宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
风入松
To the Tune 'Feng Ru Song' (Wind Through the Pines)
剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲。
听风听雨小窗眠。
过了春光太半。
往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环。
流莺不肯入西园。
唤起画梁飞燕。
it is only constant illness that keeps me in endless leisure.
Listening to the wind and the rain, I sleep by the small window —
most of the spring light has already passed.
Past events are like chasing birds that have flown away;
this clear sorrow is as hard to untie as interlocking rings.
The wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden —
let me call up the flying swallows on the painted beams.
Meaning
A sick, idle man sleeps by his window through wind and rain while most of the spring passes; the past is unrecoverable and his sorrow will not untie. Even the birds withdraw — the oriole will not enter his garden, and he can only try to call the swallows back.
剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲。听风听雨小窗眠。过了春光太半。往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环。流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] I would read, but I have grown idle; constant illness keeps me in endless leisure. I sleep by the small window listening to wind and rain — most of the spring light has passed. Past events are like chasing birds that have flown; this clear sorrow is as hard to untie as interlocking rings. The wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden — let me call up the flying swallows on the painted beams. [Structure] Body, season, memory, sorrow, birds: the lyric contracts inward from a sickbed to the beams of the roof, and finally to a wish the birds will not fulfill. [Imagery] Every living thing withdraws — spring passes, birds flee, the past cannot be chased — and the closing attempt to summon swallows is a gesture against the withdrawal.
【白话串讲】 吴文英写《风入松》：“剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲”——“听风听雨小窗眠”——“往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环”——“流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕”——他写闲愁——清愁难解连环。 【意象与手法】 “剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲”以多病长闲写闲愁；“听风听雨小窗眠”以听风听雨写无聊；“往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环”以寻去鸟难解连环写愁绪；结以“流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕”以流莺飞燕写春意。含蓄深婉、以景写愁。 【情感与主旨】 吴文英写伤春病闲之作，写多病长闲的寂寥与清愁难解的愁绪，是梦窗词中写闲愁的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“听风听雨小窗眠”以听风听雨写闲愁；“往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环”以难解连环写愁绪。
Background
Wu Wenying (c. 1200 – c. 1260), style Jun Te, sobriquet Meng Chuang, was a native of Si Ming (Ningbo). The founder of the dense, allusive 'Meng Chuang' school of Southern Song ci, he never held office and lived among the patronage circles of Suzhou and Hangzhou; his lyrics are celebrated — and sometimes faulted — for their jewel-like density and emotional opacity. This 'Feng Ru Song' belongs to his quieter, plainer register: a short song of sickbed leisure and fading spring, whose deceptively simple lines carry the Meng Chuang marks of twisted syntax and feeling lodged in things.
《风入松》为南宋词人吴文英所作词。吴文英（约1200—约1260），字君特，号梦窗，四明（今浙江宁波）人，南宋词人，词风密丽深婉，为「梦窗词」之宗。此词写伤春病闲。词中「剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲」写剩欲读书已懒；「听风听雨小窗眠。过了春光太半」写听风听雨；「往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环」写清愁难解；「流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕」写唤起画梁飞燕。吴文英此词以伤春病闲、唤起画梁飞燕写其病闲之情，含蓄深婉，是吴文英词中的名篇。此篇《风入松》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《风入松》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 art is negative space. It begins by subtracting: the will to read fails, the body is ill, the season is mostly gone — three layers of negation before a single image of beauty. 'Listening to wind and rain, I sleep by the small window' is the song's still center: a man enclosed in a room, weather on the outside, sleep as the only response. 'Past events are like chasing birds that have flown' uses the simile's whole structure — pursuit, distance, impossibility — in seven syllables; 'interlocking rings' then turns sorrow itself into an object that cannot be opened. The closing pair is the craft's peak: one bird refuses to come, the other must be called — spring withheld and spring summoned in the same breath, loneliness enacted rather than described.
此词艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以景写情」见长。全词上片写剩欲读书已懒与听风听雨，下片写清愁难解与唤起画梁飞燕。上片「剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲」写剩欲读书已懒：剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲；「听风听雨小窗眠。过了春光太半」写听风听雨：听风听雨小窗眠，过了春光太半。下片「往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环」写清愁难解：往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环；「流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕」写唤起画梁飞燕：流莺不肯入西园，唤起画梁飞燕。全词含蓄深婉，以景写情，是吴文英词中的名篇。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
Two allusions carry the lyric. 'Interlocking rings' (lian huan) refers to the story of the lady who sent her lover a chain of rings with the message that it could not be untied — a token of love that is also a riddle without a solution, hence the byword for an insoluble entanglement. 'Calling up the flying swallows' inverts the usual swallow imagery: since the Han fu and Yan Shu's 'swallows fly in pairs,' the pair of swallows is the emblem of companionship, and here the sick man tries to call them back as if they were his own. 'The small window' belongs to the recluse-poet's window tradition of quietude, and 'listening to wind and rain' echoes Li Shangyin's autumn-night rain melancholy transposed to a sickbed spring.
