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元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song

昼夜乐·冬

Joy of Day and Night: Winter

赵显宏

Zhao Xianhong

写景scene painting 冬景winter scene

风送梅花过小桥，飘飘。
飘飘地乱舞琼瑶，水面上流将去了。
觑绝似落英无消耗，似那人水远山遥，怎不焦？
今日明朝，今日明朝，又不见他来到！
佳人，佳人多命薄！
今遭，难逃。
难逃他粉悴烟憔，直恁般鱼沉雁杳！
谁承望拆散了鸾凤交，空教人梦断魂劳。
心痒难揉，心痒难揉。
盼不得鸡儿叫。

The wind sends plum blossom across the little bridge, drifting, drifting;
drifting, they dance in wild confusion like scattered jade,
then float away down the face of the water.
I stare until they vanish, like fallen petals that send back no word,
like that man of mine, far past the waters, far behind the hills.
How can I not burn with worry?
Today, tomorrow; today, tomorrow—
and still I do not see him come!
A beauty, a beauty is born to a thin fate.
This time there is no escape, no escape
from powder faded and features worn away,
from a silence in which the fish sink and the wild geese vanish.
Who would have thought the phoenix pair would be torn apart,
leaving broken dreams and a spirit worn out for nothing?
My heart itches and cannot be scratched, itches and cannot be scratched.
I long, in vain, for the cock to crow.

Listen

Meaning

A clear wind carries plum blossom across the little bridge; it drifts and drifts, dancing in confusion like tumbling jade, and the fallen flowers float away on the water. She gazes after them until they are gone, like petals that leave no word behind, like the man who is far past the waters and behind the hills; how can she not burn with anxiety? Today, tomorrow, tomorrow, today, and still he never comes. A beauty, a beauty is born to a thin fate. This time she cannot escape growing pale and worn, and no message reaches her at all. Who would have supposed that a pair joined like phoenixes could be pulled apart, leaving her dreams broken and her spirit spent for nothing? Her heart itches and cannot be scratched, itches and cannot be scratched, and all she can do is long for the cock to crow the dawn.

清风把梅花吹过小桥，梅花飘飘摇摇，飘飘然如乱舞的碎玉，随即又顺着水面漂流而去。望断落花，一去再无消息，就像那人隔着水远山遥，教人怎不心焦？今日盼明朝，明朝盼后日，总不见他来到！佳人啊佳人，真是命薄！这一回，只怕难逃粉面憔悴、烟鬟销损，就这样鱼沉雁杳、音讯全无！谁料想活活拆散了鸾凤情交，空教人梦断魂劳。心痒难揉，心痒难揉，只盼那雄鸡早早报晓。

Appreciation

The song turns through three levels: scene, feeling, and the fond folly of longing. It opens with wind carrying plum blossom and jade dancing in confusion, a quiet figure for a wanderer adrift, and then lets the petals float away downstream as an image of the man who does not return. The middle writes distance in space and torment in time, the repeated 'today, tomorrow' circling back on itself until the waiting becomes unbearable. The last part writes a woman wasting away, names her grief outright in the phoenix pair torn apart, and closes with the wonderfully foolish wish for a cock to crow. Repetition and refrain run through the whole and give it the spirit of a folk song.

【白话串讲】 “风送梅花过小桥，飘飘”——赵显宏写冬夜：风吹梅花过小桥。“似那人水远山遥，怎不焦”——像那个人，水远山遥。“佳人，佳人多命薄”——他叹：美人的命，怎么都那么薄。【意象与手法】此曲以「景—情—痴」三层递转：起写风送梅花、乱舞琼瑶，暗喻行人飘零；「水面上流将去了」由景入情，喻远人一去不返；「今日明朝」「心痒难揉」重句叠唱，写尽盼归之焦灼，以痴语收束，得民间小曲回环往复的风神。【情感与主旨】赵显宏，号学村，元代散曲作家，生平里籍无考，约元延祐末前后在世。此曲为其《昼夜乐》四时联章小令中的冬篇，写寒冬闺中思远盼归，由落梅起兴，融写景、相思于一曲，通俗中见深婉。【名句点睛】常考重句叠唱的艺术效果（「飘飘」「今日明朝」「心痒难揉」如何强化焦灼心理）、以景起兴的比兴手法，以及「鱼沉雁杳」「鸾凤交」等典故意象的运用。

