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I Do Not Know Which Direction the Wind Blows

徐志摩

Xu Zhimo

抒情lyric 格律诗metrical verse 名篇masterpiece

我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，在梦的轻波里依洄。
我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，它的温存，我的迷醉。

I do not know from which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, lingering upon the gentle waves of the dream. I do not know from which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, in its tenderness, in my intoxication.

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Meaning

The speaker, adrift in a dream, confesses that he cannot tell from which direction the wind blows. Rather than struggling to find his bearings, he surrenders to the dream—first drifting on its gentle waves, then sinking into its tenderness and his own intoxication. The poem portrays a modern soul that has lost all sense of direction yet willingly, sweetly, gives itself to illusion.

我不知道风是从哪一个方向吹来的——我是在梦中，在梦的轻柔波浪里依恋地徘徊。我不知道风是从哪一个方向吹来的——我是在梦中，梦里有它的温存，也有我的迷醉。

Appreciation

A hallmark of Crescent Society metrical verse, the poem builds on insistent refrains—'I do not know from which direction the wind blows' and 'I am in a dream'—that recur like a musical motif. The imagery deepens with each recurrence, from drifting on gentle waves to basking in tenderness and intoxication, so that repetition becomes progressive immersion. Soft rhymes, balanced cadences, and circling structure make it one of the most musical works in modern Chinese poetry.

【白话串讲】徐志摩写《我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹》：“我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，在梦的轻波里依洄”——“我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，它的温存，我的迷醉”——他写梦里的迷惘与沉醉。【意象与手法】新月派格律诗的极致：每节以「我不知道风在哪一个方向吹」起句、「我是在梦中」承接，构成主旋律式复沓；「轻波依洄」与「温存迷醉」的意象递变，固定与变化相生，回环往复，一唱三叹，音乐性极强。【情感与主旨】写现代人方向迷失而甘愿沉醉的精神状态：不知风自何来、向何去，人在梦中依洄，明知迷途而自觉沉溺，是徐志摩式「迷醉哲学」的告白，亦是一代知识分子的迷惘之梦。【名句点睛】常考「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」的母题复沓与「它的温存，我的迷醉」的音节之美——前者见音乐结构，后者见炼字之精，是新月派「三美」主张的完美实践。

Background

Xu Zhimo (1897–1931), a native of Haining, Zhejiang, was the leading poet of the Crescent Society and one of the founders of modern Chinese lyric poetry; his poems, such as 'Farewell to Cambridge' and 'The Joy of Snowflakes,' are airy, tender, and intensely musical. This poem was written around 1928, during a period of turmoil in his emotional life and spirit: his marriage to Lu Xiaoman had brought hardship, his ideals were repeatedly frustrated, and he hovered between dream and reality. Opening with 'I do not know from which direction the wind blows,' the poem chants a dazed, dreamlike state—unable to tell where the wind comes from or where it goes, lingering in a dream where 'tenderness' and 'intoxication' intertwine—expressing the poet's bewilderment and infatuation over love, ideals, and the direction of life. The full poem has six stanzas, and this excerpt of the first two already presents its core imagery and refrain structure. As a model of Crescent Society metrical verse, praised by Zhu Ziqing as the most musical work of the new poetry of its day, it was written at the same time as 'Farewell to Cambridge' but in a more brooding mood. Readers should know that the poet was then caught in the whirlpool of love and ideals, and the 'not knowing' of the poem is in fact the tangled confession of one who knows yet refuses to wake.

徐志摩（1897—1931），浙江海宁人，新月派代表诗人，中国现代抒情诗的奠基者之一，诗风飘逸、柔美、富音乐性，代表作有《再别康桥》《雪花的快乐》《我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹》等。此诗写于1928年前后，正值徐志摩情感生活与精神状态的动荡期——与陆小曼结婚后生活困顿，理想屡遭挫折，诗人常在梦幻与现实的夹缝中徘徊。此诗以「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」起兴，反复咏叹，写一种迷离恍惚、如醉如梦的精神状态：不知风从何来、向何去，人在梦中依洄，「温存」与「迷醉」交织，正是诗人对爱情、理想与人生方向的迷茫与沉醉。全诗共六节，此节选为前两节，已完整呈现全诗的核心意象与复沓结构。作为新月派「格律诗」的代表，此诗以严谨的韵律与回环的结构著称，被朱自清誉为「新诗中最讲究音乐性的作品」。此诗之写作与《再别康桥》同时而心境更幽，读者宜知诗人其时正陷于情感与理想的漩涡，诗中「不知道」正是其「知道却不愿醒」的复杂心曲。

