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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

李清照·点绛唇·寂寞深闺

Dabbing Crimson Lips - Lonely in the Deep Boudoir

李清照

Li Qingzhao

婉约graceful and restrained 闺情boudoir feeling

点绛唇·寂寞深闺寂寞深闺，柔肠一寸愁千缕。
惜春春去，几点催花雨。
倚遍阑干，只是无情绪。
人何处，连天芳草，望断归来路。

Lonely in the deep boudoir,
one inch of tender heart draws out a thousand threads of grief.
I cherish the spring, and the spring is gone,
leaving a few drops of rain that hurry the blossoms down.
I have leaned on every stretch of the railing,
and still there is no spirit in me at all.
Where is he now?
Sweet grass runs level with the sky;
I gaze until the road of his return is lost to sight.

Listen

Meaning

In the lonely depths of the inner chamber, a single inch of tender heart draws out a thousand threads of sorrow. She cherishes the spring light, yet the spring has already departed, leaving only a few drops of rain to hurry the blossoms down. She has leaned on every part of the railing, and still she has no spirit for anything. Where is the far-off one now? She sees only sweet grass running level with the sky, and gazes until the road of his return is lost to sight.

寂寞的深闺里，柔肠一寸便牵出千缕愁思。怜惜春光却见春已归去，只落得几点催花而下的细雨。倚遍了栏杆，只是没有一点情绪。远人如今在何处？只见连天芳草，望断了那归来之路。

Appreciation

The lyric opens on a lonely inner chamber where a single inch of tender heart pulls out a thousand threads of grief, and the sheer disproportion between 'one inch' and 'a thousand threads' fixes the density and length of the sorrow in a phrase that is startling and fresh. She cherishes the spring and the spring has already gone, leaving only a few drops of blossom-hurrying rain, so that the small weather of the scene carries the whole weight of the mood. Having leaned on every stretch of the railing she still has no spirit for anything, and the flat plainness of the admission is exactly what makes it true. Generally taken as an early work of Li Qingzhao, written before her marriage or during a short separation from Zhao Mingcheng, the piece belongs to the boudoir-longing tradition, and it closes by letting the scene speak for the feeling: where is he now, with the sweet grass running level with the sky and the road of return gazed away into nothing.

【白话串讲】 “寂寞深闺，柔肠一寸愁千缕”——李清照写深闺寂寞：一寸柔肠，愁有千缕。“人何处，连天芳草，望断归来路”——她望着天边，等一个人回来。【意象与手法】上片「柔肠一寸愁千缕」以「一寸」对「千缕」，数量反差极写愁思之绵密深长，造语新奇；「惜春春去」叠用「春」字，口语中见回环之妙；下片「倚遍阑干」以动作写盼归之焦灼，「只是无情绪」直白而真；结句「人何处，连天芳草，望断归来路」以景结情，化用《楚辞》「王孙游兮不归」，意境浑成。【情感与主旨】此词一般视为李清照前期（婚前或婚后与赵明诚小别）所作，属闺怨相思题材。宋代女性词本不多见，而易安以女性亲身之感写深闺寂寞，尤为真切。词中「人何处」所盼之「远人」，多以为是屏居或出游的赵明诚。全词不作矜饰，纯以日常闺中情态写春愁离思，反映易安词「情景相生、语意新巧」的早期风貌。【名句点睛】中高考赏析要点：「柔肠一寸愁千缕」中「一寸」与「千缕」对比，夸张写愁；「倚遍」之「遍」见盼归之切；结句连天芳草、望断归路的以景结情与典故化用。

Background

This lyric is generally regarded as an early work of Li Qingzhao, written either before her marriage or during a brief separation from Zhao Mingcheng, and it belongs to the tradition of boudoir longing. Lyrics by women were rare in the Song, and Li Qingzhao's account of the loneliness of the inner chamber, drawn from a woman's own experience, is unusually truthful. The distant one whom the line 'where is he now' waits for is usually taken to be Zhao Mingcheng, away in seclusion or on a journey. Nothing in the piece is dressed up: it writes spring sorrow and the pain of separation purely through the everyday moods of a woman's chamber, and it reflects the early manner of her lyrics, in which feeling and scene generate each other and the diction is fresh and deft, a tone distinct from the heavy grief of her works after the flight to the south.

