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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

临江仙·柳外轻雷池上雨

To the Tune 'At the Side of the River': Light Thunder Beyond the Willows, Rain on the Pond

欧阳修

Ouyang Xiu

夏景Summer Scene 闺情Boudoir Feeling

柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声。
小楼西角断虹明。
阑干倚处，待得月华生。
燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌。
凉波不动簟纹平。
水精双枕，傍有堕钗横。

Beyond the willows, light thunder over the pond;
The rain shatters the sound of the lotus.
Past the western corner of the small pavilion, a broken rainbow shines.
Where the railing is leaned on - waiting for the moon to brighten.
Swallows come flying to look in at the painted beams; the jade hook lowers the curtain.
The cool water does not stir; the mat's weave lies flat.
Twin crystal pillows - beside them lies a fallen hairpin.

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Meaning

After a summer shower the poet watches a still house: rain breaking the lotus sound, a broken rainbow beyond the pavilion, someone waiting at the railing for the moon, swallows at the eaves, the lowered curtain, unstirred water and a flat mat, and finally twin crystal pillows with a hairpin fallen beside them. No feeling is named; the person is known only through what she has left behind, and the poem's quiet is the quiet of a room that has just been abandoned for the night.

柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声。小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生。燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌。凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A summer shower passes. Thunder is heard beyond the willows and the rain breaks the lotus leaves into separate drops of sound; a rainbow breaks out past the corner of the pavilion; someone leans at the railing until the moon comes up. Inside, swallows look at the painted beams, the curtain is lowered on a jade hook, the water and the mat are still, and by the bed lie twin crystal pillows and a dropped hairpin.<br>[Structure] The two stanzas move from sound and movement outside to stillness inside, and the last three lines contain everything the poem feels.<br>[Imagery] The railing and the hairpin are the only human traces in the whole poem, and both are things someone has touched and walked away from.<br>[Technique] Nothing is said about the woman, and nothing needs to be: the poem's art is that an absence can be demonstrated by the objects left in it.

【白话串讲】欧阳修写《临江仙·柳外轻雷池上雨》：“柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声”——“小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生”——“燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌”——“凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横”——他写夏日池上。【意象与手法】此词写夏景，以闲适写夏景，是欧阳修的名篇。上阕写雨后：「柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声」写柳外轻雷池上雨、雨声滴碎荷声——写尽雨后的清景；「小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生」写小楼西角断虹明、阑干倚处、待得月华生——写尽雨后的虹月；下阕写静景：「燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌」写燕子飞来窥画栋、玉钩垂下帘旌——写尽庭院的静谧；「凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横」写凉波不动簟纹平、水精双枕、傍有堕钗横——写尽夏夜的清寂。全词以闲适写夏景，写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂，是欧阳修的代表作。【情感与主旨】此词写夏景，以闲适写夏景，是欧阳修的名篇。此词写夏日雨后之景与静夜的闲适。上阕写雨后：柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声——写柳外轻雷池上雨、雨声滴碎荷声，写尽雨后的清景；小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生——写小楼西角断虹明、阑干倚处、待得月华生，写尽雨后的虹月；下阕写静景：燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌——写燕子飞来窥画栋、玉钩垂下帘旌，写尽庭院的静谧；凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横——写凉波不动簟纹平、水精双枕、傍有堕钗横，写尽夏夜的清寂。全词以闲适写夏景——那「雨声滴碎荷声」写尽雨后的清景，「傍有堕钗横」写尽夏夜的清寂，写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂，是理解欧阳修词的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声」写雨后的清景；「小楼西角断虹明」写雨后的虹；「凉波不动簟纹平」写夏夜的凉；以及全词以闲适写夏景、以静写动的手法。

Background

Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), courtesy name Yongshu and styled Zui Weng and later the Old Man of the Six One, was from Luling in Jiangxi and was the leading man of letters of the Northern Song: a statesman, a chronicler and one of the Eight Great Masters of prose. His lyrics continue the Southern Tang manner of indoor scenes and delicate feelings, and this one is among the most admired of them, written in the mid-century when lyric poetry was turning from the loud confessions of the first generation to a smaller, more precise kind of seeing.

