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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

秋窗风雨夕

Autumn Window: An Eve of Wind and Rain

曹雪芹

Cao Xueqin

秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长。
已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉！
助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿。
抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛。
泪烛摇摇爇短檠，牵愁照恨动离情。
谁家秋院无风入，何处秋窗无雨声。
罗衾不奈秋风力，残漏声催秋雨急。
连宵脉脉复飕飕，灯前似伴离人泣。
寒烟小院转萧条，疏竹虚窗时滴沥。
不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。

Autumn flowers fade, autumn grass turns yellow;
A dim autumn lamp, an autumn night grown long.
I already feel that autumn windows hold no end of autumn;
how can the wind and rain bear to make it drearier!
What has driven the wind and rain to hurry so,
breaking the green autumn dream at the autumn window.
Holding autumn feeling in my arms, I cannot bear to sleep;
I move the weeping candle myself before the autumn screen.
The weeping candle flickers, burning low at a short stand;
it stirs grief and sheds its hate and moves the love of parting.
In whose autumn courtyard does no wind enter?
At which autumn window is there no sound of rain?
My silk quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind;
the last of the water-clock drives the autumn rain to hasten.
Night after night, thick and thick again, with the soughing wind;
before the lamp it seems to keep a parted lover company in tears.
Cold smoke makes the small courtyard lonelier still;
through slender bamboo the empty window drips and drips.
I know not when the wind and rain will ever stop;
for already my tears have soaked the window-gauze wet.
Listen

Meaning

This is Lin Daiyu's poem, written in the forty-fifth chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber on an autumn night when she was feverish and the rain reached her window. Every line gathers autumn — flowers, grass, lamp, window, dream, quilt, rain, bamboo, gauze — until the season itself becomes the speaker's biography: an orphan girl, ill, alone, and waiting for a morning that will not come.

秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长。已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉！助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿。抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛。泪烛摇摇爇短檠，牵愁照恨动离情。谁家秋院无风入，何处秋窗无雨声。罗衾不奈秋风力，残漏声催秋雨急。连宵脉脉复飕飕，灯前似伴离人泣。寒烟小院转萧条，疏竹虚窗时滴沥。不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Daiyu sits through a long autumn night while rain drives against her window. She has already felt that autumn is inexhaustible; the wind and rain only make the dreariness worse, breaking the green dream she was keeping at the window. Too full of autumn feeling to sleep, she moves the weeping candle herself before the screen. The candle burns low, the water-clock runs out, the rain quickens, and the wind soughs through the night as though keeping a lover's wake. Cold smoke thickens around the little courtyard, thin bamboo drips against the empty window, and by morning the gauze is wet with her tears. [Structure] The poem is a spiral rather than a progression. Each stanza returns to the same field — flowers, lamp, window, rain — and adds one thing: the candle, the wind, the quilt, the dripping, the tears. The repeated 秋 gives the lines a measured, somber chant, and no stanza ever moves away from the others. [Imagery] What makes the poem convincing is that the weather is never symbolic on demand; the rain simply will not stop, and the speaker's exhaustion is described as the weather's exhaustion too. 'My silk quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind' is literally true of a thin quilt and metaphorically true of a fragile girl, and the poem asks neither reading to be abandoned.

【白话串讲】 曹雪芹写《秋窗风雨夕》：“秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长”——“已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉”——“泪烛摇摇爇短檠，牵愁照恨动离情”——他借黛玉写秋窗风雨——那堪风雨助凄凉。 【意象与手法】 “秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长”以连用“秋”字写秋之惨淡；“已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉”以风雨助凄凉写愁上加愁；“泪烛摇摇爇短檠，牵愁照恨动离情”以泪烛写离情；结以“不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿”以泪洒窗纱收束。用字回环、意象密集。 【情感与主旨】 《红楼梦》中黛玉病中所拟的秋窗风雨之词，以秋景秋情写孤女身世的凄凉与身世之感，是曹雪芹借黛玉之口写其悲剧命运的典型。 【名句点睛】 常考“已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉”以风雨助凄凉写愁上加愁；“不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿”以泪洒窗纱写孤女之悲。

Background

Cao Xueqin (c. 1715 – c. 1763), given name Zhan, courtesy name Meng Ruan, also called Xueqin and Qinpu, of the Plain White Manchu banner, was the Qing novelist who wrote Dream of the Red Chamber. This poem occurs in chapter 45 of that novel, composed by Lin Daiyu, the heroine, on an autumn night when she was ill and the rain fell against her window. It is one of very few poems in the novel put into the mouth of Daiyu rather than reported by the narrator, and it is generally read as a summary of her situation: an orphan living on the kindness of her grandmother's household, sick, and quietly grieving over the vacancy of her life.

