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五代 Five Dynasties · 词 Ci lyric

鹊踏枝·几日行云何处去

Magpie Treading the Branch: These Several Days, Where Have the Drifting Clouds Gone

冯延巳

Feng Yansi

爱情love 离别parting

几日行云何处去？
忘却归来，不道春将暮。
百草千花寒食路，香车系在谁家树？
泪眼倚楼频独语。
双燕来时，陌上相逢否？
撩乱春愁如柳絮。
悠悠梦里无寻处。

These several days, where have the drifting clouds gone?
He has forgotten to come home, and does not care that spring grows late.
A hundred grasses, a thousand flowers line the Cold Food road—
under whose tree is his fragrant carriage tied?
With tear-filled eyes she leans on the tower, talking to herself again and again.
When the paired swallows came, did they meet him on the lane?
Spring sorrow, tangled and wild, is like willow catkins.
And in the long, drifting dream there is nowhere to find him.

Listen

Meaning

For days now, where has that man gone, wandering like a drifting cloud? He has forgotten to come back, and takes no notice that spring is almost over. A hundred grasses and a thousand flowers cover the roads at the Cold Food festival; under whose tree, she wonders, is his fragrant carriage tethered now? With tears in her eyes she leans on the railing of the tower and murmurs to herself again and again. When the paired swallows flew back, did they perhaps meet him out on the lane? Her tangled spring sorrow scatters like willow catkins in the wind, and even in the long reaches of a dream she can find no place where he is.

连日来那如行云般的人儿去了何处？他忘了归来，也不管春天已将尽。百草千花铺满寒食的道路，他的香车究竟系在谁家树下？她泪眼倚楼频频自语。双燕飞来时，可曾在陌上与他相逢？撩乱的春愁就像柳絮般纷飞。在悠悠梦里也无处将他寻见。

Appreciation

The lyric is spoken in a woman's voice, grieving for spring and thinking of one far away, and it deepens at every turn. The opening question leads with the drifting cloud as a figure for a man who wanders and gives his heart to no one; the scolding that follows shows devotion rather than anger. Flowers along the Cold Food road raise a suspicion, and resentment shades into jealousy. In the second half the tears, the murmuring, the paired swallows set against a solitary woman, the catkins that stand for tangled sorrow and the dream in which even searching fails all press the feeling further and further, until nothing remains but a longing without an object. The imagery is dense, the manner reserved and deep.

【白话串讲】 “几日行云何处去？忘却归来，不道春将暮”——冯延巳写一个女子：你像云一样飘走了，还记得回来吗？“撩乱春愁如柳絮。悠悠梦里无寻处”——春愁像柳絮，梦里都找不到你。【意象与手法】此词以思妇口吻写伤春怀远，章法绵密而情致层深。起句“几日行云何处去”以问领起，“行云”喻薄情飘荡之人【情感与主旨】冯延巳（约903—960），字正中，广陵人，南唐宰相，五代重要词人，存词百余首【名句点睛】本词适合考查：一、“行云”意象的典故内涵与表情作用

Background

Feng Yansi (about 903 to 960), styled Zhengzhong, a native of Guangling, was chief minister of the Southern Tang and one of the important lyricists of the Five Dynasties; more than a hundred of his lyrics survive. His love poems often carry his own sense of fortune and his anxiety about affairs of state, and Wang Guowei's Renjian Cihua said that his hall and chambers are especially large and that he opened the manner of the whole Northern Song. This Magpie Treading the Branch borrows a woman grieving for spring and longing for an absent man to lodge the poet's own thoughts of one far away, and is among the works in which the ornate manner of the Flowers Among the Blossoms anthology passes over into the lyric of the scholar-official.

此词为五代词人冯延巳所作，是《鹊踏枝》词牌（即《蝶恋花》）中的名篇。冯延巳（903—960），字正中，广陵人，南唐中主李璟时为宰相，词风深婉，开北宋晏殊、欧阳修一派。此词写闺中少妇的春愁与相思：春暮时节，伊人如行云飘荡不知所之，少妇倚楼独语，泪眼望双燕，问其陌上是否相逢，春愁如柳絮撩乱，悠悠梦里也无处寻觅。全词以行云、柳絮、香车、双燕等意象，写少妇的牵挂与无奈，是五代闺怨词的代表作。冯延巳身处南唐小朝廷的危局之中，其词多写闺情而寄意深远，王国维《人间词话》谓其词“深美闳约”，正指此类。

