All poems

宋 Song · 诗 Poem

春夜

Spring Night

王安石

Wang Anshi

春夜Spring night 闺怨Boudoir lament

金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒。
春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干。

The golden censer's incense is spent, the water-clock's sound grows faint;
A cutting, cutting light wind brings wave on wave of cold.
The spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come;
The moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail.

Listen

Meaning

This quatrain captures a sleepless spring night. As the incense burns out and the water-clock wanes, a chill wind and the restless beauty of the season keep the speaker awake, while the moon slowly lifts the flower-shadow onto the balcony. Through quiet scene-painting it conveys a delicate, undefined leisurely sorrow.

金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒。春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The golden censer's incense is spent, the water-clock's sound grows faint; a cutting light wind brings wave on wave of cold. The spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come; the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail. [Structure] The first two lines paint the lonely spring night; the last two turn to the leisurely sorrow of sleeplessness. The move is from scene to feeling, the 'scene evoking emotion' manner of scenery verse. [Imagery] 'Golden censer, spent incense, faint water-clock' writes the depth of night; 'cutting light wind, wave on wave of cold' writes the chill; 'the spring scene vexes one, sleep will not come' states the insomnia; 'the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail' writes the still, shifting scene. The stillness with motion—'moves' and 'up onto'—shows the flower-shadow drifting, quietly marking the passage of time and the speaker's long standing wake.

【白话串讲】王安石写《春夜》：“金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒”——“春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干”——春色恼人，睡不着觉——月影移动，花影爬上了栏杆——他写春夜的寂寥。【意象与手法】此诗写春夜，以闲愁写春夜，是王安石的名篇。前二句写春夜：「金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写金炉香烬漏声残、翦翦轻风阵阵寒——写尽春夜的寂寥；后二句写闲愁：「春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干」写春色恼人眠不得、月移花影上栏干——写尽春夜的闲愁。全诗以闲愁写春夜，写尽春夜的寂寥与春夜的闲愁，是王安石的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写春夜，以闲愁写春夜，是王安石的名篇。此诗写春夜不眠的闲愁。王安石晚年在江宁闲居，多写此等闲适小诗。此诗写春夜：金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒——写金炉香烬漏声残、翦翦轻风阵阵寒，写尽春夜的寂寥；春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干——写春色恼人眠不得、月移花影上栏干，写尽春夜的闲愁。全诗以闲愁写春夜——那「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写尽春夜的寂寥，「月移花影上栏干」写尽春夜的闲愁，写尽春夜的寂寥与春夜的闲愁，是理解王安石写景诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写春夜的寂寥；「春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干」写春夜的闲愁；以及全诗以闲愁写春夜、以景写愁的手法。

Background

Wang Anshi (1021–1086), styled Jiefu, self-titled 'Half-Mountain,' from Linchuan (modern Jiangxi), was a Northern Song statesman and man of letters, one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. In later life, retired at Jiangning (modern Nanjing), he took the name Half-Mountain and wrote many leisurely landscape quatrains. This poem writes the leisurely sorrow of a sleepless spring night. The first couplet—'the golden censer's incense is spent, the water-clock's sound grows faint' and 'a cutting light wind brings wave on wave of cold'—writes the night's loneliness; the second—'the spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come' and 'the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail'—writes the leisurely sorrow. After his retirement he was outwardly detached, yet still faintly troubled on spring nights—perhaps by past affairs, perhaps by the turning of the seasons. 'The spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come' states the insomnia plainly, set against the still scene of the moving moon-shadow, revealing the poet's fine night-time mood. This is a representative 'Half-Mountain' lyric of leisurely sorrow.

