南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 民歌 Folk song
子夜歌·其一
Midnight Song · No. 1
落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度。
冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路。
gazing about, I see my love go by.
Fair is his face, and lovely the hair at his temples;
his fragrance has already filled the road.
Meaning
As the sun goes down I walk out of the front gate, and while I am looking about I see you pass by. Your face is lovely and the hair at your temples full of grace, and the sweet scent you carry has already flooded the whole road.
夕阳西下我走出前门，张望之间看见了你（子）走过。你姿容娇美、鬓发多姿，身上的芳香已溢满了整条道路。
Appreciation
In only twenty words this little song puts a whole state of feeling before us. The opening line, 'At sundown I step out of the front gate', fixes the hour at dusk, the very time when a woman waits and watches for the man she loves; 'gazing about, I see my love go by' catches the intentness of her looking, and the old honorific used for him drives the line straight at her lover. The last two lines say nothing at all of her own longing but describe him instead, his lovely face and the scent that fills the road, so that her heart is revealed sidelong.
【白话串讲】 “落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度”——南朝民歌写：日落时出门，看见他走过。“冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路”——他那么好看，香气洒了一路。 【意象与手法】 此诗仅二十字而情态毕具。起句'落日出前门'以日暮点景，暗合女子盼归盼见的心理时间 【情感与主旨】 《子夜歌》属吴声歌曲，流行于东晋南朝江南，多为女子恋歌 【名句点睛】 《子夜歌》多作常识题。其一，手法：'芳香盈路'的通感（嗅觉写视觉）与侧面烘托。其二，语言风格
Background
The Midnight Songs belong to the Wu-region songs that flourished in the southland under the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties, and most of them are love songs sung in a woman's voice. The Collection of Yuefu Poetry reports that 'in the Jin there was a girl named Ziye who made this tune'; the story is legend, but it shows the songs' popular origin. Forty-two of them survive, singing of longing and of happy meetings and fond of puns on similar sounds, as when the word for silk thread stands for the word for longing. This piece records the flutter of a girl's heart when she catches sight of her lover before her gate, a perfect example of the Wu songs' art, which is natural and free of ornament.
《子夜歌·其一》为南朝乐府民歌，是写女子相思的情歌。此诗：落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度。冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路。全诗写落日所见、见郎来会，是南朝乐府的名篇。
Art
In only twenty words this song puts a whole state of feeling before us. The opening line sets the scene at sunset, the hour that answers to the inward time of a woman waiting and hoping; the verb for gazing in the second line renders the intentness of her looking, while the old honorific for a man drives the line straight at her lover. The last two lines do not describe her admiration at all but describe him: his lovely face and the hair at his temples are given to the eye, the fragrance that fills the road is given to the nose, and her being smitten is thus conveyed obliquely. The line about the fragrance flooding the road is the finest touch, a piece of synaesthesia by which an invisible charm becomes a whole street of sweetness, fresh and artlessly bold, and full of that unreasoning rightness which is the natural delight of folk song.
《子夜歌·其一》艺术上以见郎的惊喜与辞采的清新见长。全诗四句：首写落日出门——“落日出前门”写落日之时出前门；中写见子之度——“瞻瞩见子度”写瞻望见郎之度来；末写冶容芳香——“冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路”写冶容姿鬓、芳香盈路。全诗以四句写见郎之惊喜，正是南朝乐府清新自然的笔法。
Allusions
Wu folk songs love homophonic puns, and although no obvious pun appears here, the word used for the man is an old term of courteous affection, as in the Book of Songs line 'this girl is going to her home'; here it points to the lover and carries an intimate warmth. The phrase for a seductive beauty comes from the Great Commentary to the Book of Changes, where 'a seductive appearance invites lechery' makes it a term of blame; the folk song turns the sense round and uses it as pure praise, a lively popular reworking of an elegant expression. Writing a person through smell is not itself an allusion, but it reaches back to the fragrant-plant tradition of the Songs of Chu, whose 'sweetness grows ever more manifest', except that here the tradition is remade as a fresh, unpolished expression of the marketplace.
