All poems

唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

采莲曲

The Lotus-Picking Song

白居易

Bai Juyi

采莲Lotus picking 爱情Love

菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通。
逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中。

Ling leaves curl upon the waves and the lotus bends to the wind;
In the deep of the lotus flowers a small boat makes its way.
Meeting her lover, she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles—
her jade hairpin slips and falls into the water.

Listen

Meaning

A Jiangnan lotus-girl, paddling among the ling leaves, meets the young man she loves. Overcome with shyness she cannot speak, only lowers her head and smiles; in that moment her jade hairpin slips from her hair and drops into the water. The poem captures a single instant of first love, its bashfulness made vivid by one small accident.

菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通。逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Standing at the edge of a Jiangnan pond, the poet sees a lotus-girl's skiff work its way into the deep flowers, where she chances upon her lover. [Structure] The first couplet paints the pond; the second paints the girl. Scene gives way to person, and the twenty-eight characters move from outward view to inward emotion. [Imagery] 'Ling leaves curl upon the waves' and 'the lotus bends to the wind' give the pond its living motion, while 'her jade hairpin slips into the water' converts that motion into a single, tell-tale gesture. The image that carries the poem is the dropped hairpin: a trivial accident, yet the whole story of a shy girl's confusion. What might have been said outright—'she was too shy to speak'—is instead shown in three linked actions: she would speak, she lowered her head, she laughed; and then the pin falls. Detailing the bashfulness rather than declaring it is what makes the poem a lasting miniature of Jiangnan life.

【白话串讲】白居易写《采莲曲》：“菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通”——“逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中”——采莲女见到心上人，想说话却低头笑——碧玉簪子落进水里——他写少女的情态。【意象与手法】此诗写江南采莲，以细节写娇羞，是白居易的名篇。前二句写荷塘：「菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通」写菱叶萦波荷飐风、荷花深处小船通——写尽荷塘的景致；后二句写采莲女：「逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中」写逢郎欲语低头笑、碧玉搔头落水中——写尽采莲女的娇羞。全诗以细节写娇羞，写尽江南采莲的情趣，是白居易的代表作。【情感与主旨】此诗写江南采莲，以细节写娇羞，是白居易的名篇。采莲曲是乐府旧题，多写江南采莲少女的劳动与爱情。此诗写荷塘：菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通——写菱叶萦波荷飐风、荷花深处小船通，写尽荷塘的景致；逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中——写逢郎欲语低头笑、碧玉搔头落水中，写尽采莲女的娇羞。全诗以细节写娇羞——那「逢郎欲语低头笑」写尽采莲女见情郎的娇羞，「碧玉搔头落水中」写尽低头含笑搔头落水的趣致，写尽江南采莲的情趣，是理解白居易乐府诗的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通」写荷塘的景致；「逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中」写采莲女的娇羞；以及全诗以细节写娇羞、以乐景写情趣的手法。

Background

Bai Juyi (772–846), courtesy name Letian, was a great Tang poet who took his sobriquet from Xiangshan, 'Fragrant Mountain.' Born in Xiaogui, present-day Weinan in Shaanxi, he served at court, was exiled for speaking out, and eventually withdrew to a garden at Luoyang, where he wrote with great ease and clarity. 'Lotus-Picking' is an old yuefu title, sung since the Southern dynasties by boat-girls of the water towns south of the Yangtze; Wang Changling and Li Bai had both written imitations. Bai Juyi's version is cherished not for invention but for the precision with which it renders one moment of a working girl's secret life.

此诗写江南采莲，以细节写娇羞，是白居易的名篇。白居易（772—846），字乐天，号香山居士，下邽（今陕西渭南）人，唐代伟大的诗人。采莲曲本是乐府旧题，起源于江南水乡的采莲歌谣，唐人王昌龄、李白等皆有拟作。白居易此诗写江南荷塘采莲之景，尤以采莲少女逢郎时的娇羞情态见长。此诗写荷塘：「菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通」写菱叶萦波荷飐风、荷花深处小船通——写尽荷塘的景致（菱叶随波萦回，荷花在风中摇曳，小船通向荷花深处）；「逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中」写逢郎欲语低头笑、碧玉搔头落水中——写尽采莲女的娇羞（遇见情郎，欲语还休，低头含笑，竟使碧玉搔头落入水中）。全诗以细节写娇羞，写尽江南采莲的情趣，是理解白居易乐府诗的重要篇章。还需注意，此诗写的是采莲女「逢郎」的一瞬，前二句的荷塘景致正是为这一瞬铺陈：菱荷满塘、小船通幽，恰是采莲女与情郎相会之所，景与情相生，故「逢郎欲语低头笑」一出，画面顿生活气。全诗以二十八字写尽江南采莲的情趣与少女初恋的娇羞，正是白居易「老妪能解」而情致兼胜的本领。

