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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

木兰花令·次欧公西湖韵

Song of Mulan Hua: Matching Ouyang at the West Lake

苏轼

Su Shi

怀古Meditating on the past 感慨Reflection on time

霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽。
佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹。
草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八。
与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月。

After the frost the broad Huai no longer shows its width; in vain I hear the clear Ying running, choked and sobbing.
The singing girl still sings the old songs of the Drunken Old Man, and forty-three years pass like a streak of lightning.
On the grass, autumn dew runs like sliding pearls — at fifteen nights it glows full, and at sixteen it yet glows radiant.
Those who, like me, knew the Old Man — only the moon at the bottom of the West Lake remains.

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Meaning

Su Shi wrote this lyric to rhyme with a 'Mulan Hua' that Ouyang Xiu had composed about the West Lake at Yingzhou. Standing by that lake more than twenty years after Ouyang's death, he hears the stream complaining, hears a singer still performing Ouyang's songs, and realizes that forty-odd years have gone like a flash. The last couplet is the point: of all the people alive who personally knew Ouyang Xiu, the poet concludes, nothing is left but the reflection of the moon, which still stands where the dead man's voice used to be heard. It is a poem about a teacher, not a ruler.

霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽。佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹。草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八。与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem is built on sound. Frost has narrowed the Huai; the clear Ying still mutters, and the muttering is called a sob. A singer is still performing the verses of the Drunken Old Man; the years between that performance and this moment flash past like lighting. Then the middle couplet interrupts this flight with a small, exact picture — dew on the grass running like pearls — and only at the end does the moon answer. [Structure] The upper half is a single long sigh carried by two rhymes; the lower half begins with a concrete optical image and ends with a single reflective object. This is the classic shape of the Song ci on remembrance: external scene, then a turn, then a closing image that holds the whole feeling. [Imagery] Three images do the work. 'Sob' turns a stream into a person in grief, and the adverb 'in vain' tells us that nothing the water says can be answered. 'Forty-three years pass like a streak of lightning' measures time by its speed, not its length. And the closing image is decisive in its modesty: not the moon in the sky but the moon at the bottom of the lake — the smallest, lowest, least auditorily possible survivor of the man who is gone. Rarely has such a large friendship been ended with so small a witness.

【白话串讲】苏轼写《木兰花令·次欧公西湖韵》：“霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽”——“佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹”——“草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八”——“与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月”——他次韵欧阳修——与余同是识翁人。【意象与手法】此词写怀古，以感慨写怀古，是苏轼的名篇。上片写听唱：「霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽。佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹」写霜余已失长淮阔、空听潺潺清颍咽——写尽清颍的呜咽；下片写怀翁：「草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八。与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月」写草头秋露流珠滑、三五盈盈还二八——写尽秋露的流珠。全词以感慨写怀古，写尽清颍的呜咽与秋露的流珠，是苏轼的代表作。【情感与主旨】此词写怀古，以感慨写怀古，是苏轼的名篇。此词为苏轼次韵欧阳修《木兰花令·西湖南北烟波阔》之作，作于欧阳修去世二十余年后。苏轼早年受知于欧阳修，此词于颍州西湖追怀欧阳修，感慨时光飞逝。上片写霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽；佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹。下片写草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八；与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月。此词写听唱：霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽——写霜余已失长淮阔、空听潺潺清颍咽，写尽清颍的呜咽；佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹——写佳人犹唱醉翁词、四十三年如电抹，写尽四十的三年；草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八——写草头秋露流珠滑、三五盈盈还二八，写尽秋露的流珠；与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月——写与余同是识翁人、惟有西湖波底月，写尽波底的明月。全词以感慨写怀古——那「空听潺潺清颍咽」写尽清颍的呜咽，「惟有西湖波底月」写尽波底的明月，写尽清颍的呜咽与秋露的流珠，是理解苏轼怀古词的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽」写清颍的呜咽；「与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月」写波底的明月；以及全词以感慨写怀古、以比喻写时光的手法。

Background

Su Shi (1037–1101), courtesy name Zizhan, called Dongpo the Poet, was from Meishan in Sichuan: poet, calligrapher, painter, statesman, and one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song. He owed his early reputation to Ouyang Xiu, who read his examination essay and praised it as if he were the man himself. This ci was written at Yingzhou, where Su Shi was serving in the 1090s, in rhyming response to Ouyang Xiu's earlier 'Mulan Hua' on the same West Lake — a gesture of devotion performed across two decades and a hundred miles. Ouyang Xiu died in 1072, so the 'forty-three years' includes the whole span from the poet's youth to this late post. The poem belongs to the small group of Su Shi's lyrics in which the object of remembrance is a person who promoted him, and it runs in the same current as his 'Xi Jiang Yue' at Pingshan Hall, another song of mourning for a master.

