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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

浣溪沙

Huanxisha: Spring Grief in a Dream

吴文英

Wu Wenying

门隔花深梦旧游。
夕阳无语燕归愁。
玉纤香动小帘钩。
落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞。
东风临夜冷于秋。

Behind the door, deep in flowers, I dream of my old wanderings.
The setting sun is wordless; the homing swallows come heavy with sorrow.
A jade-smooth, fragrant hand stirs the little curtain hook.
Falling catkins make no sound — spring sheds tears; drifting clouds cast shadows — the moon hides its face.
The east wind at nightfall is colder than autumn.
Listen

Meaning

In a dream the poet passes a flower-deep door and revisits old haunts; a silent sunset, sorrowful swallows, and a jade-smooth hand at the curtain hook compose a world of vanished intimacy. Falling catkins become spring's own tears and the drifting clouds shame the moon; waking, he finds the spring-night east wind colder than autumn — the season's logic overturned by grief.

门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁。玉纤香动小帘钩。落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞。东风临夜冷于秋。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Behind a door, beyond deep flowers, I dream of the places we once wandered. The setting sun says nothing; the returning swallows are full of sorrow. A white, fragrant hand moves the small curtain hook. Catkins fall without a sound — spring is weeping; drifting clouds throw shadows — the moon is hiding its face. When night comes, the east wind is colder than autumn. [Structure] The lyric is a dream with a cold waking: the first three lines live inside sleep (door, flowers, old haunts, the beloved's hand), the last two step outside into a spring night that has turned wintry. The turn is not announced; the temperature simply drops. [Imagery] Nature is made human throughout: the sun is 'wordless,' swallows 'carry sorrow,' spring 'sheds tears,' the moon 'hides its face' — the whole landscape participates in a grief that is never stated. The famous couplet of falling catkins and drifting clouds is the dense, ornate Mengchuang style at its most perfect: four images in fourteen characters, all silent, all sorrowing.

【白话串讲】 吴文英写《浣溪沙》：“门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁”——“玉纤香动小帘钩”——“落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞”——“东风临夜冷于秋”——他写梦中重游——落絮无声春堕泪。 【意象与手法】 “门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁”以门隔花深写梦境；“玉纤香动小帘钩”写女子之态；“落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞”以落絮行云写春愁；结以“东风临夜冷于秋”以冷于秋写春寒。意象幽美、含蓄深婉。 【情感与主旨】 吴文英写春愁怀人之作，写梦中重游旧地、醒来春愁更深的情思，以“东风临夜冷于秋”写春夜之寒与心之冷，是梦窗词中婉约清丽的代表作。 【名句点睛】 常考“落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞”以落絮行云写春愁；“东风临夜冷于秋”以冷于秋写春寒心冷。

Background

Wu Wenying (c. 1200–c. 1260), courtesy name Junte, hao Mengchuang, was from Siming (modern Ningbo, Zhejiang). The greatest of the Southern Song 'dense' (mimi) lyricists and the head of the Mengchuang school, he spent much of his life as a guest poet in the households of Suzhou and Hangzhou officials, writing lyrics for banquets, partings, and spring laments. This Huanxisha, on a dream of a lost love and a cold spring night, is one of his most widely anthologized short pieces and a classic exhibit of his method.

《浣溪沙》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。此词写春愁怀人。词中「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」写门隔花深；「玉纤香动小帘钩」写玉纤香动；「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」写落絮无声；「东风临夜冷于秋」写冷于秋。吴文英此词以春愁怀人、冷于秋写其春愁，含蓄深婉，是吴文英词中的名篇。此篇《浣溪沙》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《浣溪沙》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

Three techniques dominate. First, the dream-frame: the lyric's events have no daylight logic — doors, flowers, a hand, a curtain hook — because everything happens in the space between sleeping and waking. Second, comprehensive personification: sun, swallows, spring, clouds, and moon all behave like mourners at a vigil, so the external world is made to perform the dreamer's emotion without a single direct statement of feeling. Third, the closing inversion — 'the east wind at nightfall is colder than autumn' — converts a meteorological fact into a psychological one: the seasons themselves are out of order because the heart is. Dense, polished, and cool: every word carries color.