Art

Four techniques stand out. First, setting as preparation: the pond—curling ling leaves, wind-tossed lotus, boat threading the deep flowers—creates the place where lovers meet; the scenery is not decoration but the stage. Second, detail for shame: 'she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles' lingers over the half-spoken word, the downward glance, the smile that betrays it. Third, accident for humour: the hairpin slips into the water, an unmotivated mishap that turns a still frame into an animated one. Fourth, plainness as style: there is not one grand word in the poem, yet every word bears weight; this is the 'plain and natural' manner for which Bai Juyi's shorter poems are prized. The clinching craft is the pairing of 'would speak' with 'lowers her head'—desire and retreat in the same breath—and the closing line's undoing of that composure by a single clumsy gesture.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以写景写荷塘。「菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通」以写景写荷塘——那「萦波」「飐风」写尽菱叶随波、荷花迎风、「荷花深处」写尽荷花之盛，以写景写尽荷塘的景致。其二，以细节写娇羞。「逢郎欲语低头笑」以细节写娇羞——那「欲语低头笑」写尽欲语还休、低头含笑，以细节写尽采莲女的娇羞。其三，以意外写情趣。「碧玉搔头落水中」以意外写情趣——那「搔头落水中」写尽低头含笑间搔头落入水中，以意外写尽娇羞的情趣。其四，以乐景写欢情。全诗写荷塘之景、采莲之乐，以乐景写尽江南采莲的欢情。此外，此诗二十八字，前二句写景、后二句写人，由景及人，正是绝句「先景后情」的写法；而那「低头笑」的一瞬，与「搔头落水中」的意外，更是传神之笔。四重手法，使此诗以细节写娇羞，写尽江南采莲的情趣，是白居易的代表作。此外，此诗最传神处在「欲语」与「低头笑」的并置：既欲语又低头，正是情窦初开的少女欲言又止、又羞又喜的微妙心理；而末句「搔头落水中」，更以失手落簪的意外细节，写尽因娇羞慌乱而手足无措的情态，使画面由静态转动态，余韵悠然。

Allusions

Much of the vocabulary belongs to the long tradition of Jiangnan lotus singing. The ling leaf, the lotus, and the boat are the stock implements of the fishing and picking songs of the lower Yangtze; the 'jade hairpin' recalls a whole tradition in which Tang writers give women ornaments both to describe her adornment and to signal a gift or a promise. Most telling is 'jade hairpin'—sao tou, an elegant alias for a hairpin, since the ancients used a pin to scratch the head. When the pin falls into the water, the poem hints less at clumsiness than at a token thrown down: a last sentence whose real subject is not the wet hairpin but the girl's silent offering. read together with Wang Changling's song, in which the girl vanishes into the pond and is found only by her singing, one sees twocontrasting treatments of the same labour and the same hearts.

此诗的用语深植于采莲与江南的传统。「菱叶萦波荷飐风」令人想到「菱叶」写菱叶的意象——「菱叶萦波荷飐风」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「萦波」「飐风」写随波迎风的意象；「荷花深处小船通」令人想到「荷花深处」写荷花深处的意象——「荷花深处小船通」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「小船通」写小船通行的意象；「逢郎欲语低头笑」令人想到「逢郎」写逢郎的意象——「逢郎欲语低头笑」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「低头笑」写低头含笑的意象——少女娇羞的经典姿态；「碧玉搔头落水中」令人想到「碧玉搔头」写碧玉簪的意象——「碧玉搔头落水中」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「落水中」写落入水中的意象——娇羞间失手落簪。全诗化用菱叶、荷花、碧玉搔头的意象，以细节写娇羞，正是白居易「平淡自然」而善写生活、承乐府采莲传统写江南情趣的本领。尤须留意的是「碧玉搔头」一词：搔头为簪之别名，碧玉则写其质，唐人写女子常以玉簪示其妆饰之美，此诗以「碧玉搔头落水中」收束，既是写实，又暗含「掷簪以赠」的情意暗示，使短短四句含不尽之思。