此词一般视为李清照前期（婚前或婚后与赵明诚小别）所作，属闺怨相思题材。李清照（1084—约1155），号易安居士，济南人，父亲李格非为苏门后学，丈夫赵明诚为金石学家，夫妇志趣相投，唱和甚欢，然赵明诚或因出仕、或因游学，时有远行，词人独守空闺，遂有此作。宋代女性词本不多见，而李清照以女性亲身之感写深闺寂寞，纤毫不隔，尤为真切动人。词中「人何处」所盼之「远人」，多以为是屏居或出游的赵明诚。全词不作矜饰，纯以深闺日常情态写春愁离思：柔肠千缕、惜春泪雨、倚阑无绪、望断归路，层层写尽盼归之情。此词反映易安词「情景相生、语意新巧」的早期风貌，与其南渡后「寻寻觅觅」的沉哀之作情调有别，恰可对照看出李清照词风随身世变迁的轨迹。李清照前期的词，多写闺阁闲情与伉俪相思，语言清新自然，时人评其能曲折尽人意、轻巧尖新；此词正是其前期词风的代表。李清照与赵明诚婚后，明诚或负笈远游、或出仕在外，词人独守青州、济南之间，离思时萦心怀，遂有此作。值得注意的是，易安词的闺怨不同于一般男子代拟的闺怨：她以亲历者的身份写深闺的寂寞，一举一动、一颦一蹙皆从真实生活中来，故能纤毫毕现，其真实感是代拟之作无法企及的，这也是女性词在文学史上不可替代的价值所在。

Art

In the first stanza, 'one inch of tender heart, a thousand threads of grief' sets a short measure against a long one, and the disproportion of quantity conveys the density and reach of the sorrow in language that is strikingly new. 'Cherishing the spring, the spring departs' repeats the word for spring, and the colloquial turn produces a lovely circling effect; 'a few drops of blossom-hurrying rain' uses fine rain to set off solitude, so that feeling is held inside the scene. In the second stanza, 'I have leaned on every stretch of the railing' renders the restlessness of waiting through action, while 'and still there is no spirit in me at all' is blunt and therefore true. The closing three lines, asking where he is, showing sweet grass level with the sky, and gazing the road of return away, end the feeling with a scene and transform the old motif from the Songs of Chu, 'the prince roams and does not return, the spring grass grows lush and thick', into an atmosphere that is whole and unbroken, with a resonance that carries far past the last word.

全词以愁为骨，由内而外、层层展开。上片先写心中之愁：「柔肠一寸愁千缕」以「一寸」对「千缕」，用数量反差极写愁思之绵密深长——愁肠只有一寸，牵出的愁却有千缕，造语新奇，夸张而贴切；「惜春春去，几点催花雨」叠用「春」字，口语中见回环之妙，「催花雨」以细雨催花落写春之将去，景中含情。下片转写盼归之情：「倚遍阑干，只是无情绪」，以动作写盼归之焦灼，「倚遍」见其徘徊之久、之频，「只是无情绪」直白而真，把百无聊赖写得入骨；结句「人何处，连天芳草，望断归来路」以景结情：问人不答，唯见连天芳草铺向天边，望断归路而不见归人，以芳草之无边写离愁之无边，意境浑成，余韵悠长。全词由心中愁写到眼中景，由深闺写到天涯，虚实相生，正是易安词「以寻常语度入音律」的本色。此词在章法上由内而外、层层收束：先写心中之愁（柔肠千缕），次写眼前之景（催花雨），再写身外之态（倚遍阑干），终写天涯之望（望断归来路），空间由深闺推向天边，情感由绵密推向渺茫，恰如愁思的一圈圈涟漪，越荡越远、越荡越空。全词四句三层递进，而结句以景收束，把千愁万绪都凝于『连天芳草』的苍茫之中，正是易安词情景相生的典范，也是婉约小令以景结情的上乘笔法。

