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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

生查子·关山魂梦

Raw Hawthorn: The Soul's Dream of the Mountain Passes

晏几道

Yan Jidao

爱情Love 愁思Sorrowful Reflection 抒情Lyric

关山魂梦长，鱼雁音尘少。
两鬓可怜青，只为相思老。
归梦碧纱窗，说与人人道。
真个别离难，不似相逢好。

The passes and mountains are long to the soul's dream,
The fish and the wild geese bring few tidings.
My two temples, pitifully black,
Grow old only for the longing.
In a dream I return to the green gauze window,
And say to the dear one, speaking the word:
'Truly, parting is hard,
Not like the meeting, which is good.'

Listen

Meaning

A little song of Yan Jidao writing the longing of the lovers separated by distance. 'The passes and mountains are long to the soul's dream' writes the distance of the dream over the passes and mountains; 'the fish and the wild geese bring few tidings' the scarcity of the letters (the fish and the wild geese the allusions for the letters); the two lines write the distance of the dream within and the scarcity of the letters without, the double separation. 'My two temples, pitifully black, grow old only for the longing' turns to the aging of the man: the temples still black, yet the heart already old with the longing, the black temples setting off the earlier-old heart. The second half writes the dream: 'in a dream I return to the green gauze window, and say to the dear one, speaking the word: truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good'—the dream of the return to the window of the beloved and the plain word of the truth of the parting and the meeting, the depth of the longing in the plainest speech.

关山阻隔，魂牵梦绕的路途那样漫长；鱼雁传书，音信却那样稀少。可叹我两鬓还是青青的，只因这一腔相思，人便已经老去。梦魂归到那碧纱窗下，把满腹的相思说给心上人听：真个是别离太难，总不如相逢在一起好。

Appreciation

The whole ci, forty characters, writes one word 'longing,' advancing layer on layer. The opening, 'the passes and mountains are long to the soul's dream,' begins from the space: the ten thousand passes and mountains, the soul's dream hard to cross, the 'long' writing both the length of the road and the length of the longing; 'the fish and the wild geese bring few tidings' begins from the letters, few and hard to send, the two lines one the distance within the dream and one the scarcity without the dream, the double separation. 'My two temples, pitifully black, grow old only for the longing' turns to the aging of the man: the temples still black, yet the heart already old with the longing, the black temples setting off the earlier-old heart, the deep-feeling version of 'old before the time.' The second half, 'in a dream I return to the green gauze window, and say to the dear one, speaking the word,' begins from the imagination: the soul's dream returns to the green gauze window and speaks the longing to the beloved, the dream writing the folly of the longing; and the close, 'truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good,' is the plainest truth, the word of the dream, yet the truth of all the parted, the whole ci's longing gathered in the two plain lines.

【白话串讲】晏几道写生查子：“关山魂梦长，鱼雁音尘少。两鬓可怜青，只为相思老”——“归梦碧纱窗，说与人人道”——“真个别离难，不似相逢好”——他写离别最难。【意象与手法】全词四十字写一个「思」字，层层递进：起句「关山魂梦长，鱼雁音尘少」从空间与音信双写远隔；「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」以青鬓反衬心老，反常合道；下片「归梦碧纱窗，说与人人道」以梦境写痴情，虚实相生；结句「真个别离难，不似相逢好」以口语道白收束，深情直致。【情感与主旨】此词是晏几道写离别相思的名篇。生于富贵而晚年落魄的小山，把身世之感尽托于词，此词纯以第一人称直写相思：梦长信少、未老先衰、梦中说与、别离难而相逢好，句句天真，字字深情，是「以浅语写深情」的极致。【名句点睛】「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」以青鬓之未老反衬心之先老，情深语奇；「真个别离难，不似相逢好」以最朴素的语言道出最朴素的真理，千百年来道尽天下有情人离别的心声。