词中「剩欲读书已懒」「多病长闲」「听风听雨小窗眠」「过了春光太半」「往事如寻去鸟」「清愁难解连环」「流莺不肯入西园」「唤起画梁飞燕」等语，皆含典故故实。「剩欲读书已懒」写剩欲读书已懒；「多病长闲」写多病长闲；「听风听雨小窗眠」写听风听雨小窗眠；「过了春光太半」写过了春光太半；「往事如寻去鸟」写往事如寻去鸟；「清愁难解连环」写清愁难解连环（用解连环之典，连环难解，喻愁难解）；「流莺不肯入西园」写流莺不肯入西园；「唤起画梁飞燕」写唤起画梁飞燕。词人以解连环之典入词，不着痕迹，而把伤春病闲之情写得真切可感，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。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
Meng Chuang lyrics are usually read for their density, but this song shows Wu Wenying's gift for scarcity — a whole sick spring compressed into six short lines. Critics have noted its Tao Qian-like plainness ('I would read, but I have grown idle' could be a Tao Qian sentence turned ill), and its ending has been variously read: some see in the oriole's refusal and the summoned swallows a memory of the poet's beloved (a common Meng Chuang reading of the 'western garden'), others a simple spring sickness of the spirit. Zhou Ji called Wu Wenying's lyrics 'dense as a brocade' — this one is the plain reverse of that brocade, and its very thinness makes 'the wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden' one of the loneliest lines in Southern Song ci.
这首《风入松》，是吴文英写伤春病闲之作，写剩欲读书已懒、听风听雨、唤起画梁飞燕之情，含蓄深婉。上片写剩欲读书已懒与听风听雨：「剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲」——剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲。写剩欲读书已懒：剩欲读书已懒、只因多病长闲——想读书已懒、因多病长闲；「听风听雨小窗眠。过了春光太半」——听风听雨小窗眠，过了春光太半。写听风听雨：听风听雨小窗眠、过了春光太半——听风雨小窗眠、春光过太半。下片写清愁难解与唤起画梁飞燕：「往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环」——往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环（用解连环之典）。写清愁难解：往事如寻去鸟、清愁难解连环——往事如寻去鸟、清愁难解连环；「流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕」——流莺不肯入西园，唤起画梁飞燕。写唤起画梁飞燕：流莺不肯入西园、唤起画梁飞燕——流莺不肯入西园、唤起画梁飞燕。这「流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕」，是全词之结：以唤起画梁飞燕写其病闲。全词含蓄深婉，以景写情，正是吴文英词中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲。
I would fain read, but I have grown idle; it is only constant illness that keeps me in endless leisure.
剩欲读书已懒，只因多病长闲。
I long still to read, but have grown too idle; only because of constant illness, long at leisure.
首二句写剩欲读书已懒，起笔即见其闲。「剩欲读书已懒」写剩欲读书已懒，「剩欲」写甚想、「读书已懒」写读书已懒；「只因多病长闲」写只因多病长闲，「只因」写只因、「多病长闲」写多病而长闲。两句一写剩欲读书已懒、一写只因多病长闲，以剩欲读书已懒写其懒、以多病长闲写其闲，写尽甚想读书而懒、只因多病长闲之情。以闲起兴，含蓄而深婉，是「以闲起兴」的妙笔。
The opening two phrases write the longing-to-read-and-yet-idle, the leisure rising with the first stroke. I long still to read, but have grown too idle: the still-longing the earnest wish, the reading-idle the reading grown lazy; only because of constant illness, long at leisure: the only-because the reason, the much-illness-long-leisure the long leisure through sickness. Two phrases, the longing-to-read-and-yet-lazy and the illness-and-leisure — the longing to read and the laziness, the constant sickness and the long idleness. Rising on leisure, restrained and deep, the pointed brush.
听风听雨小窗眠。
Listening to the wind and the rain, I sleep by the small window.
听风听雨小窗眠。
Listening to the wind, listening to the rain, I sleep by the little window.
此句写听风听雨小窗眠，是全词写病闲之态的关键。「听风听雨小窗眠」写听风听雨小窗眠，「听风听雨」写听着风雨、「小窗眠」写小窗下眠。一句以「听风听雨」写风雨之声、「小窗眠」写小窗之眠，写尽听风听雨、小窗独眠之情。以眠写闲，含蓄而深婉，是「以眠写闲」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 listening to wind and rain and sleeping by the little window, the key of the ci's sickly ease. Listening to the wind, listening to the rain, I sleep by the little window: the wind-and-rain listening the listening to rain and wind, the little-window-sleep the sleep by the small window. One line writes the rain's sound through the listening, and the small window's sleep through the little window — listening to wind and rain, sleeping alone by the small window. Writing leisure through sleep, restrained and deep, the pointed stroke. The few words carry a deep meaning, the pointed stroke of the ci.
往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环。
Past events are like chasing birds that have flown away; this clear sorrow is as hard to untie as interlocking rings.