此诗写春夜，以闲愁写春夜，是王安石的名篇。王安石（1021—1086），字介甫，号半山，临川（今属江西）人，北宋政治家、文学家，唐宋八大家之一。晚年退居江宁（今南京），自号半山，多写闲适的山水小诗。此诗写春夜不眠的闲愁。此诗写春夜：「金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写金炉香烬漏声残、翦翦轻风阵阵寒——写尽春夜的寂寥（金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒）；「春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干」写春色恼人眠不得、月移花影上栏干——写尽春夜的闲愁（春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干）。全诗以闲愁写春夜，写尽春夜的寂寥与春夜的闲愁，是理解王安石写景诗的重要篇章。此诗写于王安石晚年退居江宁时期。王安石晚年罢相，虽已超然物外，然春夜难眠，仍有隐隐的闲愁——或因往事萦怀，或因时序惊心。诗中「春色恼人眠不得」直写失眠之状，与「月移花影上栏干」的静景相映，正见诗人于静夜中的细腻心绪。此诗是「半山体」中写闲愁的代表作。

Art

The craft may be read in four moves. First, spent incense for the length of night: 'the golden censer's incense is spent, the water-clock's sound grows faint' writes the deep, lingering night through burnt incense and a failing clock. Second, wind for the cold: 'a cutting light wind brings wave on wave of cold' writes the chill through the wind. Third, direct utterance for the leisurely sorrow: 'the spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come' states the sleepless vexation plainly. Fourth, scene for the sorrow: 'the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail' writes the shifting shadow to convey the night's loneliness. The first couplet writes the night's loneliness, the second its leisurely sorrow—scene leading to feeling, the 'evoke feeling from scene' method. The poem also writes motion within stillness: 'the moon moves the flower's shadow'—the shadow is soundless, yet 'moves' and 'up onto' show it drifting, quietly marking time's passage and the speaker's long wake. And 'vexes one' speaks straight from the heart, making the spring seem playfully knowing—a mark of the Song poem's habit of letting argument enter the verse.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以香烬写夜久。「金炉香烬漏声残」以香烬写夜久——那「香烬」「漏声残」写尽香尽漏残，以香烬写尽春夜的久长。其二，以风写寒。「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」以风写寒——那「翦翦」「阵阵寒」写尽风的寒凉，以风写尽春夜的寒意。其三，以直抒写闲愁。「春色恼人眠不得」以直抒写闲愁——那「恼人」「眠不得」写尽春夜的恼人，以直抒写尽春夜的闲愁。其四，以景写愁。「月移花影上栏干」以景写愁——那「月移花影」写尽月影的移动，以景写尽春夜的寂寥。此外，此诗前二句写春夜的寂寥，后二句写春夜的闲愁，由景入情，正是写景诗「即景抒情」的写法。四重手法，使此诗以闲愁写春夜，写尽春夜的寂寥与春夜的闲愁，是王安石的代表作。此诗还善于以静写动——「月移花影上栏干」，月影本无声，然「移」「上」二字写出花影的移动，正是以静中见动，暗写时光的流逝与诗人的久立不眠。又善以「恼人」二字直抒胸臆，将春色写得如解人意的顽皮，正见宋诗以议论入诗的特色。

Allusions

The language is rooted in the spring-night and leisurely-sorrow tradition. 'Golden censer' evokes the incense burner; 'the water-clock's sound grows faint' the timing-drum (an ancient clepsydra); 'cutting, cutting' the image of a cold wind, drawn from Han Yu's 'A Cutting Light Wind Brings Wave on Wave of Cold' (the very source of this phrase); 'vexes one' the image of being troubled by spring; 'the moon moves the flower's shadow' the image of the moon's shadow, a common Tang-Song topos akin to Yan Shu's 'the pear courtyard, the melting moon.' The whole lyric transmutes censer, water-clock, cutting wind, and moving flower-shadow into a spring-night leisurely sorrow, true to Wang Anshi's 'Half-Mountain' scene-painting. The 'cutting light wind' line borrows Han Yu's wording to write the spring night's chill, showing the poet's skill in adapting predecessors; 'the moon moves the flower's shadow' is a standard spring-night image, kindred to Yan Shu's moonlit courtyard.