Background

Zhao Xianhong, who took the name Xuecun, was a Yuan song writer whose life and native place are unknown; he was active around the end of the Yanyou period and was a contemporary of Sun Zhouqing. By his own account fame and office held no charm for him and he lived loose among woods and springs, tied to nothing, a commoner man of letters all his life. His songs are fresh, plain and fluent, and Zhu Quan's Taihe Zhengyin Pu places him among the outstanding talents of the world of song. This piece, in the Huangzhong mode to the tune Joy of Day and Night, writes a woman in her winter chamber thinking of someone far away; it begins with falling plum and drifting jade and moves from scene to feeling, finding depth within ordinary language, and is representative of his love songs.

赵显宏，号学村，元代散曲作家，生平里籍无考，约元延祐末前后在世，与孙周卿同时，为终身布衣的文人。其散曲自述「功名不恋我」「林泉疏散无拘系」，可见甘于林泉、淡泊功名的人生态度；明人朱权《太和正音谱》将其列入「词林英杰」一百五十人之中，评其风格清新朴实、通俗流畅。此曲为《黄钟宫·昼夜乐》四时联章小令中的冬篇（另有春、夏、秋三篇），写寒冬闺中思远盼归之情。元代曲家承宋词余绪而变雅为俗，散曲小令多写闺情、隐逸与市井生活，语言以本色当行为尚，赵显宏此曲正是这一风气下的产物。曲以「风送梅花」的冬景起兴，落梅与琼瑶交飞，暗喻飘零的行人；「水面上流将去了」由景入情，转出「水远山遥」的阻隔之叹，遂有「今日明朝」的盼归之焦与「心痒难揉」的痴语之收。全曲于通俗口语中见深婉情致，将景物、相思、痴态熔于一炉，是元散曲闺情小令中雅俗相济的代表作，亦可见元代下层文人对市井人情、儿女情长的细腻体察。

Art

The song turns through three levels, scene, feeling and fond folly. It opens with wind carrying plum blossom and jade dancing in confusion, a quiet figure for the wanderer adrift; the petals floating away down the water move the piece from scene to feeling and stand for the man who has gone and does not return. The middle writes distance in space, the waters far and the hills remote, and the torment of time in the repeated 'today, tomorrow'. The later part writes a woman wasting away, a beauty born to a thin fate, her powder faded and her features worn thin, all word cut off as if fish had sunk and geese vanished; then it names the grief outright in the phoenix pair torn apart, and closes with fond folly, a heart that itches and cannot be scratched and a vain longing for the cock to crow. Repeated lines and refrains run through the whole and give it the spirit of a folk song.

此曲章法之妙，可括为「景—情—痴」三层递转。起笔「风送梅花过小桥，飘飘」以冬景立象，梅花随风飘过小桥，「飘飘」二字叠用，既摹飞雪落梅之态，又暗逗行人飘零之象；「飘飘地乱舞琼瑶，水面上流将去了」承上写景，琼瑶乱舞、随水流去，遂由景入情——花之流去正如人之远逝，「流将去了」四字已将思念的对象暗暗带出。中段「觑绝似落英无消耗，似那人水远山遥，怎不焦」以「觑绝」（望断）勾连落英与远人，「怎不焦」以问句直抒焦灼；「今日明朝，今日明朝，又不见他来到」重句叠唱，以时间之熬煎写盼归之切，两个「今日明朝」回环往复，如钟摆往复，把日复一日的等待写得历历在目。后段「佳人，佳人多命薄」以感叹句式叠用，「粉悴烟憔」「鱼沉雁杳」写佳人憔悴与音书断绝，「谁承望拆散了鸾凤交，空教人梦断魂劳」点破离恨之源，「空」字写尽徒然；结以「心痒难揉，心痒难揉。盼不得鸡儿叫」，以痴语收束——心痒难揉是情之痴态，盼鸡儿叫是盼天明、盼长夜早尽，痴极而真，以俗为雅。全曲重句叠唱凡三处（飘飘、今日明朝、心痒难揉），一唱三叹，深得民间小曲回环往复的风神，而其由景入情、由情入痴的层层递进，又见文人构撰的匠心，二者浑然一体，正是元散曲小令最见功力的章法。

