All poems

五代 Five Dynasties · 词 Ci lyric

浪淘沙令·帘外雨潺潺

Ripples Sifting Sand: Rain Drizzles Beyond the Curtain

李煜

Li Yu

亡国之痛Grief for a Lost Kingdom 梦醒之间Between Dream and Waking 后期词Late-period Lyrics 羁旅Captive Exile

帘外雨潺潺，春意阑珊。
罗衾不耐五更寒。
梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢。
独自莫凭栏，无限江山。
别时容易见时难。
流水落花春去也，天上人间。

Beyond the curtain rain drizzles on and on, spring’s mood is fading.
A silken quilt cannot withstand the cold of the fifth watch.
In dreams I know not that I am a guest—for a stolen moment I cling to joy.
Alone I must not lean on the railing, for the hills and rivers are endless.
Parting was easy, but meeting again is hard.
Flowing water, falling petals—spring has gone; in heaven above and on earth below.

Listen

Meaning

After Li Yu was taken captive to the Song capital, he passed a rainy spring dawn as a prisoner. The brief joy he finds in a dream only makes the cold reality of his captivity more unbearable. He warns himself not to gaze at the lost rivers and mountains of his former kingdom, because parting from them was easy but seeing them again is impossible. The passing of spring with flowing water and falling petals becomes a symbol of his vanished imperial life—the difference between his past and present is like heaven above and earth below.

门帘外传来潺潺的雨声，春天的意趣已经衰残。丝绸的被子抵挡不住五更天的寒冷。只有在梦里才忘记自己是被囚的客子，贪恋那片刻的欢娱。独自一人切莫凭栏远望，那望不到尽头的故国江山。离别时容易，再想见却是这样艰难。流水带走落花，春天就此逝去，今昔之比，真是一个天上一个人间。

Appreciation

This piece, together with 'The Beauty Yu', is often called the twin swan songs of Li Yu, written in his final years as a captive in Bianjing. The first stanza opens with the real sound of rain beyond the curtain and the waning spring, reinforcing the loneliness of a cold dawn after waking from a dream. The sudden memory of a glad moment in dream—when he forgot he was a prisoner—sharply sets off the bitter cold of reality. In the second stanza, the warning 'alone, do not lean on the railing' leads from his own sorrow to the boundless lost hills and rivers. 'Parting is easy, meeting is hard' tells all the pain of leaving his realm. The closing line, 'water flows, flowers fall, spring is gone; heaven above, earth below,' turns scenery into emotion and condenses the whole world of difference between his past and present life. The language is natural, the feeling genuine, transforming a king’s ruin into a lament of universal human loss—the finest example of Li Yu’s late style, in which vision broadens and feeling deepens.

【白话串讲】 “帘外雨潺潺，春意阑珊”——李煜被囚的夜晚：帘外雨声。“梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢”——只有在梦里，才忘记自己是囚徒。“独自莫凭栏，无限江山”——“流水落花春去也，天上人间”——故国，已是天上人间。【意象与手法】虚实对照、情景交融。上片以“帘外雨潺潺”的实景起笔，寒雨、残春、薄衾、五更层层叠加出囚居的孤寂凄冷；“梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢”陡转虚境，以梦中的片刻欢娱反衬现实的彻骨寒凉。“独自莫凭栏”由眼前推及故国，结句“流水落花春去也，天上人间”以景语作情语，迷离恍惚。全词语言自然如话，情真意切。【情感与主旨】此词为李煜被囚汴京末年所作，与《虞美人》并称绝命双璧，写尽帝王沦为囚徒的幻灭感。上片写梦醒之悲，下片写凭栏之痛，“别时容易见时难”道尽去国怀乡之痛，是后主后期“眼界始大、感慨遂深”的典范。【名句点睛】常考“梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢”的虚实对照（梦境欢娱反衬现实凄冷）；“流水落花春去也，天上人间”以八个字凝尽人生落差，沉痛无比。

