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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

采桑子

Picking Mulberries (Cai Sangzi)

欧阳修

Ouyang Xiu

山水landscape 闲适leisure 写景scenery

轻舟短棹西湖好，绿水逶迤。
芳草长堤。
隐隐笙歌处处随。
无风水面琉璃滑，不觉船移。
微动涟漪。
惊起沙禽掠岸飞。

A light boat, short oars—the West Lake is fair; green waters wind on and on.
Fragrant grasses line the long dike.
Faint songs of pipes and voices follow everywhere.
Windless, the water lies smooth as colored glass—the boat glides on unfelt.
Faint ripples stir.
Startled sandbirds rise and skim away along the shore.

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Meaning

The lyric depicts the joy of a spring outing by boat on West Lake in Yingzhou: light boat and short oars, winding green waters, grassy dikes, and faint music drifting on every side. On windless water smooth as glass the boat glides so gently the passenger never feels it move, until faint ripples rise and startled waterbirds skim off along the shore. Within the bright stillness lies the ease of a retired statesman who has seen through the ups and downs of official life.

乘着轻便的小舟、用短桨划船，西湖的风光多么美好，碧绿的湖水曲折绵延。没有风的时候，水面平滑得像琉璃一样，人在船上竟感觉不到船在移动。水面微微漾起一圈圈的波纹。桨声惊起了沙滩上的水鸟，它们贴着湖岸飞掠而去。

Appreciation

The lyric is built on plain 'white-sketch' description, deploying color (green water, fragrant grass), sound (faint pipes, whirring wings), and light (the glassy surface) without a trace of ornament. Its structure turns on stillness and motion: the glassy water and the unnoticed drift of the boat carry stillness to its extreme, then the faint ripple and the birds skimming away break it—and the slighter the motion, the deeper the stillness. Ending at the very crest of movement, the whole spring scene seems brought alive, with long lingering resonance.

【白话串讲】欧阳修写采桑子：“轻舟短棹西湖好，绿水逶迤”。“芳草长堤。隐隐笙歌处处随”——“无风水面琉璃滑，不觉船移”——“微动涟漪。惊起沙禽掠岸飞”——他写西湖的春天。【意象与手法】全词以白描写景，绿水、芳草、笙歌铺开西湖春色，「琉璃滑」喻静水澄澈，「不觉船移」写物我两忘，动中写静。「微动涟漪」一转，由静入动，末以沙禽掠岸飞收束，动愈微而静愈深，层次井然，余韵悠长。【情感与主旨】词写春日泛舟西湖之乐，于明丽静美的水乡景致中，流露词人退居林泉、脱略世务的闲适心境。舟行湖上之轻快，正是勘破宦海浮沉后的澄明，物我相忘的欣悦尽在「西湖好」三字的咏叹之中。【名句点睛】「无风水面琉璃滑，不觉船移」以琉璃喻静水，「滑」字兼摄光色触觉，船移而不觉，写尽物我两忘的闲适之趣，是宋词中以一字写活一幅景的典范。

Background

Ouyang Xiu, courtesy name Yongshu, sobriquet Zuiweng and in old age Liuyi Jushi, of Luling, was the leader of the Northern Song literary world and one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song prose, a master of prose, poetry, and lyric alike. Serving as prefect of Yingzhou from 1049, he so loved the scenery of its West Lake that he formed the resolve to end his days there; retired in 1071 as junior tutor to the heir apparent and settled in Yingzhou, he boated on the lake with friends the following year and wrote a linked cycle of ten lyrics to the tune Caisangzi to record its beauty—this being one of them, preceded by his prose preface 'Words on West Lake,' which invokes the tales of Wang Ziyou's love of bamboo and Tao Yuanming lying in his carriage and states plainly that he 'turned the words of old stanzas to write with the tunes of new song,' showing it to be a work of late-life self-expression. The lake lay northwest of the city, where the Ying waters joined other streams; in Song times willowed dikes lined the banks and islets wound the waters, and it recurs throughout Ouyang Xiu's poetry—his 'Written in Play on West Lake for My Fellow Travelers' ('The lotus fragrance fresh, the painted boat afloat') shares the mood of this lyric. The lyric paints a spring excursion: light boat and short oars, green water and grassy dike, faint pipes, the windless glassy surface, then the faint ripple and startled birds—a limpid water-country scene mirroring the mind of the 'Master of Six Ones' freed from worldly affairs. Together with other lyrics of the cycle such as 'After the hundred flowers are gone,' it forms the brightest strand of Ouyang Xiu's late lyrics, and the ease of the words 'the West Lake is fair' is the self-settling of a man after political disappointment. In essence, the lyric seems to write scenery but is in truth a portrait of Ouyang Xiu's state of mind after a lifetime of advance and retreat: the lightness of the boat upon the water is precisely the clarity of one who has seen through the floating and sinking of officialdom, and for a thousand years readers have been moved by this composure.