Allusions

The allusions here are all familiar ones dissolved into colloquial speech. The fine jade comes from the Book of Songs, where a gift of fruit is answered with fine jade, and stands here for the whiteness of snow or of falling plum. The fallen petals come from the Li Sao, where the poet eats the fallen petals of autumn chrysanthemums at evening. Fish sinking and wild geese vanishing reworks the old images of a letter carried in a fish and a message tied to a goose's foot, and means that no word arrives; the phoenix pair stands for husband and wife, or for lovers. All of these are well worn, but strung together by spoken tags such as 'just like this' and 'who would have thought', the refined and the plain support each other, the feeling flows on, and nothing seems piled up.

此曲用典皆取熟语而化入口语，雅俗相济。「琼瑶」本指美玉，出《诗经·卫风·木瓜》「投我以木桃，报之以琼瑶」，此处以玉喻雪或落梅之洁白飞舞，着一「乱舞」即写出冬日风雪交飞、琼玉漫天的气象。「落英」语出《离骚》「朝饮木兰之坠露兮，夕餐秋菊之落英」，本指落花，此处「觑绝似落英无消耗」以落花随水、一去无迹，喻远人杳无音信，物我双关。「鱼沉雁杳」化用鱼传尺素、雁足传书二典：古乐府《饮马长城窟行》「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼……中有尺素书」以鱼腹藏书，而《汉书·苏武传》载鸿雁传书之事，后世遂以「鱼雁」代书信；「鱼沉雁杳」反用其意，谓鱼不传书、雁不寄信，音书断绝，凝练沉痛。「鸾凤交」以鸾凤之偶喻夫妇情缘，本于《左传》「凤凰于飞，和鸣锵锵」的凤凰意象及后世鸾凤和鸣之说，「拆散了鸾凤交」直写情缘被生生拆散，怨而不怒。「佳人多命薄」则化用民间「红颜薄命」的熟语，为全曲的感叹定下调子。诸典皆经「直恁般」「谁承望」等口语串接，不见堆垛之迹，正见元散曲熔铸雅俗、化用无痕的手段。

Commentary

Zhu Quan's Taihe Zhengyin Pu of the Ming placed Zhao Xianhong among its hundred and fifty outstanding talents of the world of song and called his work fresh and plain. Modern discussions of Yuan love songs regularly cite this piece for its repeated lines and speech-like plainness: refrains such as 'today, tomorrow' and 'my heart itches and cannot be scratched' circle back on themselves and write out the whole anxiety of waiting, catching the true secret of the folk song. Lines like 'a beauty is born to a thin fate' and 'the phoenix pair torn apart' are blunt yet sincere, and work in their own way toward the same end as the sly wit of Wang Shifu's Spring Sleep.

明人朱权《太和正音谱》将赵显宏列入「词林英杰」一百五十人之中，与关汉卿、马致远等大家同列，可见其在元曲史上的地位；朱权论其词采，谓风格清新朴实，此曲正可印证。近人论元散曲闺情小令，多举此曲「重句叠唱、通俗如话」的特色：「今日明朝」「心痒难揉」等叠语，于回环往复中写尽盼归之焦灼，深得民间小曲三昧；而其「佳人多命薄」「拆散了鸾凤交」等句，直白而情挚，与王实甫《西厢记》中「恨相见得迟，怨归去得疾」的痴语异曲同工，皆以本色语写至深情。就文学史价值而言，此曲体现了元散曲「以俗为雅、以真为美」的审美追求：上承宋词闺情的婉约传统，下开明清民歌山歌、挂枝儿等俚曲的抒情路数；其四时联章的形式，也与关汉卿《大德歌》四首等互为呼应，共同构成元人四季咏怀的散曲系列。全曲无一处典故堆砌、无一处扭捏作态，而焦灼之态、痴情之态跃然纸上，正是元散曲「本色当行」论的绝佳注脚，也是研究元代市民文学审美趣味的重要文本。