此词写夏景，以闲适写夏景，是欧阳修的名篇。欧阳修（1007—1072），字永叔，号醉翁、六一居士，庐陵（今江西吉安）人，北宋文坛领袖，唐宋八大家之一。此词写夏日雨后之景与静夜的闲适。欧阳修词承南唐余绪，多写闲雅之情。此词写雨后：「柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声」写柳外轻雷池上雨、雨声滴碎荷声——写尽雨后的清景（柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声）；「小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生」写小楼西角断虹明、阑干倚处、待得月华生——写尽雨后的虹月（小楼西角断虹明，阑干倚处，待得月华生）。下阕写静景：「燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌」写燕子飞来窥画栋、玉钩垂下帘旌——写尽庭院的静谧（燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌）；「凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横」写凉波不动簟纹平、水精双枕、傍有堕钗横——写尽夏夜的清寂（凉波不动簟纹平，水精双枕，傍有堕钗横）。全词以闲适写夏景，写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂，是理解欧阳修词的重要篇章。

Art

The poem has three techniques worth noting. The first is sound as description: 'the rain shatters the sound of the lotus' takes one noise and breaks it into many, so the rain is heard as an event rather than described as weather. The second is the trick of naming a whole thing by one of its parts: there is no rain in 'a broken rainbow', yet the rainbow is the rain finishing. The third is the refusal to name the person; the railing and the hairpin are the only evidence of her, and both are objects someone leaned on and dropped. The movement of the poem is from noise to silence - rain, thunder and swallows in the first stanza, and nothing whatever but a flat mat and a still bed in the last - and thestillness is what the reader is left with. Nothing in the poem comments, and the poem's reputation rests on that restraint.

此词的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以声写雨。「雨声滴碎荷声」以声写雨——那「滴碎」写尽雨滴荷叶，以声写尽雨后的清响。其二，以虹写晴。「小楼西角断虹明」以虹写晴——那「断虹明」写尽雨后的虹，以虹写尽雨霁的天。其三，以静写动。「燕子飞来窥画栋」以静写动——那「窥」写尽燕子的灵巧，以静写尽庭院的静谧。其四，以物写寂。「傍有堕钗横」以物写寂——那「堕钗横」写尽枕畔的钗，以物写尽夏夜的清寂。此外，此词上阕写雨后的清景，下阕写静夜的清寂，由动入静，正是欧阳修词「以景写闲」的写法。四重手法，使此词以闲适写夏景，写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂，是欧阳修的代表作。此外，此词尤可注意其「以物见人、以静写闲」的笔致：全词写景而不写人，而「阑干倚处，待得月华生」见倚栏之人，「傍有堕钗横」见安卧之人——人皆隐于景中，唯以阑干、堕钗两物点出，正见其含蓄；而「雨声滴碎荷声」之清响、「凉波不动簟纹平」之清凉，一动一静，皆与倚栏待月、枕畔堕钗之闲相映，正是欧阳修「疏隽」处：不着一情语，而闲适之趣自见，是北宋词写夏夜静景的典范。

Allusions

The painted beams recall the hall of the Prince of Teng, where painted beams fly off to the clouds of the South, and the whole house in which the poem happens is of the kind the Southern Tang and the Huizhai tradition had made familiar - jade hooks, curtains, crystal. The fallen hairpin belongs to the boudoir vocabulary of undressing at night, and is the poem's only piece of that convention. Elsewhere the genre writes rain as a closed inner world beating on closed shutters; Ouyang's originality here is to make the rain an outdoor event that only afterwards becomes quiet.

此词的用语深植于夏日与闲适的传统。「轻雷」令人想到「轻雷」写雷声的意象——「柳外轻雷池上雨」正是欧阳修的名句，也令人想到「雷声千嶂落」的意象；「断虹」令人想到「断虹」写彩虹的意象——「小楼西角断虹明」正是欧阳修的名句，也令人想到「断虹霁雨」的意象；「月华」令人想到「月华」写月光的意象——「待得月华生」正是欧阳修的名句，也令人想到「月华如练」的意象；「画栋」令人想到「画栋」写华屋的意象——王勃《滕王阁序》「画栋朝飞南浦云」，也令人想到「画栋雕梁」的意象；「水精双枕」令人想到「水精」写水晶的意象——水精枕即水晶枕，也令人想到「水晶帘」的意象；「堕钗横」令人想到「堕钗」写卸妆的意象——「傍有堕钗横」正是欧阳修的名句，也令人想到「鬓云欲度香腮雪」的意象。全词化用轻雷、断虹、月华、堕钗的意象，以闲适写夏景，正是欧阳修「疏隽深婉」而善写景、承夏日传统写闲适的本领。又「雨声滴碎荷声」一句，历来为人激赏：前人写雨，或写「雨打梨花深闭门」（李重元），或写「梧桐更兼细雨」（李清照），而欧阳修独以「碎」字写雨打荷叶之清响，声情并茂，正是炼字的妙处。

Commentary

One of Ouyang Xiu's most quoted lyrics and the standard example of the Northern Song summer indoor scene. Qing readers praised its loose, elegant plainness; modern anthologies single out 'the rain shatters the sound of the lotus' as a piece of phrase-making that gathers its effect from the word meaning shatter. It is usually paired with his Mulberry Leaf Song on the West Lake, which is the same poet's other way of spending a fine evening - one with wine and flutes, the other with a moon and a mat.