欧阳修字永叔，号醉翁，晚号六一居士，庐陵人，北宋文坛领袖，「唐宋八大家」之一，于文、诗、词俱称一代作手。皇祐元年知颍州，爱其西湖山水之美，遂有终老之志；熙宁四年以太子少师致仕，归居颍州，次年与友人泛舟西湖，作《采桑子》联章十首以纪其胜，此为其一。词前原有《西湖念语》小序，序中引王子猷爱竹、陶渊明卧舆之典，明言「因翻旧阕之辞，写以新声之调」，可见系晚年自抒胸臆之作。颍州西湖在颍州城西北，颍水合诸水汇而为湖，宋时堤柳夹岸、洲渚逶迤，欧阳修诗中屡有吟咏，其《西湖戏作示同游者》诗云「菡萏香清画舸浮，使君宁复忆扬州」，与此词同一情味。此词写春日泛舟之乐：轻舟短棹，绿水芳堤，笙歌隐隐，水面如琉璃无波，及至桨起微澜、惊起沙禽，一派江南水乡的明丽静美，正是「六一居士」脱略世务、归老林泉时的心境写照。此词与十首联章中的「群芳过后」「画船载酒」诸作，共同构成欧阳修晚年词中最明媚的篇章，其政治失意后的自我安顿，亦尽在「西湖好」三字的咏叹之中。要之，此词看似写景，实是欧阳修一生出处进退之后的心境写照：舟行湖上之轻快，正是勘破宦海浮沉之后的澄明，故千百年来读之者，无不为这份从容所动。

Art

The lyric is governed throughout by the three words 'the West Lake is fair,' which set the tone of praise at the opening. The first stanza writes the static beauty seen from the boat—green waters winding, fragrant grass on the long dike, faint pipes and song—with 'follows everywhere' quietly implying the boat's motion, hiding the moving viewpoint within the scenery; 'faint' renders sound and 'winding' renders shape, sound and color both present. The second stanza is devoted to the water: 'windless, the surface smooth as colored glass' likens the still water to glass, clear and slick, a stillness visible only because there is no wind; 'the boat moves unfelt' writes the steadiness of the passage—so still is the scene that motion itself dissolves into stillness. 'Faint ripples stir' is the turn: the oar sounds lightly, the still surface first breaks; and the closing line, 'startled sandbirds skim the shore in flight,' suddenly lifts—the birds flashing low along the bank, the whole lyric breaking off at the crest of movement with long resonance. Throughout, stillness is the ground and motion breaks it—the slighter the motion, the deeper the stillness—and the final flight seems to bring the whole lake's spring alive. The language is entirely plain sketch without ornament, yet color, sound, and light are all complete—the art of finding the extraordinary within the plain. The finest touch is the line on the boat moving unfelt: person, boat, and water become one, self and object both forgotten, carrying the ease of the excursion to its extreme—none but one who has deeply tasted the pleasure of landscape could write it. Brief as it is, the lyric is layered with order: the first stanza moves from the green water near the bank to the grassy dike to the faint pipes, from sight into hearing; the second moves from the windless still water to the faint ripple to the startled birds, from stillness into motion. Each stanza advances in three steps, and both close upon the one word 'fair'—a design as artful as ripples spreading ring upon ring across the lake.

此词以「西湖好」三字总领，起即定下赞美的基调。上片写舟行所见的静态之美：绿水逶迤，芳草长堤，笙歌隐隐，「处处随」三字暗写舟行，把移动的视点藏在景物之中。「隐隐」写声，「逶迤」写形，声色兼到。下片专写水面：「无风水面琉璃滑」以琉璃喻静水，澄澈光滑，非无风不能见，此为静境；「不觉船移」写舟行之稳，人处静中竟不觉动，连船之移动都化作静的一部分。「微动涟漪」一转，桨声轻响，静面初破；末句「惊起沙禽掠岸飞」忽然振起，沙禽掠岸、贴水疾飞，全词在动的顶点戛然而止，余韵悠长。通篇以静为主、以动破静，动愈微则静愈深，收束处的一飞，仿佛把整个西湖的春色都带活了。语言上全用白描，不事藻绘，而色彩（绿水、芳草）、声音（笙歌、禽飞）、光影（琉璃）俱全，正是「于平淡处见奇崛」的手段。尤妙者是写「不觉船移」之句，人、船、水三者合一，物我两忘，把游湖的闲适写到极处，非深味山水之趣者不能道。且全词虽短，而层次井然：上片由近岸之绿水写到长堤芳草，再写到隐隐笙歌，是由视入听；下片由无风之静水写到微动之涟漪，再写到沙禽惊飞，是由静入动。两片各作三层递进，而收束同归于一「好」字，章法之妙，恰如湖面层层推开的水纹。