Prosody

Form Sanqu song, Huangzhong mode, to the tune Joy of Day and Night (short lyric)散曲·黄钟宫·昼夜乐（小令）

Rhyme Zhongyuan Yinyun, the xiao-hao and yao-tiao rhyme groups (bridge, drifting, jade, away, word, remote, burn, tomorrow, come, thin, escape, worn, vanish, torn, weary, scratch, crow)押《中原音韵》萧豪韵一韵到底：桥、飘、瑶、了、耗、遥、焦、朝、到、薄、逃、憔、杳、交、劳、揉、叫，句句押韵、平仄相间，韵脚密集

Tone pattern Huangzhong mode; lines of uneven length with many repeated phrases黄钟宫为元曲宫调之一，声情高亢流转；句式长短错落，七言、三言、四言相间，衬字少而叠句多，节奏随情感起伏

Reading note Joy of Day and Night may stand alone as a short lyric or be linked to another tune; the marked feature of this song is its repeated lines and refrains.《昼夜乐》为黄钟宫曲牌，赵显宏依四时联章体制作春、夏、秋、冬四首，此首句句押韵、一韵到底，是散曲「严于韵而宽于律」的典型：不似诗词之讲究平仄粘对，而以密集的韵脚制造回环往复的声情。全曲叠句凡三见——「飘飘」「今日明朝」「心痒难揉」，皆以重复的声调模拟等待的循环与焦灼的往复，声情与辞情高度统一；「了」「也」等虚字衬于句尾，添口语的顿挫。较之词之含蓄蕴藉，曲更尚尖新泼辣、以声写情，此曲正以密韵叠句见长：读之如闻钟摆，句句敲在心上。这种以韵脚与叠句组织情感的写法，上承民歌复沓传统（如《诗经》重章叠句、乐府一唱三叹），下启明清民歌小曲，是元散曲音乐性与抒情性结合的典范，也是北曲「依腔填词、以声传情」的活标本。

Line by line

风送梅花过小桥，飘飘

The wind sends plum blossom across the little bridge, drifting, drifting.

清风把梅花吹过小桥，梅花飘飘摇摇、随风飞舞。

The clear wind blows plum blossoms across the small bridge; the blossoms drift and flutter on the wind.

起笔以冬景立象，别开生面。「风送梅花过小桥」七字，风、梅、桥三物并置，动静相生：风是动力，梅是被送之物，小桥点出空间，「送」字赋予风以人的情意，仿佛风也恋恋不舍地送梅花过桥；「飘飘」二字叠用，既是摹写飞雪落梅的轻盈之态，又暗逗行人的飘零之象——梅花飘过小桥，正如远人漂泊天涯，一去难寻。着一「飘」字而景情双关，梅之飘零即人之飘零，为全曲「水远山遥」「不见他来到」的离恨伏笔。起兴之妙，正在于不着痕迹地把冬景与离情缝在一起，使读者未见其人，先感其漂泊之悲。这一笔看似纯写景，实已把全曲的抒情基调与比兴线索一并定下，故为全曲之眼。

The opening fixes the winter image. Wind, plum, bridge set together, motion and stillness born of each other; the word 'carries' gives the wind human feeling, as if the wind too lingers in seeing the plum across the bridge; 'drifting, drifting,' the doubled word, at once the light falling of snow and plum, and the dark hint of the wanderer's drift. One word 'drift' doubles scene and feeling: the plum's drift is the man's drift, priming the song's parting grief below. The line seems pure scenery, yet has fixed the song's lyrical tone and metaphoric thread - the eye of the song.