Commentary

This has long been counted among the finest of Bai Juyi's yuefu poems and among the best lotus poems of the Tang. Qing readers praised it for making bashfulness vivid 'by detail, in a manner that enters the sublime of its own accord'; modern readers single out 'Meeting her lover, she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles' as its famous line. Its special place in literary history is that a four-line quatrain manages to contain a whole Jiangnan: the curling leaves, the wind-tossed lotus, the boat going deep, the shy girl, the pin in the water. Read against Wang Changling's 'Lotus-Picking,' with its veiled, half-visible girls, and Li Bai's 'Song of the Yue Girls,' the poem belongs to a continuous tradition of Tang writing about the women of southern waters.

此诗历来被推为白居易乐府诗的名篇，也是唐人采莲诗的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以细节写娇羞，天然入妙」；近人更指出「逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中」写采莲女的娇羞，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽江南采莲的情趣——那萦波的菱叶，那飐风的荷花，那荷花深处的小船，那欲语低头笑的采莲女，那落水中的碧玉搔头，都写尽了白居易笔下的江南采莲；那「碧玉搔头落水中」更以失手落簪的细节写尽娇羞的趣致。此诗与王昌龄《采莲曲》（「乱入池中看不见，闻歌始觉有人来」）同为采莲名篇，一写「荷叶罗裙一色裁」的迷离（王昌龄采莲曲），一写「逢郎欲语低头笑」的娇羞（白居易采莲曲）；又与李白《越女词》的江南传统一脉相承，可见唐人写江南采莲的深情。对于今日读者，此诗是理解白居易乐府诗的窗口，也是中国诗写江南采莲的经典——那落入水中的碧玉搔头，穿越千年，仍在诉说着采莲女的娇羞。

Prosody

Form Shi · Seven-character jueju (quatrain)诗·七言绝句

Rhyme Jueju in seven characters, rhyming on 'feng' (wind), 'tong' (passes), and 'zhong' (among) — the Dong rhyme of the upper level; one rhyme throughout, in a light, quick cadence befitting the song of a boat-girl.七绝，押「风」「通」「中」韵（上平一东），一韵到底，音节轻快

Tone pattern A seven-character jueju on the level tone, rhymed throughout with a brisk, light sound that matches the quick movement of a skiff among the lotus.此诗为七言绝句，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节轻快，正合采莲的轻快。

Reading note Four lines of seven characters: 'Ling leaves curl upon the waves and the lotus bends to the wind, / In the deep of the lotus flowers a small boat makes its way. / Meeting her lover, she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles— / her jade hairpin slips and falls into the water.' The rhyme is on the Dong group — feng, tong, zhong — carried straight through, without a change of key, and the cadence is quick, suited to a song sung from a boat. The two opening lines describe the pond, the two closing lines the girl; scene and person are kept separate, and then joined by a single action. Read the first couplet lightly, as if glancing at the water; read 'she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles' with a glance downward; and close on 'her jade hairpin falls into the water' with a laugh and a little delay, so that the fun of the mishap and the shyness behind it both linger.此诗为七言绝句，四句——「菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通。逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中」，押「东」韵（风、通、中），一韵到底，音节轻快。全诗以细节写娇羞：前二句写荷塘的景致（菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通），后二句写采莲女的娇羞（逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中）。四句短章，前写景，后写人，以「低头笑」「搔头落水中」写尽娇羞的情趣，正见白居易「平淡自然」的本色。诵读此诗，宜以轻快的语调读「菱叶萦波荷飐风」的荷塘，以俏皮的语调读「逢郎欲语低头笑」的娇羞，结句「碧玉搔头落水中」要读得俏皮而有余味，方能传达出白居易的天然妙趣。白居易绝句以「平淡自然」著称，此诗正是其乐府绝句的典范。

Line by line

逢郎欲语低头笑，碧玉搔头落水中

Meeting her lover, she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles—her jade hairpin slips and falls into the water.