Art

The poem's art lies in the interweaving of refrain and dream vision. Structurally, each of the six stanzas (two excerpted here) opens with 'I do not know from which direction the wind blows' and continues with 'I am in a dream,' forming a strict circular architecture; the first stanza's 'lingering upon the dream's gentle waves' gives way to the second's 'its tenderness, my intoxication'—the same frame with imagery evolving from outward drift to inward immersion, the dream deepening from environment into feeling. Syntactically, the motif sentence recurs six times like the variations of a melody, while the affirmation 'I am in a dream' follows each question—one doubting, one affirming—staging the tug between sobriety and surrender. In imagery, the wind figures an elusive fate and direction, the dream an illusory solace, and the gentle waves, tenderness, and intoxication the soft drowning within it; with no concrete narrative, the poem wins purely by atmosphere and emotion, a classic of 'pure poetry.' Rhythmically, long and short clauses alternate, 'blows' rhymes with the closing words, and syllables echo one another, so that the poem reads like song. Note that the refrains are not simple repetition but the spiraling of one mood through deeper levels: each recurrence is a deeper plunge, and the cyclic structure is the formalization of an emotional vortex.

此诗的艺术核心是「复沓」与「梦境」的交织。结构上，全诗六节（此节选两节），每节以「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」起句，以「我是在梦中」承接，构成严整的回环结构——第一节「在梦的轻波里依洄」，第二节「它的温存，我的迷醉」，同一句式，意象递变：由「轻波」的漂荡到「温存、迷醉」的沉溺，梦境由外部环境深入内心感受。句法上，「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」是全诗的母题句，反复六次，如主旋律的变奏；「我是在梦中」的肯定句紧承其后，一疑一定，写尽清醒与沉醉的拉锯。意象上，「风」喻不可捉摸的方向与命运，「梦」喻虚幻的慰藉，「轻波」「温存」「迷醉」写梦中的温柔沉溺——全诗无一具体情节，纯以氛围与情绪取胜，是「纯诗」的典型。节奏上，诗句长短错落，「吹」与「洄」押韵，「梦中、依洄」「温存、迷醉」音节呼应，音乐性极强，读来如歌如醉。尤须注意全诗「不知」与「在梦中」的复沓并非简单的重复，而是同一心绪在不同层次上的盘旋：每一次重问，都是一次更深的沉溺，结构的循环正是情感漩涡的形式化。

Allusions

Though a modern vernacular poem, its imagery of wind and dream is deeply rooted in both Chinese and Western literary traditions. First, 'the direction of the wind': wind as a metaphor for direction and destiny runs from Qu Yuan's wavering hesitancy in the Nine Pieces to Li Bai's 'A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves,' and Xu Zhimo's 'not knowing which way the wind blows' is a modern variation on lost direction, turning the classical wind into a bewildered self-questioning. Second, 'lingering in the dream': the word for lingering (yihui) carries the seeking image of 'tracing upstream' in the Chu Ci and the Book of Songs' 'Jianjia,' yet Xu Zhimo's dream is a tender drowning rather than a lucid quest—longing for the unattainable becomes intoxication without pursuit, revealing the modern poet's craving for solace. Third, the pervasive mood of intoxication inherits the musicality of English Romanticism (Keats' swoon into beauty) and French Symbolism (Verlaine's 'song without words'); having studied at Cambridge, Xu Zhimo fused West with Chinese, carrying Chinese tenderness and bewilderment in the musical forms of Western Romanticism. Wind and dream remain, in both poetic traditions, eternal symbols of the fleeting and ungraspable.