《秋窗风雨夕》为清代小说家曹雪芹所作诗。曹雪芹（约1715—约1763），名霑，字梦阮，号雪芹、芹圃，满洲正白旗人，清代小说家，著有《红楼梦》。此诗写感怀伤秋，见于《红楼梦》第四十五回，为林黛玉所作。诗中「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长；「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」写已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉；「助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿」写助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿；「抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛」写抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛；「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。曹雪芹此诗以感怀伤秋、已教泪洒窗纱湿写其伤秋之情，沉郁深婉，是曹雪芹诗中的名篇。此篇《秋窗风雨夕》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The main device is the accumulation of the character 秋 before each noun — autumn flowers, autumn grass, autumn lamp, autumn night, autumn window, autumn dream, autumn feeling, autumn screen, autumn courtyard, autumn wind, autumn rain. Nothing in the list is unprecedented, but the refrain forces the reader to feel the season pressing from every direction at once, and by the last stanza 'autumn' has become the speaker herself. The second device is the transfer of feeling to inanimate things: the candle 'weeps,' the quilt 'cannot withstand' the wind, the rain is 'hastened' by the water-clock. Each object is shown to be complicit in the distress rather than merely observing it, and the verse often seems to accuse its own furniture. The third device is the refusal to state the subject: nowhere does the poem say 'I am lonely'; it says only that the gauze is wet. The result is grief that arrives by accumulation rather than declaration.

此诗艺术上以「沉郁深婉、以秋写情」见长。全诗共二十句，由秋花惨淡秋草黄而已觉秋窗秋不尽而助秋风雨来何速。起「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写秋花惨淡秋草黄：秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长；「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」写已觉秋窗秋不尽：已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉；「助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿」写助秋风雨来何速：助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿；「抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛」写抱得秋情不忍眠：抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛；结「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写不知风雨几时休：不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。全诗以秋写情，由秋花惨淡秋草黄而已教泪洒窗纱湿，沉郁深婉，是曹雪芹诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

'Weeping candle' (泪烛) treats the candle as a person shedding tears, a figure common in classical verse, and the following words, 'burning low at a short stand' (爇短檠), supply the plain image of a stub burning on a low stand. 'Autumn screen' (秋屏) and 'window gauze' (窗纱) belong to the interior of a bedchamber in a novel, and their plainness is what makes the wet gauze effective. The line 'in whose autumn courtyard does no wind enter? at which autumn window is there no sound of rain?' is built on the rhetorical question, a form used by Du Fu and others to universalize a private grief: no one is spared the autumn wind, and therefore no one should be asked to bear it alone. There is no distant allusion here; the power lies entirely in the prosaic detail.

诗中「秋花惨淡秋草黄耿耿秋灯秋夜长」「已觉秋窗秋不尽那堪风雨助凄凉」「助秋风雨来何速惊破秋窗秋梦绿」「抱得秋情不忍眠自向秋屏移泪烛」「泪烛摇摇爇短檠牵愁照恨动离情」「谁家秋院无风入何处秋窗无雨声」「罗衾不奈秋风力残漏声催秋雨急」「连宵脉脉复飕飕灯前似伴离人泣」「寒烟小院转萧条疏竹虚窗时滴沥」「不知风雨几时休已教泪洒窗纱湿」等语，皆含典故故实。「秋花惨淡秋草黄耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写秋花惨淡秋草黄耿耿秋灯秋夜长；「已觉秋窗秋不尽那堪风雨助凄凉」写已觉秋窗秋不尽那堪风雨助凄凉；「助秋风雨来何速惊破秋窗秋梦绿」写助秋风雨来何速惊破秋窗秋梦绿；「抱得秋情不忍眠自向秋屏移泪烛」写抱得秋情不忍眠自向秋屏移泪烛；「泪烛摇摇爇短檠牵愁照恨动离情」写泪烛摇摇爇短檠牵愁照恨动离情；「谁家秋院无风入何处秋窗无雨声」写谁家秋院无风入何处秋窗无雨声；「罗衾不奈秋风力残漏声催秋雨急」写罗衾不奈秋风力残漏声催秋雨急；「连宵脉脉复飕飕灯前似伴离人泣」写连宵脉脉复飕飕灯前似伴离人泣；「寒烟小院转萧条疏竹虚窗时滴沥」写寒烟小院转萧条疏竹虚窗时滴沥；「不知风雨几时休已教泪洒窗纱湿」写不知风雨几时休已教泪洒窗纱湿。诗人以秋灯、秋屏等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把感怀伤秋之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

