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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮

Mulanhua — 'The Swing Yard in Gathering Dusk'

晏几道

Yan Jidao

秋千院落重帘暮。
彩笔闲来题绣户。
墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮。
朝云信断知何处。
应作襄王春梦去。
紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路。

The swing in the courtyard, doubled curtains lowered, at dusk.
Idly I take up my colored brush and write on the embroidered door.
On the wall the red apricot flowers after the rain; outside the gate the green willows' catkins after the wind.
The Morning Cloud's letters are cut off — where is she now?
She must have gone like King Xiang's spring dream.
My purple steed remembers the old wandering path, and neighs as it passes the road by the east side of the painted bridge.

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Meaning

Returning to a courtyard where he once loved, Yan Jidao finds the swing and curtains untouched by time but the beloved gone beyond reach. The late-spring flowers and willows seem to mourn with him, and his unanswered question — where is she? — dissolves into the myth of King Xiang's dream of the goddess. Only his horse, passing the old road by the painted bridge, still remembers; the final neigh turns an animal's memory into the poem's most piercing grief.

秋千院落，重帘低垂，暮色将临。彩笔闲来，题于绣户。墙头丹杏，雨馀之花；门外绿杨，风后之絮。朝云信断，知在何处。应作襄王春梦而去。紫骝认得旧时游踪，嘶过画桥东畔之路。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The courtyard with its swing, the doubled curtains at dusk, the idle brush writing on the embroidered door — every detail says the poet has come back to a place of old joy. Red apricots after rain, willow catkins after wind: late spring itself is perishing. Then the question breaks out — the lady's letters have ceased; where is she? He answers with a myth: she has vanished like the goddess of King Xiang's dream. Last of all, his horse — even the horse — knows the old road, and neighs as it crosses the bridge. [Structure] Two stanzas: the first is all setting, the second all longing, and the boundary between them is the invisible door the beloved once passed. The poem's trick is to withhold the person until the middle, then replace her with a dream, and finally with a horse. [Imagery] After the rain, after the wind — the paired postpositions make time audible: everything is aftermath, nothing is present. The horse's neigh is the poem's masterpiece of indirection: a beast remembers what a man cannot recover, and the lyric ends on animal sound rather than human speech.

【白话串讲】晏几道写《木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮》：“秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户”——“墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮”——“朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去”——“紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路”——他写故地重游——紫骝认得旧游踪。【意象与手法】 “秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户”写院落之景；“墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮”写暮春之景；“朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去”用朝云襄王典写怀人；结以“紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路”以紫骝写旧游之忆。含蓄婉转。【情感与主旨】晏几道写怀人之作，写故地重游、物在人非的怅惘，以“紫骝认得旧游踪”写旧情难忘，体现晏几道词婉约深婉的风格。【名句点睛】常考“墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮”以丹杏绿杨写暮春；“紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路”以紫骝写旧游之忆。

Background

Yan Jidao (1038–1110), courtesy name Shuyuan, was the youngest son of the statesman Yan Shu and a native of Linchuan (modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi). Where his father wrote with a minister's calm, Yan Jidao wrote of love and parting with a singer's intensity; his collected lyrics, the Little Mountain ci, became a touchstone of the subtle style, and he is ranked with his father as one of the two Yans. This Mulanhua lyric, one of his best-loved, belongs to his long sequence of poems of remembrance — courtyard scenes revisited after the beloved has vanished. A product of the late Northern Song, when the aristocratic ci of the early dynasty was giving way to a more personal, elegiac mode, it found its purest voice in Yan Jidao, fallen from his family's eminence.

《木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮》为北宋词人晏几道所作词。晏几道（1038—1110），字叔原，号小山，临川（今江西抚州）人，晏殊之子，北宋词人，词风婉约，多写离情别恨，与其父晏殊并称「二晏」。此词写怀人。词中「秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户」写院落之景；「墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮」写暮春之景；「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」写怀人之情；「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」写旧游之忆。晏几道多写离情，此词以秋千院落、忆念佳人之情写怀人，含蓄婉转，是晏几道词中的名篇，也是其「婉约深婉」词风的典型体现。此篇《木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮》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《木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮》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 craft is its discipline of indirection. The first stanza paints the old scene with almost forensic calm — swing, curtains, dusk, brush, door — and the beloved is absent even as a noun: she is only the Morning Cloud of the second stanza, named by allusion rather than by memory. The couplet on the wall the red apricot flowers after the rain; outside the gate the green willows' catkins after the wind is a small marvel: parallel in structure, symmetrical in position (wall against gate), it uses two afters to make an entire late-spring afternoon feel posthumous. The finale shifts agency from man to horse: the purple steed remembers — a verb borrowed from human cognition — and its neigh carries the emotion the poet cannot voice. Nothing is stated; everything is remembered by things.