此词历来被推为欧阳修词的名篇，也是北宋词写夏日雨景的代表。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以闲适写夏景，疏隽淡雅」；近人更指出「雨声滴碎荷声」写雨后的清响，是此词的名句。在词史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以十句的中调写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂——那柳外，那轻雷，那池上雨，那雨声，那荷声，那小楼，那断虹，那阑干，那月华，那燕子，那画栋，那玉钩，那帘旌，那凉波，那簟纹，那水精双枕，那堕钗，都写尽了欧阳修笔下的夏夜；那「傍有堕钗横」更以物写尽夏夜的清寂。此词与欧阳修《采桑子·画船载酒西湖好》（「稳泛平波任醉眠」）同为闲适名篇，一写「空水澄鲜」的西湖（采桑子），一写「雨声滴碎荷声」的夏夜（临江仙）；又与温庭筠「水晶帘里颇黎枕」的闺阁传统一脉相承，可见北宋词写夏日闲适的传统。对于今日读者，此词是理解欧阳修词的窗口，也是中国词写夏夜的经典——那坠在枕畔的钗，穿越千年，仍在诉说着夏夜的清寂。

Prosody

Form Ci - the tune 'At the Side of the River' (Lin Jiang Xian), double stanza, fifty-eight characters词·临江仙

Rhyme Level-tone rhyme throughout, on sheng (sound), sheng (bright), jing (banner), ping (flat), heng (crooked) - the whole lyric held on the same level group.《临江仙》双调五十八字，押「声」「生」「旌」「平」「横」韵（平声），一韵到底，音节清雅

Tone pattern The single level rhyme keeps the voice even and unhurried, which is precisely the effect the poem wants: a scene that has stopped moving.此词为《临江仙》调，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节清雅，正合夏夜的清雅。

Reading note Standard double stanza of the tune with an uneven line length, the characteristic shape of which is that the longer lines carry description and the short ones carry stillness. The rhyme falls on the closing word of each main phrase, so the voice keeps returning to the same open sound. Read the opening couplet quickly, then slow down through the last three lines so that 'does not stir' and 'lies flat' can be heard as the poem's rest.此词为《临江仙》双调五十八字，上阕——「柳外轻雷池上雨，雨声滴碎荷声。小楼西角断虹明。阑干倚处，待得月华生」，下阕——「燕子飞来窥画栋，玉钩垂下帘旌。凉波不动簟纹平。水精双枕，傍有堕钗横」，押平声韵（声、生、旌、平、横），一韵到底，音节清雅。全词以闲适写夏景：上阕写雨后的清景（雨声滴碎荷声、待得月华生），下阕写静夜的清寂（燕子飞来窥画栋、凉波不动簟纹平）。两阕由动入静，层层写尽雨后的清景与夏夜的清寂，正是欧阳修词以景写闲的典型结构。诵读此词，宜以清雅的语调读「雨声滴碎荷声」的清景，以恬静的语调读「凉波不动簟纹平」的清寂，结句要读得从容而有余韵，方能传达出欧阳修的疏隽淡雅。欧阳修词以「疏隽深婉」著称，此词正是其闲适词的典范。

Line by line

雨声滴碎荷声

The rain shatters the sound of the lotus.

雨声滴碎荷声。

The patter of rain breaks into pieces the sound of the lotuses.

此句是全词写雨声的核心，以雨声滴碎写雨，以荷声写荷，写尽雨后的清响，是千古名句。「雨声滴碎荷声」写雨声滴碎荷声——那「雨声」写雨声，「滴碎荷声」写滴碎荷声，写尽雨滴荷叶的清响。这句的深意在于：它以「雨声」的雨与「荷声」的荷，写尽雨后的清响——雨声滴碎荷声，那「雨声滴碎荷声」写尽雨滴荷叶的清响——雨声滴在荷叶上，碎而清响，那「滴碎」写尽雨滴荷叶的清脆；而「碎」字尤妙：既写雨滴之碎（点滴而落），又写荷声之碎（清脆错落），还暗写雨声融入荷声、声与声相和的天趣——雨打荷叶，声声入耳，正是夏日清景；那「雨声滴碎荷声」写尽雨后的清响，也让此句成为全词写雨声的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「下雨打在荷叶上」，则失其声情；唯以「雨声滴碎荷声」写雨、写荷，写尽雨后的清响，也让此句成为全词写雨声的核心。又此句承「柳外轻雷池上雨」而来——轻雷在天，雨声在池，雷声由远而近，雨声由疏而密，一「碎」字更见雨滴荷叶之清响，正写出夏日骤雨初来、由雷及雨的过程，更可体会欧阳修炼字之精。

The rain. The patter of rain breaks into pieces the sound of the lotuses. The rain that shatters the lotus sound is Ouyang Xiu's summer afternoon. To have described rain on lotus leaves would be a sound; the rain-patter-breaking-into-pieces-the-lotus-sound is the sound.

