Closing line of
白居易《
长恨歌》(Bai Juyi, Tang, 806 CE), a 120-line narrative poem about Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei:
天长地久有时尽，
此恨绵绵无绝期 (Heaven lasts, earth endures — and even they sometimes end; but this regret stretches on and on, with no end). After Yang Guifei's forced suicide at Mawei, Xuanzong's grief outlasts the natural world itself. Among the most famous closing couplets in all Chinese poetry.
