宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
辛弃疾·念奴娇·书东流村壁
Nian Nu Jiao · Written on a Wall in Dongliu Village
念奴娇·书东流村壁野棠花落，又匆匆过了，清明时节。
刬地东风欺客梦，一枕云屏寒怯。
曲岸持觞，垂杨系马，此地曾经别。
楼空人去，旧游飞燕能说。
闻道绮陌东头，行人长见，帘底纤纤月。
旧恨春江流不尽，新恨云山千叠。
料得明朝，尊前重见，镜里花难折。
也应惊问，近来多少华发。
once more, in haste, the Qingming season has passed.
For no reason the east wind bullies a traveller's dream,
and on my pillow before the cloud screen I shrink in the cold.
On the curving bank we lifted our cups,
by the drooping willows we tied the horses—
in this very place we once said goodbye.
The tower is empty and she is gone;
of our old wanderings only the flying swallows could tell.
They say that at the eastern end of the brocade lane
the passers-by often see
a slender crescent moon beneath the blind.
Old regrets flow on like a spring river and never end;
new regrets rise like cloudy hills, a thousand folds.
I fancy that tomorrow, meeting again above the wine,
she will be a flower in the mirror, not to be plucked.
She too must ask in surprise
how much white hair I have gained of late.
Meaning
The blossoms of the wild crab-apple have fallen, and once again the Qingming season has hurried by. For no reason the east wind troubles a traveller's dream, and alone on my pillow before the cloud screen I shrink in the cold. On the curving bank we raised our cups, and under the drooping willows we tied our horses: it was in this very place that I parted from her. Now the tower stands empty and she is gone, and only the flying swallows could tell of our old wanderings. They say that at the eastern end of the brocade lane the passers-by often catch sight of a figure beneath the blind, slender as a new moon. My old regrets flow like a spring river and never come to an end; my new ones pile up like cloudy hills in a thousand folds. I fancy that tomorrow, if we meet again over the wine, she will be like a flower in a mirror that cannot be plucked. And she too must ask in surprise how much white hair I have gained of late.
野棠花已飘落，又匆匆过了清明时节。无端东风欺扰客中梦，一枕孤寒对着云屏心怯。弯曲的岸边举杯，垂杨下系马，这地方曾与你分别。楼阁空空人已去，旧日游踪只有飞燕能说。听说那绮陌东头，行人常常望见，帘底如纤纤新月的人影。旧恨如春江流不尽，新恨如云山千重叠。料想明朝酒席前重见，却如镜中花难以折取。她也该惊问：近来添了多少白发。
Appreciation
The upper stanza raises its feeling out of the season, with fallen crab-apple blossom and the Qingming gone by; 'for no reason the east wind bullies a traveller's dream' writes the cold loneliness of a man far from home, and the words 'shrink in the cold' catch the whole state of his mind. The three lines about the curving bank pull back to the old gathering, and then 'the tower is empty and she is gone' turns suddenly to emptiness, while 'only the flying swallows could tell' sets a creature against a vanished person, airy and full of suggestion. In the lower stanza the 'slender crescent moon' figures the shape beneath the blind and the 'flower in the mirror' the hopelessness of meeting again, and both figures are finely chosen. 'Old regrets' and 'new regrets' stand against each other, weaving the love story into the story of a life. The surface of the lyric is soft and tender, and beneath it lies a brooding grief.