此诗的用语深植于春夜与闲愁的传统。「金炉」令人想到「金炉」写香炉的意象——也令人想到「金炉香烬漏声残」的意象；「漏声残」令人想到「漏声残」写更漏的意象——漏为计时之器，也令人想到「铜壶漏断」的意象；「翦翦」令人想到「翦翦」写风的意象——翦翦为寒风的形象，韩愈《寒食日出游》「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」正是此语所本，也令人想到「料峭春寒」的意象；「恼人」令人想到「恼人」写恼的意象——也令人想到「春色恼人眠不得」的名句；「月移花影」令人想到「月移花影」写月影的意象——也令人想到「月移花影上栏干」的名句。全诗化用金炉、漏声、翦翦、月移花影的意象，以闲愁写春夜，正是王安石「半山体」而善写景、承春夜传统写闲愁的本领。「漏声」为古代计时的更漏之声，夜深漏残，正见时光将尽，与「金炉香烬」相映，写尽春夜的深长。又「翦翦轻风」出自韩愈《寒食日出游》「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」，王安石用其语而写春夜之寒，正见其化用前人的功夫。而「月移花影」则是唐诗宋词写春夜的常见意象，与晏殊「梨花院落溶溶月」异曲同工。

Commentary

This quatrain is ranked among Wang Anshi's finest scenery poems and a representative of the 'Half-Mountain' short lyric. Qing critics called it 'leisurely sorrow on a spring night, meaningful and restrained'; modern readers prize 'the spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come; the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail' as its famous line. Its special worth lies in the four-line quatrain's rendering of the night's loneliness and leisurely sorrow—the golden censer, the spent incense, the water-clock, the cutting wind, the wave on wave of cold, the spring scene, the vexation, the sleeplessness, the moon, the flower's shadow, the rail—all Wang Anshi's spring night. 'The moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail' crowns the loneliness through scene. With his 'Moored at Guazhou' ('spring wind again greens the south bank of the river') it forms a pair of masterpieces: one 'when will the bright moon send me home' in longing (Moored at Guazhou), one 'the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail' in leisurely sorrow (Spring Night); and it shares the Song tradition of writing spring nights with Su Shi. For readers today it opens a window onto Wang Anshi's scenery verse and a classic of the spring night—the flower-shadow climbing the rail still speaks across the ages of leisurely sorrow.

此诗历来被推为王安石写景诗的名篇，也是「半山体」小诗的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以闲愁写春夜，隽永蕴藉」；近人更指出「春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干」写春夜的闲愁，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽春夜的寂寥与春夜的闲愁——那金炉，那香烬，那漏声，那翦翦轻风，那阵阵寒，那春色，那恼人，那眠不得，那月，那花影，那栏干，都写尽了王安石笔下的春夜；那「月移花影上栏干」更以景写尽春夜的寂寥。此诗与王安石《泊船瓜洲》（「春风又绿江南岸」）同为名篇，一写「明月何时照我还」的思归（泊船瓜洲），一写「月移花影上栏干」的闲愁（春夜）；又与苏轼「春宵一刻值千金」的春夜传统一脉相承，可见宋人写春夜的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解王安石写景诗的窗口，也是中国诗写春夜的经典——那移上栏干的花影，穿越千年，仍在诉说着春夜的闲愁。

Prosody

Form Seven-character quatrain (诗·七言绝句)诗·七言绝句

Rhyme Rhymes on can (残), han (寒), gan (干), Han rhyme (upper level 14), one rhyme throughout, a clear, graceful music.七绝，押「残」「寒」「干」韵（上平十四寒），一韵到底，音节清婉

Tone pattern A seven-character quatrain in level-tone rhyme, one rhyme to the end, a clear and graceful music fitting the spring night.此诗为七言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节清婉，正合春夜的清婉。