Background

Yan Jidao (c. 1038–1110), courtesy name Shuyuan, hao Xiaoshan, the son of Yan Shu, was a master of the Northern Song delicate ci, paired with his father as 'the two Yan.' Born to a rich and noble family, in his early years clothed in silk and fed on delicacies, in his later years the family declined and he fell into destitution, his whole life unrestrained and proudly aloof, pouring the feeling of his own fate into his ci, his style deep, delicate, and clear, especially good at writing the parting and the longing. 'Raw Hawthorn: The Soul's Dream of the Mountain Passes' writes the longing of the lovers separated by the passes and mountains: the passes and mountains for the passes and the ridges, the fish and the wild geese for the letters (the allusions of the fish bearing the letter and the wild goose's foot bearing the letter), both writing the letters hard to pass and the meeting without a date. Yan Jidao's ci often writes the meeting and the parting with the singing girls and the dancing girls, yet this ci names no particular person or matter, writing the longing purely in the first person, the union of the 'written for another' and the 'written of the self'; the 'my two temples, pitifully black, grow old only for the longing' and 'truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good' are both the plain stroke of the colloquial, the deep feeling directly expressed, the very nature of the Xiaoshan ci's 'the plain words all have flavor.'

晏几道（约1038—1110），字叔原，号小山，晏殊之子，北宋婉约词名家，与其父并称「二晏」。他生于富贵之家，早年锦衣玉食，晚年家道中落，潦倒落魄，一生疏狂孤傲，把身世之感尽托于词，词风深婉清丽，尤擅写离别相思。《生查子·关山魂梦》以「关山」「鱼雁」「梦魂」写恋人远隔之思：关山指关隘山岭，鱼雁指书信（鱼传尺素、雁足传书之典），皆写音信难通、相见无期。晏几道词多写与歌儿舞女的聚散，而此词不点名具体人事，纯以第一人称直写相思，是「代言之作」与「自道之作」的结合；词中「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」与「真个别离难，不似相逢好」皆以口语白描，深情直致，正是小山词「淡语皆有味」的本色。黄庭坚称晏几道「仕宦连蹇，而不能一傍贵人之门」，其疏狂与痴情，都化作了词中的相思。就晏几道身世而言，他生于宰相之家，中年后家道中落，饱尝世态炎凉，遂把一腔真情尽付词章；此词中的「关山」「梦魂」，固是男女相思之语，亦隐含着落魄公子对往昔繁华、故人之聚散的无尽追忆，情之所钟，正在其痴，读小山词者，不可不知其身世之感。

Art

The whole ci, forty characters, writes one word 'longing,' advancing layer on layer: from the space to the letters, the double separation; to the aging of the man, the black temples setting off the earlier-old heart; to the dream, the return to the green gauze window and the word spoken to the dear one; and the close in the plainest truth, 'truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good.' The whole ci, from the distance to the scarcity to the aging to the dream to the truth, layer on layer, the longing written to the full, the depth of the feeling in the plainest words, the very nature of the Xiaoshan ci.

全词四十字，写一个「思」字，层层递进：起句「关山魂梦长」从空间落笔，关山万重，梦魂亦难渡，「长」字写路之远亦写思之长；「鱼雁音尘少」从音信落笔，书信稀少，相思无从寄达，两句一写梦里之远，一写梦外之疏，双重隔绝。「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」转写人之老：鬓发尚青，而心已因相思而老，以青鬓之未老反衬心之先老，是「未老先衰」的深情版本；下片「归梦碧纱窗，说与人人道」由想象落笔：梦魂归到碧纱窗下，把相思说给心上人听，以梦境写相思之痴；结句「真个别离难，不似相逢好」以口语道白收束，直抒胸臆，把千言万语凝为一句朴素的真理。全词由远而近、由人而梦、由梦而语，情感如抽丝剥茧，愈转愈深，最后落于一句白话，深情直致；语言上雅俗相济：关山、碧纱窗是雅，可怜、真个、人人道是俗，雅俗融合而浑然一体，正是小山词「清新深婉」的典型。全词收放有致：前六句皆写相思之难，层层铺垫，结句却以一句天真的口语收束，由深婉转入明朗，如愁云散处忽见月出；这种「先抑后扬」的安排，使「不似相逢好」一句愈显分量，恰是晏几道「于淡语中见深情」的拿手好戏。

Allusions

The allusions of the ci are all melted into the scene and the feeling without a trace: 'the passes and mountains' is the core image of the distance in Chinese literature, since the Mulan Ballad's 'ten thousand li to the military business, the passes and mountains crossed as if flying,' the passes and mountains joined to the march, the parting, and the longing, and Li Bai's 'Longing' directly writes the dream's soul hard to cross the passes and mountains, Yan Jidao's 'the soul's dream of the mountain passes long' inheriting this vein; 'the fish and the wild geese' uses the old yuefu's 'a guest came from afar, sending me a pair of carp' for the fish-letter and the History of the Han's 'the wild goose's foot tied with the letter' of Su Wu, the fish and the wild geese together for the letters, 'the tidings few' the longing hard to send.

