices, gold, and gems I will give you as thanks, as the gift for solving my three riddles."

The princess of (...) answered thus:

"Praise the winged one, the right principle that rules the myriad lands upon the earth.

I am the possessor of yesterday, the master of tomorrow's dawn, yet never have I seen beauty and elegance like yours.

Mistress of the floating tray, whatever doubt is in your heart, you may raise it to me without reserve.

These spices, gold, and gems—all of them together cannot compare to the value of imparting knowledge."