飘飘地乱舞琼瑶，水面上流将去了

Drifting, they dance wildly like jade; on the water, they float away and away.

梅花如碎玉般随风乱舞，随即顺着水面漂流而去。

The plum blossoms dance wildly like broken jade on the wind, then drift off along the water.

紧承「飘飘」二字，把冬景写足写活。「乱舞」写风雪交飞、琼玉漫天的狂态，「乱」字见出风势之骤、花势之纷，画面动荡生姿；「水面上流将去了」一笔转捩，由空中落到水面，写梅花随流水飘逝——「流将去了」四字轻描淡写，而一去不返之意已含其中。此处由景入情，是全曲的枢纽：花之流去，正如人之远逝；「流将去了」与后文「似那人水远山遥」遥相呼应，把落花与远人绾合为一。妙在以「流」写「逝」，不言别而别意自见，不言愁而愁绪暗生。飞雪乱舞之动与流水漂花之逝，一扬一落，把冬日的萧瑟与离别的怅惘织成一幅完整的图画，为「怎不焦」的焦灼蓄足了势，也为「今日明朝」的等待铺垫了由景及情的过渡。

Following 'drifting,' the winter scene is written to the full, alive. 'Dance wildly' writes the wind and snow flying, jade across the sky, the word 'wild' the wind's suddenness, the blossoms' scatter; 'on the water, they float away and away' one turn, from the air to the water, writing the plum's drifting off on the stream, the gone-forever meaning within. Here scene turns to feeling, the song's hinge: the flowers' drifting off is the man's far going, tying the fallen flowers and the far man into one.

今日明朝，今日明朝，又不见他来到

Today, tomorrow; today, tomorrow, and still I do not see him come.

今日盼明朝，明朝盼后日，日复一日，总不见他回来。

Today I hope for tomorrow, tomorrow for the next; day after day, still he does not return.

重句叠唱是此曲最见功力的抒情手段。「今日明朝」四字连叠两遍，回环往复，如钟摆的嘀嗒声，把日复一日的等待写得可触可感——两个「今日明朝」之间，是无数个失望的黄昏与无眠的夜晚；叠用之妙，正在于以声传情，用语言的回环模拟时光的循环，让人真切感到等待的无尽与焦灼。「又不见他来到」的「又」字，字字千斤：一个「又」字道出此前已不知盼了多少回、失望了多少次，而这一次依旧扑空。「今日明朝」是时间的循环，「又不见」是结果的重复，时间愈循环，失望愈深重，两相交织，把盼归之切与归期之杳的矛盾写到极致，比直说「我很想他」要沉痛百倍。此句叠语与「心痒难揉」遥相呼应，构成全曲两处最动人心魄的抒情高潮。

The repeated line is the song's most crafted lyrical device. 'Today, tomorrow' doubled twice, looping back and forth, like the tick of a pendulum, writing the day-after-day waiting as palpable. The word 'still' weighs a thousand catties: one 'still' tells how many hopes before, how many disappointments, and this time too, empty. 'Today, tomorrow' the cycle of time, 'still he does not come' the repetition of result - the more time cycles, the deeper the disappointment.

心痒难揉，心痒难揉。盼不得鸡儿叫

My heart itches and cannot be scratched, itches and cannot be scratched; I long, in vain, for the cock to crow.

心里痒得难以抓挠，心痒难揉，心痒难揉，只盼那雄鸡早早报晓。

The heart itches beyond scratching; the heart itches beyond soothing, only longing for the cock to crow at dawn.