Art

The lyric is spoken in a woman's voice, grieving for spring and thinking of one far off, tightly built and deepening at every turn. The opening question, asking where the drifting clouds have gone these several days, leads with the cloud as a figure for a fickle, wandering man; the complaint that he has forgotten to come home and does not care that spring grows late scolds him, and in the scolding shows both devotion and regret for the season. The hundred grasses and thousand flowers of the Cold Food road, and the question under whose tree his carriage is tied, raise suspicion out of a scene of pleasure-seeking, resentment shading into jealousy. In the second half the tear-filled eyes and the murmuring at the tower give the outward figure; the question whether the paired swallows met him on the lane sets the mated birds against her solitude; the comparison of tangled spring sorrow to willow catkins turns feeling into image, and the dream in which there is nowhere to find him turns it into helpless devotion. The imagery is dense throughout, the feeling reserved and deep.

此词艺术上以层递的相思与深婉的意象见长。上片写春日行踪之迷离：“几日行云何处去”以行云喻伊人飘荡，“忘却归来，不道春将暮”写其久去不归、春已将暮；“百草千花寒食路，香车系在谁家树”以寒食路上百草千花、香车系树写其不知身在谁家——由问行云到问香车，牵挂层层加深。下片写倚楼之相思：“泪眼倚楼频独语”写少妇倚楼垂泪、频频自语，“双燕来时，陌上相逢否”以问双燕写其痴情——燕去燕来，可曾在陌上遇见伊人？“撩乱春愁如柳絮”以柳絮写春愁之纷乱，“悠悠梦里无寻处”写梦中也无处寻觅——由醒而梦，愁思绵延。全词以行云、柳絮、双燕等流动的意象写相思之无着，情致深婉而气象阔大，正是冯延巳词“深美闳约”的体现。

Allusions

Both the direct allusions and the borrowings are finely judged. The drifting cloud comes from Song Yu's Rhapsody on Gaotang, where the goddess is morning cloud at dawn and driving rain at dusk, and later stood for a man who wanders and gives his heart to no one, here the traveller who has gone away. Cold Food is the festival before Qingming when fires were forbidden, associated with Jie Zitui; it fixes the time as late spring and hints at the season's outings. The fragrant carriage draws on the Tang habit of pleasure excursions and voices her suspicion. The paired swallows set off her solitude, continuing the image of mated swallows in the Book of Songs. All of it is apt and never obtrusive.

此词用典少而意象皆有来历。“行云”承宋玉《高唐赋》“旦为朝云，暮为行雨”的意象传统，以行云喻漂泊不定的伊人；“柳絮”承谢道韫“未若柳絮因风起”的咏絮之典，然此处取柳絮之纷乱写春愁；“双燕”自《诗经·燕燕》以来为思念之象。全词以这些传统的意象写闺情，不事雕琢而情致自深。冯延巳词多以温婉的意象写绵长的情思，此词正是其代表——以行云、柳絮、双燕等轻盈的物象，承载深沉的相思，正是五代词“缘情而绮靡”的风格。

Commentary

Wang Guowei, in Renjian Cihua, said of Feng Yansi that though he does not lose the manner of the Five Dynasties his hall and chambers are especially large and he opens the manner of the whole Northern Song, and he praised the depth and steadiness of pieces such as the one about putting on formal make-up through tears. Modern critics say of this lyric that lines about the drifting cloud and the fragrant carriage appear to write a woman's suspicion but in fact lodge the poet's own sense of drifting fortune and unfulfilled ambition; and that the tangled spring sorrow like willow catkins, with the long dream in which he cannot be found, is so dense and so deeply reserved that it already sounds the note of Yan Shu and Ouyang Xiu.

《鹊踏枝·几日行云何处去》是冯延巳闺怨词的代表作，也是五代词中的名篇。王国维《人间词话》评冯延巳词“深美闳约”，正指此等作品。论者多赏其“撩乱春愁如柳絮”的比喻——以柳絮写春愁，纷乱而绵长，遂成千古名句；而“双燕来时，陌上相逢否”的痴问，更见少妇的深情与无奈。此词与冯延巳《鹊踏枝·谁道闲情》同写春愁，而此词更见牵挂之深、相思之切。冯延巳身为南唐宰相，处乱世而不能自安，其词多寄意深远，后人或以为有“家国之感”存焉，然就词面而论，自是一首深婉的闺怨佳作。

Prosody

Form Ci lyric to the tune Magpie Treading the Branch, that is Butterflies in Love with Flowers, double form of sixty characters词牌·鹊踏枝（又名蝶恋花）