词中典故皆化入景语情语，不着痕迹：「关山」是中国文学中写远隔的核心意象，自《木兰诗》「万里赴戎机，关山度若飞」以来，关山即与行役、离别、思念相连，李白《长相思》「梦魂不到关山难」更直接以关山写梦魂难渡，晏几道「关山魂梦长」正承此脉；「鱼雁」用古乐府「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼」的鱼书之典与《汉书·苏武传》雁足系书之典，鱼雁合称即书信，「音尘少」写书信稀疏；「碧纱窗」是闺阁的意象，温庭筠《菩萨蛮》「春梦正关情」已写梦归闺阁，晏几道「归梦碧纱窗」以梦魂归家、窗下诉衷，化实为虚；「人人」是宋人口语，指心爱的人（如柳永「人人无奈被伊欺」），以口语入词，亲切如话。全词用典用俗皆化于无形，典故与口语水乳交融，是「深入浅出」的典范；「关山」之远、「鱼雁」之疏、「梦魂」之虚，三组意象层层写尽相思的无可奈何。「碧纱窗」意象亦值得玩味：纱窗本是闺阁之景，梦魂归到碧纱窗下，即是回到心上人身旁；而「碧」色又与上片「关山」之青苍呼应，一远一近，一刚一柔，色彩与情境俱成对照，写出天涯与枕边的两重相思，意象经营之细，可见一斑。

Commentary

This ci is a famous piece of Yan Jidao's little songs, always ranked as a fine work of the longing: the whole ci has no strange word, no steep phrase, yet the feeling is deep and the meaning apt, the very nature of the Xiaoshan ci's 'the plain words all have flavor, the shallow words all have charm.' The 'my two temples, pitifully black, grow old only for the longing' and 'truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good' both write the extreme of the human feeling in the plain stroke of the colloquial, the former the black temples setting off the older heart, the latter the plain truth telling the pain of the parting—both have become the famous lines of the tradition. The ci of Yan Jidao is famed for the deep and delicate, and this ci, writing the longing of the separated, is one of its best.

此词是晏几道小令中的名篇，历来被推为写相思的佳作：全词无一奇字险句，而情深意切，正是小山词「淡语皆有味，浅语皆有致」的本色。「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」与「真个别离难，不似相逢好」皆以口语白描写出人情之至，前者以青鬓反衬心老，后者以朴素真理道尽离别之痛，皆成为传诵的名句。晏几道词以「痴」著称：他的相思不是怨妇的哀叹，而是痴情人的直白——把相思说给人听，说别离难、相逢好，语语天真，句句深情，黄庭坚评小山词「清壮顿挫，能动摇人心」，此词可当之。在词史上，此词与晏殊「无可奈何花落去」的含蓄不同，以直白之语写深婉之情，是小令白描的典型；其「说与人人道」的天真口吻，更开后世词中以口语传情的先声。富贵公子落魄后的深情，千载之下读来，犹令人动容。在二晏词风的对照中，此词尤见小山本色：晏殊词雍容含蓄，如贵人低语；晏几道词痴情直致，如小儿女撒娇——「真个别离难，不似相逢好」正是后者的绝佳代表，其天真烂漫处，正是小山词最动人处，亦是他能在婉约词中卓然自立的原因。

Prosody

Form Tune 'Raw Hawthorn' (double, forty characters)词牌《生查子》（双调四十字）

Rhyme Rhymes on oblique tones: shao, lao (first half), dao, hao (second half), the rising and falling tones joined押仄声韵：少、老（上片），道、好（下片）——少为上声筱韵，老、道、好为上声皓韵，词韵中筱皓通押（上声十七筱十八巧十九皓同用）；韵脚皆收于开口的「ao」音，清亮而绵长，正合相思之悠长。

Tone pattern The first half is even and flowing, the distance and the scarcity written in the two parallel lines, the 'grow old' of the third line turning suddenly; the second half turns to the dream, the plain speech of the close, the whole from the distance to the truth, the longing carried by the level and the oblique上下片句式全同，结构对称；全词以短句平叙，节奏均匀舒缓，如低语诉衷；口语（可怜、只为、真个）与典雅意象（关山、碧纱窗）相间，声情上雅俗相济，前半低回，后半明朗。