此词艺术上以「含蓄婉转、今昔对照」见长。全词上片写院落暮春之景，下片写怀人之情与旧游之忆。上片「秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户」写院落之景：秋千院落，重帘低垂，暮色将临；彩笔闲来，题于绣户；「墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮」写暮春之景：墙头丹杏，雨馀之花；门外绿杨，风后之絮。下片「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」写怀人之情：朝云信断，知在何处；应作襄王春梦而去；「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」写旧游之忆：紫骝认得旧时游踪，嘶过画桥东畔之路。全词含蓄婉转，今昔对照，是晏几道词中的名篇。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

Morning Cloud names the goddess of Mount Wu who, in Song Yu's Gaotang Fu, appeared to King Xiang and at dawn became cloud, at dusk became rain; by Song times it was a standard poetic name for a vanished or unattainable beloved. King Xiang's spring dream refers to the same encounter, proverbial for a love that exists only in dream. Colored brush echoes the tale of Jiang Yan, who dreamed of a five-colored brush and gained literary brilliance; here it paints the poet's idle elegance. Purple steed is the classic name for a fine horse in Tang verse. The allusions do not decorate the poem; they do its emotional work, turning a personal loss into a fable of dreams.

词中「彩笔」「丹杏」「朝云」「襄王春梦」「紫骝」「画桥」等语，皆含典故故实。「彩笔」用江淹梦笔生花之典，写文思之笔，「彩笔闲来题绣户」写题诗于绣户；「丹杏」「绿杨」写暮春之景；「朝云」用楚襄王梦遇巫山神女「旦为朝云」之典（宋玉《高唐赋》），以朝云写所怀之佳人，「朝云信断知何处」写佳人音信断绝；「襄王春梦」用楚襄王梦会巫山神女之典，写其梦中去如神女，「应作襄王春梦去」写其如襄王春梦而去；「紫骝」为良马名，「紫骝认得旧游踪」写马认得旧游之地；「画桥」写装饰华美之桥。词人以彩笔、朝云、襄王春梦、紫骝等典入词，不着痕迹，而把怀人之情写得真切可感，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

Yan Jidao's lyrics were prized by contemporaries and by later critics as models of the subtle style — meaning suggested rather than stated. This piece is regularly anthologized, and critics through the centuries have fastened on its closing couplet: the horse that remembers the old wandering path has been read as the boldest stroke in Yan Jidao's art of indirection, letting an animal perform the memory a man cannot bear. In the history of the ci form, the poem marks the moment when the early-Song courtyard lyric — inherited from the Five Dynasties tradition — deepens into something like personal elegy, paving the way for the sorrow-laden lyricism of the Southern Song.

这首《木兰花·秋千院落重帘暮》，是晏几道写怀人之作，写秋千院落、忆念佳人之情，含蓄婉转。上片写院落暮春之景：「秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户」——秋千院落，重帘低垂，暮色将临；彩笔闲来，题于绣户。写院落之景：秋千院落、重帘暮色，彩笔闲来题于绣户——这秋千院落，正是当年旧游之处，如今重帘暮色，人去院空；「墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮」——墙头丹杏，雨馀之花；门外绿杨，风后之絮。写暮春之景：墙头丹杏经雨而花残，门外绿杨随风而絮飞，一片暮春之景，正是人面不知何处去之怅惘。下片写怀人之情与旧游之忆：「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」——朝云信断，知在何处；应作襄王春梦而去。写怀人之情：朝云（佳人）音信断绝，不知何处，应如襄王春梦，一去不返——以神女之朝云写佳人，其去如春梦，杳不可寻；「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」——紫骝认得旧时游踪，嘶过画桥东畔之路。写旧游之忆：紫骝马还认得旧时游踪，嘶过画桥东畔之路——马犹认得旧游，而人已不在。这「紫骝认得旧游踪」，是全词最动人处：以马之认得旧游，反衬人之已去，今昔对照，含蓄深挚。全词含蓄婉转，今昔对照，正是晏几道「婉约深婉」词风的典型，也是其词中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Ci (lyric) on the Mulanhua tune — a double-diao (two-stanza) form of fifty-six characters, four lines to each stanza.词（木兰花，双调）

Rhyme The lyric rhymes in oblique (falling) tones: the first stanza rhymes on mu, hu and xu, all of the oblique yu group; the second stanza repeats the same group with chu, qu and lu, giving the poem one continuous falling cadence, hushed and drawn-out, apt for a lyric of longing and loss.此词为《木兰花》调，双调五十六字，上片下片各四句。押仄声韵：上片「暮」「户」「絮」押遇部韵；下片「处」「去」「路」押遇部韵。词体依词谱而定，句式长短错落，音节随情起伏，正与写怀人的含蓄婉转相称，也见其以词写闺情的自然。

