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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

采莲曲

Song of the Lotus Gatherers

李白

Li Bai

采莲lotus gathering 爱情love

若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语。
日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举。
岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨。
紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠。

Beside the Ruoye Stream, the lotus-gathering girls;
laughing, they talk with a man through the lotus flowers.
The sun lights their fresh dress at the bottom of the water;
the wind lifts their scented sleeves into the air.
On the bank, whose family's wastrel youth?
threes and fives, reflected in the weeping willows.
His piebald horse neighs and bears them off into the falling blossoms;
and seeing this, he lingers and his heart aches in vain.

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Meaning

Li Bai watches the girls of the Ruoye Stream gathering lotus by day — their laughter passing through the flowers, their dresses light under water, their sleeves lifted by the wind. On the bank are young men in groups, and one rides off on a piebald horse into the falling blossoms; the sight leaves the watcher standing still, aching with a love that has nothing to hold on to. It is a poem about looking, and about the pleasure and the pain of looking.

若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语。日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举。岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨。紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Beside the Ruoye Stream stand the lotus-gathering girls, and through the lotus flowers they exchange laughter with a man in a boat. The sun lights the water so that their fresh dress glows beneath it; the wind lifts their scented sleeves. On the bank, whose family is this handsome wastrel, surrounded in threes and fives by the weeping willows? He rides off on a piebald horse into the falling blossoms, and the sight of it leaves the watcher lingering, aching with a love that will not return. [Structure] The four couplets alternate between water and bank until the two meet in the last line. Nothing is narrated in sequence; the poem is a pair of pictures, one bright and one urgent, that refuse to join, and the joining is what hurts. [Imagery] Li Bai's language here is the simplest he ever wrote: a stream, flowers, a dress, a sleeve, a young man, willows, a horse, blossom. The brightness is deliberate — this is one of the few poems in which he declines to be sad — and the ache of the closing couplet arrives unannounced, so that it lands harder for the contrast.

【白话串讲】李白写《采莲曲》：“若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语”——“日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举”——“岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨”——“紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠”——他写采莲女的明媚。【意象与手法】此诗写山水，以爱情写山水，是李白的名篇。前四句写采莲女：「若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语。日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举」写若耶溪傍采莲女、笑隔荷花共人语——写尽采莲的笑语；后四句写游冶郎：「岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨。紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠」写岸上谁家游冶郎、三三五五映垂杨——写尽垂杨的游冶。全诗以爱情写山水，写尽采莲的笑语与垂杨的游冶，是李白的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写山水，以爱情写山水，是李白的名篇。此诗写若耶溪畔采莲女的欢快与岸上游冶郎的怅惘。若耶溪在今浙江绍兴，为西施浣纱处，风景清丽。此诗写若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语；日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举；岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨；紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠。此诗写采莲女：若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语——写若耶溪傍采莲女、笑隔荷花共人语，写尽采莲的笑语；日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举——写日照新妆水底明、风飘香袂空中举，写尽香袂的飘举；岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨——写岸上谁家游冶郎、三三五五映垂杨，写尽垂杨的游冶；紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠——写紫骝嘶入落花去、见此踟蹰空断肠，写尽踟蹰的断肠。全诗以爱情写山水——那「笑隔荷花共人语」写尽采莲的笑语，「见此踟蹰空断肠」写尽踟蹰的断肠，写尽采莲的笑语与垂杨的游冶，是理解李白山水诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语」写采莲的笑语；「紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠」写踟蹰的断肠；以及全诗以爱情写山水、以对照写怅惘的手法。

Background

Li Bai (701–762), courtesy name Taibai, who styled himself the Lord of Green Lotus and was called the 'Banished Immortal' in his day, was born in Suiye and grew up in Changlong in Sichuan; he is the greatest Tang poet, paired with Du Fu as the Poet Immortal to Du Fu's Poetry Sage. The Ruoye Stream lies in present-day Shaoxing, in Zhejiang, the traditional site of Xi Shi's washing. This poem belongs to a group Li Bai wrote on the women of Yue, among them 'The Song of Yue Women,' and follows the lotus-gathering song, which since the southern dynasties had been a standard subject for poems of love and beauty.