Background

In 975, Li Yu surrendered to the Song dynasty and was taken to Bianjing, where he was made Marquess of Weiming—a title that disguised his true status as a closely watched prisoner. According to historical records, in the seventh year of Taiping Xingguo (978), on the night of his birthday, he had female musicians perform; the sounds were heard by Emperor Taizong, who then sent him poisoned wine. He died at forty-two. This 'Lang Tao Sha Ling' is generally believed to have been written in his last years, a companion to 'Yumeiren' as his final words. At the time, Li Yu was a fallen ruler and a prisoner, nominally a marquis but actually confined; even his beloved Lady Zhou was repeatedly detained in the palace. The phrase 'I am a guest' and the 'endless rivers and mountains' are faithful projections of his prisoner existence. The word 'guest' and the expression 'heaven above, earth below' conceal the full tragedy of his reversal of fortune. It is this extreme contrast from emperor to captive that gives the poem its heartrending truth and makes it a peak in Chinese literature for conveying the grief of a lost state.

李煜于公元九七五年降宋，被俘至汴京，封为违命侯，实则遭受软禁与羞辱。据史料记载，宋太宗太平兴国三年（978），李煜在七夕生日之夜命歌伎作乐，闻于太宗，遂被赐牵机药而死，年四十二。这首《浪淘沙令》一般认为作于其被囚的最后岁月，与《虞美人》同为绝笔式作品。此时的李煜，身份是亡国之君兼阶下之囚，名曰侯爵，实同幽禁，连小周后入宫亦屡被留难。他笔下的一晌贪欢、无限江山，无一不是这种囚徒处境的真实投影。词中身是客三字，直白道出他寄人篱下、形同楚囚的屈辱；天上人间则暗藏着他对今昔巨变的全部悲恸。正是这种由帝王到囚徒的极端人生反差，使此词具有撕心裂肺的真实力量，也成为中国文学史上写亡国之痛的巅峰之作。此词与虞美人并称绝命双璧，历来认为作于李煜被毒死之前不久。身为违命侯而实同幽囚他连小周后入宫亦无力保全，词中身是客三字字字皆屈辱与无奈。正因生命已将走到尽头故一笔一泪无一字虚设堪称绝笔之音，亦是其后期词眼界始大感慨遂深的最终归宿。

Art

The finest artistry lies in the interplay of the real and the imagined, and in the reverse-order structure. The opening lines—rain pattering, spring fading, a silk quilt unable to withstand the cold of the fifth watch—are actual scenes after waking; cold rain, fading spring, thin quilt, and the fifth watch pile up layer by layer the desolation of a captive’s dwelling. Then, suddenly, the poet turns to the dream: 'In dream I know not that I am a guest, for a stolen moment I cling to joy.' The brief sweetness of the dream contrasts with the piercing cold of reality—one real, one illusory; one joy, one grief. In the second stanza, 'Alone, do not lean on the railing' moves from the self to the lost kingdom; the character 'mo' (do not) carries the ache of one who dares not reopen the wound. 'Parting is easy, but meeting again is hard' adapts an old saying with effortless naturalness. The final line 'water flows, flowers fall, spring is gone; heaven above, earth below' closes with scenery, compressing all earlier reality and dream, joy and sorrow into a boundless sigh. The whole poem is unadorned, speaks in plain words, yet strikes the heart precisely because the feeling is so deep and true—the supreme manifestation of Li Yu’s native genius.