Reading note This is a seven-character quatrain of four lines—'The golden censer's incense is spent... the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail'—rhyming on Han (can/han/gan), one rhyme throughout, a clear, graceful music. The first couplet writes the night's loneliness (spent incense, cutting wind), the second its leisurely sorrow (vexed sleeplessness, moving moon-shadow), closing on the shadow on the rail, true to the 'Half-Mountain' manner's meaningful restraint. Read the opening with clear grace and the closing with low, returning softness; the end should sound graceful and resonant.此诗为七言绝句，四句——「金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒。春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干」，押「寒」韵（残、寒、干），一韵到底，音节清婉。全诗以闲愁写春夜：前二句写春夜的寂寥（金炉香烬漏声残、翦翦轻风阵阵寒），后二句写春夜的闲愁（春色恼人眠不得、月移花影上栏干）。四句短章，前写寂寥，后写闲愁，以「月移花影上栏干」写尽春夜的闲愁，正见王安石「半山体」隽永的特色。诵读此诗，宜以清婉的语调读「金炉香烬漏声残」的春夜，以低回的语调读「月移花影上栏干」的闲愁，结句要读得清婉而有余韵，方能传达出王安石的隽永蕴藉。王安石绝句以「半山体」著称，此诗正是其写景绝句的典范。

Line by line

春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干

The spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come; the moon moves the flower's shadow up onto the rail.

春色恼人眠不得，月移花影上栏干。

The spring scenery teases the heart awake, sleep impossible; the moon moves the shadows of flowers up the balustrade.

此二句是全诗写闲愁的核心，以春色恼人眠不得写恼人，以月移花影上栏干写月影，写尽春夜的闲愁，是千古名句。「春色恼人眠不得」写春色恼人眠不得——那「春色恼人」写春色恼人，「眠不得」写眠不得，写尽春夜的恼人；「月移花影上栏干」写月移花影上栏干——那「月移花影」写月移花影，「上栏干」写上栏干，写尽月影的移动。这句的深意在于：它以「春色恼人眠不得」的恼人与「月移花影上栏干」的月影，写尽春夜的闲愁——春色恼人眠不得，那「春色恼人眠不得」写尽春夜的恼人——春色恼人，眠不得，正是春夜难眠的写照，那「恼人」写尽春夜的恼人；月移花影上栏干，那「月移花影上栏干」写尽月影的移动——月移花影，上栏干，正是夜深月移的写照，那「上栏干」写尽月影的移动；那「春色恼人眠不得」写尽春夜的恼人，那「月移花影上栏干」写尽月影的移动，一写恼人，一写月影，写尽春夜的闲愁——春色恼人而月影移栏，正是春夜不眠的写照；此二句以恼人、月影写尽春夜的闲愁，也让此二句成为全诗写闲愁的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「我睡不着很烦」，则失其含蓄；唯以「春色恼人眠不得」写恼人、「月移花影上栏干」写月影，写尽春夜的闲愁，也让此二句成为全诗写闲愁的核心。

Wang Anshi's spring sleeplessness is induced by beauty. The spring scenery teases the heart awake—literally annoys the person, keeps him from sleeping—and while he lies awake, the moon shifts the flower shadows up the balustrade. The whole event is motion too slight for a sleeping man to notice: the shadows crawling upward are the only clock of the night. The word tease is the famous oddity; spring does not torment but delights, and yet the delight is keeping him awake, which is the poem's unspoken longing. To have said I was kept awake by spring longing would be direct; the climbing flower shadows are the sleeplessness.

金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒

The golden censer's incense is spent, the water-clock's sound grows faint; a cutting, cutting light wind brings wave on wave of cold.

金炉香烬漏声残，翦翦轻风阵阵寒。

In the golden censer the incense has burned out; the water clock's sound is nearly spent; a cutting light wind brings wave after wave of chill.