【白话串讲】 辛弃疾路过东流村，想起当年在这里分别的人：“曲岸持觞，垂杨系马，此地曾经别”。如今“楼空人去，旧游飞燕能说”——只有燕子还记得。一个将军的旧情，也这么柔软。 【意象与手法】 上片以「野棠花落」「清明时节」点景起情，「刬地东风欺客梦」写客中孤寒，「寒怯」二字摄神。「曲岸持觞」三句逆挽欢聚，旋以「楼空人去」陡转空寂，「飞燕能说」以物衬人，空灵蕴藉。下片「纤纤月」喻帘底人影，「镜里花难折」喻重逢难期，设喻精绝。「旧恨」「新恨」对举，将情事与身世交融。全词柔婉其表、沉郁其里。 【情感与主旨】 此词约作于辛弃疾南归后游历江淮、荆湘期间（具体年代难确考，多在乾道、淳熙间）。词题「书东流村壁」，东流即今安徽东至县地。稼轩青年时曾率义军南归，平生壮志未酬，常年流转。途经东流村，见野棠花落、清明又过，触发往昔在此地与一女子相聚又别离的旧事。此词表面写艳情离合，实于柔情中暗寓身世漂泊、功业未成之悲，是其刚柔并济词风的典型体现。 【名句点睛】 中高考赏析角度：一、炼字，「刬地」（无端、只是）表怨怅，「欺」字拟人写东风之恼人，「寒怯」写孤寂心理；二、「旧恨春江流不尽，新恨云山千叠」的比喻与对偶；三、「镜里花难折」的设喻与「也应惊问」的悬想之妙。
Background
The lyric was written during Xin Qiji's travels in the Jiang-Huai and Jing-Xiang regions after his return to the south (the exact year is hard to fix, most likely in the Qiandao or Chunxi periods). The title, 'written on a wall in Dongliu village', refers to Dongliu, in present-day Dongzhi county in Anhui. In his youth the poet had led a volunteer army south, and his great purpose was never fulfilled, so that he spent his years moving from place to place. Passing through Dongliu village, seeing the wild crab-apple fallen and Qingming gone by once more, he was reminded of an old meeting and parting there with a woman he had known. On the surface the lyric is a love poem; in truth its tenderness carries the grief of a wanderer whose ambitions have come to nothing, and it is a typical example of the strength and softness combined in his art.
此词约作于辛弃疾南归后游历江淮、荆湘期间（具体年代难确考，学界多系于乾道、淳熙年间，一说为淳熙五年（1178）自江西安抚使调任湖北转运副使途中）。词题「书东流村壁」，「东流」即今安徽东至县地，位于长江南岸。辛弃疾（1140—1207），字幼安，号稼轩，山东济南人，南宋抗金名将、词坛巨擘。他二十二岁即聚众两千余起兵抗金，率义军南归，满怀「了却君王天下事」的壮志；然南归后朝廷对他心存疑忌，始终不肯委以北伐重任，只让他做地方官、闲官，一腔热血空付流水。此词写他途经东流村，见野棠花落、清明又过，触发一段往昔情事：青年时曾在此地与一女子相聚又别离，如今故地重游，楼空人去，唯有飞燕还能说起旧事。词人于旧情的追忆中，叠入身世的感慨——漂泊半生，壮志未酬，华发早生，当年的少年豪情与今日的镜里白发相对照，情事与身世交织，柔婉之中暗藏沉郁，正是稼轩「以艳笔写沉郁」的典型，也是其「刚柔并济」词风的体现。
Art
The upper stanza sets scene and feeling with fallen crab-apple blossom and the Qingming season; 'for no reason the east wind bullies a traveller's dream' writes the cold solitude of the road, and the two words 'shrink in the cold' seize the spirit of it. The three lines beginning 'on the curving bank we lifted our cups' reach back to the old gathering, and then 'the tower is empty and she is gone' turns abruptly to emptiness, while 'only the flying swallows could tell' uses a creature to set off the absent person, airy and rich in suggestion. In the lower stanza the 'slender crescent moon' figures the shape behind the blind, and 'a flower in the mirror, not to be plucked' the hopelessness of reunion—both figures exquisitely made. 'Old regrets' and 'new regrets' are set against each other, so that the love story and the story of a life are woven into one. The lyric is soft on its surface and brooding within.