往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环。
The past is like a bird flown past, impossible to recall; the clear grief, like a linked ring, impossible to untie.
此二句写清愁难解，是全词写愁的关键。「往事如寻去鸟」写往事如寻去鸟，「往事」写往事、「如寻去鸟」写如寻觅飞去的鸟；「清愁难解连环」写清愁难解连环，用解连环之典写清愁难解。两句一写往事如寻去鸟、一写清愁难解连环，以往事如寻去鸟写往事难寻、以清愁难解连环写愁之难解，写尽往事如寻去鸟、清愁难解连环之情。以典写愁，含蓄而深挚，是「以典写愁」的点睛之笔。
The two phrases write the clear grief beyond untying, the key of the ci's grief. The past is like a bird flown past, impossible to recall: the past the bygone years, the like-a-fled-gone-bird like seeking the bird that has flown; the clear grief, like a linked ring, impossible to untie uses the untying-the-linked-ring allusion for the grief's knot. Two phrases, the past like the flown bird and the grief like the linked ring — the past beyond recall, the grief beyond untying. Writing grief through allusion, restrained and deep, the pointed stroke.
流莺不肯入西园。
The wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden.
流莺不肯入西园。
The wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden.
此句写流莺不肯入西园，是全词以莺写春的关键。「流莺不肯入西园」写流莺不肯入西园，「流莺」写流莺、「不肯入西园」写不肯飞入西园。一句以「流莺」写莺、「不肯入西园」写其不肯入园，写尽流莺不肯入西园之情。以莺写春，含蓄而深婉，是「以莺写春」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 wandering oriole refusing the western garden, the key of the ci's spring through the oriole. The wandering oriole refuses to enter the western garden: the wandering oriole the wandering songbird, the refuses-to-enter the refusal to fly in. One line writes the oriole through the wandering oriole, and the refusal through the refuses-to-enter — the oriole that will not enter the western garden. Writing spring through the oriole, restrained and deep, the pointed stroke. The few words carry a deep meaning, the pointed stroke of the ci.
唤起画梁飞燕。
Let me call up the flying swallows on the painted beams.
唤起画梁飞燕。
I wake the swallows on the painted beam.
尾句写唤起画梁飞燕，是全词立意的落点。「唤起画梁飞燕」写唤起画梁飞燕，「唤起」写唤醒、「画梁飞燕」写画梁上之飞燕。一句以「唤起」写唤醒、「画梁飞燕」写画梁飞燕，写尽唤起画梁飞燕之情。以燕写情，含蓄而深挚，是全词最动人处，也是「以燕写情」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 waking the swallows on the painted beam, the landing point of the ci's intention. I wake the swallows on the painted beam: the wake the waking, the painted-beam-swallow the swallows on the painted rafter. One line writes the waking through wake, and the painted-beam swallows through the painted-beam-swallow — waking the swallows of the painted beam. Writing feeling through the swallows, restrained and deep, the most moving place of the ci, the pointed stroke. The few words carry a deep meaning, the pointed stroke of the ci.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Yan Shu watches the flowers fall and the familiar swallows return — a loss that is also a cycle, borne with warm resignation. Wu Wenying's spring has 'mostly passed' in a sickbed sleep, and no bird will enter his garden: the same passing of spring, but where Yan Shu turns loss into music, Wu Wenying lets it curdle into unopened sorrow.
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」，写春逝之无可奈何，是宋词写惜时的名篇；吴文英《风入松》则以「听风听雨小窗眠。过了春光太半」「往事如寻去鸟，清愁难解连环」写过春光太半、清愁难解连环。两词同写春光已逝、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写过了春光太半、以春逝写愁；一为晏殊之温润、一为吴文英之密丽，并读正可见宋词写「春逝无可奈何」的两种笔法，皆于春逝之中见无可奈何。
晏殊·蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露 Yan Shu's 'Die Lian Hua': 'Chrysanthemums by the rail grieve at the mist, orchids weep with dew' 晏殊 · 同写独自凝愁、燕去燕归，一写罗幕轻寒燕子双飞去、一写唤起画梁飞燕，皆于燕子之中见凝愁 Both brood alone among swallows; one 'the pair of swallows flies away,' the other 'call up the flying swallows on the painted beams.'Yan Shu's swallows leave and the man climbs the tower alone in autumn light — departure observed from below. Wu Wenying's swallows are on the painted beams of his own roof, and he tries to call them: the same bird, but one flees the scene while the other is summoned within it. The contrast shows the Song lyric's two solitudes: the exile's and the invalid's.
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」，写秋景离愁，是宋词写愁的名篇；吴文英《风入松》则以「流莺不肯入西园。唤起画梁飞燕」写流莺不肯入西园、唤起画梁飞燕。两词同写独自凝愁、燕去燕归：一写罗幕轻寒燕子双飞去、以燕去写愁，一写唤起画梁飞燕、以燕归写情；一为晏殊之温润、一为吴文英之密丽，并读正可见宋词写「燕与凝愁」的两种笔法，皆于燕子之中见凝愁。