以痴语收束全曲，把焦灼推到顶点又轻轻放下。「心痒难揉」本为民间口语，写心绪如百爪挠心、难以自持的焦躁之态，此处连叠两遍，痴态毕现——等待的人已急得不知如何是好，只能一遍遍念叨这无济于事的四个字；「盼不得鸡儿叫」更以痴语写痴情：鸡叫天明，长夜将尽，可天亮了又能怎样？归人依旧不来。然而痴人自有痴人的逻辑，她把全部希望寄托在天明之上，仿佛鸡叫一声，苦等便有了尽头。这一笔以俗为雅，痴极而真：不说「思君令人老」，不说「泪尽罗巾」，只一句「盼不得鸡儿叫」，便把闺中人熬过长夜的煎熬与近乎天真的执念写得呼之欲出，余味悠长。全曲以景起、以情承、以痴结，收束处不落言筌，正是元曲「本色当行」的神髓。

The closing gathers the song in foolish speech, pushing the anguish to its peak and then setting it lightly down. 'The heart itches beyond soothing,' folk vernacular for the heart's restlessness, a hundred claws at the breast, here doubled twice. 'I can barely wait for the cock to crow' further, foolish speech for foolish love: the cock crows, dawn comes, the long night ends - but what then of dawn? The loved one still does not come. The line turns the vernacular elegant, folly at its extreme, truth at its extreme.

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Word focus

琼瑶 Properly the word means fine jade; here it stands for the white brightness of snow, or of falling plum, dancing in the air. A beautiful thing is used to paint a winter scene and at the same time to figure a life adrift. 「琼瑶」本指美玉，出《诗经·卫风·木瓜》「投我以木桃，报之以琼瑶」，此处转以喻雪或落梅之洁白晶莹。以玉喻雪，取其色之白、质之洁、形之碎，暗合「乱舞」的动态——漫天飞雪如碎玉横飞，既有视觉的晶莹之美，又有触觉的凛冽之寒。但妙处不止于设色：玉本为珍贵之物，转瞬即「流将去了」，正与后文佳人之美艳如花、转眼憔悴消瘦的命薄之叹暗相呼应；「琼瑶」之美与「飘零」之逝并置，物之华美与境之萧瑟对照，更添一层「好景不常、美好易逝」的怅惘，为全曲「佳人多命薄」的悲慨埋下伏笔。此词是景语亦是情语，以美玉写冬景，又借美玉之易逝写人之飘零，炼字精妙，一石三鸟，最见元散曲以俗语行文而能兼摄雅意的特色。

鱼沉雁杳 The phrase reworks the old figures of a letter carried in a fish and a message tied to a wild goose's foot, and says that all word has stopped: four words, terse and full of pain. 四字凝练，反用鱼雁传书二典写音书断绝。古乐府《饮马长城窟行》「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼……中有尺素书」以鱼腹藏书，《汉书·苏武传》载鸿雁传书之事，后世遂以「鱼雁」为书信代称；「鱼沉雁杳」则谓鱼沉水底、雁飞无踪，鱼不肯传书、雁不肯寄信，远人音讯全无。四个字把书信断绝、归期渺茫的绝望写得斩截而沉痛：「沉」字写鱼之没入水中不见，「杳」字写雁之没入天际无痕，一低一高、一水一天，把等待之人上下求索而不得的焦灼空间化，比直说「没有信来」多了千钧的重量。此语后为词曲习用，然用于此曲，与「粉悴烟憔」相配，写尽憔悴与音断的双重打击，正见炼字之凝练传神，也是全曲由盼转怨、由怨转痴的情感枢纽。

心痒难揉 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「心痒难揉」是地道的民间口语，以生理之痒写心理之焦，把抽象的思念之苦具象为「痒」这一可感的体觉。「痒」本在皮肤，此处移以写心，是通感（移觉）手法的活用；「难揉」更妙——痒则欲搔，而心之痒无可搔处，越是难揉越见其痒之甚、焦之切，写出了急得抓耳挠腮、不知如何是好的痴态。此语叠用两遍，如反复抓挠的动作，声情与辞情相凑，把长夜苦等的焦躁推到顶点，随即以「盼不得鸡儿叫」轻轻宕开，一紧一松，节奏天成。以俗语入曲而毫不俚陋，反因真切而动人，正合元散曲「曲贵尖新」的审美：不求文雅而求鲜活，不求含蓄而求直透，这一句正是「以俗为雅」的典范，也是全曲痴情之态的集中写照，后世戏曲写相思之苦，多从此类痴语化出。