The poem is commonly read as the clearest statement of Daiyu's temperament in the novel — proud, delicate, and unalterably alone. Later readers have valued it less for invention than for accuracy: the autumn rain here is not a symbol but a weather report, and it is the weather's indifference rather than its meaning that produces the tears. The closing couplet, 'I know not when the wind and rain will ever stop; for already my tears have soaked the window-gauze wet,' ends on an image of wetness that is both the rain outside and the weeping inside, and readers of the novel have seldom forgotten it.

这首《秋窗风雨夕》，是曹雪芹写感怀伤秋之作，写秋花惨淡秋草黄、已觉秋窗秋不尽、助秋风雨来何速、抱得秋情不忍眠、不知风雨几时休之情，沉郁深婉。起「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」——秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长。写秋花惨淡秋草黄：秋花惨淡秋草黄、耿耿秋灯秋夜长——秋草黄、秋夜长；「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」——已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉。写已觉秋窗秋不尽：已觉秋窗秋不尽、那堪风雨助凄凉——秋不尽、助凄凉；「助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿」——助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿。写助秋风雨来何速：助秋风雨来何速、惊破秋窗秋梦绿——风雨来何速、秋梦绿；「抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛」——抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛。写抱得秋情不忍眠：抱得秋情不忍眠、自向秋屏移泪烛——不忍眠、移泪烛；结「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」——不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。写不知风雨几时休：不知风雨几时休、已教泪洒窗纱湿——几时休、窗纱湿。这「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」，是全诗之结：以已教泪洒窗纱湿写其伤秋。全诗沉郁深婉，以秋写情，正是曹雪芹诗中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Poem in the seven-character old-style form (gushi): twenty lines of seven syllables each, rhymed in clusters rather than continuously诗（七言古体）
Rhyme The rhymes gather in little knots and then change: 黄, 长, 凉 on the -ang group; 速, 绿 on the -u group; 檠, 情, 声 on the -eng group; 急, 泣, 沥, 湿 on the oblique -i group. The refusal of one long vowel suits a poem built on repetition rather than argument.此诗为七言古体，共二十句，句式整齐。押韵：「黄」「长」「凉」押阳部韵；「速」「绿」押屋部韵；「檠」「情」「声」押庚青部韵；「急」「泣」「沥」「湿」押缉部韵。诗体依古体而定，音节随情起伏，正与写感怀伤秋的沉郁深婉相称，也见其以古体写伤秋的自然。
Tone pattern The verse is level and unhurried; 'autumn flowers fade, autumn grass turns yellow' starts low and slow, and the rhythm never quite lifts. 'What has driven the wind and rain to hurry so' is short and sharp, gathering speed; the closing line is long and drawn out. Because the form is old-style rather than regulated, the cadence follows feeling instead of a fixed pattern, and the reader hears exhaustion rather than metre.句式上，「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写秋花惨淡秋草黄，音节低沉；「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」写已觉秋窗秋不尽，音节深婉；「助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿」写助秋风雨来何速，音节急促；「抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛」写抱得秋情不忍眠，音节低回；结「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写不知风雨几时休，音节绵长。全诗音节随情起伏，由低沉而深婉、由急促而低回、由低回而绵长，正合古体「自然」之妙，读来如感怀伤秋、已教泪洒窗纱湿之音，沉郁而动人。
Reading note Choosing the old-style form lets Cao Xueqin repeat the word autumn without the constraint of a fixed tune. The most interesting craft is the rhyme: the poem keeps changing rhyme groups so that the ear is never allowed to settle, which is exactly the effect of a night in which nothing, including the weather, will stop. It is this poem, more than any other verse in the novel, that readers quote when they speak of Daiyu lamenting the autumn, and the song-like regularity of the refrain keeps the grief's rhythm in the reader's mouth long after the poem ends.此诗为七言古体，是曹雪芹写感怀伤秋之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「沉郁深婉、以秋写情」：「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写秋花惨淡秋草黄、「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」写已觉秋窗秋不尽、「助秋风雨来何速，惊破秋窗秋梦绿」写助秋风雨来何速、「抱得秋情不忍眠，自向秋屏移泪烛」写抱得秋情不忍眠、「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写不知风雨几时休。全诗沉郁深婉，以秋写情。尤为精妙者，是「谁家秋院无风入，何处秋窗无雨声」写尽秋窗秋雨；而「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写尽伤秋之泪，正是曹雪芹诗「沉郁深婉」的典范，为历代选本所常收。

