宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
蝶恋花
Butterflies Love Flowers
楼外垂杨千万缕。
欲系青春，少住春还去。
独自风前飘柳絮。
随春且看归何处。
绿满山川闻杜宇。
便做无情，莫也愁人苦。
把酒送春春不语。
黄昏却下潇潇雨。
I would tie down the green spring —
stay a little while! — but spring leaves all the same.
Alone before the wind, willow catkins drift;
I will follow spring and see just where it goes.
Green floods the mountains and streams, and I hear the cuckoo;
even if it has no feeling,
it must surely grieve at man's bitterness.
I raise my cup to speed spring on its way — spring does not speak.
At dusk, instead, comes the pattering rain.
Meaning
Zhu Shuzhen's farewell to spring is also a farewell to her own youth and happiness. The willows offer ten thousand strands with which to tie spring down, but spring will not stay; the drifting catkins tempt her to follow it and see where it goes; the cuckoo's cry, traditionally 'better go home', and the wordless answer to her parting cup, followed by dusk rain, leave her alone with an unanswerable grief. Private loss is woven so completely into the season's end that the two can no longer be separated.
楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去。独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处。绿满山川闻杜宇。便做无情，莫也愁人苦。把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Beyond the tower hang ten thousand strands of willow; she would tie down the green spring and beg it to stay, but spring leaves anyway. Alone in the wind among the drifting catkins, she thinks of following spring to see where it goes. Green fills the mountains and streams and she hears the cuckoo; even if the bird has no feeling, it must grieve at man's bitterness. She raises her cup to speed spring on its way; spring does not speak, and at dusk the pattering rain comes instead. [Technique] The poem works by personification and dialogue: spring is addressed, begged, followed, toasted, and stays silent, a silent interlocutor whose silence is answered at last by rain. [Emotion] Beneath the seasonal farewell runs a personal one; the willows, catkins, and cuckoo of late spring are the furniture of a woman's regret, and the closing rain dissolves the boundary between weather and tears.
【白话串讲】 朱淑真写《蝶恋花》：“楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去”——“独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处”——“把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨”——她写送春——把酒送春春不语。 【意象与手法】 “楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去”以垂杨欲系青春写惜春；“独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处”以柳絮随春写春去；“绿满山川闻杜宇”以杜宇写春愁；结以“把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨”以潇潇雨写送春。含蓄深婉、以景写情。 【情感与主旨】 朱淑真送春惜春之作，以垂杨系春、把酒送春写惜春之情与身世之叹，含蓄深婉，体现朱淑真词清丽哀婉的风格。 【名句点睛】 常考“把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨”以潇潇雨写送春之怅；“楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春”以垂杨系春写惜春。
Background
Zhu Shuzhen (c. 1135–c. 1180), sobriquet the Recluse of Quiet Dwelling (Youqi Jushi), was a native of Qiantang (modern Hangzhou) and the most celebrated woman poet of the Song dynasty. Married unhappily, she wrote lyrics of longing, sorrow, and spring melancholy; after her death her parents burned most of her manuscripts in disapproval, and the surviving collection, 'Fragments of Broken Intestines' (Duanchang ji), preserves only a fraction of her work. Her ci are valued for clear diction, direct feeling, and the rarity of a woman's voice in the male-dominated Song lyric tradition.
《蝶恋花》为宋代女词人朱淑真所作词。朱淑真（约1135—约1180），号幽栖居士，钱塘（今浙江杭州）人，宋代女词人，词多离愁闺怨。此词写送春惜春。词中「楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去」写欲系青春；「独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处」写飘柳絮；「绿满山川闻杜宇。便做无情，莫也愁人苦」写闻杜宇；「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」写黄昏潇潇雨。朱淑真此词以送春惜春、黄昏潇潇雨写其惜春之情，含蓄深婉，是朱淑真词中的名篇。此篇《蝶恋花》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。此篇《蝶恋花》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 lyric's central device is the personification of spring as a silent companion. The speaker begs spring to stay, proposes to follow it, toasts it at parting, and receives no answer; spring's silence is then 'answered' by the dusk rain, which converts inner grief into weather. The willows do the poem's most original work: their ten thousand strands are imagined as cords with which to tie spring down, an image that turns a commonplace of parting, the willow, into an act of desperate ingenuity. The structure moves from wish (tie spring down) to pursuit (follow the catkins) to lament (the cuckoo) to farewell (the cup) and finally to rain, so the poem dramatizes a complete failed negotiation with the season. Zhu Shuzhen's plain, spoken diction keeps all of this intimate rather than ornate.