此诗虽为现代白话诗，其梦境与风的意象却深植于中西文学传统。其一，「风的方向」——「风向」是方向与归宿的隐喻，屈原《九章·涉江》「乘鄂渚而反顾兮」的彷徨、李白「长风破浪会有时」的豪迈，皆与「风」相连，而徐志摩写「不知道风在哪一个方向吹」，正是「迷失方向」的现代变奏，把古典的「风」意象转为迷惘的自我叩问；其二，「梦中依洄」——「依洄」即依恋徘徊，承《楚辞》「溯洄从之」的求索意象（《诗经·蒹葭》「溯洄从之，道阻且长」），而徐志摩的梦是温柔的沉溺而非清醒的求索，由「求而不得」变为「不求而醉」，见出现代诗人对「慰藉」的渴望；其三，全诗弥漫的「迷醉」情调，与英国浪漫派（济慈「沉溺于美的迷醉」）、法国象征派（魏尔伦「无言的歌」）的「音乐性」传统一脉相承——徐志摩留学剑桥，深受英诗影响，此诗正是其「化西为中」的产物，以西方浪漫主义的音乐性承载中国式的柔情与迷惘。诗中「风」「梦」二象，实为中西诗学中「飘忽不定」的永恒象征。

Commentary

'I Do Not Know Which Direction the Wind Blows' is one of Xu Zhimo's most celebrated works and a classic of modern Chinese metrical and musical verse. In craft, its strict refrain structure and circular rhyme realize the unity of 'musical beauty' and 'architectural beauty'—the perfect practice of the Crescent Society's 'three beauties'; Zhu Ziqing and Wen Yiduo both praised its musicality, and it is acknowledged as among the most metrically refined works of the new poetry. In emotion, its repeated questioning voices the spiritual predicament of modern people who have lost their direction: the 'I am in a dream' lingering is at once a private love-dream and the bewilderment of a generation of intellectuals, giving the poem a resonance far beyond personal circumstance. In influence, it stands with 'Farewell to Cambridge' and 'The Joy of Snowflakes' among Xu Zhimo's signature works; its circling phrasing and tender mood have influenced countless successors, and its title line has become one of the most quoted sentences in modern Chinese. Though this excerpt contains only two stanzas, it fully presents the poem's musical skeleton and emotional keynote.

《我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹》是徐志摩最负盛名的作品之一，也是中国现代格律诗与音乐性诗歌的经典。其一，就诗艺言，此诗以严格的复沓结构（每节同句起、同句承）与回环韵律，实现了「音乐美」与「建筑美」的统一，是新月派「三美」（音乐美、绘画美、建筑美）主张的完美实践，朱自清、闻一多皆盛赞其音乐性，此诗被公认为新诗史上「最讲究声律」的作品之一；其二，就情感言，此诗以「我不知道风在哪一个方向吹」的反复叩问，写尽现代人方向迷失、理想沉浮的精神困境，「在梦中」的依洄既是个人情爱之梦，也是一代知识分子的迷惘之梦，其感染力超越个人际遇而具有普遍性；其三，就影响言，此诗与《再别康桥》《雪花的快乐》并为徐志摩代表作，其回环句式与柔美情调影响无数后来者，「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」更成为现代汉语中脍炙人口的名句。此节选虽只两节，却已完整呈现全诗的音乐骨架与情感基调。

Prosody

Form Modern free verse (Crescent Society metrical verse with circular refrain structure)现代自由诗（新月派格律诗，复沓回环体）

Rhyme The whole poem rhymes on the ui sound (chui with hui and zui); each stanza opens and closes on the same rhyme, forming circular rhyme feet; disyllabic words such as 'meng zhong,' 'qing bo,' 'yi hui,' 'wen cun,' and 'mi zui' give soft, linked syllables; and the repetition in each stanza of 'I do not know from which direction the wind blows' and 'I am in a dream' forms a leitmotif-like refrain, one song thrice sighed, of great musicality.全诗以「吹」与「洄」「醉」押韵（ui韵），每节首尾相押，形成回环的韵脚；「梦中」「轻波」「依洄」「温存」「迷醉」等词双音连绵，音节柔美；每节「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」与「我是在梦中」的重复，构成主旋律式的复沓，一唱三叹，音乐性极强。

Tone pattern Long and short clauses alternate: the opening line 'I do not know from which direction the wind blows' is long and slow in its syllables; 'I am in a dream' falls in a five-character beat; and 'lingering upon the dream's gentle waves' and 'its tenderness, my intoxication' close in short phrases like a wave subsiding. The bewilderment of 'I do not know' alternates with the affirmation of 'I am in a dream,' dazed and entangling—the whole poem like a low song murmured in a dream.句式以长句与短句相间：起句「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」较长，音节舒缓；「我是在梦中」五字一顿；「在梦的轻波里依洄」「它的温存，我的迷醉」短句收束，如浪头回落。语气上「不知道」的迷茫与「是在梦中」的肯定交替，迷离恍惚，声情缠绵，全诗如一曲梦中的低回。