《子夜歌·其一》用典少而取景自然。“子夜歌”为南朝乐府曲名（相传女子子夜所作）；“冶容”写艳丽的容貌。全诗以这些意象写女子相思，不用深典而清新自见，正是南朝乐府的笔法。
Commentary
The Collection of Yuefu Poetry preserves forty-two Midnight Songs, and Guo Maoqian, quoting the Record of Music Ancient and Modern, traces their origin in detail. The Ming critic Hu Yinglin, in Thickets of Poetry, called the Wu songs 'clear and graceful, enough to shake the heart'. Liang Qichao said that the yuefu folk songs of the Six Dynasties are 'so true in feeling and so alive in language that they far surpass the literati verse of the same age'. Modern critics praise the Midnight Songs for 'writing deep feeling with childlike simplicity and finding true delight in plain words', and count them the most vital part of Southern-Dynasty love literature.
《子夜歌·其一》是南朝乐府民歌的名篇，也是《子夜歌》组诗的代表作。此诗写女子见郎之惊喜，向为论者称道。论者多赏其见郎的惊喜与辞采的清新——“落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度”写落日出门、瞻望见郎，清新之极；“冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路”写冶容姿鬓、芳香盈路，更见其情。南朝乐府《子夜歌》以清新自然著称，此诗正是其代表——以见郎写相思，正是其诗风。
Prosody
Line by line
落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度。
At sunset I went out the front gate; gazing, I saw you coming.
落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度（到来）。
At sunset I went out the front gate, and looking out I saw you arrive.
首写落日出门、瞻望见郎，是全诗写见郎之喜的起点。“落日出前门”写落日出门——“落日出前门”写落日之时出前门——落日出前门；“瞻瞩见子度”写瞻望见郎——“瞻瞩见子度”写瞻望之间见郎之到来——瞻瞩见子度。二句写落日出门、瞻望见郎：落日出前门，瞻瞩见子度。以“落日出前门”写落日出门之候，以“瞻瞩见子度”写瞻望见郎之至，正是南朝乐府写女子见郎之喜的起点——落日候门，见郎来会。
The gate. At sunset I went out the front gate; gazing, I saw you coming. The sunset-front-gate and the gazing-saw-you-coming are the meeting. To have gone out the gate would be a going-out; the at-sunset-i-went-out-the-front-gate-gazing-i-saw-you-coming is the going-out.
冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路。
Your adorned face, your graceful hair; the fragrance already fills the road.
冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路。
Your dazzling face and graceful hair; your fragrance already fills the road.
末二句写冶容姿鬓、芳香盈路，是全诗写女子之美的归结。“冶容多姿鬓”写冶容姿鬓——“冶容多姿鬓”写艳丽的容貌、多姿的发鬓——冶容多姿鬓；“芳香已盈路”写芳香盈路——“芳香已盈路”写芳香已经盈满来路——芳香已盈路。二句写冶容姿鬓、芳香盈路：冶容多姿鬓，芳香已盈路。以“冶容多姿鬓”写冶容之丽、姿鬓之多，以“芳香已盈路”写芳香盈路之盛，正是南朝乐府写女子之美、见郎之情致的归结——容丽香盈，其情自见。
The fragrance. Your adorned face, your graceful hair; the fragrance already fills the road. The adorned-face-graceful-hair and the fragrance-fills-road are the beauty. To have filled the road would be a filling; the your-adorned-face-your-graceful-hair-the-fragrance-already-fills-the-road is the filling.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
《子夜歌·始欲识郎时》“始欲识郎时，两心望如一”写识郎之初，与本首同为《子夜歌》。差异在情境：子夜歌其一写见郎之喜；始欲识郎时写识郎之初。一写“见”之喜，一写“识”之始。两者并读，可见《子夜歌》写女子相思的多种情境。
读曲歌·其一 Reading-Song Lyrics · First (Du Qu Ge) 南朝民歌 · 同为南朝民歌写情，一写见郎之喜一写相思之苦，一喜一苦 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
《读曲歌·其一》写相思之情，与本首同为南朝民歌。差异在情致：子夜歌其一写见郎之喜；读曲歌写相思之苦。一写“喜”之亮，一写“苦”之深。两者并读，可见南朝民歌写情的两种情致。
子夜四时歌·春歌 Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons · Spring 南朝民歌 · 与本首相关联的同类或同作者作品，供对比阅读 Same (a love song of the Midnight Song family)Both belong to the Wu-song Midnight tradition; compare the candour of their love-writing with their use of the colours of the seasons.
此处关联南朝民歌《子夜四时歌·春歌》，与本首在主题、体裁或作者上相关联，可对比阅读以见其同异。