此词艺术之妙，在「今昔对照的章法与柔婉沉郁的笔致」。上片以「野棠花落，又匆匆过了，清明时节」点景起情：野棠花落写春光之逝，清明又过写节候之迁，一个「又」字暗含年复一年的漂泊，「匆匆」二字写时光之无情。「刬地东风欺客梦，一枕云屏寒怯」写客中孤寒：东风无端欺人好梦，「欺」字拟人，无理而妙；「寒怯」二字摄神，写尽独对云屏的孤寂心理。「曲岸持觞，垂杨系马，此地曾经别」逆挽当年欢聚——曲岸举杯、垂杨系马，是何等少年豪兴；「楼空人去，旧游飞燕能说」陡转今日空寂——楼在人去，唯飞燕能说旧事，以物衬人，空灵蕴藉。下片「闻道绮陌东头，行人长见，帘底纤纤月」以「纤纤月」喻帘底人影，设喻精绝；「旧恨春江流不尽，新恨云山千叠」对偶兼比喻，以江云喻愁，将离情与身世交融，是全词警策；「料得明朝，尊前重见，镜里花难折」悬想重逢之难，以「镜里花」喻可望不可即；结句「也应惊问，近来多少华发」以对方惊问收束，不言己悲而华发自见。全词由今溯昔、由昔返今，层层回环，柔婉其表、沉郁其里。
Allusions
The lyric uses no obscure allusion and prevails by ordinary images and figures. The 'slender crescent moon' transforms the tradition, seen in Li Bai's Songs of the Yue Maidens and in older verse, of likening a beautiful woman to the moon, and here the half-moon shape beneath the blind stands for her slender form—fresh and exactly right. 'A flower in the mirror, not to be plucked' touches the old image of flowers in a mirror and the moon in water, for what is unreal and beyond reach, and figures the faint hope of meeting again. 'Old regrets flow on like a spring river' carries on Li Yu's way of figuring sorrow, in the line asking how much sorrow one can hold and answering that it is just like a whole river flowing east in spring, so that here too the water carries the regret, easy and natural.
此词无明显僻典，以寻常意象与精妙比喻取胜，正见稼轩「以文为词」之外的婉约本色。「纤纤月」化用李白《越女词》「眉目艳皎月，一笑倾城欢」及古诗词以月喻美人的传统——以半弯新月喻女子纤美的身姿或眉目，此处写「帘底纤纤月」，是行人常见帘下那一抹倩影，如新月出云，空灵曼妙，新颖贴切。「镜里花难折」暗合「镜花水月」的佛家喻象——镜中之花、水中之月，皆虚而不实、可望不可即，稼轩用以喻重逢之渺茫：即便明朝尊前重见，伊人亦如镜中之花，看得见而折不得，把「相见争如不见」的绝望写得含蓄蕴藉。「春江流不尽」则承李煜《虞美人》「问君能有几多愁，恰似一江春水向东流」的喻愁传统，以江水写愁之绵长不绝，稼轩点化为「旧恨春江流不尽」，更以「新恨云山千叠」对举，江流不尽写恨之永，云山千叠写恨之重，一水一山，愁恨无边。全词熔铸前人名句而自出机杼，用典化典，皆如盐溶于水。
Commentary
Liang Qichao said that Xin Qiji's lyrics 'stir the heart and take away the breath, and here to the utmost'. This piece has always been taken as a representative of the 'silken and lovely' vein in his work, and Tan Xian, in the Remarks on Lyrics from the Restored Hall, said that it 'strides out boldly, of equal skill with Su Shi of Meishan though in a different key'. Modern critics often praise it as brooding feeling written with a lover's brush, saying that in the language of tender affection one sees the grief of a hero who has lost his road; strength and softness show together, and the breadth of Xin Qiji's world is plain.