此词艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以景写情」见长。全词上片写门隔花深与玉纤香动，下片写落絮无声与冷于秋。上片「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」写门隔花深：门隔花深梦旧游，夕阳无语燕归愁；「玉纤香动小帘钩」写玉纤香动：玉纤香动小帘钩。下片「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」写落絮无声：落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞；「东风临夜冷于秋」写冷于秋：东风临夜冷于秋。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

Jade-smooth hand (yu xian): the stock poetic epithet for a woman's white, slender fingers, part of the tradition of writing the beloved through one detail. Drifting clouds (xing yun) carries the old Wushan allusion — 'the morning cloud, the evening rain' of Song Yu's rhapsody, where meeting the goddess is erotic and evanescent — so the moon's 'shame' suggests a remembered intimacy now only dreamt. Homing swallows (yan gui) belong to the long tradition in which returning swallows, and pairs of swallows, mock the solitary sleeper. The tune name itself, Huanxisha, is irrelevant to content but fixes the lyric in the short, bright, three-line stanza that Wu Wenying fills with unusually dark matter.

词中「门隔花深梦旧游」「夕阳无语燕归愁」「玉纤香动小帘钩」「落絮无声春堕泪」「行云有影月含羞」「东风临夜冷于秋」等语，皆含典故故实。「门隔花深梦旧游」写门隔花深梦旧游；「夕阳无语燕归愁」写夕阳无语燕归愁；「玉纤香动小帘钩」写玉纤香动小帘钩（玉纤为女子手指）；「落絮无声春堕泪」写落絮无声春堕泪；「行云有影月含羞」写行云有影月含羞（用巫山行云之意，亦写月含羞）；「东风临夜冷于秋」写东风临夜冷于秋。词人以玉纤、行云、月含羞等语入词，不着痕迹，而把春愁怀人之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸意象的体现。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

This lyric is one of the most quoted of Wu Wenying's shorter works, and its couplet — 'falling catkins make no sound, spring sheds tears; drifting clouds cast shadows, the moon hides its face' — has been praised for centuries as the perfection of parallel personification. Critics of the 'dense' school cite it as proof that density need not mean obscurity; detractors of the same school have found the lyric over-wrought. Its last line, making the spring wind colder than autumn, is admired as a stroke of psychological truth: cold is not weather but the measure of loss. In anthologies it usually stands as the first Mengchuang lyric a student meets.

这首《浣溪沙》，是吴文英写春愁怀人之作，写门隔花深、玉纤香动、冷于秋之情，含蓄深婉。上片写门隔花深与玉纤香动：「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」——门隔花深梦旧游，夕阳无语燕归愁。写门隔花深：门隔花深梦旧游、夕阳无语燕归愁——门隔花深、梦游旧地、夕阳燕归含愁；「玉纤香动小帘钩」——玉纤香动小帘钩。写玉纤香动：玉纤香动小帘钩——玉手掀帘、香动帘钩。下片写落絮无声与冷于秋：「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」——落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞。写落絮无声：落絮无声春堕泪、行云有影月含羞——落絮无声如春堕泪、行云有影如月含羞；「东风临夜冷于秋」——东风临夜冷于秋。写冷于秋：东风临夜冷于秋——东风临夜、冷于秋。这「东风临夜冷于秋」，是全词之结：以冷于秋写其春愁。全词含蓄深婉，以景写情，正是吴文英词中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Ci lyric in the tune Huanxisha, a double-stanza form of 42 characters, three lines per stanza, with level-tone rhymes.词（浣溪沙，双调）
Rhyme Rhymed on level (ping) tones: you, chou, gou, xiu, qiu — all in the you rhyme group. Their long, resonant vowels give the lyric its low, humming, melancholy music.此词为《浣溪沙》调，双调四十二字，上片下片各三句。押平声韵：「游」「愁」「钩」「羞」「秋」押尤韵。词体依词谱而定，句式长短错落，音节随情起伏，正与写春愁怀人的含蓄深婉相称，也见其以词写春愁的自然。
Tone pattern Six heptasyllabic lines, three per stanza: the even gait of the tune is here slowed by the density of images, each line carrying two or three separate pictures. The caesurae fall late — after the fourth character ('men ge hua shen / meng jiu you'; 'luo xu wu sheng / chun duo lei') — producing a double beat within each line, image answering image. In recitation the third line of the first stanza ('yu xian xiang dong xiao lian gou') should be soft and slow, as if touching, while the final line ('dong feng lin ye leng yu qiu') should drop to the lowest register, the cold made audible.句式上，上片「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」写门隔花深，音节低回；「玉纤香动小帘钩」写玉纤香动，音节婉转；下片「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」写落絮无声，音节清丽；「东风临夜冷于秋」写冷于秋，音节绵长。全词音节由低回而婉转、由清丽而绵长，正合词体「长短句」之妙，读来如春愁怀人、冷于秋之音，含蓄而动人。
Reading note Huanxisha's small, bright frame — three even lines to a stanza — is filled by Wu Wenying with unusually dark content, and the tension between form and matter is part of the lyric's effect: the music stays light while the world turns cold. Recited quietly, with the rhymes allowed to hum, the piece sounds like someone describing a dream they do not want to leave; the final rhyme, qiu ('autumn'), hangs in the air after the voice stops.此词为《浣溪沙》调，是吴文英写春愁怀人之作，也是其词中的名篇。全词的艺术特色在于「含蓄深婉、以景写情」：上片「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」写门隔花深、「玉纤香动小帘钩」写玉纤香动；下片「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」写落絮无声、「东风临夜冷于秋」写冷于秋。全词含蓄深婉，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」以落絮行云写春愁；而「东风临夜冷于秋」以冷写愁，正是吴文英词「含蓄深婉」的典范，为历代词选所常收。《浣溪沙》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

