虞美人·枕上

Meaning

Written for his wife Yang Kaihui, this lyric gives voice to a night of lovesick longing. Sorrow piles on the pillow like churning seas; the lover counts cold stars through the endless night, and at dawn only the absent one's shadow remains. The poem closes on tears before the waning moon—a tender, restrained confession of devotion from a revolutionary pen.

堆来枕上愁何状，江海翻波浪。夜长天色总难明，寂寞披衣起坐数寒星。晓来百念都灰烬，剩有离人影。一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] This lyric, written for Mao's wife Yang Kaihui, records a sleepless night of marital longing. Sorrow piles upon the pillow like surging rivers and seas; the long night will not brighten, and in loneliness the poet rises to count the cold stars. At dawn his myriad thoughts turn to ash, leaving only the figure of the one far away; before the westward-drifting waning moon he cannot but weep. [Structure] The poem opens with sorrow (chou) and closes with tears (lei), framing a single night from pillow to dawn. Each couplet moves from inner feeling to outer scene. [Imagery] The 'rivers and seas' metaphor for grief, the 'cold stars' counted in solitude, and the 'hook of waning moon' all externalize inner ache. The technique of 'writing feeling through scene' gives restrained emotion a concrete, lingering form. The result is deeply gentle and moving (shen wan dong ren)—a rare tender work from a revolutionary pen.

【白话串讲】 毛泽东写《虞美人·枕上》：“堆来枕上愁何状，江海翻波浪”——“夜长天色总难明，寂寞披衣起坐数寒星”——“晓来百念都灰烬，剩有离人影”——“一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由”——他写枕上的离愁。 【意象与手法】 “堆来枕上愁何状，江海翻波浪”以江海喻愁；“夜长天色总难明，寂寞披衣起坐数寒星”以数寒星写孤寂；“晓来百念都灰烬，剩有离人影”写离思；“一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由”以残月写泪。以愁起笔、以泪收束，深婉动人。 【情感与主旨】 毛泽东写给夫人杨开慧的离愁词，写枕上堆愁、彻夜难眠的思念，是革命者笔下的柔情之作，体现其情感深挚的一面。 【名句点睛】 常考“堆来枕上愁何状，江海翻波浪”以江海喻愁；“一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由”以残月写离泪。

Allusions

The poem is lightly allusive, drawing on conventional ci imagery rather than specific classical典故. The 'rivers and seas' (jiang hai) topos for overwhelming emotion echoes a long tradition of using water to figure grief and longing. The 'cold stars' (han xing) evoke the lonely night-watch of the separated lover, a motif traceable through Tang and Song love poetry. The 'waning moon' (can yue) is a standard emblem of parting and impermanence. Mao fuses these inherited tokens of separation with a modern, autobiographical occasion, so that the classical vocabulary serves a deeply personal, contemporary feeling.

词中「堆来枕上愁何状江海翻波浪」「夜长天色总难明寂寞披衣起坐数寒星」「晓来百念都灰烬剩有离人影」「一钩残月向西流对此不抛眼泪也无由」等语，皆含典故故实。「堆来枕上愁何状江海翻波浪」用江海之喻（江海写愁如江海），写堆来枕上愁何状江海翻波浪；「夜长天色总难明寂寞披衣起坐数寒星」写夜长天色总难明寂寞披衣起坐数寒星；「晓来百念都灰烬剩有离人影」写晓来百念都灰烬剩有离人影；「一钩残月向西流对此不抛眼泪也无由」写一钩残月向西流对此不抛眼泪也无由。词人以江海、残月等语入词，不着痕迹，而把感怀爱情之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Among Mao's poetic output this little lyric is prized precisely because it is unguarded. Where his public verse projects collective heroism, 'On the Pillow' admits private vulnerability—the churned seas of longing, the cold-starred vigil, the tears that will not be held back. Later readers and anthologists have valued it as evidence of the poet's emotional depth and of the continuity between the traditional ci form and modern sentiment. Its fame rests on the sincerity with which a revolutionary speaks as a lover, and on the quiet craft that lets a single night's ache resonate far beyond its occasion.

这首《虞美人·枕上》，是毛泽东写感怀爱情之作，写堆来枕上愁何状、夜长天色总难明、晓来百念都灰烬、一钩残月向西流之情，深婉动人。起「堆来枕上愁何状，江海翻波浪」——堆来枕上愁何状（用江海之喻），江海翻波浪。写堆来枕上愁何状：堆来枕上愁何状、江海翻波浪——枕上愁、翻波浪；「夜长天色总难明，寂寞披衣起坐数寒星」——夜长天色总难明，寂寞披衣起坐数寒星。写夜长天色总难明：夜长天色总难明、寂寞披衣起坐数寒星——总难明、数寒星；「晓来百念都灰烬，剩有离人影」——晓来百念都灰烬，剩有离人影。写晓来百念都灰烬：晓来百念都灰烬、剩有离人影——都灰烬、离人影；结「一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由」——一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由。写一钩残月向西流：一钩残月向西流、对此不抛眼泪也无由——残月西流、不抛眼泪。这「一钩残月向西流，对此不抛眼泪也无由」，是全词之结：以对此不抛眼泪也无由写其爱情。全词深婉动人，以景写情，正是毛泽东词中的名篇。

Prosody

Line by line

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