此词向被视为辛词中「绵丽」一体（即婉约一格）的代表作。梁启超评稼轩词「回肠荡气，至于此极」，正可移评此篇——于儿女情长的柔婉笔墨中，暗藏英雄失路的回肠荡气。谭献《复堂词话》称辛词「大踏步出来，与眉山（苏轼）同工而异曲」，此词的「绵丽」正见其异曲之处：苏轼以旷达超然化解悲慨，辛弃疾则以柔婉缠绵包裹悲慨，一「出」一「藏」，皆成绝调。近人论稼轩，多以「以艳笔写沉郁」许之，谓其儿女情中见英雄失路之悲——「旧恨春江流不尽，新恨云山千叠」二句，既是写情事之恨，也是写功业之恨，旧恨新恨，叠于一处，江山与美人同悲。此词在文学史上的价值，在于它突破了婉约词「纯写儿女情」的格局，把身世之感打并入艳情，为后来「词为心史」的传统张本；同时「镜里花难折」「也应惊问，近来多少华发」等句，设喻精绝、悬想入神，足见稼轩于豪放之外，婉约的造诣亦臻化境。此词在稼轩全部词作中，亦属婉约一路的精品。
Prosody
Line by line
野棠花落，又匆匆过了，清明时节
The blossoms of the wild crab-apple have fallen, and once again the Qingming season has hurried by.
野棠花已飘落，又匆匆过了清明时节。
Wild crabapple blossoms fall; another Qingming has rushed by.
起句以节候起兴，写流年暗换与客中孤寂。「野棠花落」写眼前景：野生的棠梨花已纷纷飘落，春事将尽；「又匆匆过了，清明时节」写节候之迁——又一个清明过去了，「又」字暗含年复一年的漂泊，清明是扫墓思亲的节令，客中过清明，更添羁旅之悲；「匆匆」二字写时光之无情，仿佛春天只是匆匆过客，不等游子驻足。此句的妙处在于「以节候写心境」：野棠花落，是春光的流逝，也是词人青春与壮志的流逝；清明又过，是岁月的循环，也是词人漂泊的循环。起笔不写情事而情已暗生，为全词「故地重游」的追忆蓄势，节候意象的选择（清明、落花）极见匠心，是稼轩「于豪放外亦工细腻」的明证。
The opening line uses the season's uprising, writing the years' silent change and the traveler's loneliness. The wild-crabapple-blossoms-fall writing the present scene: the wild crabapple's fallen, the spring affair's ending; another-Qingming-has-rushed-by writing the season's moving — another Qingming's passed, the you word's secretly carrying the year-after-year drifting, Qingming's the tomb-sweeping-and-home-longing season, the traveler's Qingming, the more adding the journey grief; the hurried two words' writing the time's ruthlessness, as if the spring's only the hurried passer-by, not waiting for the wanderer's pause. This line's wonder's in the season-writes-mood: the wild blossom's fall, the spring-light's passing, and yet also the poet's youth-and-ambition's passing; Qingming's passed again, the years' cycle, and yet also the poet's drifting cycle. The opening's not writing the love affair and yet the feeling's secretly arisen, storing the force for the whole ci's old-site-revisit remembrance, the season-image's choice (Qingming, falling flowers) the most seeing the craft, the Jiaxuan's beyond-the-bold-and-yet-fine proof.
刬地东风欺客梦，一枕云屏寒怯
For no reason the east wind troubles a traveller's dream; alone before the cloud screen I shrink in the cold.
无端东风欺扰客中梦，一枕孤寒对着云屏心怯。
For no reason the east wind mocks the traveler's dream; on the pillow, before the cloud screen, coldness makes him shrink.