此词艺术上最精妙处在于虚实对照与倒叙结构。上片起笔帘外雨潺潺，春意阑珊，罗衾不耐五更寒，皆是梦醒后的实境，寒雨、残春、薄衾、五更，层层叠加出囚居的孤寂凄冷；紧接着梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢，笔锋陡转，以梦中的片刻欢娱反衬现实的彻骨寒凉，一实一虚，悲乐相形。下片独自莫凭栏，无限江山，由眼前推及故国，莫字蕴含着不敢触碰伤口的痛楚；别时容易见时难，化用古语而浑成自然。结句流水落花春去也，天上人间，以景语收束，把前面所有的实境与梦境、欢乐与悲酸，统统压缩进这八个字的苍茫慨叹之中。全词不假雕饰，纯以白描诉说，却因情感的真挚深笃而具有直撼人心的力量，正是后主本色当行的至高体现。全词以倒叙与梦觉交织见长，上片先写五更梦回之实境忽插入梦里一晌之虚下片再由己及国归于天上人间之慨。虚实相生令悲乐对照愈显强烈。其白描之笔看似平淡实则字字经锤炼所谓豪华落尽见真淳正后主晚期词之写照，于不经意处见惊心动魄之力。

Allusions

The poem quietly borrows from earlier writings. 'Parting is easy, meeting is hard' draws on the phrase 'parting easy, meeting difficult' in the 'Yan Family Instructions' (Fengcao chapter) and also echoes Cao Pi’s 'Yan-ge xing': 'The parting day was easy, the meeting day is hard.' Li Yu changes one word to make it even more sorrowful, for the parting he means is an eternal separation from his country and his people. 'Heaven above, earth below' is ultimately based on Bai Juyi’s 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow': 'If only our hearts were firm as gold, in heaven above and on earth below we shall meet again.' Bai used it to write of the oath of love between Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei across death. Li Yu reverses its meaning: he writes of a hopeless separation from his former life, where 'heaven' refers to his former imperial existence and 'earth' to his present captive condition. The image of being a 'guest' continues a tradition of viewing the world as an inn (Tao Yuanming, Su Shi), but Li Yu’s 'guest' is a forced captive, adding a layer of humiliation. These sources give the plain words a deep literary texture.

词中多处化用前代诗文而了无痕迹。别时容易见时难，字面本于《颜氏家训·风操》别易会难之语，又暗合曹丕《燕歌行》别日何易会日难，李煜易一字而更见沉痛，因为它所指的别，是与人、与故国江山的永诀。天上人间一语，前人指出本于白居易《长恨歌》但教心似金钿坚，天上人间会相见，白诗用以写李杨死生相隔的誓约，李煜则反其意而用之，写自己此生再无归途的绝望，天上指往昔的帝王生活，人间指眼前的囚徒处境，一字之转，悲慨倍增。身是客意象则承陶渊明、苏轼以客寓世的传统，但李煜的客是被迫为虏之客，较之前人更多一层屈辱。这些渊源使全词在浅白中自具深厚的诗学脉络。天上人间本出白居易长恨歌原写死生相隔之盟李煜反其意而用之写今昔悬绝之痛，身是客则承陶渊明苏轼以客寓世之意而更具楚囚之悲。这些渊源使浅白之语自有深厚脉络读者虽不觉用典而滋味已暗含其中，足证后主融化前人而不留痕迹的语言功力。

Commentary

The whole piece alternates scene and feeling in a layered progression. The upper stanza begins with the rain outside and the fading spring, then the cold dawn quilt; the word 'cold' is both bodily and spiritual. The dream lines suddenly break in with a warmth that only makes the waking grimness harder. The second stanza opens with the injunction not to lean on the railing, moving from his own grief to the lost rivers and mountains. 'Parting is easy, meeting is hard' is a plain saying that carries the deepest pain. The final two lines, 'Water flows, flowers fall, spring is gone; heaven above, earth below,' are at once scene and judgment, ending with a broken, open silence. The poem contains no harsh words, yet every word is full of blood and tears.