Reading note The tune's oblique rhymes and its even and flowing tone carry the longing of the separated, the plain truth of the close.《生查子》为双调小令，上下片各四句，句式以五言为主，此词正是典型的两个五言句式单元。晏几道此词的声情特色在于「平缓中见深情」：全词无领字、无长句、无叠字，纯以短句平叙，节奏均匀如脉搏，恰如一个痴情人的低语诉衷，不急不徐，而句句深情。用韵上，少、老、道、好皆收于开口的「ao」韵，音节清亮而绵长，一唱三叹，正合「相思悠长」的情感基调；上下片句式全同，而上片写思（关山、鱼雁、相思老），下片写梦与语（归梦、说与、相逢好），同一声律，两般情境，复沓之中自有推进。词中口语（「可怜」「只为」「真个」）与典雅意象（「关山」「碧纱窗」）相间，声情上亦雅俗相济：前半低回，写相思之苦；后半明朗，写相逢之愿，恰与由「思之苦」到「逢之愿」的情感脉络相合。晏几道精于音律而不炫技，此词以最简的声律结构承载最深的相思，正是小令艺术的最高境界。

Line by line

关山魂梦长，鱼雁音尘少。

The passes and mountains are long to the soul's dream, the fish and the wild geese bring few tidings. (The opening: the distance of the dream within and the scarcity of the letters without, the double separation, the 'long' writing both the length of the road and the length of the longing.)

关山阻隔，梦魂相寻的路途那样漫长；鱼雁传书，音信却那样稀少。

The mountain pass and the barrier make the dream-soul's journey long; the fish and wild goose bring but scanty news.

起句双起，从两个角度写远隔之苦：「关山魂梦长」写空间之远——关隘山岭，重重阻隔，连梦魂寻人的路都显得漫长，梦长正见思念之深、之迫，梦中寻人尚须跋涉关山，醒时相见更是无期；「鱼雁音尘少」写音信之疏——鱼传尺素、雁足传书，本是寄情之具，而「音尘少」三字，写书信稀少、音讯难通，相思无从寄托。两句一梦一信，一虚一实：梦魂可以越关山而音书不能达，愈见远隔之无奈；「长」与「少」对举，路愈长而信愈少，相思的煎熬在对比中层层加深。起句不写人而写关山、鱼雁，皆是人远隔的两端，为下文「相思老」蓄势，也写出相思之人夜夜无眠、日日盼信的痴态。

The opening double rising, from two angles writing the far-separation's pain: the mountain pass and the barrier make the dream-soul's journey long writes the space's distance — the passes and barriers, layer on layer blocking, even the dream-soul's person-seeking road seems long, the dream's length precisely seeing the longing's depth and urgency, the dream's person-seeking yet the wading through the passes, the waking meeting the more the no-date; the fish and wild goose bring but scanty news writes the letter's scantiness — the fish-carrying-foot-long-paper and the goose-foot-carrying-letter, by nature the feeling's vehicles, and yet the scanty-news three characters, writing the letter's scarcity and the news' hard passage, the longing's nowhere-to-lodge. Two lines, one dream one letter, one void one real: the dream-soul's crossing the passes and yet the letter's non-arrival, the far-separation's helplessness the clearer; the long and the few set against, the road the longer and the letter the fewer, the longing's torment within the contrast layer on layer. The opening not writing the person but the passes and the fish-geese, both the person-far-apart two ends, storing the force for the below's the longing's aging, and writing the longing person's nightly sleeplessness and daily letter-waiting craziness.

两鬓可怜青，只为相思老。

My two temples, pitifully black, grow old only for the longing. (The turn to the aging of the man: the temples still black, yet the heart already old with the longing, the black temples setting off the earlier-old heart, the deep-feeling version of 'old before the time.')

可叹我两鬓还是青青的，只因这一腔相思，人便已经老去。

Pity my two temples still black — and yet, only for the longing, they have grown old.