遇见情郎，欲语还休，低头含笑，碧玉搔头竟落入水中。

Meeting her lover, she means to speak but bows her head and smiles; her jade hairpin drops into the water.

此二句是全诗写娇羞的核心，以欲语低头笑写娇羞，以搔头落水写意外，写尽采莲女的娇羞，是千古名句。「逢郎欲语低头笑」写遇见情郎欲语还休低头含笑——那「逢郎」写遇见情郎，「欲语低头笑」写欲语还休低头含笑，写尽采莲女的娇羞；「碧玉搔头落水中」写碧玉搔头竟落入水中——那「碧玉搔头」写碧玉簪，「落水中」写落入水中，写尽娇羞的意外。这句的深意在于：它以「逢郎欲语低头笑」的娇羞与「碧玉搔头落水中」的意外，写尽采莲女的娇羞——遇见情郎欲语还休低头含笑，那「逢郎欲语低头笑」写尽采莲女的娇羞——采莲女在荷花深处偶遇情郎，本欲相语，却欲语还休，低头含笑，那「低头笑」写尽少女含羞的娇态；碧玉搔头竟落入水中，那「碧玉搔头落水中」写尽娇羞的意外——低头含笑间，头上的碧玉搔头（簪子）竟落入水中，那「落水中」写尽因娇羞慌乱而失手的情趣；那「逢郎欲语低头笑」写尽采莲女的娇羞，那「碧玉搔头落水中」写尽娇羞的意外，一写低头笑，一写搔头落，写尽采莲女的娇羞——低头含笑而失手落簪，正是少女情窦初开、慌乱含羞的传神写照；此二句以低头笑、搔头落水写尽采莲女的娇羞，也让此二句成为全诗写娇羞的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「采莲女见到情郎很害羞」，则失其传神；唯以「逢郎欲语低头笑」写娇羞、「碧玉搔头落水中」写意外，写尽采莲女的娇羞，也让此二句成为全诗写娇羞的核心。

Bai Juyi captures a girl's first love in a single accident. She meets her lover among the lotuses, means to speak, and instead bows her head and smiles—speechless with shyness. In that movement her jade hairpin slips and drops into the water. The dropped pin is the poem's masterpiece: it is not planned, not described, merely happening, and it betrays the flustered hand that went to her hair without her noticing. Shyness, the poet knows, shows itself in small involuntary losses rather than in declared feelings. To have said the girl was embarrassed to see her lover would be flat; the falling pin is the embarrassment.

菱叶萦波荷飐风，荷花深处小船通

Ling leaves curl upon the waves and the lotus bends to the wind; in the deep of the lotus flowers a small boat makes its way.

菱叶随波萦回，荷花在风中摇曳，小船通向荷花深处。

Caltrop leaves trail over the ripples, lotus flowers sway in the wind; a small boat threads through the depths of the lotus.

此二句是全诗写荷塘的核心，以萦波飐风写荷塘，以小船通写深处，写尽荷塘的景致，是千古名句。「菱叶萦波荷飐风」写菱叶随波萦回荷花在风中摇曳——那「菱叶萦波」写菱叶随波萦回，「荷飐风」写荷花在风中摇曳，写尽荷塘的动态；「荷花深处小船通」写小船通向荷花深处——那「荷花深处」写荷花深处，「小船通」写小船通行，写尽荷塘的幽深。这句的深意在于：它以「菱叶萦波荷飐风」的动态与「荷花深处小船通」的幽深，写尽荷塘的景致——菱叶随波萦回荷花在风中摇曳，那「菱叶萦波荷飐风」写尽荷塘的动态——菱叶随波、荷花迎风，正是荷塘的生意，那「萦波」「飐风」写尽荷塘的摇曳；小船通向荷花深处，那「荷花深处小船通」写尽荷塘的幽深——小船穿行于荷花深处，正是采莲的所在，那「荷花深处」写尽荷塘的幽深；那「菱叶萦波荷飐风」写尽荷塘的动态，那「荷花深处小船通」写尽荷塘的幽深，一写摇曳，一写幽深，写尽荷塘的景致——菱荷满塘，小船通幽，正是江南荷塘的明丽；此二句以荷塘景致为采莲女出场作铺垫，也让此二句成为全诗写荷塘的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「荷塘很大很漂亮」，则失其生动；唯以「菱叶萦波荷飐风」写摇曳、「荷花深处小船通」写幽深，写尽荷塘的景致，也让此二句成为全诗写荷塘的核心。

