In those days, so I saw, when the twin sons of Tengir, Thousand-Horse and Eternal-One, were at the age where it is custom that a man take a wife, there was a certain gentleman who worked for Tengir in the capacity of a Controller who had a daughter who was the very image of beauty. The daughter's name was Lingering-Summer. A great many suitors she had, and among them were the Twins, but since the Twins were easily a rung above the rest, Lingering-Summer vowed that she would choose her husband from among these two. And her father the Controller agreed that there were no other youths in all the settled lands who would make more perfect bridegrooms. But she naturally had a hard time choosing between them.
One day in the early weeks of Autumn, by some accident both of the Twins decided to call at the residence of the Controller at exactly the same time. Now the Controller was a very wealthy gentleman and had many houses at his residence, and that night Thousand-Horse called at the eastern house, but Eternal-One at the western. Lingering-Summer, being as she was the family's treasure, lived in the central house, and when she heard that the two lords were calling, she suddenly had a mind to play music and see which of them played the better accompaniment. So she drew her zither to her and began to strum. The soft music wafted through the eaves and doorways of the compound, reverberated off the ornamental rocks in the garden and so came to the ears of Thousand-Horse and Eternal-One. They were both delighted by the music which was clearly the work of a very experienced hand. Though they couldn't see her, they knew at once who it was, and that filled their hearts with tender feelings.
After Lingering-Summer finished her prelude, the first lord to play an accompaniment was Eternal-One. He always carried a transverse flute in his breast pocket, which he took out at that moment and put to his lips. After warming up with a few scales, he played a countermelody to balance the theme she had just put forward. Where her theme was soft, his melody was hard; when her theme reached its lowest point, his reached its highest, and where hers was steeped in emotion and deep, secret feelings, his burst forward with passion and swelled almost to the point of bursting--so was the symphony of the zither and the transverse flute, and they played several movements together just like this. But during the last movement, instead of playing the transverse flute as he had been doing, he intoned these words to the melody:
"The saddest season--so they say of Autumn,
When shapely boughs their color fades away;
How jealous the trees must be of me,
Who might seize one lingering shard of Summer."
When he heard the symphony of the zither and the transverse flute, Thousand-One said to his heart: "What a fine accompaniment that fellow--whoever he is--has put forth, but I think I can outdo him." Since he carried no instruments with him, he had to ask his host the Controller whether any were at hand. Naturally there were many, and the Controller had a lute brought to him. Lingering-Summer played her prelude again; it was the same theme as before. Thousand-One took the lute and warmed up by playing some scales, then he put forth his countermelody. He played very quickly, almost as though in a hurry, and Lingering-Summer, while impressed by his virtuosity, had a hard time keeping up with his pace, and their symphony was staggered and unbalanced at times. Still, the few moments where the harmony triumphed were quite beautiful. After they had played several movements of the symphony of the zither and the lute, Thousand-Horse put down his lute and intoned these words to the melody:
"Lingering summer--better than
Lingering winter, wouldn't you say?"
Everyone who heard did their utmost to contain their laughter. "He's not the poet his brother is," the Controller said to his heart. And by that time his daughter had already made up her mind.
After the two lords had left, she spoke her mind to her father. And that is how she ended up becoming the flower-robed wife of Eternal-One, and the pair went on deeply loving each other for all of time to come thereafter. The instruments they played that night they did not forget about or misplace like so many people do with their instruments, but they kept them as keepsakes and family treasures and often took them out to play together just as they had done on that night so many years ago. Eternal-One had many sons and daughters by his wife Lingering-Summer, enlarging the house of Tengir.