全词上下两片，情景交织，层层递转。上片前两句写梦觉之景：帘外雨声潺潺，春意将尽，一外一内，一听觉一触觉，先布下凄清氛围；第三句罗衾不耐五更寒，寒字既是体感，也是心境，五更梦回，孤衾难暖，为下文梦字伏脉。第四、五句忽入梦境：梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢，以难得的温馨反衬醒后的残酷，身是客三字是全词最刺心的自白。过片独自莫凭栏，无限江山，由己及国，莫字透露出词人深知凭栏只会更添伤痛的无奈；别时容易见时难，以常语写至痛。末两句流水落花春去也，天上人间，以落花随水喻春去身逝，以天上人间喻今昔悬隔，戛然而止，余味无穷。通篇无一字厉色，却字字血泪，把亡国之君的幻灭与眷恋写得入骨三分。帘外雨潺潺以声起流水落花春去也以景结首尾皆归自然中间贯以梦醒凭栏别难之人世悲怀。通篇不著一怒字一怨字而亡国之恸囚徒之辱尽在其中。此种哀而不伤怨而不怒的至境正是后主以纯真性情融化苦难后的艺术升华，读之令人低回不已。

Prosody

Reading note Originally a Tang dance tune, 'Lang Tao Sha Ling' was expanded by Li Yu into a lyric. The last four words, 'tian shang ren jian,' are all level-tone and unpunctuated, creating a lingering breath that hangs after the final pause.《浪淘沙令》本为唐教坊曲，李煜始演为长短句，双调五十四字，平韵。此词上片五句：帘外雨潺潺（平仄仄平平），春意阑珊（平仄平平），罗衾不耐五更寒（平平仄仄仄平平），梦里不知身是客（仄仄仄平平仄仄），一晌贪欢（仄仄平平），前四句押平韵，后结亦平。下片五句：独自莫凭栏（仄仄仄平平），无限江山（平仄平平），别时容易见时难（仄平平仄仄平平），流水落花春去也（平仄仄平平仄仄），天上人间（平仄平平），皆押平韵，一韵到底，声情低沉绵长。李煜此词严守令词格律，却以浅近语入律，潺、珊、寒、欢、栏、山、难、间，平声收束处多开口呼，读来如泣如诉，恰与其哀婉内容相称。下片别时容易见时难化古语而浑成，不见凑韵痕迹，充分体现依声填词而声情相生的高境。整体依声填词而声情相生，平声收束处多开口呼读来如泣如诉，恰与其哀婉内容相称，充分体现小令虽短而格律精严、声情与内容相生之至高法则，足为后世学词者参究之范。掩卷而思此词以寻常小令写尽人世巨恸，声律之妙全在随情转捩而不拘死法，后主填词信手合节，足证大家不袭成规而自中绳墨，诚为五代令词之冠冕，亦启宋人长调铺叙悲慨之法门。其情真则其律自工，可为定论。学者宜细味之。此可证也。

Line by line

梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢。

In dream I know not that I am a guest—for one stolen moment I cling to joy. The dream offers a brief escape from the reality of captivity; 'guest' euphemistically means prisoner.

In the dream I knew not that I was a guest; for a moment, I snatched at joy.

这是全词最令人心碎的一句，也是李煜以白描写尽囚徒心理的千古名句。身是客三字，平平道来，却包含了全部屈辱：他本是南唐国主，如今却是寄人篱下的俘虏，所谓客，实为楚囚的委婉说法。只有在梦中，他才能暂时忘却这事实，回到故国宫殿、回到自由与尊严之中，贪恋那一晌的欢娱。一晌极言其短，欢字愈真，则醒后之悲愈切。词人并未直接描写梦的内容，只以不知身是客五字衬出梦之可贵，以一晌贪欢写出对现实的逃避与对往昔的眷恋，这种以乐写哀、以虚写实的反衬手法，使短短两句具有了摧肝裂胆的力量，也是后主词善于于平淡中见深悲的典型例证。

This is the most heart-rending line of the lyric, and an age-old line in which Li Yu uses plain depiction to write the prisoner's psychology. The three words 'body a guest' come out plainly, yet they hold all the humiliation: he was by nature the ruler of Southern Tang, now a dependent captive, and the so-called 'guest' is but a euphemism for a Chu prisoner. Only in the dream can he forget this for a moment and return to the palaces of his old kingdom, to freedom and dignity, snatching at that brief joy. 'A moment' stresses its shortness, and the truer the 'joy,' the sharper the grief on waking. The poet does not describe the dream's content directly but uses 'knew not that I was a guest' to set off the preciousness of the dream, and 'snatched at joy' to write the flight from reality and the clinging to the past. This contrastive method of writing grief through joy and the real through the virtual gives the two short lines a heart-rending force, and is the typical proof of the Later Lord's way of seeing deep grief within plainness.