Rhyme Cilin Zhengyun, yu rhyme group (gone, late, tree, herself, lane, catkins, him), oblique tones rhymed together《鹊踏枝》为双调，上下片各五句，押仄声韵。此词用韵：去、暮、树（遇部）、语、否、絮、处（语部），上下片同韵，音节婉转。仄声韵在词中多写愁怨，此词以仄韵写春愁，声情低回。

Tone pattern Double form, four oblique rhymes in each half, chiefly seven-character lines with some of mixed length《鹊踏枝》句式以七、四、五为主，长短相间，音节顿挫。此词上片以问句起（“何处去”“谁家树”），声情摇曳；下片以“泪眼”“频独语”写痴态，音节低回，至“撩乱春愁如柳絮”而情思纷乱，结以“悠悠梦里无寻处”而余韵悠长。全词以仄韵贯底，声情与闺怨的内容相合，是五代词中深婉一路的代表。

Reading note Magpie Treading the Branch is another name for Butterflies in Love with Flowers, and Feng Yansi was a master of the tune.《鹊踏枝》即《蝶恋花》，为五代流行的词牌。冯延巳以《鹊踏枝》写闺怨，遂为此体之宗匠。此词双调十句，上片写伊人行踪之迷离，下片写少妇相思之无着，层层递进，情致深婉。五代词多写闺情，而冯延巳于闺情中寄寓身世之感，故其词“深美闳约”，超越同时诸家。此词以行云、柳絮、双燕等流动意象写相思之无着，以“撩乱春愁如柳絮”之妙喻传诵千古，是五代闺怨词的代表作，也是北宋晏殊、欧阳修词风的先声。

Line by line

几日行云何处去？忘却归来，不道春将暮。百草千花寒食路，香车系在谁家树？

These days, like a drifting cloud—where has he gone? He has forgotten to return, not knowing spring is waning. On the Cold Food Road of a thousand flowers and a hundred plants, at whose tree is his fragrant carriage tied?

那如行云般飘荡的伊人，几日间不知去了何处？他忘却了归来，不觉春已将暮。寒食路上百草千花，那香车不知系在哪家的树上？

Where has that man, adrift like a running cloud, gone these days? He has forgotten to come home, never noticing that spring is nearly over. By the Cold Food Road, thick with grass and flowers—at whose tree is his perfumed carriage tied?

上片写伊人行踪之迷离与少妇之牵挂。“几日行云何处去”以行云喻伊人，一问即见牵挂；“忘却归来，不道春将暮”写其久去不归而春已将暮——“忘却”写其无心，“不道春将暮”写时光之流逝，一个“暮”字，既写春暮，亦写韶华将逝。“百草千花寒食路，香车系在谁家树”以寒食路上的百草千花写春色之盛，以“香车系在谁家树”写其不知身在何处——由问行云而问香车，由空间的迷离写牵挂的绵长。五句层层递进，把少妇对伊人行踪的追问写到极致，春暮的无奈与相思的焦灼交织，正是冯延巳词“深美”的笔致。

The upper stanza writes the vagueness of the beloved's whereabouts and the young wife's anxiety. 'These days, like a drifting cloud—where has he gone?' compares the man to a drifting cloud, a question that shows the anxiety at once. 'He has forgotten to return, not knowing spring is waning' writes his long absence and the waning spring—the word 'forgotten' his indifference, 'not knowing spring is waning' the passage of time, and the single word 'waning' writing both the fading of spring and the ebbing of youth. 'On the Cold Food Road of a thousand flowers and a hundred plants, at whose tree is his fragrant carriage tied?' uses the thousand flowers and plants of the Cold Food road to write the splendor of spring, and 'at whose tree is his fragrant carriage tied?' to write that he knows not where he is—from asking of the cloud to asking of the carriage, writing the length of anxiety through the vagueness of space. Five lines advance layer by layer, pushing the young wife's questioning of the beloved's whereabouts to the utmost, the helplessness of waning spring and the anxiety of longing interwoven—the 'profound beauty' of Feng Yansi's brush.

泪眼倚楼频独语。双燕来时，陌上相逢否？撩乱春愁如柳絮。悠悠梦里无寻处。

Tear-eyed, she leans on the tower and murmurs to herself again and again. When the paired swallows return, did you meet him on the road? Her spring grief is as tangled as willow catkins. In the long, long dream there is nowhere to find him.