Allusions

Yingzhou's West Lake was where Ouyang Xiu lingered in his last years; his 'Written in Play on West Lake for My Fellow Travelers' has the line 'the lotus fragrance fresh, the painted boat afloat,' celebrating the same pleasure as this lyric. The word 'winding' (weiyi) comes from the Han rhapsodies' spreading description of landscape—Zhang Heng's 'Rhapsody on the Western Capital' uses such reduplicative words for the winding of mountains and rivers—and Ouyang Xiu transfers it to water for its long, level, rhyming syllables. 'Colored glass' (liuli) is a Sanskrit loanword for a blue gem, ranked among the seven treasures in Buddhist scripture and glossed in the 'Collection of Translated Names'; since Han and Wei, poets had used it for the color of water—Du Fu's 'Gliding on glassy vastness in a boat' from 'Song of Meipi' is an example—and Ouyang Xiu's 'windless, the surface smooth as glass' continues the metaphor while adding the word 'smooth.' 'Sandbirds,' the birds of the sandy islets by the water, continues the Six Dynasties landscape tradition of writing spring through birds—Xie Lingyun's 'Pond-side grasses spring up; garden willows change the singing birds'—and Ouyang Xiu's closing image of birds skimming the bank carries forward that tradition of writing stillness through motion. 'Faint songs follow everywhere' accords with the method of moving the boat toward the scene: Zhang Zhihe's 'Fisherman's Song' of the Tang ('A bamboo hat, a green straw cloak, I need not return in slanting wind and fine rain') writes the joy of drifting by boat on rivers and lakes, and Ouyang Xiu's lyric shares its mood of ease while working the brush more finely. The line 'fragrant grasses on the long dike' quietly redeploy the lingering sense of the Summons for a Recluse ('The king's son roams and does not return; spring grasses rise lush'), planting the old yuefu image of fragrant grass on the banks of Yingzhou's West Lake—old allusion put to new use without a trace. Mei Yaochen and Su Zhe also wrote on Yingzhou's West Lake, yet none has been recited like Ouyang Xiu's cycle—further proof of his art of transformation.

颍州西湖为欧阳修晚年流连之地，其《西湖戏作示同游者》诗有「菡萏香清画舸浮」之句，与此词同咏西湖之乐。「绿水逶迤」之「逶迤」，语本汉赋铺陈山水之词，张衡《西京赋》「逶迤」「迢递」诸语皆用以状山川之蜿蜒，欧阳修移以写水，取其为叠韵连绵词、音节舒长之致。「琉璃」为梵语音译，本指青色宝石，佛经列为七宝之一，《翻译名义集》有释，汉魏以来诗文多以琉璃状水色，杜甫《渼陂行》「琉璃汗漫泛舟入」即其例，欧阳修「无风水面琉璃滑」正承此喻而更着「滑」字。「沙禽」指水边沙洲之鸟，谢灵运《登池上楼》「池塘生春草，园柳变鸣禽」以禽鸟之声影写春色，欧阳修以「沙禽掠岸飞」收束，正承六朝山水诗以动写静之传统。又「笙歌处处随」暗合移舟就景之法，唐人张志和《渔歌子》「青箬笠，绿蓑衣，斜风细雨不须归」写舟行江湖之乐，欧阳修此词于闲适之趣上与之相通，而笔致更见工细。又「芳草长堤」一句，暗用淮南小山《招隐士》「王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋」之遗意，而以「长堤」坐实其地，把古乐府的芳草意象安放在颍州西湖的堤岸之上，旧典新用，不着痕迹。宋人咏颍州西湖者，梅尧臣、苏辙皆有篇章，而皆不及欧公此组之传诵，亦可见其点化之功。