此诗写山水，以爱情写山水，是李白的名篇。李白（701—762），字太白，号青莲居士，又号谪仙人，祖籍陇西成纪（今甘肃秦安），生于碎叶，长于绵州昌隆（今四川江油），唐代诗人，与杜甫并称「李杜」，被尊为「诗仙」。此诗写若耶溪畔采莲女的欢快与岸上游冶郎的怅惘。若耶溪在今浙江绍兴，为西施浣纱处，风景清丽。此诗写若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语；日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举；岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨；紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠。此诗写采莲女：「若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语」写若耶溪傍采莲女、笑隔荷花共人语——写尽采莲的笑语（若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语）；「日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举」写日照新妆水底明、风飘香袂空中举——写尽香袂的飘举（日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举）；「岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨」写岸上谁家游冶郎、三三五五映垂杨——写尽垂杨的游冶（岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨）；「紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠」写紫骝嘶入落花去、见此踟蹰空断肠——写尽踟蹰的断肠（紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠）。全诗以爱情写山水，写尽采莲的笑语与垂杨的游冶，是理解李白山水诗的重要篇章。

Art

Two fields face each other — the water and the bank — and each couplet belongs to one of them, with the crossing reserved for the last line. The water is seen through the element it is made of: the sun 'lights their fresh dress at the bottom of the water,' so that the girls are visible as a reflection rather than as bodies. The bank is seen as decoration: the young man is 'whose family's wastrel youth?' — a question nobody answers — and is then identified only by his horse. The final couplet joins the two, for the horse carries the girls away into the falling blossoms and the watcher is left motionless. Li Bai keeps the verse at its lightest throughout, and it is that lightness which makes the sudden heartbreak land.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以白描写笑语。「笑隔荷花共人语」以白描写笑语——那「笑隔荷花」写尽隔荷的笑语，以白描写尽采莲的笑语。其二，以色彩写新妆。「日照新妆水底明」以色彩写新妆——那「日照新妆」写尽新妆的明丽，以色彩写尽香袂的飘举。其三，以设问写游冶。「岸上谁家游冶郎」以设问写游冶——那「谁家游冶郎」写尽游冶的谁家，以设问写尽垂杨的游冶。其四，以对照写怅惘。「紫骝嘶入落花去」以对照写怅惘——那「紫骝嘶入」写尽落花的去马，以对照写尽踟蹰的断肠。此外，此诗前四句写采莲的笑语，后四句写垂杨的游冶，由女及郎，正是山水诗「以情写景」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以爱情写山水，写尽采莲的笑语与垂杨的游冶，是李白的代表作。此诗还善于以「日照新妆水底明」的「水底明」写新妆之映——那「水底明」写尽水中的新妆，正是以水写妆，以「水底明」写尽香袂的飘举。又善以「三三五五映垂杨」的「映」字写垂杨之映——那「映垂杨」写尽垂杨下的游冶，以「映」字写尽垂杨的游冶。

Allusions

The Ruoye Stream is remembered as the place of Xi Shi's washing, and the lotus-gathering girl is the standard figure in later poetry for the beautiful and humble working woman — as in 'gathering lotus in the southern pond' of the Western Songs. The 'wastrel youth' (游冶郎) is the rich son given over to pleasure, a stock figure of the poem on amusement, and the piebald horse (紫骝) is the horse of a young lord. Li Bai's use of all three is entirely conventional and entirely natural, and their familiarity is what makes the closing ache feel modern.

