临江仙·樱桃落尽春归去

Meaning

Late in spring, in the besieged palace, the poet watches the last of the blossom and the people leaving the lanes. What is left is the curl of incense, a sash held for no one, and a look backward. Set against the memory of a kingdom, the poem's subject is not the death of spring but the fact that everything he once held — rank, city, country — is now gone, and can only be remembered by turning round to it.

樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞。子规啼月小楼西，玉钩罗幕，惆怅暮烟垂。别巷寂寥人散后，望残烟草低迷。炉香闲袅凤凰儿，空持罗带，回首恨依依。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Spring has gone and the laneways are empty; the poet sits with his sash and looks back. [Structure] The upper stanza is the scene from without — cherries, butterflies, cuckoo, curtain, evening smoke; the lower stanza turns inward — the empty street, the mist, the incense, the sash, the look back. [Imagery] The pair of butterflies flies in wedding-colour at the moment the blossom falls, and that brightness is the poem's cruel contrast. [Evaluation] The poem's method is to keep the feeling out of the line: nothing says 'lost kingdom'; instead the sash is held for nothing and the look back is recorded. Only in the last two words — 'the bitterness' — does the poet name his feeling, and so late and so briefly that the whole poem has been preparing room for them.

【白话串讲】 李煜写《临江仙·樱桃落尽春归去》：“樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞”——“子规啼月小楼西，玉钩罗幕，惆怅暮烟垂”——“别巷寂寥人散后，望残烟草低迷”——“炉香闲袅凤凰儿，空持罗带，回首恨依依”——他写亡国后的怅恨。 【意象与手法】 此词写亡国，以怀旧写亡国，是李煜的名篇。上阕写春暮：「樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞。子规啼月小楼西，玉钩罗幕，惆怅暮烟垂」写樱桃落尽春归去、蝶翻金粉双飞——写尽惆怅暮烟的垂；下阕写寂寥：「别巷寂寥人散后，望残烟草低迷。炉香闲袅凤凰儿，空持罗带，回首恨依依」写别巷寂寥人散后、望残烟草低迷——写尽回首恨依的依。全词以怀旧写亡国，写尽惆怅暮烟的垂与回首恨依的依，是李煜的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此词写亡国，以怀旧写亡国，是李煜的名篇。此词为李煜后期之作，写其围城中的春暮与寂寥。李煜此词写其亡国前后的春暮。此词写樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞；子规啼月小楼西，玉钩罗幕，惆怅暮烟垂；别巷寂寥人散后，望残烟草低迷；炉香闲袅凤凰儿，空持罗带，回首恨依依。此词写春暮：樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞——写樱桃落尽春归去、蝶翻金粉双飞，写尽蝶翻金粉的双飞；子规啼月小楼西，玉钩罗幕，惆怅暮烟垂——写子规啼月小楼西、玉钩罗幕、惆怅暮烟垂，写尽惆怅暮烟的垂；别巷寂寥人散后，望残烟草低迷——写别巷寂寥人散后、望残烟草低迷，写尽望残烟草的低迷；炉香闲袅凤凰儿，空持罗带，回首恨依依——写炉香闲袅凤凰儿、空持罗带、回首恨依依，写尽回首恨依的依。全词以怀旧写亡国——那「惆怅暮烟垂」写尽惆怅暮烟的垂，「回首恨依依」写尽回首恨依的依，写尽惆怅暮烟的垂与回首恨依的依，是理解李煜亡国词的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞」写蝶翻金粉的双飞；「回首恨依依」写回首恨依的依；以及全词以怀旧写亡国、以写景写亡国的手法。

Allusions

The words belong to the tradition of the ci on spring and of poetry on a lost state. 'Gold-dust' is the old name for the yellow powder on a butterfly's wings, and 'the pair of butterflies' carries the old emblem of lovers. 'The cuckoo' is the bird whose cry is its own name and whose blood is said to be red, and from Tang times it was the bird of parting. 'Silver hook' — a curtain hook — belongs to the little chamber of the palace. 'Evening smoke' hangs low, and in later poetry the river mist is what makes a man homesick. 'Phoenix' — the phoenix-marked censer — belongs to the Southern Tang, whose state emblem was the phoenix, and so the censer carries the emblem of the dynasty with it. 'Sash of gauze' — 'the knot of the sash is not yet tied' is an old line on love left unfulfilled; here it is held in a palace that no longer has anyone to whom it could belong. All these in the plainest words of a court poet's daily life.