Line by line

秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长。

Autumn flowers fade, autumn grass turns yellow; a dim autumn lamp, and the autumn night is long.

秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长。

Autumn flowers are faded, autumn grass is yellow; the autumn lamp glimmers, the autumn night is long.

首二句写秋花惨淡秋草黄，起笔即见其秋。「秋花惨淡秋草黄」写秋花惨淡秋草黄，「秋花惨淡」写秋花惨淡、「秋草黄」写秋草黄；「耿耿秋灯秋夜长」写耿耿秋灯秋夜长，「耿耿秋灯」写耿耿秋灯、「秋夜长」写秋夜长。两句一写秋花惨淡秋草黄、一写耿耿秋灯秋夜长，以秋花惨淡秋草黄写秋花惨淡、以耿耿秋灯秋夜长写秋夜长，写尽秋花惨淡秋草黄、耿耿秋灯秋夜长之情。以秋起兴，沉郁而深婉，是「以秋起兴」的妙笔。

The first two lines write autumn flowers faded, autumn grass yellow, the autumn visible from the first stroke. Autumn flowers are faded, autumn grass is yellow writes the faded autumn blooms and the yellow autumn grass. The autumn lamp glimmers, the autumn night is long writes the flickering autumn lamp and the long autumn night. Two lines: one of faded flowers and yellow grass, one of the flickering lamp and the long night; writing the faded flowers and yellow grass, writing the lamp's glimmer and the night's length, exhausting the faded flowers, yellow grass, flickering lamp and long night. Rising on autumn, somber and deeply tender, the fine brush of raising feeling through autumn.

已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉！

I already feel that the autumn window holds no end of autumn; how can I bear the wind and rain to make it drearier!

已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉！

Already I feel the autumn at my window is endless; how can I bear the wind and rain adding to the desolation!

此二句写已觉秋窗秋不尽，是全诗写秋窗之态的关键。「已觉秋窗秋不尽」写已觉秋窗秋不尽，「已觉秋窗」写已觉秋窗、「秋不尽」写秋不尽；「那堪风雨助凄凉」写那堪风雨助凄凉，「那堪风雨」写那堪风雨、「助凄凉」写助凄凉。两句一写已觉秋窗秋不尽、一写那堪风雨助凄凉，以已觉秋窗秋不尽写秋窗不尽、以那堪风雨助凄凉写助凄凉，写尽已觉秋窗秋不尽、那堪风雨助凄凉之情。以窗写情，沉郁而深婉，是「以窗写情」的点睛之笔。

The two lines write already feeling the autumn at the window endless, the key to the autumn window's manner. Already I feel the autumn at my window is endless writes already feeling the autumn at the window, the autumn unending. How can I bear the wind and rain adding to the desolation! writes the unbearable wind and rain adding their chill. Two lines: one of the autumn window's endlessness, one of the wind and rain aiding the desolation. Writing the autumn window that does not end, writing the wind and rain that add to the chill, exhausting the feeling of the autumn window's unending and the rain's adding desolation. Writing feeling through the window, somber and deeply tender, the pointed brush of writing feeling through the window.

谁家秋院无风入，何处秋窗无雨声。

In whose autumn courtyard does no wind enter? At which autumn window is there no sound of rain?

谁家秋院无风入，何处秋窗无雨声。

Whose autumn courtyard has no wind entering? Where is the autumn window that hears no rain?