泪眼迷离地倚着楼栏，频频独自低语。那双燕归来时，可曾在陌上遇见他？纷乱的春愁如柳絮般撩乱。悠悠长梦里，也无处寻觅他的踪迹。

With tearful eyes she leans on the tower and talks to herself, again and again. When the paired swallows came back, did you by chance meet him on the road? Her spring sorrow is all tangled like willow catkins. Vast and distant in her dreams, there is nowhere to seek him out.

下片写倚楼之相思与愁思之无着。“泪眼倚楼频独语”写少妇之态——倚楼垂泪、频频自语，“频独语”三字写尽孤寂与痴情；“双燕来时，陌上相逢否”以问双燕写其痴——燕去燕归，可曾见伊人？把无处安放的牵挂寄于归燕，痴情而无奈。“撩乱春愁如柳絮”以柳絮喻春愁，纷乱、飘忽、绵延，是千古传诵的妙喻；“悠悠梦里无寻处”写梦中也无处寻觅——“悠悠”写梦之绵长，“无寻处”写愁之无着。五句由醒而梦，由痴问而渺茫，把少妇的相思写到极处。以问燕、喻絮、寻梦三层递进，正是冯延巳词深婉含蓄的极致。

The lower stanza writes the longing of leaning on the tower and the groundlessness of grief. 'Tear-eyed, she leans on the tower and murmurs to herself again and again' writes the young wife's bearing—leaning on the tower and weeping, speaking to herself repeatedly, the words 'again and again' writing the loneliness and devotion to the full. 'When the paired swallows return, did you meet him on the road?' asks the paired swallows in her foolishness—swallows going and coming, did you see him?—lodging the unplaceable anxiety in the returning birds, foolish yet helpless. 'Her spring grief is as tangled as willow catkins' compares spring grief to willow catkins—tangled, drifting, unending, the age-old exquisite metaphor. 'In the long, long dream there is nowhere to find him' writes that there is nowhere to seek him even in the dream—the word 'long, long' the length of the dream, 'nowhere to find' the groundlessness of grief. Five lines move from waking to dreaming, from foolish question to vagueness, writing the young wife's longing to the extreme. Advancing in three layers—asking the swallows, comparing to catkins, seeking in the dream—it is the ultimate in Feng's deep, reserved tenderness.

Study

Word focus

行云 From Song Yu's Rhapsody on Gaotang, the image figures a man who wanders and gives his heart to no one; those two words alone set the note of grievance for the whole lyric. “几日行云何处去”之“行云”，以流动的云喻飘荡的伊人，是全词的立象之字。行云承宋玉《高唐赋》“旦为朝云”之典，本有缥缈难寻之意；此处写伊人如行云飘荡，不知何处——既写其行踪不定，亦写其难以捉摸。着一“行”字，云便有了漂泊的动态；着一“何处”，更见少妇追问的焦灼。以“行云”开篇，为全词定下迷离缥缈的基调，也与下片“柳絮”“梦里”的流动意象相呼应。

频独语 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “泪眼倚楼频独语”之“频独语”，写少妇频频自语之态，是下片写痴情的关纽。“频”写次数之多，“独”写无人可语，“语”写其痴情之态——倚楼垂泪，无人可说，只频频自言自语。这一词把少妇的孤寂与痴情写到极致：不是不哭，而是哭着自语；不是不想说，而是无人可说。“频独语”三字，比直言“相思”更见深婉，正是冯延巳词“以细写深”的笔法。

撩乱 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “撩乱春愁如柳絮”之“撩乱”，写春愁之纷乱无绪，是全词的词眼。撩乱即缭乱，本写柳絮之纷飞，此处写春愁如柳絮般撩乱——既写愁之纷繁，亦写愁之随风飘忽、难以按捺。这一词把抽象的“愁”写得有形有态：如柳絮般扑面而来、纷乱无着。以“撩乱”写愁，比“纷乱”更见动态与无奈，是此词最见功力的一笔。

悠悠 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “悠悠梦里无寻处”之“悠悠”，写梦境之绵长渺远，是全词收束的余韵。“悠悠”本写绵长无尽，此处写梦之悠长——长夜漫漫，梦里寻觅，却仍无伊人踪迹。“悠悠”二字，既写梦之长，亦写愁之永：梦再长也寻不见，愁再久也难消解。与上句“撩乱春愁”相承，一醒一梦、一乱一悠，把春愁写到梦中也无法解脱的境地。以“悠悠”收束，余韵悠长，正是五代词“含蓄不尽”的风格。