The Crane Wife 2 by the Decemberists is one of my absolute favorite songs . It's the 2nd part in 3 songs (1 & 2 are on the same track) and is incredibly beautiful.
It tells the story of a poor Japanese man who one day finds a crane in the forest around his home. It lay wounded on the ground with an arrow it's wing, and taking pity on the creature he took it home and dressed it's wounds, then released it when it was recovered. The next day under the moonlight, a beautiful woman stood at his door seeking shelter and he allowed her to come inside. After time, they fell in love and were married but they were very poor. The woman told her husband that if she were allowed several hours she could weave him a beautiful cloth that he could sell for a great amount of money but he could not watch her do it. So she went behind closed doors and indeed produced a rich, beautiful fabric that the man sold for a great amount.
They were wealthy for a time but it soon faded. The man demanded his wife continue weaving over and over again as his greed had taken over in their new wealth, despite the fact that the constant weaving was causing his wife great sadness and weariness. One day as the woman wove alone in her room, the man's curiosity got the better of him and he peered inside. He saw that she had transformed into her true form- the crane he had helped. She was plucking her own feathers and weaving them into the fabric- her own blood and beautiful feathers were painfully being sewn into the cloth, making them as beautiful and fair as they were. When she saw that he was watching her, the spell of her transformation was broken and she flew away, never to return.
This is clearly just up my alley with my obsession with tragic romances.
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