The opening is pure motion on the water. Caltrop leaves trail over the ripples, lotus flowers sway in the wind, and somewhere in the deep lotus, a small boat passes. The verbs are all movement—the leaves winding over waves, the flowers nodding in the breeze, the boat threading through—and the boat, unseen until it is mentioned, carries the reader into the thick of the flowers. This is the world the girl inhabits before she appears: a shimmering, swaying green-gold water garden. To have said the lotus pond was large and lovely would lose the life; the winding and the swaying are the life.

Study

Word focus

低头笑 In 'Meeting her lover, she would speak, but lowers her head and smiles,' the 'lowered head and smile' is the key to the shy girl. To lower the head while smiling is the classic posture of bashfulness: she cannot bear to look, yet cannot stop smiling. It carries two meanings at once — the shame of being seen, and the joy that shame conceal. Had the poet written 'she hung her head in silence,' both the smile and the wordless feeling would have been lost; only 'lowered head and smile' gives us the confusion of a girl at the first stirrings of love. 「逢郎欲语低头笑」之「低头笑」是写娇羞的关键词，一个「低头笑」写尽采莲女的娇羞。低头笑者，低头含笑也。白居易以「欲语低头笑」写采莲女，这个「低头笑」至少有双重意味：其一，写娇羞之态——那「逢郎欲语低头笑」写遇郎欲语还休低头含笑，那「低头笑」写尽少女的娇羞——欲语还休而低头含笑，正是含羞的姿态，那「低头笑」写尽采莲女的娇羞；其二，写情意之深——那「低头笑」更是写情意——低头含笑，虽未语而情意已见，那「低头笑」写尽无言的情意。以「低头笑」写采莲女，正是白居易写娇羞的枢纽——若换作「低头不语」「低头含羞」等词，则或失其写含笑的意味，或失其与「欲语」的配合；唯「低头笑」三字，以欲语还休低头含笑写尽少女的娇羞与无言的情意，与「碧玉搔头落水中」的落水中相合，写尽江南采莲的情趣，也让「逢郎欲语低头笑」成为全诗写娇羞的千古名句。

搔头 In 'her jade hairpin slips and falls into the water,' 'sao tou' means a hairpin, an alias from the old practice of scratching the head with a pin. It does double duty: it names an ornament of some beauty, jade being the precious stone of a well-dressed young woman, and it stages an accident that the beauty cannot prevent. 'Falls into the water' is what makes the line funny and alive. Had the poet said simply 'A jade hairpin,' we should have lost both the old elegance of the word and the charm of its slipping away. 「碧玉搔头落水中」之「搔头」是写发簪的关键词，一个「搔头」写尽少女的妆饰与娇羞的意外。搔头者，簪子的别称，古人以簪搔头，故称搔头。白居易以「碧玉搔头」写发簪，这个「搔头」至少有双重意味：其一，写妆饰之美——那「碧玉搔头落水中」写碧玉搔头落入水中，那「搔头」写尽少女的妆饰——碧玉簪，正是采莲女的妆饰，那「搔头」写尽妆饰的华美；其二，写娇羞之乱——那「搔头」更是写意外——搔头落水中，正见因娇羞慌乱而失手，那「落水中」写尽娇羞的意外。以「搔头」写发簪，正是白居易写娇羞的枢纽——若换作「玉簪」「发钗」等词，则或失其写搔头的古雅，或失其与「落水中」的配合；唯「搔头」二字，以碧玉搔头落水中写尽妆饰的华美与娇羞的意外，与「逢郎欲语低头笑」的低头笑相合，写尽江南采莲的情趣，也让「碧玉搔头落水中」成为全诗写娇羞的名句。

采莲曲