流水落花春去也，天上人间。

Water flows, flowers fall, spring is gone; heaven above, earth below. The passing of spring symbolizes the end of his own life and reign; the contrast of heaven and earth sums up the irrecoverable distance from his past.

Flowing water, fallen flowers—spring has gone; in heaven, or on earth?

结句是全词的收束，也是李煜将身世之悲凝为永恒意象的神来之笔。流水落花春去也，融李煜自家林花谢了春红与前人流水落花之意，写春之必然逝去，亦喻自己青春、自由、故国之一去不返；天上人间则是对这种巨变的终极概括——昔日如处天上，如今直堕人间，中间再无回还之路。这八个字迷离恍惚，似景似情，众说纷纭却都指向同一个核心：人生至此，已是永诀。与《虞美人》一江春水向东流相较，此处更含蓄、更空灵，不以豪喻取胜，而以 four 字对照的苍茫收束全篇，余音绕梁，千载之下读之仍令人鼻酸。

The closing line is the resolution of the lyric and the inspired stroke in which Li Yu condenses the grief of his lot into an eternal image. 'Flowing water, fallen flowers—spring has gone' fuses his own 'forest flowers shed their spring red' with the older idea of flowing water and falling flowers, writing the necessary passing of spring, and by metaphor the going of his youth, freedom, and old kingdom, gone never to return. 'In heaven, or on earth?' is the ultimate summary of this upheaval—once as in heaven, now fallen straight to the mortal world, with no road back between. The eight characters are blurred and wavering, half scene, half feeling, and though critics differ, they all point to one core: life at this point has reached an eternal parting. Compared with 'like a river of spring water flowing east' in his 'Riverside Daffodil,' the line here is more reserved and more ethereal, winning not through a grand metaphor but through the vast, four-character contrast that closes the poem, the afterecho winding on and still bringing a catch to the throat after a thousand years.

Study

Word focus

阑珊 A key expression in this poem; read it with the Chinese note below. 阑珊二字意为衰残、将尽，在此处用来形容春意，看似平常，却为全词定下将逝将衰的基调。春意阑珊不仅写自然节候的暮春，更暗喻词人自身的处境：如春之将尽，如梦之将醒，如国之已亡。这一个词把外物与内情打成一片，使后面的五更寒、身是客、春去也都有了着落。李煜炼字，往往不用奇字险语，而于寻常语中寄沉痛，阑珊正是如此——它本常见于唐诗写春残、写灯火将尽，李煜移来形容人生暮境，便觉字字惊心，足见其善于以淡语写浓悲的语言造诣。

莫凭栏 A key expression in this poem; read it with the Chinese note below. 莫字是全词下片的关键，独自莫凭栏五字，含着极深的无奈与自我保护式的伤痛。凭栏远望本是文人排遣愁怀的常态，但词人偏说莫，因为栏外便是望不到头的无限江山，那江山已非己有，凭栏只会勾起更深的亡国之痛。一个莫字，比直说不忍看更具张力，它透露出词人明明想看、却深知看了更痛的矛盾心理，是理性对情感的强制压抑。这种以禁止语气写眷恋的手法，使情感更显沉郁。莫字与前面梦里的一晌贪欢形成对照：梦里贪欢是主动沉溺，醒后莫凭栏是被动克制，一放一收之间，写尽囚徒灵魂的撕裂。