Allusions

The closing lines, with their sweet grass level with the sky and the road of return gazed away, quietly draw on the Summons for a Recluse in the Songs of Chu, 'the prince roams and does not return, the spring grass grows lush and thick', and on Wang Wei's 'the spring grass will be green again next year, but will the prince return or not', using the endless grass as a figure for how remote the hoped-for homecoming is and how boundless the sorrow of separation. The word for grief never appears, yet grief fills the page. The tune title itself carries no particular story behind it. Allusion is used very lightly throughout: the feeling is carried by plain outline and image alone, which is precisely Li Qingzhao's gift for drawing fresh thought out of ordinary speech.

结句「连天芳草，望断归来路」暗用《楚辞·招隐士》「王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋」及王维《送别》「春草明年绿，王孙归不归」的意象传统：以芳草萋萋写游子不归、离愁无边，是古典诗词写盼归的经典意象。李清照化用其意，以「连天芳草」写望眼欲穿的归路，不着「愁」字而愁思满纸。「催花雨」暗含惜春传统，暮春雨打花落，正是春归的讯号；「阑干」即栏杆，「倚遍」见《花间集》以来闺情词倚阑望远的传统。此外「点绛唇」为词牌名，本无特定典故。全词用典极淡，纯以白描与意象传情，正见易安「用浅俗之语，发清新之思」的本领，典故融入日常情态，浑化无迹，绝无掉书袋之嫌。『柔肠』一词，本自司马相如《长门赋》『肠一日而九回』与秦观『欲见回肠，断尽金炉小篆香』的愁肠传统，李清照以一寸写其短、以千缕写其多，翻新出奇；『催花雨』亦暗含杜牧『清明时节雨纷纷』与温庭筠『雨打梨花深闭门』的暮春意象。至于『望断归来路』，更与温庭筠《望江南》『过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠』同一机杼——望尽而空，正是闺怨词写盼归的经典结尾，易安承其神而别出芳草之象，化用古句而不落窠臼。

Commentary

Yang Shen of the Ming, in Categories of the Lyric, called Li Qingzhao a writer of the true colours of her craft, and this piece shows exactly how genuine her boudoir feeling is. Chen Tingzhuo of the Qing, in Remarks on Lyrics from the White Rain Studio, judged her lyrics graceful and restrained in feeling and diction and long in flavour, and took the closing image of grass level with the sky in this piece as a model of implication. Modern readers commonly praise her for setting ordinary speech to music, holding that her plain outline reveals temperament and that her feeling carries far without any ornament, which makes her the orthodox voice of the graceful and restrained school.

杨慎《词品》称李清照「当行本色」，谓其词能尽词体之妙，此词正见其闺情之真：以女性之笔写女性之心，纤毫不隔，故比男子代拟的闺怨更见真切。陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》评易安词「情辞婉约，意味深长」，此篇「连天芳草，望断归来路」的结句，正是「以景结情、含蓄不尽」的范本，论者多引为「词贵含蓄」的例证。今人评易安「以寻常语度入音律」，谓其白描见性、不假雕饰而情韵自远，此词足为代表：全篇无一僻字、无一典故堆砌，而「一寸愁千缕」「倚遍阑干」「望断归来路」皆成警句，足为婉约正宗。此词在闺怨题材中的价值，在于它把深闺的寂寞写得既真切又含蓄，是理解李清照前期词风与宋代女性词的关键作品。此词在词史上的意义，还在于它以小令之体写出了深闺寂寞的完整心理流程，为女性词在婉约正宗中争得了一席之地：在男子代拟闺音的唐宋词坛，李清照以女性之笔直写女性之心，其真切处非须眉所能到，故《词品》称其当行本色。今人论易安前期词，多以『轻巧尖新、情辞婉约』八字括之，此词正是其注脚：用语浅近而情韵深远，构思新巧而不失自然，是宋代女性词中不可多得的佳作，也是学习婉约词情景相生之法的入门范本。