此诗的用语深植于山水与爱情传统。「若耶溪」令人想到「若耶溪」写若耶溪的意象——西施浣纱处，也令人想到「若耶溪上踏莓苔」的意象；「采莲女」令人想到「采莲女」写采莲女子的意象——也令人想到「采莲南塘秋」（《西洲曲》）的意象；「荷花」令人想到「荷花」写荷花的意象——也令人想到「莲叶何田田」的意象；「香袂」令人想到「香袂」写香袖的意象——也令人想到「罗袖」的意象；「游冶郎」令人想到「游冶郎」写游冶少年的意象——也令人想到「冶游」的意象；「紫骝」令人想到「紫骝」写紫骝马的意象——也令人想到「紫骝嘶入」的意象。全诗化用若耶溪、采莲女、荷花、香袂、游冶郎、紫骝的意象，以爱情写山水，正是李白「豪放」而善白描、承采莲传统写爱情之本领。「游冶郎」令人想到「游冶郎」写冶游少年的意象——也令人想到「少年游」的意象；「垂杨」令人想到「垂杨」写垂柳的意象——也令人想到「垂杨系马」的意象，以垂杨写堤畔之景。

Commentary

The poem is usually read as one of Li Bai's lightest, and that is precisely its achievement: eight old-style lines of seven syllables, no complaint, no philosophy, and a feeling that arrives at the end by accident. Modern readers have noted how the poem withholds its speaker until the last two characters, so that the reader spends four couplets enjoying the scene and then finds someone in it who is in pain. Compared with Li Bai's other Yue poems, which are brusque and colloquial, this one is polished; but the polish is invisible, and the poem is often quoted for the line about laughing through the lotus flowers.

此诗历来被推为李白山水诗的名篇，也是唐诗写采莲女的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以爱情写山水，明快清新」；近人更指出「紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠」写踟蹰的断肠，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以八句的七绝写尽采莲的笑语与垂杨的游冶——那若耶溪，那傍采莲女，那笑隔荷花，那共人语，那日照新妆，那水底明，那风飘香袂，那空中举，那岸上谁家，那游冶郎，那三三五五，那映垂杨，那紫骝嘶入，那落花去，那见此踟蹰，那空断肠，都写尽了李白笔下的采莲曲；那「见此踟蹰空断肠」更以对照写尽踟蹰的断肠。此诗与李白《越女词》（「耶溪采莲女」）同为采莲名篇，一写「见客棹歌回」的越女（越女词），一写「笑隔荷花共人语」的采莲（采莲曲）；又与《西洲曲》「采莲南塘秋」的采莲传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写采莲的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李白山水诗的窗口，也是唐诗写采莲女的经典——那空断肠的踟蹰，穿越千年，仍在诉说着垂杨的游冶。

Prosody

Form A seven-character old-style poem (qigu): eight lines with a change of rhyme group partway through诗·七言古诗

Rhyme The first four lines rhyme on the -u group (语 yu, 举 ju); the last four move to the -ang group (杨 yang, 肠 chang). The poem therefore opens in a low closed vowel and ends in an open one, and the change falls exactly at the point where the young men appear on the bank.七古，押「语」「举」「杨」「肠」韵（上声/平声），转韵自然

Tone pattern The lines run evenly at seven syllables, and the first four are quick and bright, matching the girls' laughter. The cadence slows at 'whose family's wastrel youth,' where the question interrupts it, and the closing couplet is the slowest in the poem. Because the form is old-style rather than regulated, none of this is prescribed; it is simply where the feeling falls.此诗为七言古诗，转韵，音节明快，正合山水的明快。

Reading note The choice of the old-style form lets Li Bai keep the rhymes loose enough to shift in the middle of the poem, and the shift is felt as a turn in the weather rather than as a technical event. The most interesting detail is the last line, the only place in the poem where a voice other than the painter's is heard — a person who has stopped and is in pain. Everything before it has been surface: water, sleeves, willows, a horse leaving. Everything after it is nothing, and that is what makes it heart-breaking.此诗为七言古诗，八句——「若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语。日照新妆水底明，风飘香袂空中举。岸上谁家游冶郎，三三五五映垂杨。紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠」，转韵（语、举，杨、肠），音节明快。全诗以爱情写山水：前四句写采莲的笑语（若耶溪傍采莲女、风飘香袂空中举），后四句写垂杨的游冶（岸上谁家游冶郎、见此踟蹰空断肠）。八句短章，前写笑语，后写怅惘，以「见此踟蹰空断肠」写尽踟蹰的断肠，正见李白「豪放」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以明快的语调读「笑隔荷花共人语」的笑语，以怅惘的语调读「见此踟蹰空断肠」的断肠，结句要读得明快而有余韵，方能传达出李白的明快清新。李白古诗以「豪放飘逸」著称，此诗正是其山水诗的典范。

Line by line

紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠

His piebald horse neighs and bears them off into the falling blossoms; and seeing this, he lingers and his heart aches in vain.