Tone pattern The alternation of seven- and five-character lines sets the emotional tempo: the opening couplet moves slowly, weighted by dusk; the apricot-and-willow couplet flows in bright, fluttering pairs; the second stanza sinks — the Morning Cloud line droops into a question — before the closing couplet trails off on the horse's neigh, the sound itself becoming the poem's last note.句式上，上片「秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户」写院落之景，音节清婉；「墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮」写暮春之景，音节流丽；下片「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」写怀人之情，音节低回；「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」写旧游之忆，音节悠然。全词音节随情起伏，由清婉而流丽、由低回而悠然，正合词体「长短句」之妙，读来如忆念佳人、旧游重寻之音，含蓄而动人。

Reading note In this Mulanhua setting the falling rhyme is unusual for a love lyric — the hard, dying sounds (mu, hu, xu against chu, qu, lu) deny the poem any lullaby softness and give its nostalgia a bruised edge. The form's capacity to fold eight narrative beats into eight short lines — scene, writing, flowers, willows, question, dream, horse, road — shows why the Mulanhua tune, despite its brevity, became a favorite vehicle for the late Northern Song's poetics of indirection.此词为《木兰花》调，是晏几道词中的名篇，也是其「婉约深婉」词风的典型体现。全词的艺术特色在于「含蓄婉转、今昔对照」：上片「秋千院落重帘暮。彩笔闲来题绣户」写院落之景、「墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮」写暮春之景；下片「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」写怀人之情、「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」写旧游之忆。全词含蓄婉转，今昔对照。尤为精妙者，是「朝云信断知何处。应作襄王春梦去」以朝云、襄王春梦之典写佳人一去不返，含蓄深挚；而「紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路」以马之认得旧游反衬人之已去，今昔对照，正是晏几道「婉约深婉」写怀人的典范，为历代词选所常收。

Line by line

秋千院落重帘暮。

The swing in the courtyard, doubled curtains lowered, at dusk.

秋千院落，重帘低垂，暮色将临。

The swing courtyard, the double curtains low, the dusk falling.

首句写院落之景，起笔即见其地。「秋千院落重帘暮」写秋千院落、重帘低垂、暮色将临，「秋千院落」写院中有秋千，正是旧游之处，「重帘」写帘之重，「暮」写暮色。一句以「秋千院落」写旧游之地、以「重帘暮」写其暮色低垂，写尽人去院空、暮色苍茫之景，起笔即定下怅惘之调，为全词写怀人作铺垫，是「以景起兴」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 courtyard scene, the place present at the first stroke. The swing courtyard, the double curtains low, the dusk falling writes the swing courtyard, the double curtains' low hanging, the dusk's falling, the swing courtyard the old roaming place, the double curtains the layered drapes, the dusk the twilight. One line, the swing courtyard writing the old place, the double-curtain-dusk writing the twilight, exhausting the man-gone-court-empty and the dusk vastness, the wistful tone set at the first stroke, storing ground for the ci's longing, precisely the wondrous brush of rising on scene. This line in the few words exhausts the deep meaning, feeling and charm both supreme, precisely the poem's telling stroke. Its hidden waves between the words, the turns within the plainness, require the repeated savouring to grasp its heart.

墙头丹杏雨馀花，门外绿杨风后絮。

On the wall the red apricot flowers after the rain; outside the gate the green willows' catkins after the wind.

墙头丹杏，雨馀之花；门外绿杨，风后之絮。

Over the wall, the red apricots' flowers after the rain; outside the gate, the green willows' catkins after the wind.

此二句写暮春之景，是全词写景的关键。「墙头丹杏雨馀花」写墙头丹杏、雨馀之花，「丹杏」写杏之红，「雨馀花」写雨后之花，花经雨而残；「门外绿杨风后絮」写门外绿杨、风后之絮，「绿杨」写杨柳之绿，「风后絮」写风后之絮，絮随风而飞。两句一写丹杏雨余之花、一写绿杨风后之絮，以花残絮飞写暮春之景，正是春去人远之怅惘。以景写情，含蓄而有力，是「以景写情」的妙笔，也为下片写怀人作铺垫。

These two lines write the late-spring scene, the key of the ci's scenic writing. Over the wall, the red apricots' flowers after the rain writes the red apricot and the post-rain flower, the red the apricot's red, the post-rain flower the rain's remnant, the flower after the rain the faded; outside the gate, the green willows' catkins after the wind writes the green willow and the post-wind catkins, the green the willow's green, the post-wind catkins the wind-driven fluff. Two lines, one the apricot's post-rain flower, one the willow's post-wind catkins, writing the late spring through the faded flower and the flying fluff, precisely the spring-gone and the man-far wistfulness. Writing feeling through scene, restrained and forceful, precisely the wondrous brush of writing feeling through scene, and storing ground for the second stanza's longing.

朝云信断知何处。

The Morning Cloud's letters are cut off — where is she now?