此二句写客中孤寒，是全词「由景入情」的关键。「刬地」是宋代口语，意为「无端、平白地」，一个「刬地」写出东风的无理取闹；「东风欺客梦」——东风吹破客中好梦，「欺」字拟人，将无情的东风写成有意的欺凌者，无理而妙：客中难得一梦，偏偏被东风惊破，连梦也不得安宁。「一枕云屏寒怯」写醒后的孤寒：一枕之上，云母屏风之前，寒气袭人，「寒怯」二字摄神——不仅是身体之寒，更是心理之怯，客中独宿的恐惧与孤寂，尽在这两个字中。「欺」与「怯」相生：东风之欺，正衬出客子之怯；梦境之破，正引出孤寒之惧。此二句以拟人与白描写尽客中况味，为下文「此地曾经别」的追忆作了情绪的铺垫。
These two lines write the traveler's loneliness, the whole ci's scene-to-feeling key. The chandi's the Song colloquial, meaning the unreasoning and for-nothing, one chandi's writing the east wind's unreasonable mischief; the east-wind-mocks-the-traveler's-dream — the east wind's blowing through the traveler's fair dream, the qi word's personification, turning the feelingless east wind into the intentional bully, the unreasonable-and-yet-wondrous: the traveler's hard-won dream, and yet precisely's broken by the east wind, even the dream's no-peace. The on-the-pillow-before-the-cloud-screen-coldness-makes-him-shrink writing the waking's loneliness: on the pillow, before the mica screen, the cold's oppressive, the cold-shrink two words' capturing the spirit — not only the body's cold, and yet the mind's shrink, the traveler's lone lodging's fear-and-loneliness, all within these two words. The qi and the shy's mutual birth: the east wind's mocking, precisely setting off the traveler's shy; the dream's broken, precisely leading out the loneliness-fear. These two lines using the personification-and-plain-description's exhausting the traveler's condition, storing the emotional ground for the below's once-we-parted-here remembrance.
楼空人去，旧游飞燕能说
The tower is empty and she is gone; of our old wanderings only the flying swallows could tell.
楼阁空空人已去，旧日游踪只有飞燕能说。
The tower is empty, the person gone; only the returning swallows can tell of the old wanderings.
此二句是全词由「追忆」转入「空寂」的枢纽。「曲岸持觞，垂杨系马，此地曾经别」先以三个短语逆挽当年欢聚：曲岸举杯、垂杨系马，是少年情事的美好画面；「楼空人去，旧游飞燕能说」陡转今日空寂——楼阁依旧而伊人已去，「空」字写尽人去楼空之怅，「旧游飞燕能说」以飞燕衬人：当年的欢游，如今只有飞燕还记得、还能说起，物犹在而人已非。「飞燕能说」的写法极空灵：燕是当年的燕（古诗词中燕巢常喻故家），它能作证当年的欢聚，却无法唤回逝去的人。以物衬人、以燕证情，比直写思念更见蕴藉；「能说」二字又暗含「无人可说」的孤独——旧游之事，只能与飞燕相说，人间的知音又在哪里？此二句是稼轩柔婉笔法的代表作。
These two lines are the whole ci's remembrance-to-emptiness hinge. The curved-bank-held-the-cup, the willow-tied-the-horse, here-we-once-parted first using three phrases' reverse-turning of the year's happy gathering: the curved bank's cup and the willow's horse, the youth-love's beautiful picture; the tower-is-empty-the-person-gone-only-the-returning-swallows-can-tell-of-the-old-wanderings's sudden turn to today's emptiness — the tower's as-ever and yet the beloved's gone, the kong word's exhausting the person-gone-tower-empty wistfulness, the old-wanderings-returning-swallows-can-tell using the swallows for the person: the year's happy wandering, now only the swallows still remember-and-can-tell, the thing's as-ever and yet the person's changed. The swallows-can-tell's writing's extremely ethereal: the swallow's the year's swallow (in the classical poetry the swallow's nest commonly figures the old home), it can witness the year's happy gathering, and yet unable to summon back the departed person. Using the thing's setting-off-the-person and the swallow's witnessing-the-love, compared to the direct longing's the more reserved; the can-tell two words' secretly carrying the no-one-to-tell loneliness — the old wandering's affair, only's told with the swallows, the human soulmate's where? These two lines are the Jiaxuan's gentle-brush representative work.
旧恨春江流不尽，新恨云山千叠
Old regrets flow on like a spring river and never end; new regrets rise like cloudy hills in a thousand folds.
旧恨如春江流不尽，新恨如云山千重叠。
Old griefs like the spring river flow on unending; new griefs like clouded hills pile in a thousand layers.