此词写怀古，以感慨写怀古，是苏轼的名篇。苏轼（1037—1101），字子瞻，号东坡居士，眉州眉山（今四川眉山）人，北宋文学家、书画家，唐宋八大家之一，与辛弃疾并称「苏辛」。此词为苏轼次韵欧阳修《木兰花令·西湖南北烟波阔》之作，作于欧阳修去世二十余年后。苏轼早年受知于欧阳修，此词于颍州西湖追怀欧阳修，感慨时光飞逝。上片写霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽；佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹。下片写草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八；与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月。此词写听唱：「霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽」写霜余已失长淮阔、空听潺潺清颍咽——写尽清颍的呜咽（霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽）；「佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹」写佳人犹唱醉翁词、四十三年如电抹——写尽四十的三年（佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹）；「草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八」写草头秋露流珠滑、三五盈盈还二八——写尽秋露的流珠（草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八）；「与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月」写与余同是识翁人、惟有西湖波底月——写尽波底的明月（与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月）。全词以感慨写怀古，写尽清颍的呜咽与秋露的流珠，是理解苏轼怀古词的重要篇章。

Art

The technique is compression through the visual. Where a less disciplined poet would say 'I missMaster Ouyang', Su Shi counts the survivors, and finds one — a ripple. The word 'in vain' does a great deal of work in the second line: the stream still speaks, the singer still sings, but no one alive can answer them, and that silence is what the poet is really describing. The fourth couplet is even more sparing: 'those who, like me, knew the Old Man' already sounds like a verdict, and the verb 'remains' is left to do the grieving. Su Shi also uses ordinary speech at the very end — 'only the moon at the bottom of the West Lake remains' — and the plainness of that sentence against the ornate lake names before it gives the closing line its unexpected hardness. The dew image, with its two lunar numbers, acts as the pivot between the noise of the upper half and the stillness of the close.

此词的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以景语写呜咽。「霜余已失长淮阔」以景语写呜咽——那「清颍咽」写尽清颍的呜咽，以景语写尽清颍的呜咽。其二，以用典写醉翁。「佳人犹唱醉翁词」以用典写醉翁——那「醉翁」用欧阳修号醉翁典写醉翁，以用典写尽醉翁的当年。其三，以比喻写时光。「四十三年如电抹」以比喻写时光——那「如电抹」写尽如电的时光，以比喻写尽四十的三年。其四，以对照写明月。「惟有西湖波底月」以对照写明月——那「同是识翁人」写尽识翁的同人，以对照写尽波底的明月。此外，此词上片写清颍的呜咽，下片写秋露的流珠，由听及月，正是怀古词「以月写怀」的写法。四重手法，使此词以感慨写怀古，写尽清颍的呜咽与秋露的流珠，是苏轼的代表作。此词还善于以「空听潺潺清颍咽」的「空听」写空听之怅惘——那「空听潺潺」写尽空听的潺潺，正是以空写怅，以「空听」写尽清颍的呜咽。又善以「四十三年如电抹」的「如电抹」写时光之飞逝——四十三年如电抹，正见岁月如电的深慨，以「如电抹」写尽四十的三年。

Allusions

The poem is thick with names that carry their own weight. 'The broad Huai' and 'the clear Ying' are the two rivers of the region; the Ying was where Ouyang Xiu had governed, so mentioning it already carries the memory of him. 'The Drunken Old Man' (Zuiweng) is Ouyang Xiu's own literary name, taken from his own notebook entry on wine being less the point than the hills — the poet who is being mourned is introduced through a catchphrase the whole world knew. The two numbers in the dew line, three-times-five and two-times-eight, are the old way of counting the days of the lunar month, so the line quietly moves from a night of full moon to the next, and carries the idea of a cycle continuing while the person in it is gone. Finally, 'the West Lake' is not Hangzhou's famous lake but the smaller one at Yingzhou, which Ouyang Xiu had named and loved; naming it thus means that the survivor-image belongs to the shared place rather than to the capital.