此词艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以春写情」见长。全词上片写欲系青春与飘柳絮，下片写闻杜宇与黄昏潇潇雨。上片「楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去」写欲系青春：楼外垂杨千万缕，欲系青春，少住春还去；「独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处」写飘柳絮：独自风前飘柳絮，随春且看归何处。下片「绿满山川闻杜宇。便做无情，莫也愁人苦」写闻杜宇：绿满山川闻杜宇，便做无情，莫也愁人苦；「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」写黄昏潇潇雨：把酒送春春不语，黄昏却下潇潇雨。全词含蓄深婉，以春写情，是朱淑真词中的名篇。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。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
The cuckoo (du juan) is the transformed form of Emperor Wang (Du Yu) of the ancient state of Shu, who legend says became the bird after death and cried until it spat blood; its call is heard as 'better go home', so the bird is the voice of spring's departure and of homesickness and longing. The willow (chu liu, a homophone for 'to keep' and 'to part') is the classical emblem of parting and of spring, and 'ten thousand strands' of it conventionally suggest the knots with which one might detain a parting guest, here stretched to detain spring itself. The 'green spring' (qing chun) carries the double sense of the season and of youth, which is what allows the poem's farewell to spring to read also as a woman's farewell to her own happiness.
词中「楼外垂杨千万缕」「欲系青春少住春还去」「独自风前飘柳絮随春且看归何处」「绿满山川闻杜宇便做无情莫也愁人苦」「把酒送春春不语黄昏却下潇潇雨」等语，皆含典故故实。「楼外垂杨千万缕」写楼外垂杨千万缕；「欲系青春少住春还去」写欲系青春少住春还去（系青春写系住青春）；「独自风前飘柳絮随春且看归何处」写独自风前飘柳絮随春且看归何处；「绿满山川闻杜宇」用杜宇之典（杜宇为望帝啼鹃，写春归），写绿满山川闻杜宇；「便做无情莫也愁人苦」写便做无情莫也愁人苦；「把酒送春春不语」写把酒送春春不语；「黄昏却下潇潇雨」写黄昏却下潇潇雨。词人以垂杨系春、杜宇啼春等语入词，不着痕迹，而把送春惜春之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。
Commentary
This lyric is among the best-known of Zhu Shuzhen's surviving poems and is frequently anthologized as the finest woman's voice in the Song ci tradition. Later readers have especially admired the closing couplet — 'I raise my cup to speed spring on its way, spring does not speak; at dusk, instead, comes the pattering rain' — for the way spring's silence and the rain's answer complete each other, a technique critics call 'ending in scenery'. Biographical readings are tempting and dangerous: many have read the poem's failed farewell as a figure of the poet's unhappy marriage, and while that reading is plausible, the poem also stands as a universal lyric of parting. Its directness and warmth distinguish it from the more learned lyrics of her male contemporaries.
这首《蝶恋花》，是朱淑真写送春惜春之作，写欲系青春、把酒送春春不语、黄昏潇潇雨之情，含蓄深婉。上片写欲系青春与飘柳絮：「楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去」——楼外垂杨千万缕，欲系青春，少住春还去。写欲系青春：楼外垂杨千万缕、欲系青春，少住春还去——垂杨千万缕、欲系青春、少住春还去；「独自风前飘柳絮。随春且看归何处」——独自风前飘柳絮，随春且看归何处。写飘柳絮：独自风前飘柳絮、随春且看归何处——风前飘柳絮、随春看归何处。下片写闻杜宇与黄昏潇潇雨：「绿满山川闻杜宇。便做无情，莫也愁人苦」——绿满山川闻杜宇（用杜宇之典），便做无情，莫也愁人苦。写闻杜宇：绿满山川闻杜宇、便做无情，莫也愁人苦——山川闻杜宇、无情愁人苦；「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」——把酒送春春不语，黄昏却下潇潇雨。写黄昏潇潇雨：把酒送春春不语、黄昏却下潇潇雨——送春春不语、黄昏潇潇雨。这「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」，是全词之结：以黄昏潇潇雨写其惜春。全词含蓄深婉，以春写情，正是朱淑真词中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
楼外垂杨千万缕。
Beyond the tower, ten thousand thousand strands of drooping willow.