紫骝嘶入落花去，见此踟蹰空断肠。

The purple steed neighs and rides off into the falling blossoms; seeing this, I linger on, heartbroken for nothing.

此二句是全诗写怅惘的核心，以紫骝嘶入落花去写落花去，以见此踟蹰空断肠写空断肠，写尽踟蹰的断肠，是千古名句。「紫骝嘶入落花去」写紫骝嘶入落花去——那「紫骝嘶入」写紫骝嘶入，「落花去」写落花去，写尽落花的去马；「见此踟蹰空断肠」写见此踟蹰空断肠——那「见此踟蹰」写见此踟蹰，「空断肠」写空断肠，写尽空断的踟蹰。这句的深意在于：它以「紫骝嘶入落花去」的落花去与「见此踟蹰空断肠」的空断肠，写尽踟蹰的断肠——紫骝嘶入落花去，那「紫骝嘶入落花去」写尽落花的去马——紫骝嘶入，正是紫马嘶鸣的写照，那「落花去」写尽踟蹰的断肠；见此踟蹰空断肠，那「见此踟蹰空断肠」写尽空断的踟蹰——见此踟蹰，正是见此徘徊的写照，那「空断肠」写尽踟蹰的断肠；那「紫骝嘶入落花去」写尽落花的去马，那「见此踟蹰空断肠」写尽空断的踟蹰，一写去马，一写断肠，写尽踟蹰的断肠——马去落花而踟蹰断肠，正是怅惘的写照；此二句以落花、断肠写尽踟蹰的断肠，也让此二句成为全诗写怅惘的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「紫骝马嘶叫着冲进落花里走了，看到这情景我徘徊不前、空自断肠」，则失其明快；唯以「紫骝嘶入落花去」写落花去、「见此踟蹰空断肠」写空断肠，写尽踟蹰的断肠，也让此二句成为全诗写怅惘的核心。

The closing turns from the bright scene to a watching man. A purple steed, neighing, rides off through the falling blossoms—the rider gone, the petals still drifting—and the spectator lingers on, his heart broken over nothing. The phrase for nothing is the ache: there is no real loss, no farewell of his own, and yet the sight of the horse vanishing into blown petals has unmoored him. Li Bai sets the vivid departure against the stationary, lovelorn onlooker, and the bright colors make the foolish grief more poignant. To have said I was sad to see him go would lose the gap between the trivial occasion and the large feeling; that gap is the poem.

若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语

Beside the Ruoye Stream, the lotus-gathering girls; laughing, they talk with a man through the lotus flowers.

若耶溪傍采莲女，笑隔荷花共人语。

By Ruoye Stream the lotus-gathering girls laugh and talk with one another through the lotus flowers.