此二句写谁家秋院无风入，是全诗写秋雨之态的关键。「谁家秋院无风入」写谁家秋院无风入，「谁家秋院」写谁家秋院、「无风入」写无风入；「何处秋窗无雨声」写何处秋窗无雨声，「何处秋窗」写何处秋窗、「无雨声」写无雨声。两句一写谁家秋院无风入、一写何处秋窗无雨声，以谁家秋院无风入写秋院风入、以何处秋窗无雨声写秋窗雨声，写尽谁家秋院无风入、何处秋窗无雨声之情。以雨写情，沉郁而深婉，是「以雨写情」的点睛之笔。

The two lines write whose autumn courtyard has no wind entering, the key to the autumn rain's manner. Whose autumn courtyard has no wind entering? asks which autumn courtyard admits no wind. Where is the autumn window that hears no rain? asks which autumn window has no sound of rain. Two lines: one of the wind entering the courtyard, one of the rain at the window. Writing the wind's entry into the autumn courtyard, writing the rain's sound at the autumn window, exhausting the wind-entering and rain-sound. Writing feeling through the rain, somber and deeply tender, the pointed brush of writing feeling through rain.

罗衾不奈秋风力，残漏声催秋雨急。

My silk quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind; the last of the water-clock drives the autumn rain to hasten.

罗衾不奈秋风力，残漏声催秋雨急。

The gauze quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind's force; the dying water clock urges the autumn rain to haste.

此二句写罗衾不奈秋风力，是全诗写秋风之态的关键。「罗衾不奈秋风力」写罗衾不奈秋风力，「罗衾不奈」写罗衾不奈、「秋风力」写秋风力；「残漏声催秋雨急」写残漏声催秋雨急，「残漏声催」写残漏声催、「秋雨急」写秋雨急。两句一写罗衾不奈秋风力、一写残漏声催秋雨急，以罗衾不奈秋风力写不奈秋风、以残漏声催秋雨急写秋雨急，写尽罗衾不奈秋风力、残漏声催秋雨急之情。以衾写情，沉郁而深婉，是「以衾写情」的点睛之笔。

The two lines write the gauze quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind's force, the key to the autumn wind's manner. The gauze quilt cannot withstand the autumn wind's force writes the thin quilt unable to resist the autumn gale. The dying water clock urges the autumn rain to haste writes the failing clepsydra's sound urging the rain to hurry. Two lines: one of the quilt unequal to the wind, one of the clock urging the rain. Writing the quilt's inability to bear the wind, writing the rain's urgency at the urging clock, exhausting the helpless quilt and the urgent rain. Writing feeling through the quilt, somber and deeply tender, the pointed brush of writing feeling through the quilt.

不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。

I know not when the wind and rain will ever stop; for already my tears have soaked the window-gauze wet.

不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿。

I know not when the wind and rain will cease; already my tears have wet the window gauze.

结句写不知风雨几时休，是全诗立意的落点。「不知风雨几时休」写不知风雨几时休，「不知风雨」写不知风雨、「几时休」写几时休；「已教泪洒窗纱湿」写已教泪洒窗纱湿，「已教泪洒」写已教泪洒、「窗纱湿」写窗纱湿。两句一写不知风雨几时休、一写已教泪洒窗纱湿，以不知风雨几时休写风雨几时休、以已教泪洒窗纱湿写窗纱湿，写尽不知风雨几时休、已教泪洒窗纱湿之情。以泪写情，沉郁而深婉，是全诗最动人处，也是「以泪写情」的点睛之笔。

The close writes not knowing when the wind and rain will cease, the landing point of the poem's intent. I know not when the wind and rain will cease writes not knowing when the storm will end. Already my tears have wet the window gauze says the tears have already drenched the window screen. Two lines: one of the storm's unknown end, one of tears wetting the gauze. Writing the unknown ending of the wind and rain, writing the window gauze wet with tears, exhausting the wind and rain's unknown hour and the wet gauze. Writing feeling through tears, somber and deeply tender, the most moving passage of the poem, and the pointed brush of writing feeling through tears.