楼外垂杨千万缕。
Beyond the tower, the weeping willow, a thousand, ten thousand strands.
首句写楼外垂杨千万缕，起笔即见其春。「楼外垂杨千万缕」写楼外垂杨千万缕，「楼外」写楼外、「垂杨千万缕」写垂杨千万缕。一句以「楼外」写楼外、「垂杨千万缕」写千万缕垂杨，写尽楼外垂杨千万缕之情——楼外垂杨千万缕。以柳起兴，含蓄而明快，是「以柳起兴」的妙笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The opening line writes the willow beyond the tower, the spring at the first stroke. Beyond the tower, the weeping willow, a thousand, ten thousand strands: the beyond the tower writes beyond the tower, the willow's thousand ten thousand strands writes the willow's strands. One line, the beyond the tower for outside the tower, the thousand strands for the myriad willow strands, exhausting the willow beyond the tower. Rising on the willow, restrained and bright, the fine brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
欲系青春，少住春还去。
I would tie down the green spring — stay a little while! — but spring leaves all the same.
欲系青春，少住春还去。
I would tie spring fast; it lingers a little, and spring is gone.
此二句写欲系青春，是全词写系春的关键。「欲系青春」写欲系青春，「欲系」写想要系住、「青春」写青春；「少住春还去」写少住春还去，「少住」写少住、「春还去」写春还是去。两句一写欲系青春、一写少住春还去，以欲系青春写想系春、以少住春还去写春还去，写尽欲系青春、少住春还去之情。以柳系春，含蓄而深婉，是「以柳系春」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write the would-tieing of spring, the key of the ci's tying spring. I would tie spring fast writes the would-tie, the spring; it lingers a little, and spring is gone writes the short stay, spring still gone. Two lines, one the would-tie spring, one the short stay and spring gone, the would-tie for the wish to tie spring, the short stay and spring gone for spring's still going, exhausting the would-tie and the short stay. Tying spring with the willow, restrained and tactful, the pointed brush.
独自风前飘柳絮。
Alone before the wind, willow catkins drift.
独自风前飘柳絮。
Alone, before the wind, the willow catkins drift.
此句写独自风前飘柳絮，是全词写飘絮的关键。「独自风前飘柳絮」写独自风前飘柳絮，「独自」写独自、「风前飘柳絮」写风前飘柳絮。一句以「独自」写独自、「风前飘柳絮」写风前絮飘，写尽独自风前飘柳絮之情——独自看风前飘絮。以絮写春，含蓄而深婉，是「以絮写春」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The line writes the alone drifting catkins before the wind, the key of the ci's drifting. Alone, before the wind, the willow catkins drift: the alone writes alone, the wind-drifting catkins writes the catkins drifting in the wind. One line, the alone for the solitude, the wind-drifting catkins for the drifting before the wind, exhausting the alone watching the drifting catkins. Writing spring through the catkins, restrained and tactful, the pointed brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
绿满山川闻杜宇。
Green floods the mountains and streams, and I hear the cuckoo.
绿满山川闻杜宇。
Green fills the hills and streams; the cuckoo is heard.
此句写绿满山川闻杜宇，是全词以典写春归的关键。「绿满山川闻杜宇」写绿满山川闻杜宇，「绿满山川」写绿满山川、「闻杜宇」写闻杜宇啼（用杜宇啼春之典）。一句以「绿满山川」写绿满山川、「闻杜宇」写杜宇啼，写尽绿满山川闻杜宇之情——山川绿满而闻杜宇。以鸟写春，含蓄而深婉，是「以鸟写春」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The line writes the green filling the hills and streams and the cuckoo heard, the key of the ci's writing of spring's return through allusion. Green fills the hills and streams; the cuckoo is heard: the green fills the hills and streams writes the green over the land, the cuckoo heard writes the cuckoo's cry (using the cuckoo-calling-spring allusion). One line, the green filling for the green over the hills, the cuckoo heard for the cuckoo's cry, exhausting the green land and the cuckoo's cry. Writing spring through the bird, restrained and tactful, the pointed brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
把酒送春春不语。
I raise my cup to speed spring on its way — spring does not speak.
把酒送春春不语。
Holding the cup, I speed spring on its way; spring says not a word.