此二句是全诗写笑语的核心，以若耶溪傍采莲女写采莲女，以笑隔荷花共人语写共人语，写尽采莲的笑语，是千古名句。「若耶溪傍采莲女」写若耶溪傍采莲女——那「若耶溪傍」写若耶溪傍，「采莲女」写采莲女，写尽溪傍的采莲；「笑隔荷花共人语」写笑隔荷花共人语——那「笑隔荷花」写笑隔荷花，「共人语」写共人语，写尽隔荷的笑语。这句的深意在于：它以「若耶溪傍采莲女」的采莲女与「笑隔荷花共人语」的共人语，写尽采莲的笑语——若耶溪傍采莲女，那「若耶溪傍采莲女」写尽溪傍的采莲——若耶溪傍，正是若耶溪边的写照，那「采莲女」写尽采莲的笑语；笑隔荷花共人语，那「笑隔荷花共人语」写尽隔荷的笑语——笑隔荷花，正是隔荷而笑的写照，那「共人语」写尽采莲的笑语；那「若耶溪傍采莲女」写尽溪傍的采莲，那「笑隔荷花共人语」写尽隔荷的笑语，一写采莲，一写笑语，写尽采莲的笑语——溪傍采莲而隔荷笑语，正是欢快的写照；此二句以采莲、笑语写尽采莲的笑语，也为下文的游冶作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写笑语的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「若耶溪边采莲的女子，隔着荷花笑着说笑」，则失其清新；唯以「若耶溪傍采莲女」写采莲女、「笑隔荷花共人语」写共人语，写尽采莲的笑语，也让此二句成为全诗写笑语的核心。

The opening plants us in the legendary landscape of Xishi, the beauty of old Yue, at Ruoye Stream where she once washed silk. The lotus-gathering girls are not described—they are heard: laughter and voices passing back and forth through the screen of flowers. The invisible girls are the charm; we know them only by sound across the green lotus leaves, and the half-hidden talk is purer than any portrait. The setting also carries the poem toward the later thought of a gallant rider who cannot speak to them. To have described the girls' beauty would be ordinary; the laughter heard through flowers is what makes them present and unreachable.

Study

Word focus

隔 'Through, on the far side of.' In 'laughing, they talk with a man through the lotus flowers' the character makes the conversation possible only because of what blocks it: the flowers stand between the girl and the man, and she laughs from behind them. The word is doing the poem's work, for it holds nearness and distance at once, and it is why the closing heartbreak follows so naturally. 「笑隔荷花共人语」之「隔」字是写笑语的关键词，一个「隔」字写尽隔荷的笑语。隔者，隔开、隔着也。李白以「笑隔荷花共人语」写笑语，这个「隔」字至少有双重意味：其一，写荷之隔——那「笑隔荷花共人语」写笑隔荷花共人语，那「隔」字写尽隔荷的笑语——隔荷花，正是隔荷而语的写照，那「隔」字写尽采莲的笑语；其二，写情之趣——那「隔」字更是写趣——隔，正见隔荷相语的趣味，那「隔」字写尽李白的清新。以「隔」字写笑语，正是李白写山水的枢纽——若换作「在」「倚」等字，则或失其与「笑」「荷花共人语」的配合，或失其写隔的意味；唯「隔」字，以笑隔荷花共人语写尽隔荷之笑语与隔荷相语之趣味，与「日照新妆水底明」的日照相合，写尽采莲的笑语，也让「笑隔荷花共人语」成为全诗写笑语的名句。

空 'In vain, empty.' In 'he lingers and his heart aches in vain' the character is the poet's own verdict on his feeling: the ache is real and the outcome is nothing. Li Bai puts it after 断肠 (heartbreak) rather than before, so the emptiness arrives as a second thought, as though the pain only became useless once he had noticed it. 「见此踟蹰空断肠」之「空」字是写怅惘的关键词，一个「空」字写尽空断的踟蹰。空者，白白、徒然也。李白以「见此踟蹰空断肠」写怅惘，这个「空」字至少有双重意味：其一，写肠之空——那「见此踟蹰空断肠」写见此踟蹰空断肠，那「空」字写尽空断的踟蹰——空断肠，正是徒然断肠的写照，那「空」字写尽踟蹰的断肠；其二，写情之怅——那「空」字更是写怅——空，正见爱慕无着的怅惘，那「空」字写尽李白的明快。以「空」字写怅惘，正是李白写山水的枢纽——若换作「徒」「枉」等字，则或失其与「见此踟蹰」「断肠」的配合，或失其写空的意味；唯「空」字，以见此踟蹰空断肠写尽断肠之徒然与爱慕之无着，与「紫骝嘶入落花去」的落花相合，写尽踟蹰的断肠，也让「见此踟蹰空断肠」成为全诗写怅惘的名句。

采莲曲