此联是全词的警策，对偶兼比喻，将情事之恨与身世之恨熔于一炉。「旧恨春江流不尽」以春江喻旧恨——旧日的离愁别恨，如春江之水，滔滔不尽，长流不息；「新恨云山千叠」以云山喻新恨——新添的愁恨，如云山千重万叠，堆积如山。一水一山，一横一纵，愁恨的绵长与沉重，皆成具象。「旧恨」「新恨」的对举尤有深意：旧恨是情事之恨（当年的离别），新恨是身世之恨（壮志未酬、华发早生），两恨交织，江山与美人同悲，情事与功业并叹，这正是稼轩词「以艳笔写沉郁」的核心——他写的是旧情，心里装的却是「金戈铁马，气吞万里如虎」的旧梦。此联化用李煜「一江春水向东流」而自出机杼，以「千叠」对「不尽」，设喻之新、对偶之工，皆臻化境。
This couplet is the whole ci's warning stroke, the parallel-plus-metaphor, melting the love-affair's grief and the lot's grief in one furnace. The old-griefs-like-the-spring-river-flow-on-unending using the spring river for the old grief — the old parting-grief, like the spring river's water, the torrent's unending, the long-flow's unceasing; the new-griefs-like-clouded-hills-pile-in-a-thousand-layers using the clouded hills for the new grief — the newly-added grief, like the clouded hills' thousand layers, piled like mountains. One water-one hill, one horizontal-one vertical, the grief's length-and-heaviness's all become the concrete. The old-grief and new-grief's parallel's the deeper meaning: the old grief's the love-affair grief (the year's parting), the new grief's the lot's grief (the unfulfilled ambition and the early-white-hair), the two griefs' interweaving, the rivers-and-hills and the beloved's jointly-grieving, the love-and-the-achievement's jointly-sighed, this precisely the Jiaxuan ci's the gorgeous-brush-writes-the-sombreness core — he writes the old love, and yet the heart's holding the mailed-horse-and-gilded-spear-swallowing-the-wilderness tiger's old dream. This couplet's adapting Li Yu's a-river-of-spring-water's and yet the self-original craft, using the thousand-layers to the unending, the metaphor's new and the parallel's firm, both reaching the transforming realm.
也应惊问，近来多少华发
She too must ask in surprise how much white hair I have gained of late.
她也该惊问：近来添了多少白发。
She would surely ask in wonder: how many white hairs have come of late?
结句以悬想对方收束，是全词情感的最深沉处。「料得明朝，尊前重见，镜里花难折」先写悬想：料想明朝酒席前重逢，而伊人已如镜中之花，可望而不可即——重逢虽可期，相聚已不能；「也应惊问，近来多少华发」再进一层：她若见我，也定会惊问——近来添了多少白发？此句的妙处在于「借他人之口写己之悲」：不写自己如何衰老，而写她见到我时的惊问，白发之多、老态之甚，尽在对方的一声「惊问」中。「华发」是岁月的印记，也是壮志未酬的见证——稼轩南归二十余年，蹉跎半生，功业无成，唯有白发日增，当年的少年意气，如今只剩下镜里的苍颜。以柔情写悲慨，以悬想写现实，结句余韵悠长，正是稼轩「回肠荡气」的笔法。
The closing line using the imagined-other-side for the close, the whole ci's emotion's deepest place. The I-guess-tomorrow-before-the-cup-our-again-meeting-and-yet-the-mirror-flower's-hard-to-pluck first writing the imagining: the guessing tomorrow's cup-side's reunion, and yet the beloved's already like the mirror flower, the seeable-and-yet-unreachable — the reunion's though-to-be-expected, and yet the together's no-longer-possible; she-would-surely-ask-in-wonder-how-many-white-hairs-have-come-of-late the one-layer further: if she sees me, and yet surely's the wonder-ask — of late how many white hairs added? This line's wonder's in the borrow-other's-mouth-writes-self's-grief: not writing his own aging, and yet writing her seeing-me's wonder-ask, the white-hair's abundance and the old-look's extremity, all in the other's one wonder-ask. The white hair's the years' imprint, and also the unfulfilled ambition's witness — the Jiaxuan's southward return's twenty-plus years, the wasted half-life, the achievement's none, only the white hair's daily-growth, the year's youth-spirit, now only's the mirror's old face. Using the tender-feeling for the grief-sigh, and the imagining for the reality, the closing line's aftertone long, precisely the Jiaxuan's bowel-turning brush.