此句写把酒送春春不语，是全词写送春的关键。「把酒送春春不语」写把酒送春春不语，「把酒送春」写把酒送春、「春不语」写春不答。一句以「把酒送春」写举酒送春、「春不语」写春不说话，写尽把酒送春春不语之情——送春而春不语。以酒送春，含蓄而深挚，是「以酒送春」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The line writes the wine-held speeding of spring and spring's silence, the key of the ci's sending spring. Holding the cup, I speed spring on its way; spring says not a word: the holding-the-cup speeding writes the raising of the cup to speed spring, the spring says not a word writes spring's not answering. One line, the cup-held sending for the raising of the cup, the spring's silence for spring's not speaking, exhausting the speeding of spring and spring's silence. Sending spring with the wine, restrained and deep, the pointed brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
黄昏却下潇潇雨。
At dusk, instead, comes the pattering rain.
黄昏却下潇潇雨。
At dusk, the pattering rain falls.
尾句写黄昏却下潇潇雨，是全词立意的落点。「黄昏却下潇潇雨」写黄昏却下潇潇雨，「黄昏」写黄昏、「却下潇潇雨」写却下潇潇雨。一句以「黄昏」写黄昏、「却下潇潇雨」写雨潇潇，写尽黄昏却下潇潇雨之情——黄昏却下潇潇雨。以雨写愁，含蓄而深挚，是全词最动人处，也是「以雨写愁」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The closing line writes the dusk and the pattering rain, the landing point of the ci. At dusk, the pattering rain falls: the dusk writes the dusk, the pattering rain falls writes the pattering rain. One line, the dusk for the evening, the pattering rain for the rain's sound, exhausting the dusk and the pattering rain. Writing grief through the rain, restrained and deep, the most moving place, the pointed brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Yan Shu's lyric — 'the light chill of the gauze curtain, a pair of swallows fly away' — writes autumn's night-long parting sorrow; Zhu Shuzhen's writes the late-spring wish to detain spring and the dusk rain that answers her farewell. Yan Shu's sorrow is restrained and aristocratic, Zhu Shuzhen's direct and plaintive, the voice of a woman arguing with the season itself. Read together, they show how the same tune can carry both a courtier's elegant melancholy and a woman's intimate complaint.
晏殊《蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露》「槛菊愁烟兰泣露。罗幕轻寒，燕子双飞去」，写秋夜离愁，是宋词写愁的名篇；朱淑真《蝶恋花》则以「楼外垂杨千万缕。欲系青春，少住春还去」「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」写欲系青春、黄昏潇潇雨。两词同写蝶恋花调、惜春伤别：一写槛菊愁烟兰泣露罗幕轻寒、以菊烟写愁，一写楼外垂杨千万缕欲系青春、以垂杨写系春；一为晏殊之温润、一为朱淑真之幽婉，并读正可见宋词写「蝶恋花惜春」的两种笔法，皆于蝶恋花之中见惜春伤别。
浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Huan Xi Sha (Washing Creek Sand): 'A new song, and one cup of wine' 晏殊 · 同写送春惜春、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写把酒送春春不语，皆于送春之中见无可奈何 Both write the sorrow of seeing spring off and the helplessness of it all; one writes 'helplessly the flowers fall away', the other 'I raise my cup to speed spring, spring does not speak' — each finds helplessness in the act of farewell.Yan Shu's 'helplessly the flowers fall away, the familiar swallows return' compresses the sorrow of passing time into a famous resigned couplet; Zhu Shuzhen's poem acts it out in full, begging, following, toasting, and finally unanswered. Yan Shu accepts the season's passing with melancholy grace; Zhu Shuzhen refuses to accept it and is silenced. The one is a philosopher of time, the other a woman losing her spring; together they show the two temperaments of Song lyric mourning for spring.
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」，写送春惜春、无可奈何，是宋词写惜时的名篇；朱淑真《蝶恋花》则以「绿满山川闻杜宇。便做无情，莫也愁人苦」「把酒送春春不语。黄昏却下潇潇雨」写闻杜宇、黄昏潇潇雨。两词同写送春惜春、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写把酒送春春不语、以送春写惜春；一为晏殊之温润、一为朱淑真之幽婉，并读正可见宋词写「送春无可奈何」的两种笔法，皆于送春之中见无可奈何。