凉波不动簟纹平

The cool water does not stir; the mat's weave lies flat.

凉波不动簟纹平。

The cool ripples do not stir; the bamboo mat's pattern lies level.

此句是全词写夏夜的核心，以凉波不动写波，以簟纹平写簟，写尽夏夜的清寂，是千古名句。「凉波不动簟纹平」写凉波不动簟纹平——那「凉波」写凉波，「不动簟纹平」写不动、簟纹平，写尽波平簟静的清景。这句的深意在于：它以「凉波不动」的波与「簟纹平」的簟，写尽夏夜的清寂——凉波不动，那「凉波不动」写尽波平的清景——凉波不动，正是池水澄清的写照，那「凉波」写尽夏水的清凉；簟纹平，那「簟纹平」写尽簟席的平整——簟纹平，正是竹席清凉的写照，那「簟纹平」写尽夏夜的凉意；那「凉波不动」写尽波平的清景，那「簟纹平」写尽簟席的平整，一写波，一写簟，写尽夏夜的清寂——波平簟静，正是夏夜清寂的写照；而「凉波不动」与「簟纹平」相对，更见夜之静、人之闲，也让此句成为全词写夏夜的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「晚上很安静很凉快」，则失其画面；唯以「凉波不动」写波、「簟纹平」写簟，写尽夏夜的清寂，也让此句成为全词写夏夜的核心。

The stillness. The cool ripples do not stir; the bamboo mat's pattern lies level. The unstirred cool water and the level mat are the summer night's calm. To have described the still pond and mat would be a scene; the cool-ripples-not-stirring against the bamboo-mat-pattern-lying-level is the scene.

Study

Word focus

碎 'In pieces' - sui; the rain breaking one continuous sound of leaves into separate drops, the poem's one piece of deliberate word-craft. 「雨声滴碎荷声」之「碎」字是写雨声的关键词，一个「碎」字写尽雨滴荷叶的清响。碎者，破碎、错落也。欧阳修以「雨声滴碎荷声」写雨声，这个「碎」字至少有双重意味：其一，写雨声之脆——那「雨声滴碎荷声」写雨声滴碎荷声，那「碎」字写尽雨声的清脆——雨滴荷叶，碎而清响，那「碎」字写尽雨声的清脆；其二，写声和之妙——那「碎」字更是写妙——滴碎，正见雨声荷声相和，那「碎」字写尽声与声的天趣。以「碎」字写雨声，正是欧阳修写夏景的枢纽——若换作「打」「敲」等字，则或失其与「荷声」的配合，或失其写碎的意味；唯「碎」字，以雨声滴碎荷声写尽雨声的清脆与声和的天趣，与「柳外轻雷池上雨」的轻雷相合，写尽雨后的清响，也让「雨声滴碎荷声」成为全词写雨声的名句。

窥 'Peep, look in sideways' - kui; the swallow's sidelong glance at the painted beams, which is the lightest movement in the poem. 「燕子飞来窥画栋」之「窥」字是写静景的关键词，一个「窥」字写尽燕子的灵巧。窥者，偷看也。欧阳修以「燕子飞来窥画栋」写燕子，这个「窥」字至少有双重意味：其一，写燕子之灵——那「燕子飞来窥画栋」写燕子飞来窥画栋，那「窥」字写尽燕子的灵巧——燕子窥栋，正是灵巧的写照，那「窥」字写尽燕子的机敏；其二，写庭院之静——那「窥」字更是写静——燕窥画栋，正见庭院无人，那「窥」字写尽庭院的静谧。以「窥」字写燕子，正是欧阳修写静景的枢纽——若换作「看」「望」等字，则或失其与「画栋」的配合，或失其写窥的意味；唯「窥」字，以燕子飞来窥画栋写尽燕子的灵巧与庭院的静谧，与「玉钩垂下帘旌」的帘旌相合，写尽夏夜的清寂，也让「燕子飞来窥画栋」成为全词写静景的名句。