Commentary

Feng Xu, in his 'Discourse on Lyrics,' judged that 'Ouyang Wenzhong... opened the free-and-elegant vein for Su Shi and the deep-tender vein for Qin Guan.' This lyric, brisk and graceful in touch, its language bright and natural, is a prime example of the 'free-and-elegant' mode, from which Su Shi's clear expansiveness descends. The preface 'Words on West Lake' recounts the circumstances of composition: 'The beauty of West Lake holds the finest name of eastern Ying... bright scenes and fine days are indeed many in our gatherings, but the clear wind and bright moon fortunately belong to the idler'—calling himself an 'idler' reveals his late-life state of mind, and preface and lyric illuminate each other, a point long praised by critics. Liu Xizai's 'Generalities on Literature' says 'Ouyang Yongshu's lyrics opened the deep-tender for Qin Guan'; though this names his deep-tender side, Ouyang's lyrics in fact combine both veins, and the Caisangzi cycle is the embodiment of the free-and-elegant. In old age he styled himself 'Master of Six Ones,' keeping books, bronzes and stones, zither, chess, and wine as companions, and his mood of ease matches the self-forgetting realm of 'the boat moves unfelt.' Modern anthologies print the ten lyrics as a cycle, its linked form complete and its manner uniform—a masterpiece of scenery cycles in the history of the genre—and this one, 'A light boat, short oars,' stands first as the overture of the whole. Its writing of the boat moving unfelt accords with the old ideal of 'observing things to let the heart roam,' anticipating the Song maxim 'in still contemplation all things attain themselves.' In sum, the lyric writes a great scene in a small form and deep feeling in plain language—free-and-elegant yet warm—proof that Ouyang Xiu's powers only strengthened with age; that it stands first in the cycle is no accident.

冯煦《蒿庵论词》评欧阳修词云：「欧阳文忠……疏隽开子瞻，深婉开少游。」此词笔致清疏俊逸、语言明快自然，正是「疏隽」一格的代表，苏轼清旷之词风即滥觞于此。《西湖念语》小序自述创作缘起，谓「况西湖之胜概，擅东颍之佳名」「虽美景良辰，固多于高会；而清风明月，幸属于闲人」，以「闲人」自居，可见其晚年心境，此序与词互为表里，向来为论者所称。刘熙载《艺概·词曲概》谓「欧阳永叔词深婉开少游」，所论虽指其深婉一面，然永叔词实兼疏隽、深婉二体，《采桑子》诸作即其疏隽之体现。又欧阳修晚年自称「六一居士」，以藏书、金石、琴、棋、酒自随，其闲适心境正与此词「不觉船移」的物我相忘之境相合。近人选宋词者，多录《采桑子》十首为一组，以其联章体例完备、风貌统一，为词史上写景联章之佳作，而此首「轻舟短棹」尤居其首，可作全组之序曲。又此词写「不觉船移」，与前人所谓「观物以游心」之旨相通，宋儒常言「万物静观皆自得」，欧阳修于词中先得之矣。总之，此词以小令写大景，以浅语见深情，疏隽而不失温润，正是欧公晚年笔力愈健的明证，故十首联章中以此为首，非偶然也。

Prosody

Form Lyric (ci), a double-stanza short form of forty-four characters词（双调小令，四十四字）

Rhyme Level-tone rhymes throughout; the rhyme words belong to the third division of the Cilin Zhengyun (the zhi-wei-qi group)押平声韵，韵字属《词林正韵》第三部（支微齐诸韵）

Tone pattern Each stanza has four lines with three level rhymes; seven-character and four-character lines alternate前后段各四句三平韵，七言与四言相间