此二句是全诗写寂寥的核心，以金炉香烬漏声残写香漏，以翦翦轻风阵阵寒写风寒，写尽春夜的寂寥，是千古名句。「金炉香烬漏声残」写金炉香烬漏声残——那「金炉香烬」写金炉香烬，「漏声残」写漏声残，写尽香尽漏残；「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写翦翦轻风阵阵寒——那「翦翦轻风」写翦翦轻风，「阵阵寒」写阵阵寒，写尽轻风的寒凉。这句的深意在于：它以「金炉香烬漏声残」的香漏与「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」的风寒，写尽春夜的寂寥——金炉香烬漏声残，那「金炉香烬漏声残」写尽香尽漏残——金炉香烬，漏声将残，正是夜深人静的写照，那「漏声残」写尽夜之将尽；翦翦轻风阵阵寒，那「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写尽轻风的寒凉——翦翦轻风，阵阵寒凉，正是春夜的寒意，那「阵阵寒」写尽春夜的寒凉；那「金炉香烬漏声残」写尽香尽漏残，那「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写尽轻风的寒凉，一写香漏，一写风寒，写尽春夜的寂寥——香尽漏残而风冷，正是春夜不眠的写照；此二句以香漏、风寒写尽春夜的寂寥，也为后二句的闲愁作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写寂寥的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「夜深了很冷」，则失其画面；唯以「金炉香烬漏声残」写香漏、「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」写风寒，写尽春夜的寂寥，也让此二句成为全诗写寂寥的核心。

The opening measures how late the sleepless hour has become. In the golden censer the incense has burned to ash; the water clock is nearly finished counting the night; a cutting wind breathes wave after wave of chill. Three signs of the small hours—dead incense, a dying clock, a cold breeze—frame the wakeful body, and the soundless ash and the fading drip describe a house entirely asleep except for him. The biting wind justifies the sleeplessness as physical. To have said it was late and cold would be a diary; the burnt-out censer and the spent clock are the hour.

Study

Word focus

残 Failing, near its end; in 'the water-clock's sound grows faint' the word marks the night's waning—the clepsydra almost spent—conveying both the deep lateness of the hour and the profound stillness of the night. 「金炉香烬漏声残」之「残」字是写春夜的关键词，一个「残」字写尽春夜的将尽。残者，将尽、残存也。王安石以「金炉香烬漏声残」写春夜，这个「残」字至少有双重意味：其一，写夜之将尽——那「金炉香烬漏声残」写金炉香烬漏声残，那「残」字写尽夜之将尽——漏声残，正是更漏将尽的写照，那「残」字写尽春夜的久长；其二，写寂之深——那「残」字更是写深——残，正见夜寂之深，那「残」字写尽春夜的寂寥。以「残」字写春夜，正是王安石写寂寥的枢纽——若换作「尽」「断」等字，则或失其与「金炉香烬」「漏声」的配合，或失其写残的意味；唯「残」字，以金炉香烬漏声残写尽夜之将尽与夜寂的深长，与「翦翦轻风阵阵寒」的阵阵寒相合，写尽春夜的寂寥，也让「金炉香烬漏声残」成为全诗写春夜的名句。

恼 To vex, trouble; in 'the spring scene vexes one so sleep will not come' the word personifies spring as a teasing annoyance, conveying both the scene's alluring pull and the restless stir of leisurely sorrow that keeps the speaker awake. 「春色恼人眠不得」之「恼」字是写闲愁的关键词，一个「恼」字写尽春夜的恼人。恼者，使人烦闷也。王安石以「春色恼人眠不得」写闲愁，这个「恼」字至少有双重意味：其一，写春色之撩——那「春色恼人眠不得」写春色恼人眠不得，那「恼」字写尽春色的撩人——春色恼人，正是春色动人的写照，那「恼」字写尽春色的撩人；其二，写愁绪之乱——那「恼」字更是写乱——恼人，正见愁绪之乱，那「恼」字写尽春夜的闲愁。以「恼」字写闲愁，正是王安石写春夜的枢纽——若换作「撩」「惹」等字，则或失其与「春色」「眠不得」的配合，或失其写恼的意味；唯「恼」字，以春色恼人眠不得写尽春色的撩人与愁绪的烦乱，与「月移花影上栏干」的月影相合，写尽春夜的闲愁，也让「春色恼人眠不得」成为全诗写闲愁的名句。

春夜