门隔花深梦旧游。

Behind the door, deep in flowers, I dream of my old wanderings.

门隔花深梦旧游。

The door is screened by deep flowers; in a dream I revisit the old haunts.

首句写门隔花深，起笔即见其梦。「门隔花深梦旧游」写门隔花深梦旧游，「门隔花深」写门隔花深、「梦旧游」写梦见旧游之地。一句以「门隔花深」写门之隔、以「梦旧游」写梦旧游，写尽门隔花深、梦旧游之情——门深花隔而梦游旧地。以梦起兴，含蓄而深婉，是「以梦起兴」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 writes the door and flowers, the dream rising at the first stroke. The door is screened by deep flowers; in a dream I revisit the old haunts: the door screened by flowers, the dream of the old wanderings. One line: the deep flowers before the door, the dream of the old place — the door screened, the dream wandering. Rising on the dream, restrained and deep, the pointed stroke.

夕阳无语燕归愁。

The setting sun is wordless; the homing swallows come heavy with sorrow.

夕阳无语燕归愁。

The setting sun is wordless; the returning swallow is sorrowful.

此句写夕阳无语燕归愁，是全词写景的关键。「夕阳无语燕归愁」写夕阳无语燕归愁，「夕阳无语」写夕阳无语、「燕归愁」写燕归而含愁。一句以「夕阳无语」写夕阳之寂、「燕归愁」写归燕含愁，写尽夕阳无语、燕归含愁之情。以景写愁，含蓄而深婉，是「以景写愁」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。

This line writes the setting sun and the swallow, the key of the ci's scene. The setting sun is wordless; the returning swallow is sorrowful: the wordless sun, the sorrowful returning swallow. One line: the silent sun, the grieving swallow — the stillness of the sun, the swallow's grief. Writing sorrow through scene, the pointed stroke.

落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞。

Falling catkins make no sound — spring sheds tears; drifting clouds cast shadows — the moon hides its face.

落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞。

Falling catkins, soundless; spring sheds tears. The moving clouds cast shadows; the moon seems shy.

此二句写落絮无声，是全词写春愁的关键。「落絮无声春堕泪」写落絮无声春堕泪，「落絮无声」写落絮无声、「春堕泪」写春如堕泪；「行云有影月含羞」写行云有影月含羞，「行云有影」写行云有影、「月含羞」写月如含羞。两句一写落絮无声春堕泪、一写行云有影月含羞，以落絮无声写絮之落、以春堕泪写春之泪、以行云有影写云之影、以月含羞写月之羞，写尽落絮无声春堕泪、行云有影月含羞之情。以景写情，含蓄而深婉，是「以景写情」的点睛之笔。

These two lines write the spring sorrow, the key of the ci's feeling. Falling catkins, soundless; spring sheds tears: the soundless catkins, spring as if weeping. The moving clouds cast shadows; the moon seems shy: the cloud shadows, the moon as if shy. Two lines: the soundless catkins and spring's tears, the cloud shadows and the moon's shyness — the falling, the weeping, the shadow, the shyness. Writing feeling through scene, the pointed stroke.

东风临夜冷于秋。

The east wind at nightfall is colder than autumn.

东风临夜冷于秋。

When the east wind meets the night, it is colder than autumn.

尾句写冷于秋，是全词立意的落点。「东风临夜冷于秋」写东风临夜冷于秋，「东风临夜」写东风临夜、「冷于秋」写其冷胜过秋天。一句以「东风临夜」写东风临夜、「冷于秋」写冷于秋，写尽东风临夜、其冷胜秋之情。以冷写愁，含蓄而深挚，是全词最动人处，也是「以冷写愁」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 close writes the cold, the landing point of the ci. When the east wind meets the night, it is colder than autumn: the east wind at night, the cold exceeding autumn. One line: the night wind's chill, colder than autumn — the wind at night, the coldness beyond autumn. Writing grief through cold, the most moving place of the ci.