此词的用语深植于怀古与感慨传统。「长淮」令人想到「长淮」写淮河的意象——也令人想到「长淮望断」（张孝祥）的意象；「清颍」令人想到「清颍」写颍水的意象——也令人想到「颍水清」的意象；「醉翁」令人想到「醉翁」写欧阳修的意象——欧阳修号醉翁，也令人想到「醉翁之意不在酒」（欧阳修）的意象；「电抹」令人想到「电抹」写如电飞逝的意象——也令人想到「光阴似箭」的意象；「盈盈」令人想到「盈盈」写美好的意象——也令人想到「盈盈一水间」（《古诗十九首》）的意象；「西湖」令人想到「西湖」写颍州西湖的意象——也令人想到「欲把西湖比西子」（苏轼）的意象。全词化用长淮、清颍、醉翁、电抹、盈盈、西湖的意象典故，以感慨写怀古，正是苏轼「清旷」而善用典、承怀古传统写感慨之本领。「清颍」令人想到「清颍」写颍水的意象——也令人想到「颍水清兮濯吾缨」的意象；「醉翁」令人想到「醉翁」写欧阳修的意象——欧阳修号醉翁，也令人想到「醉翁亭记」的意象，以醉翁写师恩。

Commentary

This has long been read as one of Su Shi's finest short lyrics on remembrance, and as the great Song ci on the death of a teacher. Qing critics called it 'clear, distant and deep-bending', which is to say that its sorrow is kept at a distance and therefore lasts. Later readers have singled out the last line as the summit of the piece: the suggestion that when a great man disappears, the only thing that still 'knows' him is moonlight lying on water. In the history of the genre the poem is valued for turning the ci away from the banquet and toward a personal, biographical grief, and it is read together with Su Shi's 'Xi Jiang Yue' at Pingshan Hall — 'three times I have passed beneath Pingshan Hall' — as evidence that his mourning for Ouyang Xiu was a lifelong thread. The poem's quiet conclusion is that fidelity to the dead needs no monument; a lake and a moon are enough.

此词历来被推为苏轼怀古词的名篇，也是宋词写师生之谊的代表。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以感慨写怀古，清远深婉」；近人更指出「与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月」写波底的明月，是此词的名句。在词史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以两片的小令写尽清颍的呜咽与秋露的流珠——那霜余，那已失长淮阔，那空听，那潺潺清颍咽，那佳人犹唱，那醉翁词，那四十三年，那如电抹，那草头秋露，那流珠滑，那三五盈盈，那还二八，那与余，那同是识翁人，那惟有，那西湖波底月，都写尽了苏轼笔下的木兰花令；那「惟有西湖波底月」更以对照写尽波底的明月。此词与欧阳修《木兰花令·西湖南北烟波阔》同为西湖名篇，一写「西湖南北烟波阔」的欧公（欧公木兰花令），一写「与余同是识翁人」的苏轼（次欧公西湖韵）；又与苏轼《西江月·平山堂》「三过平山堂下」的怀师传统一脉相承，可见中国词写怀师的传统。对于今日读者，此词是理解苏轼怀古词的窗口，也是宋词写师生之谊的经典——那波底的明月，穿越千年，仍在诉说着识翁的深情。

Prosody

Form Ci in the tune 'Mulan Hua Ling' (Song of the Wooden Flower), two stanzas词·木兰花令

Rhyme The rhyme words are ye (sobbing), mo (wiped away), ba (eight) and yue (moon); all belong to the entered tones, so the verse closes on short clipped sounds with no vowel to linger on.木兰花令，押「咽」「抹」「八」「月」韵（入声），仄韵到底

Tone pattern Because the whole rhyme scheme lies in the entering tones, the close of every phrase is cut off, which gives the lyric its 'choked' or 'gloomy' sound — fitting for a poem of sobbing and vanishing.此词为木兰花令词调，押入声仄韵，一韵到底，音节沉咽，正合怀古的沉咽。