Reading note The Caisangzi is a double-stanza tune of forty-four characters, four lines with three level rhymes in the first stanza and four lines with three level rhymes in the second. In this lyric the rhyme words—wei, di, sui, yi, yi, fei—all belong to the level-tone third division of the Cilin Zhengyun, where the zhi, wei, and qi rhyme groups intermingle; the rhymes are spacely placed and the tone is mild, matching the light ease of a spring outing. In lineation, the opening seven-character line 'A light boat, short oars—the West Lake is fair' alternates with four-character short lines, the rhythm rising and falling like a boat upon the water; the lines 'windless, the surface smooth as colored glass—the boat moves unfelt—faint ripples stir' rhyme on their closing words, their syllables circling in harmony with the shimmering water. Note that the line-final words 'fair' and 'smooth' do not carry the rhyme—one rising tone, one entering tone—so that oblique line-endings alternate with level rhyme feet to create a cadence of rise and fall. The tonal pattern throughout is even, without a single twisted line; in 'windless, the water's surface smooth as colored glass,' 'water's surface' and 'colored glass' alternate level and oblique, and the line reads smoothly aloud—showing how Ouyang Xiu 'brought prose into the lyric' without losing the beauty of prosody.《采桑子》双调四十四字，前段四句三平韵，后段四句三平韵。此词韵字「逶、堤、随、移、漪、飞」，于《词林正韵》皆属第三部平声，微齐支诸韵通用，韵位疏朗而声调平和，正合春日泛舟轻快闲适之情。句式上，七言起句「轻舟短棹西湖好」与四言短句交错，节奏一长一短，如舟行水面之起伏；「无风水面琉璃滑，不觉船移。微动涟漪」数句以「移」「漪」为韵，音节回环，与水面波光荡漾之景相谐。值得注意的是，句尾「好」「滑」二字不入韵，一为上声一为入声，仄声句脚与平声韵脚交替，形成抑扬顿挫的声调节奏。全词平仄调匀，无拗折之句，尤其「无风水面琉璃滑」七字中「水面」「琉璃」平仄相间，读来琅琅上口，正体现欧阳修「以文入词」而仍不失声律之美的特点。

Line by line

轻舟短棹西湖好，绿水逶迤。

With a light boat and short oars the West Lake is fair, its green waters winding on and on.

乘着轻便的小舟、用短桨划船，西湖的风光多么美好，碧绿的湖水曲折绵延。

The light boat and short oar - how lovely West Lake is; the green waters wind on.

起句即定全篇基调。「轻舟短棹」四字点出游湖的轻快之具，「西湖好」直接赞叹，开门见山；「绿水逶迤」以水之蜿蜒写出湖面之开阔与岸线之曲折。「逶迤」本形容山脉道路之绵延，移以写水，顿觉水面有了曲折回环的姿态，静态的湖水因此流动起来。两句一写人、一写景，人物融入景物之中，泛舟之乐已在不言。全词以「好」字立骨，以下种种景物皆为此「好」作注脚，章法十分明晰，起句即见词人安排之匠心。

The opening fixes the whole piece's tone. The light boat and short oar name the light gear of boating; West Lake is lovely praises directly, straight to the point. The green waters wind on writes the lake's breadth and the winding shoreline. Winding was used of mountains and roads; transferred to water, it gives the surface a looping, curling grace, and the still lake seems to flow. One line writes the person, one the scenery, the figure merged into the scene, and the joy of boating is there in silence. The whole piece is built on the word lovely, and all the following scenery is its footnote; the structure is clear, and the poet's arranging craft shows in the opening.

无风水面琉璃滑，不觉船移。

Windless, the water lies smooth as colored glass, and one never notices the boat is moving.

没有风的时候，水面平滑得像琉璃一样，人在船上竟感觉不到船在移动。

When there is no wind, the face of the lake is smooth as glaze; one scarcely feels the boat move.

这是全词最见工巧的一笔，以琉璃喻水面。「琉璃」本是通透莹洁的宝石，用以喻静水，写出水面无一丝波纹的澄澈光洁，「滑」字更点出视觉与触觉的通感，仿佛伸手可触那平润的镜面。「不觉船移」承「滑」而来，正因为水面滑，船行才无颠簸声响，人遂浑然不觉船动。实则船在移而人不知，写的是舟行之稳与心境之静，把物我两忘的闲适推到极处，是动中写静、静中写动的妙笔，也是全组《采桑子》中最见神韵的句子之一。

This is the most crafted stroke of the ci, comparing the water to glaze. Glaze is a translucent, lustrous jewel; used of still water it writes the surface, without a ripple, clear and smooth, and the word smooth gives a synesthesia of sight and touch, as if the hand might feel the flat, polished mirror. One scarcely feels the boat move follows the smoothness: precisely because the water is glassy, the boat moves without bump or sound, and one is unaware of motion. In fact the boat moves and one knows not - it writes the boat's steadiness and the mind's stillness, carrying the ease of self-forgetfulness to the utmost, a fine stroke of writing stillness through motion and motion through stillness, and one of the most spirit-laden lines of the whole set of Harvest-tune songs.

微动涟漪。

Faint ripples stir upon the water.

水面微微漾起一圈圈的波纹。

A faint ripple stirs.