Study

Word focus

隔 ge: 'screened by,' 'separated by.' The door and the deep flowers stand between the dreamer and the old world; one character builds the wall of distance and seclusion through which the whole lyric is seen. 「隔」字写门隔花深，是写门深花隔的关键。「门隔花深」着一「隔」，写隔绝——着一「隔」字，写门隔花深，见其阻隔之深。一字写尽隔花之门，是「以一字写境」的妙笔。「隔」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。
无语 wu yu: 'wordless,' 'speechless.' The setting sun offers no explanation for the loss; its silence is the counterpart of the dreamer's own muteness before what he has dreamed. 「无语」写夕阳无语，是写夕阳之寂的关键。「夕阳无语燕归愁」着一「无语」，写无言——着一「无语」，写夕阳无语，见其寂寞之态。两字写尽夕阳之无语，是「以词写寂」的点睛之词。「无语」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。
堕 duo: 'to fall,' 'to drop.' Spring itself drops tears along the silent catkins — a heavy verb for a quiet scene, making the season grieve bodily rather than metaphorically. 「堕」字写春堕泪，是写春泪之落的关键。「落絮无声春堕泪」着一「堕」，写坠落——着一「堕」字，写春如堕泪，见其泪之落。一字写尽堕泪之春，是「以一字写泪」的点睛之词。「堕」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。
冷 leng: 'cold.' In the last line the spring wind is 'colder than autumn': temperature becomes the exact measure of the heart's condition, and one word turns meteorology into elegy. 「冷」字写冷于秋，是写其春愁的关键。「东风临夜冷于秋」着一「冷」，写寒冷——着一「冷」字，写东风临夜其冷胜秋，见其愁之深。一字写尽冷于秋之慨，是「以一字写愁」的点睛之词。「冷」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

浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Huanxisha: A New Song over a Cup of Wine 晏殊 · 同写夕阳燕归、时序之感，一写无可奈何花落去似曾相识燕归来、一写夕阳无语燕归愁，皆于燕归之中见时序之感 Both write of returning swallows at sunset and the sense of time passing; one writes 'nothing to be done as the flowers fall away, the swallows seem to have met before,' the other 'the setting sun is wordless; the homing swallows come heavy with sorrow.'

Yan Shu meets the returning swallows with recognition and philosophical balance; Wu Wenying's swallows come 'heavy with sorrow,' and the sunset is silent. The same small scene — dusk, swallows — becomes in Yan Shu a meditation on recurrence and in Wu Wenying a dream of loss: two climates of the Song lyric.

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」，写夕阳燕归、时序流转，是宋词写惜时的名篇；吴文英《浣溪沙》则以「门隔花深梦旧游。夕阳无语燕归愁」「落絮无声春堕泪，行云有影月含羞」写夕阳燕归愁、落絮春堕泪。两词同写夕阳燕归、时序之感：一写无可奈何花落去似曾相识燕归来、以燕归写惜时，一写夕阳无语燕归愁、以燕愁写愁；一为晏殊之温润、一为吴文英之密丽，并读正可见宋词写「夕阳燕归」的两种笔法，皆于燕归之中见时序之感。

 晏殊·蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露 Dielianhua: Chrysanthemums by the Railing Worry over Mist, Orchids Weep Dew 晏殊 · 同写春夜凝愁、独自怀人，一写罗幕轻寒燕子双飞去、一写东风临夜冷于秋，皆于春夜之中见凝愁 Both write of a cold night alone with longing; one writes 'the light curtain is lightly cold, the swallows fly away in pairs,' the other 'the east wind at nightfall is colder than autumn.'

Yan Shu's cold is real autumn weather — railing chrysanthemums, a thin curtain — and longing moves through it openly, ending in the famous gaze down the sky-road. Wu Wenying's cold is a spring-night impossibility produced by grief, and longing never moves at all: it is sealed inside a dream. The comparison contrasts the delicate school's open-air and enclosed-air manners.

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；吴文英《浣溪沙》则以「门隔花深梦旧游」「东风临夜冷于秋」写门隔花深、冷于秋。两词同写春夜凝愁、独自怀人：一写罗幕轻寒燕子双飞去、以燕去写愁，一写东风临夜冷于秋、以冷写愁；一为晏殊之温润、一为吴文英之密丽，并读正可见宋词写「春夜凝愁」的两种笔法，皆于春夜之中见凝愁。