Reading note The piece has two halves. The upper half runs — 'after the frost the broad Huai no longer shows its width; in vain I hear the clear Ying running, choked and sobbing / the singing girl still sings the old songs of the Drunken Old Man, and forty-three years pass like a streak of lightning' — and its movement is away and away. The lower half — 'on the grass, autumn dew runs like sliding pearls — at fifteen nights it glows full, and at sixteen it yet glows radiant / those who, like me, knew the Old Man — only the moon at the bottom of the West Lake remains' — turns from sound to stillness, and from a vanishing man to a surviving ripple. The entering-tone rhymes keep both halves under one depressed key. In recitation the second line and the last line should be given the same slow weight, so that the sob and the moon answer one another; Su Shi's manner here is 'clear and distant', and the melody should be read as if it were holding its breath at the end.此词为木兰花令词调，两片——上片「霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽。佳人犹唱醉翁词，四十三年如电抹」；下片「草头秋露流珠滑，三五盈盈还二八。与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月」，押入声仄韵（咽、抹、八、月），一韵到底，音节沉咽。全词以感慨写怀古：上片写清颍的呜咽（空听潺潺清颍咽、四十三年如电抹），下片写秋露的流珠（草头秋露流珠滑、惟有西湖波底月）。两片短章，前写呜咽，后写明月，以「惟有西湖波底月」写尽波底的明月，正见苏轼「清旷」的本色。诵读此词，宜以沉咽的语调读「空听潺潺清颍咽」的呜咽，以低回的语调读「惟有西湖波底月」的明月，结句要读得沉咽而有余韵，方能传达出苏轼的清远深婉。苏轼词以「清旷」著称，此词正是其怀古词的典范。

Line by line

与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月

Those who, like me, knew the Old Man — only the moon at the bottom of the West Lake remains: the poem's whole grief is sealed in this one small surviving witness.

与余同是识翁人，惟有西湖波底月。

Those who knew the old master as I did—only the moon beneath West Lake's waves remains.

此二句是全词写明月核心，以与余同是识翁人写识翁人，以惟有西湖波底月写波底月，写尽波底的明月，是千古名句。「与余同是识翁人」写与余同是识翁人——那「与余同是」写与余同是，「识翁人」写识翁人，写尽识翁的同人；「惟有西湖波底月」写惟有西湖波底月——那「惟有西湖」写惟有西湖，「波底月」写波底月，写尽波底的明月。这句的深意在于：它以「与余同是识翁人」的识翁人与「惟有西湖波底月」的波底月，写尽波底的明月——与余同是识翁人，那「与余同是识翁人」写尽识翁的同人——与余同是识翁人，正是与我同识翁的写照，那「识翁人」写尽波底的明月；惟有西湖波底月，那「惟有西湖波底月」写尽波底的明月——惟有西湖波底月，正是唯有波月识翁的写照，那「波底月」写尽波底的明月；那「与余同是识翁人」写尽识翁的同人，那「惟有西湖波底月」写尽波底的明月，一写识翁，一写波月，写尽波底的明月——识翁之人已稀而波月常在，正是怀古的写照；此二句以识翁、波月写尽波底的明月，也让此二句成为全词写明月的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「与我一样认识醉翁的人，如今只剩下西湖水底的月亮了」，则失其清远；唯以「与余同是识翁人」写识翁人、「惟有西湖波底月」写波底月，写尽波底的明月，也让此二句成为全词写明月的核心。

The moon. Those who knew the old master as I did—only the moon beneath West Lake's waves remains. The knew-the-old-master and the only-moon-beneath-West-Lake's-waves are the meditation. To have known the master would be a knowing; the those-who-knew-the-old-master-as-i-did-only-the-moon-beneath-west-lake's-waves-remains is the knowing.

霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽

After the frost the broad Huai no longer shows its width; in vain I hear the clear Ying running, choked and sobbing — the scene is made to sound like grief before any word of grief is spoken.

霜余已失长淮阔，空听潺潺清颍咽。

After the frost, the broad Huai has lost its breadth; I hear in vain the whispering, choking Ying.