此二句是全词最警动处，以反常之笔写相思之深：「两鬓可怜青」写容颜未老——鬓发青青，正是青春年华，「可怜」二字是自怜自叹，亦见可爱可叹之态；而「只为相思老」陡转：鬓虽青而心已老，人未老而情已老，相思竟能使人未老先衰！以青鬓之「未老」反衬心之「先老」，反常合道，情深语奇，比直说「相思令人老」更见力量。「只为」二字，把全部的青春、全部的生命，都归之于一场相思，斩钉截铁，不容分说，正是痴情人的口吻：不是岁月使人老，不是奔波使人老，只是相思。两句以白描出之，无一字典故，而千古传诵：相思的沉重，尽在「青鬓」与「老」的反差之中，正是小山「淡语有味」的明证。

These two lines are the ci's most startling place, using the abnormal brush for the longing's depth: Pity my two temples still black writes the face's not-old — the temples' blackness, precisely the youth, the pity two words the self-pity and self-sigh, and the lovely-pitiable state seen; and yet, only for the longing, they have grown old the sudden turn: the temples though black and yet the heart already old, the person not old and yet the feeling already old, the longing actually able to make the before-its-time aging! Setting the black temples' not-old against the heart's before-old, the abnormal-yet-right, the feeling deep and the words wondrous, the more forceful than the direct the longing-makes-one-old. The only-for two words, entrusting all the youth and all the life to one bout of longing, the decisive and the brooking-no-argument, precisely the crazed person's tone: not the years' making-one-old, not the wandering's making-one-old, only the longing. Two lines in the plain drawing, not one allusion, and yet recited through the ages: the longing's weight, all within the black-temples and old contrast, precisely Xiaoshan's plain-words-with-taste proof.

归梦碧纱窗，说与人人道。

In a dream I return to the green gauze window, and say to the dear one, speaking the word: (The turn to the dream: the soul's dream returns to the green gauze window and speaks the longing to the beloved, the dream writing the folly of the longing.)

梦魂归到那碧纱窗下，把满腹的相思说给心上人听。

The homeward dream reaches the green gauze window, and tells the beloved all.

下片转写梦境，以梦写痴：「归梦」点明是梦魂归家，「碧纱窗」写闺阁之景，绿纱窗下，是心爱之人所在——梦魂跋涉关山，终于归到碧纱窗下，其情之痴、其愿之切，可见一斑；「说与人人道」写梦中诉衷，「人人」是宋人口语，指心爱的人，亲昵而天真——把千般相思、万种离愁，都化作梦中窗前的一番倾诉，说给那人听。「归梦」是虚，而「碧纱窗」是实，虚实相生，写出清醒时不能言说的相思，唯有在梦里才能倾诉；且「归」字尤见深情：归是归向心上人，梦魂所归之处即是家之所在，人在天涯而心系碧纱窗下。两句由远而近、由梦而语，痴情毕现，为结句的直白道白作了最自然的铺垫。

The second stanza turning to the dream, writing craziness through the dream: the homeward dream naming the dream-soul's home-returning, the green gauze window writing the boudoir scene, the green gauze window below, the beloved person's place — the dream-soul's wading through the passes, finally arriving at the green gauze window, the feeling's craziness and the wish's urgency, seen at a glance; and tells the beloved all writing the dream's pouring-out, the beloved the Song colloquial, naming the loved one, intimate and naive — turning the thousand-fold longing and the myriad parting grief into the dream-window-side's one pouring, spoken to that person. The homeward dream the void, and the green gauze window the real, the void-and-real mutually born, writing the waking-time's un-speakable longing, only in the dream's pouring; and the home word especially the deep feeling: the home the turning-toward-the-beloved, the dream-soul's returning place i.e. the home's place, the person at the horizon and yet the heart tied below the green gauze window. Two lines, from far to near and from dream to speech, the craziness fully present, storing the most natural ground for the close's direct speech.

真个别离难，不似相逢好。

'Truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good.' (The close: the plainest truth, the word of the dream, yet the truth of all the parted, the whole ci's longing gathered in the two plain lines.)

真个是别离太难，总不如相逢在一起好。

Truly, parting is hard; it is not like the joy of meeting.