Prosody

Form Lyric to the tune Dabbing Crimson Lips, double form of forty-one characters词牌《点绛唇》，双调四十一字，上片四句三仄韵、下片五句四仄韵

Rhyme Oblique-tone rhyme, following the rhyme group prescribed by the tune pattern通押仄韵：上片韵脚「闺、缕、雨」，下片韵脚「绪、处、路」（「处、路」与「绪」同部），仄声韵短促低回，与闺怨之情相谐。

Tone pattern Three oblique rhymes in the first stanza and four in the second, with short and clipped line lengths句式短促，以四字、五字、七字为主：「寂寞深闺」四字起，短促凝练；「柔肠一寸愁千缕」七字铺开；「人何处」三字陡转，音节顿挫。

Reading note A short lyric in the graceful and restrained manner; Li Qingzhao paints boudoir feeling in plain outline, with shallow words and deep feeling.《点绛唇》为双调小令，四十一字，句式短促，音节低回，最宜写闺怨相思这类细腻缠绵的情感。李清照此词的声情安排极见匠心：上片「寂寞深闺」四字仄起，短促而重，直揭闺中之寂；「柔肠一寸愁千缕」七字以「一寸」对「千缕」，音节一收一放，写愁之绵长；「惜春春去，几点催花雨」叠「春」字，口语回环，声情流转。下片「倚遍阑干」四字、「只是无情绪」五字，一短一长，写倚栏之频与无绪之空；结句「人何处」三字一顿，如问如叹，接「连天芳草，望断归来路」九字，音节陡然开阔悠长，正合极目远眺、望断天涯的画面。全词仄韵到底，声情低回，而结句以长句收束，音节由促转缓，恰似愁思由浓转淡、化为无边芳草，声情与辞情相得益彰，是《点绛唇》词牌声情运用的典范。

Line by line

寂寞深闺，柔肠一寸愁千缕

Lonely in the deep boudoir, one inch of tender heart draws out a thousand threads of grief.

寂寞的深闺里，柔肠一寸便牵出千缕愁思。

Lonely the deep chamber; the tender gut an inch, and grief a thousand strands.

开篇两句点出全词情境：「寂寞深闺」写居处之幽、之静、之冷清，「寂寞」二字先为深闺定调，也点出词人的心境；「柔肠一寸愁千缕」是全词最著名的奇句——愁肠只有一寸，牵出的愁却有千缕，以「一寸」对「千缕」，数量反差极大，夸张地写出愁思的绵密深长。这一句的好处，在于把无形的愁写得有尺寸、有重量：愁不是缥缈的情绪，而是从寸寸柔肠里千丝万缕抽出来的。「一寸」之微与「千缕」之多形成张力，愈见愁之不可胜数；「柔肠」又暗含女性之柔情，为全词闺怨定调。开篇即以奇句动人，为下文的惜春、倚阑、望归蓄势。

The opening two lines name the ci's situation: the lonely deep chamber writes the dwelling's seclusion, stillness, coldness, the two words lonely setting the chamber's tone and naming the poet's mood; the tender gut an inch, and grief a thousand strands is the ci's most famous wondrous line — the grief gut only an inch, and yet the grief drawn from it a thousand strands, the inch against the thousand strands, the vast numerical contrast, the exaggeration writing the grief's dense length. The line's beauty lies in writing the invisible grief with measure and weight: grief no misty mood, but drawn thread by thread from the inch by inch tender gut. The tension between the inch's smallness and the thousand strands' abundance shows the grief's uncountability; the tender gut also carries the woman's soft feeling, setting the ci's inner-chamber grief tone. The opening moves at once on the wondrous line, storing force for the below spring-treasuring, railing-leaning, and return-gazing.

惜春春去，几点催花雨

She cherishes the spring, yet the spring departs, leaving only a few drops of rain that hurry the blossoms down.

怜惜春光却见春已归去，只落得几点催花而下的细雨。

Cherishing spring, and spring goes; a few drops of the flower-hasting rain.