此词的用语深植于亡国与怀旧传统。「樱桃」令人想到「樱桃」写樱桃的意象——也令人想到「樱桃红绽」的意象；「春归去」令人想到「春归去」写春归的意象——也令人想到「春归何处」（黄庭坚）的意象；「金粉」令人想到「金粉」写金粉的意象——也令人想到「蝶翻金粉」的意象；「子规」令人想到「子规」写杜鹃的意象——也令人想到「子规啼血」的意象；「啼月」令人想到「啼月」写月夜啼鸣的意象——也令人想到「月落乌啼霜满天」（张继）的意象；「玉钩」令人想到「玉钩」写帘钩的意象——也令人想到「玉钩斜」的意象；「罗幕」令人想到「罗幕」写罗幕的意象——也令人想到「罗幕轻寒」（晏殊）的意象；「暮烟」令人想到「暮烟」写暮烟的意象——也令人想到「烟波江上使人愁」（崔颢）的意象；「别巷」令人想到「别巷」写小巷的意象——也令人想到「别巷寂寥」的意象；「烟草」令人想到「烟草」写烟草的意象——也令人想到「平芜尽处是春山」的意象；「低迷」令人想到「低迷」写低迷的意象——也令人想到「低迷烟景」的意象；「炉香」令人想到「炉香」写炉香的意象——也令人想到「瑞脑消金兽」（李清照）的意象；「凤凰儿」令人想到「凤凰儿」写香炉的意象——也令人想到「凤凰于飞」的意象；「罗带」令人想到「罗带」写罗带的意象——也令人想到「罗带同心结未成」的意象；「恨依依」令人想到「恨依依」写恨意的意象——也令人想到「依依不舍」的意象。全词化用樱桃、春归去、金粉、子规、啼月、玉钩、罗幕、暮烟、别巷、烟草、低迷、炉香、凤凰儿、罗带、恨依依的意象，以怀旧写亡国，正是李煜「哀婉」而善白描、承南唐传统写亡国之本领。

Commentary

This has long been counted among Li Yu's poems on the loss of his state and among the Five Dynasties ci on the loneliness of spring. Later critics call it 'by memory of the old state, plaintive and ample'; readers of modern times single out 'The cherries have all fallen and spring has gone' as its best line and its most ordinary. Its special place is that in a middle-length ci it carries off a subject which later poetry makes a business of — the ruin of a kingdom — without once raising its voice; the ruin is handed over in a butterfly, a cuckoo, a censer and a sash. Set beside 'From Sight of the Flowers of Spring, or the Ruin of Spring Red' — 'The tree blossoms are fallen, the spring reds gone' — the two are both poems of spring's ending, a short one and a long one; and against 'The Beautiful Lady Yu: When will the spring flowers and autumn moon be over?' — 'When will they be over?' — the one declares the amount of his grief and this one declines to. Read together they show both faces of his verse on the lost state.

此词历来被推为李煜亡国词的名篇，也是五代词写春暮寂寥的代表。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以怀旧写亡国，哀婉凄恻」；近人更指出「樱桃落尽春归去，蝶翻金粉双飞」写蝶翻金粉的双飞，是此词的名句。在词史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以中调写尽惆怅暮烟的垂与回首恨依的依——那樱桃，那落尽，那春归去，那蝶翻，那金粉，那双飞，那子规，那啼月，那小楼西，那玉钩，那罗幕，那惆怅，那暮烟垂，那别巷，那寂寥，那人散后，那望残，那烟草，那低迷，那炉香，那闲袅，那凤凰儿，那空持，那罗带，那回首，那恨依依，都写尽了李煜笔下的临江仙樱桃落尽春归去；那「回首恨依依」更以细节写尽回首恨依的依。此词与李煜《相见欢·林花谢了春红》「林花谢了春红」同为春暮名篇，一写「无奈朝来寒雨晚来风」的相见欢，一写「回首恨依依」的临江仙；一写小令，一写中调。两词对读，可见李煜春暮词的两面。对于今日读者，此词是理解李煜亡国词的窗口，也是五代词写春暮寂寥的经典——那回首恨依的依，穿越千年，仍在诉说着惆怅暮烟的垂。

Prosody

Line by line

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