四字短句自成一句，是全词由静入动、由境入趣的转折关键。涟漪之「微」，正承「无风水面琉璃滑」的静而来，动静之间毫厘之辨，足见体物之精。「动」字若重则失其静美，偏以「微」字限定，则水面之静、桨声之轻、人心之闲，一并写出。此句虽短，而在章法上承前启后，上接琉璃滑之静，下启沙禽飞之动，如文章之转捩，非有心人不能至此。

The four-character short line stands alone, the key turn from stillness to motion, from mood to delight. The faint of the ripple follows directly the no-wind water smooth as glaze; the hair's-breadth distinction between motion and stillness shows the fineness of observing things. If the word moved were heavy it would lose the still beauty; limited by faint, it writes at once the water's calm, the lightness of the oar, and the leisure of the heart. Though short, the line carries the structure, receiving the stillness of the glaze above and opening the motion of the shore birds below, like a turning point in an essay - none but an attentive hand could reach this.

惊起沙禽掠岸飞。

Startled sandbirds rise and skim away along the shore.

桨声惊起了沙滩上的水鸟，它们贴着湖岸飞掠而去。

It startles the shore birds, which skirmish past the bank in flight.

结句于一片寂静中骤然振起。「惊起」二字写鸟之动态，兼写声之微响：必是桨声水响惊动了栖禽。「掠岸飞」三字更有画意，沙禽低飞擦岸而过，翅影与波光相乱，一幅明快的动态特写。全词至此戛然而止，而禽飞之后复归于静，静、动、静、动的节奏收在动上，正得「豹尾」之妙，令人回味湖上春日的无限生机。以动结静、以声结寂，正与「无风水面琉璃滑」的静境遥相映衬，前后照应，构结细密。

The closing suddenly rises out of the stillness. Startled up writes the birds' motion and the faint sound: the oar and the water must have startled the roosting birds. Skirmish past the bank is the most pictorial phrase, the shore birds flying low along the edge, wing shadows mingling with the light on the water, a bright close-up of motion. The ci stops here, and after the birds fly off it returns to stillness; the rhythm of still, motion, still, motion closes on motion, gaining the leopard-tail effect, and leaves the reader savoring the lake's endless spring life. Ending stillness in motion and silence in sound, it answers the stillness of no wind, smooth as glaze, front and back in close-woven reference.

Study

Word focus

滑 In 'the surface smooth (hua) as colored glass,' hua unites sight, color, and touch, giving the windless water a texture one could almost gather in the hand, and implying the untroubled glide of the boat. 「无风水面琉璃滑」之「滑」字，是全词炼字之眼。写水面之静，前人每用「平」「澄」「净」等字，欧阳修独取「滑」，兼摄光、色、触三觉：光则如琉璃映日，色则青碧莹澈，触则平润无碍。「滑」字使无风的水面有了质感与温度，仿佛可以掬手，又以一字带出「不觉船移」，船行之顺遂、人心之安闲尽在其中。此字看似随手，实为百炼，与「琉璃」之喻相得益彰，是宋词中以一字写活一幅景的典范，后人论欧词炼字者每举此字为证。

惊 In 'startled (jing) sandbirds skim the shore in flight,' jing writes the birds' alarm at the faint sound of oars, so that the very audibility of a single stroke measures the depth of the stillness. 「惊起沙禽掠岸飞」之「惊」字，是结句的点睛之笔。沙禽本自安栖，因桨声水响而惊起，这一个「惊」字，既写禽之受惊，更暗示动从静来：惟其水面静得彻底，一桨之微响才格外分明，能惊起远处沙洲之鸟。以「惊」写声之清响、以「惊」写境之深静，动因静而愈显，声因寂而愈响。「惊」字又使全词从静谧中生出活泼的生意，收尾处一振，令整幅西湖春色都灵动起来，可谓一字千金，与上片「绿水逶迤」的静态之美形成鲜明的节奏对照。

逶迤 Weiyi, a rhyming binome usually describing winding roads or mountains, is here transferred to water, lending the green lake a winding, endless gesture that matches its long, level syllables. 「绿水逶迤」之「逶迤」，本为叠韵连绵词，形容道路、山脉曲折绵长，欧阳修移以写水，赋予湖水蜿蜒的姿态。绿水本一望平铺，著「逶迤」则水面似有回环曲折之势，仿佛随堤岸与洲渚流转，开阔中有变化。二字皆平声，音节舒缓悠长，正合湖水绵延不尽之态，声与义相合。此词以「逶迤」入词，音节流转，使首句的赞叹有了铺展的余味，也为下文「芳草长堤」的岸边景致张本，是欧阳修「以虚字、形容词盘活景语」的又一例证。

采桑子