此句写惜春，叠「春」字见回环之妙。「惜春」是情，「春去」是事，惜春而春偏去，一「惜」一「去」，写出有情之人对无情时序的无奈；「几点催花雨」写春雨催花落，是春去的实景，也是词人眼中的愁景。「催」字下得狠，写雨不是润花，而是催花——雨催花落，正如时序催春归，也暗暗催着闺中人的青春老去，一语双关。「几点」写雨之疏，疏雨催花，更添凄清。这一句由心中之愁写到眼前之景，情与景会：惜春实是惜己，春去正似年华去，词人独守深闺的青春虚度之感，都从这「催花雨」中透出，为下片「望断归来路」的盼归之情作了铺垫。

This line writes the spring-treasuring, the repeated spring showing the circling charm. Cherishing spring, and spring goes: the treasuring the feeling, the going the event, treasuring spring and spring going of itself, the one cherish and the one go writing the feeling man's helplessness before the unfeeling seasons; a few drops of the flower-hasting rain writes the spring rain hastening the blossoms down, the real scene of spring's going, and the sorrow scene in the poet's eyes. The word hasting laid hard: the rain not nourishing the flowers but hastening them — the rain hastening the fall, as the season hastens spring's return, and secretly hastening the chamber woman's youth, the one word carrying the double meaning. A few drops writes the rain's sparseness, the sparse rain hastening the flowers, the bleakness added. The line moves from the heart's grief to the present scene, feeling and scene meeting: treasuring spring is in truth treasuring the self, spring's going like the years' going, the poet's alone-keeping of the deep chamber and the wasted youth, all breathing through this flower-hasting rain, storing ground for the second stanza's gazing until sight fails on the homeward road.

倚遍阑干，只是无情绪

She has leaned on every stretch of the railing, and still there is no spirit in her at all.

倚遍了栏杆，只是没有一点情绪。

I have leaned on every railing, and there is simply no mood.

此句写盼归的动作与心境，是全词由景入情的转折。「倚遍阑干」写倚栏之频、之久：栏干处处倚过，可见词人徘徊往复，无所适从——或凭栏望远，或倚栏沉思，一处又一处，把深闺的逼仄与盼归的焦灼都写了出来；「遍」字是点睛之笔，写出倚栏的彻底，也写出盼归的殷切。「只是无情绪」直白如话：倚遍栏杆，结果只是了无情绪，百无聊赖，连愁都懒得去愁了。「只是」二字见无可奈何，「无情绪」写倦极愁极后的空虚。此句以动作写情，以白描写心，正是易安「以寻常语度入音律」的本色，也为结句望断归路的痴望作了情绪的铺垫。

This line writes the action and mood of the return-gazing, the ci's turn from scene to feeling. I have leaned on every railing writes the frequency and length of the railing leaning: the railings everywhere leaned on, showing the poet's pacing back and forth, at a loss — now leaning far, now leaning in thought, one place after another, writing the deep chamber's narrowness and the return-gazing's anxiety; the word through is the telling stroke, writing the thoroughness of the railing leaning, and the eagerness of the return-gazing. And there is simply no mood plain as speech: the railings all leaned on, and the result is simply no mood, the boredom, too tired even to grieve. The two words simply show the helplessness, no mood the emptiness after the extreme of weariness and grief. This line writes feeling through action, the heart through plain drawing, precisely Yi'an's quality of fitting the ordinary words to the tune, and the emotional ground for the closing gazing-until-sight-fails.

人何处，连天芳草，望断归来路

Where is he now? Sweet grass runs level with the sky, and she gazes until the road of his return is lost to sight.

远人如今在何处？只见连天芳草，望断了那归来之路。

Where is he? The fragrant grass stretches to the sky; I gaze until sight fails on the homeward road.