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Both come from Xin Qiji's hand, one writing the grief of a life within a love story and the other lamenting the lost north from a tower; his combined strength and softness may be compared.
《水龙吟·过南剑双溪楼》「举头西北浮云，倚天万里须长剑……元龙老矣，不妨高卧，冰壶凉簟」与《念奴娇·书东流村壁》同为辛弃疾抒怀之作，而一柔一刚、一情一事，可见稼轩词境的广阔。《水龙吟》写登南剑双溪楼的壮怀：举头见西北浮云，恨不能倚天长剑扫清中原，是「金戈铁马」的豪放一路；《念奴娇》写重过东流村的旧情：野棠花落、帘底纤月，是「儿女情长」的婉约一路。然而两词骨子里是同一腔悲慨：《水龙吟》以长剑写北伐之志的受阻，《念奴娇》以华发写壮志未酬的蹉跎，一显一隐，皆是「回肠荡气」的英雄失路之悲。两词并读，可见稼轩「豪放」与「婉约」实为一体两面，柔婉处正是豪放的另一种表达。
辛弃疾·鹧鸪天·鹅湖归病起作 Partridge Sky · Written on Recovering from Illness after Returning to Ehu 辛弃疾 · 同出稼轩身世感慨，皆于闲居中寄寓壮志未酬之悲 Same (same author; feeling about his own life)Both lodge the grief of unfulfilled ambition in a life of enforced leisure, so his manner of expressing such feeling may be compared.
《鹧鸪天·鹅湖归病起作》「枕簟溪堂冷欲秋，断云依水晚来收……不知筋力衰多少，但觉新来懒上楼」与《念奴娇·书东流村壁》同写稼轩的闲居之愁与壮志未酬之悲，而笔致有别。鹧鸪天写病起之后的闲居：断云依水、红莲白鹭，景色清丽，而「不知筋力衰多少」的苍凉自见，以「病」写「衰」，沉郁内敛；念奴娇写重过旧地之情：野棠花落、楼空人去，情事缠绵，而「也应惊问，近来多少华发」的悲慨自见，以「情」写「老」，柔婉深挚。两词一以「病躯」写身世之衰，一以「旧情」写岁月之老，皆是稼轩「壮岁旌旗拥万夫」之后「却将万字平戎策，换得东家种树书」的悲剧写照，并读可见其闲愁与旧恨同源，皆出于报国无门。
苏轼·念奴娇·赤壁怀古 Nian Nu Jiao · Meditation on the Past at Red Cliff 苏轼 · 同用《念奴娇》调，苏词豪放怀古、辛词婉约写情，同调异趣 Different (the same tune, one delicate and one bold)Both use the tune Nian Nu Jiao, Su's lyric bold in its meditation on the past and Xin's restrained in its writing of love; the different tastes possible within one tune may be compared.
苏轼《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》「大江东去，浪淘尽，千古风流人物」与辛弃疾此词同用《念奴娇》词牌，而同调异趣，堪称词史上最著名的对照：苏词以「大江东去」的壮阔起笔，怀周郎赤壁之功业，终以「人生如梦，一樽还酹江月」的旷达收束，是豪放词的开山之作；辛词以「野棠花落」的婉约起笔，怀旧日绮陌之情事，终以「也应惊问，近来多少华发」的悲慨收束，是婉约词的精品。同一词调，一豪一婉，可见《念奴娇》格律的包容性，也可见宋词两大巨擘的个性差异：苏轼以旷达超越悲慨，辛弃疾以执著深藏悲慨。两词并读，正是理解「豪放」与「婉约」两大词风的最佳教材，也是理解唐宋词体演进的活标本。