此二句是全词写呜咽的核心，以霜余已失长淮阔写长淮阔，以空听潺潺清颍咽写清颍咽，写尽清颍的呜咽，是千古名句。「霜余已失长淮阔」写霜余已失长淮阔——那「霜余已失」写霜余已失，「长淮阔」写长淮阔，写尽长淮的已失；「空听潺潺清颍咽」写空听潺潺清颍咽——那「空听潺潺」写空听潺潺，「清颍咽」写清颍咽，写尽清颍的呜咽。这句的深意在于：它以「霜余已失长淮阔」的长淮阔与「空听潺潺清颍咽」的清颍咽，写尽清颍的呜咽——霜余已失长淮阔，那「霜余已失长淮阔」写尽长淮的已失——霜余已失长淮阔，正是霜后长淮失阔的写照，那「长淮阔」写尽清颍的呜咽；空听潺潺清颍咽，那「空听潺潺清颍咽」写尽清颍的呜咽——空听潺潺清颍咽，正是清颍呜咽的写照，那「清颍咽」写尽清颍的呜咽；那「霜余已失长淮阔」写尽长淮的已失，那「空听潺潺清颍咽」写尽清颍的呜咽，一写长淮，一写清颍，写尽清颍的呜咽——长淮失阔而清颍呜咽，正是怀古的写照；此二句以长淮、清颍写尽清颍的呜咽，也为下文的醉翁作铺垫，也让此二句成为全词写呜咽的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「霜后长淮已失去开阔的气象，只听得清颍水潺潺呜咽」，则失其意境；唯以「霜余已失长淮阔」写长淮阔、「空听潺潺清颍咽」写清颍咽，写尽清颍的呜咽，也让此二句成为全词写呜咽的核心。

The choke. After the frost, the broad Huai has lost its breadth; I hear in vain the whispering, choking Ying. The frost-lost-Huai-breadth and the vainly-heard-choking Ying are the close. To have lost the breadth would be a losing; the after-the-frost-the-broad-huai-has-lost-its-breadth-i-hear-in-vain-the-whispering-choking-ying is the losing.

Study

Word focus

咽 In 'choked and sobbing' the character rendered here means to choke or sob. It belongs properly to a person's throat, and Su Shi transfers it to a river, so that the water seems to be weeping. The word also carries the emotional register of the whole poem: what cannot be said aloud comes out as a half-suppressed sound. 「空听潺潺清颍咽」之「咽」字是写呜咽的关键词，一个「咽」字写尽清颍的呜咽。咽者，呜咽、幽咽也。苏轼以「空听潺潺清颍咽」写呜咽，这个「咽」字至少有双重意味：其一，写水之咽——那「空听潺潺清颍咽」写空听潺潺清颍咽，那「咽」字写尽清颍的呜咽——清颍咽，正是颍水呜咽的写照，那「咽」字写尽清颍的呜咽；其二，写情之悲——那「咽」字更是写悲——咽，正见怀古伤怀的悲绪，那「咽」字写尽苏轼的感慨。以「咽」字写呜咽，正是苏轼写怀古的枢纽——若换作「泣」「鸣」等字，则或失其与「空听潺潺」「清颍咽」的配合，或失其写咽的意味；唯「咽」字，以空听潺潺清颍咽写尽颍水之呜咽与怀古之伤怀，与「霜余已失长淮阔」的长淮相合，写尽清颍的呜咽，也让「空听潺潺清颍咽」成为全词写呜咽的名句。

惟 In 'only the moon at the bottom of the West Lake remains', this character means 'only' or 'solely'. It does the whole work of the closing couplet: by narrowing everything down to a single object, it forces the reader to feel the emptiness of the rest. The word is plain, but its function is to make a list in which almost every item is missing. 「惟有西湖波底月」之「惟」字是写明月核心的关键词，一个「惟」字写尽惟有的波月。惟者，只有、唯独也。苏轼以「惟有西湖波底月」写明月，这个「惟」字至少有双重意味：其一，写有之惟——那「惟有西湖波底月」写惟有西湖波底月，那「惟」字写尽惟有的波月——惟有西湖波底月，正是唯有波月常在的写照，那「惟」字写尽波底的明月；其二，写情之深——那「惟」字更是写深——惟，正见识翁者唯月的深慨，那「惟」字写尽苏轼的感慨。以「惟」字写明月，正是苏轼写怀古的枢纽——若换作「只」「独」等字，则或失其与「西湖波底月」「与余同是识翁人」的配合，或失其写惟的意味；唯「惟」字，以惟有西湖波底月写尽波月之唯有与识翁者之唯月，与「与余同是识翁人」的识翁人相合，写尽波底的明月，也让「惟有西湖波底月」成为全词写明月的名句。