结句以景结情，是全词情感的收束与升华。「人何处」一问，点出全词所盼的对象——那远在天涯的归人，如今在哪里？问而不答，只见「连天芳草」：芳草萋萋，一直铺到天边，遮断了远望的视线。「望断归来路」写词人极目远眺，望到视线尽处，也不见归人的踪影；「望断」二字，既是望到天边，也是望到绝望，把盼归之情写到极处。此句化用《楚辞》「王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋」的意象，以芳草之无边写离愁之无边，以景作结，含蓄不尽：归路被芳草遮断，正如归期被音书隔绝，言有尽而意无穷，余韵悠长，是全词最见功力的一笔。

The close ends feeling in scene, the gathering and elevation of the ci's emotion. Where is he? one question, naming the ci's awaited object — the far traveler at the edge of the world, where is he now? The question unanswered, and only the fragrant grass stretching to the sky seen: the lush grass spreading to the horizon, blocking the far gaze. I gaze until sight fails on the homeward road writes the poet's extreme gaze to the end of sight, and yet no trace of the returning man; the two words gaze until sight fails at once the gazing to the horizon and the gazing to despair, writing the return-gazing to the extreme. This line borrows the Chuci's the wanderer goes and returns not, the spring grass grows lush imagery, writing the grief's boundlessness through the grass's boundlessness, closing in scene, restrained and unending: the homeward road blocked by the fragrant grass, as the return date cut off by the silence of letters, the words ended and the meaning unending, the aftertone long, the craftiest stroke of the ci.

Study

Word focus

愁千缕 Measuring sorrow by threads turns a formless grief into something spun and countable, and set against 'one inch' it creates a tension of quantity that conveys the dense, unbroken texture of boudoir longing. 「柔肠一寸愁千缕」的「愁千缕」，以「缕」计量愁思，是全词最富创意的炼语。「缕」本是丝线之量词，李清照借以写愁，把无形的愁思具象为千丝万缕，可抽、可数、可理——愁从此有了形状与质地。与「一寸」连用，更见张力：柔肠只有一寸，愁却有千缕，以寸量肠、以缕量愁，一短一长、一少一多，夸张而不失贴切，把愁思的绵密深长写到极致。这个炼语还暗含「理还乱」的意象：千缕愁丝，纷乱难理，正如闺中人的心绪剪不断、理还乱。后世词人纷纷仿效，如「一寸相思一寸灰」「愁似织」等，皆由此化出，足见这一炼语在词史上的影响，是易安「语意新巧」的典型例证。

遍 The word 'every' in 'leaned on every stretch of the railing' registers the thoroughness of the action, showing both the keenness of her waiting and the emptiness of her hours; it is a word finely wrought out of the plainest material. 「倚遍阑干」的「遍」字，写动作的彻底，是盼归之情的点睛之笔。「倚阑」是闺情词常见动作，李清照加一「遍」字，境界顿出：栏杆不是倚一下，而是处处倚遍——东栏倚过倚西栏，高栏倚过倚低栏，反反复复，把深闺逼仄中的焦灼徘徊写得如在目前。「遍」字还暗含时间之长：倚遍所有栏杆，需要多少时光？这漫长的倚栏，正见盼归之殷切、等待之无望。同时「遍」与下句「只是无情绪」呼应：倚遍而无所获，徒增空虚，动作之勤与结果之空形成反差，愈见愁之深重。一个副词，写尽动作之频、时间之久、期盼之切，炼字于平淡处见功力，正是易安词「极炼于平」的本色。

催花雨 The blossom-hurrying rain both marks the fallen flowers of late spring and hints that the spring light and the joy of love are being hurried away, so the phrase carries grief in a double sense. 「几点催花雨」的「催花雨」三字，写春雨而着一「催」字，全句皆活。「催」本用于人催人、事催事，此处移以写雨：雨不是润泽花木，而是催促花朵凋零，一「催」字把春雨写得仿佛有意志、有动作，无情地催逼着春光与花朵速速归去。「催」字又暗含双关：雨催花落，是春去的实景；而时序催人老，青春被光阴「催」着虚度，亦是闺中人自伤处——深闺独守，年华如花，被这催花雨一点一点催去，惜春实是惜己。「几点」写雨之疏落，疏雨催花，更添凄凉。三字以极俭省之笔写尽暮春景象与闺怨心事，情景交融，正是易安炼字「以少总多」的典范。