结句以口语道白收束，是全词情感的总结，也是千古传诵的名句：「真个」是宋代口语（「真个是」），如当面说话，亲切天真；「别离难」是千言万语的浓缩——关山梦长、鱼雁信疏、相思到老、梦里倾诉，一切苦楚，归根结底都是「别离」二字；「不似相逢好」以最朴素的语言道出最朴素的真理：别离再难，相逢最好，只要在一起，什么都不重要。两句无一字修饰，无一字典故，纯以白话直说，而深情直致，恰似小儿女的口吻，天真烂漫中自有刻骨的相思；「真个」二字，是经过千般相思、万般体会之后的确认，如向爱人当面撒娇般地说「真个是别离太难了」，痴态可掬，深情可感。以此收束全词，由远及近、由景及情、由梦及语，一切相思都落在这句朴素的愿望里，令人回味不尽，是「以浅语写深情」的极致。

The close closing on the colloquial speech, the whole ci's emotional summary, and a famous line through the ages: the truly the Song colloquial (truly-is), like the face-to-face speech, intimate and naive; parting-is-hard the thousand-words' distillation — the passes' dream length, the fish-geese's scanty letter, the longing's aging, the dream's pouring, all suffering, in the end the parting two words; it-is-not-like-the-joy-of-meeting in the plainest language uttering the plainest truth: the parting however hard, the meeting the best, as long as together, nothing matters. Two lines, not one word of ornament, not one allusion, pure vernacular direct speaking, and the affection direct and to the point, precisely the children-and-lovers' tone, the naive vividness within the bone-cutting longing; the truly two words, the confirmation after the thousand-fold longing and myriad-fold experience, like the face-to-face coquetry with the beloved saying truly the parting is too hard, the craziness endearing, the deep feeling moving. Closing the whole ci this way, from far to near, from scene to feeling, from dream to speech, all the longing landing in this plain wish, making the aftertaste endless, the plain-words-writing-deep-feeling extreme.

Study

Word focus

可怜 Pitiful. The word of the pity: 'my two temples, pitifully black'—the pitiful blackness of the youthful temples against the heart already old with the longing, the tenderness and the pity of the poet in the word. 「两鬓可怜青」之「可怜」二字，是全词情感色彩最浓的修饰语。「可怜」在唐宋诗词中兼有「可爱」与「可叹」两义，此处兼而有之：两鬓青青，是青春美好的样子，「可怜」写其可爱；而美好年华空付相思，「可怜」又写其可叹——可爱与可叹交织，正是自怜自伤的情态。此二字妙在不仅修饰鬓发，更定下全句的叹息口吻：一个「可怜」，把「青鬓」与「老」的反差写得缠绵悱恻；若易为「青青」「尚青」等字，则只剩客观描摹，失其深情。且「可怜」置于「青」前，先赞其美，再叹其误，一波三折；晏几道善用「可怜」入词（如「可怜人意，薄于云水」），此词「两鬓可怜青」以一词兼美兼叹，恰见小山词以虚字传神、以口语写心的功力。

只为 Only for. The word of the cause: 'grow old only for the longing'—the sole cause of the aging the longing, the black temples old before the time, the depth of the longing in the two plain words. 「只为相思老」之「只为」二字，是逻辑的强调，亦是痴情的告白。「只」是仅仅、独独，「为」是因为——鬓青而心老，原因无他，只是相思：把一个人的全部生命状态，归因于一场相思，斩钉截铁，不容分说，正是痴情人的口吻。「只为」二字，排除了其他一切解释：不是岁月使人老，不是奔波使人老，只是相思；相思之深、之专、之烈，尽在「只为」的排他性中，仿佛青春、生命，都只为这一场相思而存在。且「只为」是口语，与「可怜」「真个」呼应，使全词保持着亲切如话的口吻；以虚字写深情，以小词见大痛，「只为」二字是「两鬓可怜青，只为相思老」之所以警动的关键——把因果关系说得斩绝，痴情便不容置疑。

真个 Truly. The word of the truth: 'truly, parting is hard, not like the meeting, which is good'—the colloquial 'truly' of the dream's speech, the plainest truth of all the parted, the whole ci's longing gathered in the one word. 「真个别离难」之「真个」二字，是宋人习见的口语，此处以之领起结句，妙在如对面说话。「真个」即「真的是」，是经过千般相思、万般体会之后的确认——不是泛泛的感慨，而是以整个生命经验为证的断定；一个「真」字，写出此言的分量，一个「个」字（语气词），写出语气的亲昵天真，如小儿女向爱人撒娇般地说「真个是别离太难了」，痴态可掬，深情可感。以口语入词，本是柳永、晏几道一派的特长，而「真个」二字在此词中尤为传神：它使结句从书面语的抒情转为面对面的诉说，把千里的相思拉近到耳边，亲切天真，却字字千斤；若易为「诚然」「实在」等书面语，则失其痴态与亲昵。此二字正是「以浅语写深情」的点睛之笔，亦见小山词「痴」的本色。