朝云信断，知在何处。

The morning cloud's message is cut off; I know not where she is.

此句写怀人之情，是全词写情的枢纽。「朝云信断知何处」写朝云信断、知在何处，「朝云」用楚襄王梦遇巫山神女之典，以朝云写所怀之佳人，「信断」写其音信断绝，「知何处」写不知其所在。一句以朝云写佳人、以信断写其音信全无、以知何处写其不知所踪，写尽怀人而不得之怅惘——佳人如朝云，一去信断，不知何处。以典写情，含蓄而深挚，是「以典写情」的点睛之笔，也是全词由写景转入写怀的枢纽。

This line writes the longing, the ci's feeling hinge. The morning cloud's message is cut off; I know not where she is. writes the morning cloud (using the Chu king's Wushu goddess dream allusion, the morning cloud for the beloved), the message's severance, the unknown where. One line, the morning cloud the beloved, the severed message the silence, the unknown the trace, exhausting the unfulfilled longing — the beloved like the morning cloud, once gone and the message cut, unknown where. Writing feeling through allusion, restrained and deep, precisely the telling stroke of writing feeling through allusion, and the ci's hinge from scene to longing.

紫骝认得旧游踪，嘶过画桥东畔路。

My purple steed remembers the old wandering path, and neighs as it passes the road by the east side of the painted bridge.

紫骝认得旧时游踪，嘶过画桥东畔之路。

The purple steed knows the old roaming traces; it neighs past the road east of the painted bridge.

尾二句写旧游之忆，是全词立意的落点。「紫骝认得旧游踪」写紫骝认得旧时游踪，「紫骝」为良马名，「认得旧游踪」写马认得旧时游赏之地；「嘶过画桥东畔路」写嘶过画桥东畔之路，「嘶」写马之嘶鸣，「画桥东畔路」写旧游之路。两句一写马认得旧游踪、一写其嘶过画桥东畔路，以马之认得旧游写人之已去——马犹认得旧游之地，嘶鸣而过，而旧游之人已不在。以马写人、以物写情，今昔对照，含蓄深挚，是全词最动人处，也是「以物写情」的点睛之笔。

The last two lines write the old roaming memory, the landing of the ci's theme. The purple steed knows the old roaming traces writes the fine steed's recognition of the old roaming places; it neighs past the road east of the painted bridge writes the neighing past the old road. Two lines, one the horse's recognition, one the neighing road, writing the man's gone through the horse's recognition — the horse still knowing the old roaming place, neighing past, and the old roaming man gone. Writing the man through the horse, feeling through the thing, the now-and-then contrast, restrained and deep, the ci's most moving place, and the telling stroke of writing feeling through the thing.

Study

Word focus

重 Doubled describes the layered hanging curtains; the heaviness of the word makes the empty courtyard feel enclosed and soundless, and paired with dusk it fixes the poem's atmosphere of a joy sealed off behind cloth. 「重」字写重帘低垂，是写院落之景的关键。「秋千院落重帘暮」着一「重」，写帘之重——着一「重」字，写重帘低垂，帘幕重重，更见人去院空之静。一字写尽院落之静，与「暮」相连，写尽暮色苍茫之景，是「以一字写景」的妙笔。「重」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。

闲 Idle qualifies the poet's taking up of the brush: he writes not for any occasion but because his hands are empty — the word exposes leisure as a disguise for loneliness, one idle stroke confessing that the house has no occupant but himself. 「闲」字写彩笔闲来题绣户，是写院落之景的关键。「彩笔闲来题绣户」着一「闲」，写其闲来题诗——着一「闲」字，写其闲来无事、题诗绣户，见其寂寞之态。一字写尽闲寂之情，与「秋千院落重帘暮」相连，写尽人去院空之寂，是「以一字写情」的点睛之词。「闲」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。

断 Cut off is applied to letters: the word makes absence a violence done to connection, the thread snapped at the far end, and the poet left with nothing to follow; it is the harshest single word in the lyric's first half. 「断」字写朝云信断，是写怀人之情的关键。「朝云信断知何处」着一「断」，写音信断绝——着一「断」字，写佳人之音信断绝，如朝云一去无凭。一字写尽怀人而不得之情，是「以一字写情」的点睛之词。「断」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。

认得 Recognizes is borrowed from human cognition and given to the horse: that a beast still knows the old path while the man can only revisit it in silence is the lyric's boldest transfer of feeling, and the two characters carry the whole weight of the poem's ending. 「认得」写紫骝认得旧游踪，是写旧游之忆的关键。「紫骝认得旧游踪」着一「认得」，写马认得旧时游踪——着一「认得」，写马犹认得旧游之地，以马之记忆反衬人之已去。两字写尽今昔对照之情，是全词最动人处，也是「以物写情」的点睛之词。「认得」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。