Study

Word focus

秋花 'Autumn flower' — the flower of the autumn season. In 'autumn flowers fade, autumn grass turns yellow' the phrase sets the tone at once: the flower is already fading and the grass already yellow, so the decay is not coming, it is here. Together with the next clause it forms the poem's first and most imitated figure, and every later autumn word echoes it. 「秋花」写秋花惨淡秋草黄，是写秋花之态的关键。「秋花惨淡秋草黄」着一「秋花」，写秋花——着一「秋花」，写秋花惨淡秋草黄，见其花之秋。两字写尽秋花之态，是「以词写花」的妙笔。「秋花」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
秋灯 'Autumn lamp' — the lamp of an autumn night. In 'a dim autumn lamp, an autumn night grown long' the lamp is shown as the thing that measures the night: it is lit because the night is long, not the other way round. The cold, solitary light of a bedchamber lamp is the setting of nearly all the poem's distress. 「秋灯」写耿耿秋灯秋夜长，是写秋灯之态的关键。「耿耿秋灯秋夜长」着一「秋灯」，写秋灯——着一「秋灯」，写耿耿秋灯秋夜长，见其灯之秋。两字写尽秋灯之态，是「以词写灯」的点睛之词。「秋灯」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
泪烛 'Weeping candle' — a candle that seems to shed tears, whether for the wax that melts or for the tears of whoever watches. In 'I move the weeping candle myself before the autumn screen' the speaker changes the candle herself, as if tending it could comfort her, and the metaphor only makes her loneliness more visible. 「泪烛」写自向秋屏移泪烛，是写泪烛之态的关键。「自向秋屏移泪烛」着一「泪烛」，写泪烛——着一「泪烛」，写自向秋屏移泪烛，见其烛之泪。两字写尽泪烛之态，是「以词写烛」的点睛之词。「泪烛」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
秋雨 'Autumn rain' — rain of the autumn season. In 'the last of the water-clock drives the autumn rain to hasten' the rain is given a task by the clock, and in the final stanza it is the rain that will not stop. The rain is not a symbol of grief so much as the weather that refuses to end, and the weeping simply follows from that. 「秋雨」写残漏声催秋雨急，是写秋雨之态的关键。「残漏声催秋雨急」着一「秋雨」，写秋雨——着一「秋雨」，写残漏声催秋雨急，见其雨之秋。两字写尽秋雨之态，是「以词写雨」的点睛之词。「秋雨」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

山园小梅 The Small Garden of the Hills 林逋 · 同写秋景清雅、以景寄情，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写秋花惨淡秋草黄耿耿秋灯秋夜长，皆于秋景之中见清雅 Both write an autumn-bright scene and let feeling hide inside it; one gives us plum blossoms in shallow water, the other a lamp and rain-soaked gauze

Lin Bu's 'Shan Yuan Xiao Mei' — 'thin shadows slanting, the water clear and shallow; faint scent drifting, the moon at dusk' — is the last word on praising a flower: spare, cool, and complete in two couplets. Cao Xueqin's poem has the same coolness but fills it with weather that will not stop. Where Lin Bu's poem is a statue that can be looked at, Cao's is a small room one is shut in with. The comparison shows two ways of turning a season into feeling: one by the choice of subject, the other by the endurance of it.

林逋《山园小梅》「疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏」，写梅之清雅、秋景，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；曹雪芹《秋窗风雨夕》则以「秋花惨淡秋草黄，耿耿秋灯秋夜长」「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」写秋花惨淡秋草黄、泪洒窗纱湿。两诗同写秋景清雅、以景寄情：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写秋花惨淡秋草黄耿耿秋灯秋夜长、以秋窗写伤秋；一为林逋之清逸、一为曹雪芹之深婉，并读正可见诗写「秋景清雅」的两种笔法，皆于秋景之中见清雅。

 浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Xian Xi Sha: 'A New Song, a Cup of Wine' 晏殊 · 同写感怀伤时、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写不知风雨几时休已教泪洒窗纱湿，皆于感怀之中见无可奈何 Both write of a feeling time will not heal — one in the fall of flowers and the return of swallows, one in rain that never stops and gauze soaked with tears

Yan Shu's 'Xian Xi Sha' — 'comely the flowers fall, no help for it; swallows I have known before come back again' — accepts change as the order of things and finds a small comfort in the returning swallows. Cao Xueqin's poem has no swallows: the rain simply ceases at no point, and the tears simply wet the gauze. The same acceptance of transience is present in both, but Yan Shu's is stoical and Cao's is hopeless. Read together they mark the difference between a gentleman's resignation and a girl's grief.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写感怀伤时，是宋词小令的名篇；曹雪芹《秋窗风雨夕》则以「不知风雨几时休，已教泪洒窗纱湿」「已觉秋窗秋不尽，那堪风雨助凄凉」写泪洒窗纱湿、秋窗秋不尽。两诗同写感怀伤时、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写不知风雨几时休已教泪洒窗纱湿、以秋雨写伤秋；一为晏殊之温润、一为曹雪芹之深婉，并读正可见诗写「感怀伤时」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见无可奈何。