Reading note The poem is the extreme practice of the Crescent Society's principle of 'musical beauty'; Zhu Ziqing called it the most musical work of the new poetry of its day. Its musical design has three layers. First, the circular rhyme: each stanza opens the rhyme with 'chui' and closes with 'hui,' 'zui,' and the like, the same rhyme recurring like a tonic chord and binding the whole poem into a circling unity. Second, the syntactic refrain: the fixed opening pair 'I do not know from which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream' recurs six times through six stanzas as a fixed melody, while the changing latter lines of each stanza (gentle waves and lingering, tenderness and intoxication, sorrow and heartbreak, and so on) play like variations upon it, and the tension between the fixed and the changing is the poem's musical skeleton. Third, the softness of the tones: the poem favors the level tones (chui, hui, wen, cun, mi, zui) and rarely uses the falling tone, its pitch gentle and smooth like murmuring in a dream, perfectly in tune with the mood of intoxication. Xu Zhimo, who studied at Cambridge and steeped himself in English metrics (the circling forms of Shelley and Keats), made this poem the fruit of 'turning the Western into the Chinese': carrying the beauty of Chinese sound in the repetitive rhythms of English verse, he opened a new realm of Chinese new poetry—'poetry as song.'《我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹》是新月派「音乐美」主张的极致实践，朱自清称此诗是当时新诗中最讲究音乐性的作品。全诗的音乐设计有三层：其一，韵脚的回环——每节以「吹」起韵，以「洄」「醉」等收韵，同韵复沓，如音乐的主和弦反复出现，把全诗凝聚成一个回环的整体；其二，句式的复沓——「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中」作为固定的前两句，六节重复六次，构成固定旋律，而每节后两句的变换（轻波依洄、温存迷醉、悲哀心碎等）如旋律的变奏，固定与变化的张力正是全诗的音乐骨架；其三，声调的柔美——全诗多用阴平、阳平（吹、洄、温、存、迷、醉），少用去声，声调平缓柔和，如梦中呓语，与「迷醉」的情调完全合拍。徐志摩留学剑桥，深研英诗格律（如雪莱、济慈的回环体），此诗正是其「化西为中」的成果：以英语诗歌的复沓节奏，承载汉语的音韵之美，开创了中国新诗「以歌为诗」的新境界。

Line by line

我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，在梦的轻波里依洄。

I do not know from which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, lingering fondly upon the dream's gentle waves.

我不知道风是从哪一个方向吹来的——我是在梦中，在梦的轻柔波浪里依恋地徘徊。

I know not in which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, drifting on the dream's light waves.

此节是全诗的开篇，也是全诗音乐与情感的母题。「我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹」，以「不知道」的坦承起句，写方向感的丧失——风喻命运、时代与情感的方向，「哪一个」的疑问透着迷茫，破折号后笔锋一转：「我是在梦中」，以肯定的口吻宣告自己的沉醉状态，仿佛不知道风向也无妨，因为我本在梦中；「在梦的轻波里依洄」更进一层，「轻波」写梦之轻柔荡漾，「依洄」写依恋徘徊，两个意象写出梦中的温柔与不舍。此节的张力在「不知道」与「是在梦中」之间：不知道是清醒的迷茫，在梦中是自觉的沉溺，诗人明知迷途而甘愿沉醉，这正是徐志摩式「迷醉哲学」的开端。全诗的复沓结构也由此定调，「我不知道……我是在梦中」将反复六次，如漩涡般把读者卷入梦境。

The wind. I know not in which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, drifting on the dream's light waves. The know-not-which-direction wind and the dream's light waves are the opening. To have not known the direction would be a not-knowing; the i-know-not-in-which-direction-the-wind-blows-i-am-in-a-dream-drifting-on-the-dream's-light-waves is the not-knowing.

我不知道风是在哪一个方向吹——我是在梦中，它的温存，我的迷醉。

I do not know from which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream, in its tenderness, in my intoxication.

我不知道风是从哪一个方向吹来的——我是在梦中，梦里有它的温存，也有我的迷醉。

I know not in which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream: its tenderness, my intoxication.

此节是第一节的变奏，梦境由「轻波」深化为「温存」与「迷醉」，情感的浓度陡然升高。相同的起句与承接，后段换上了全然不同的意象：「它的温存，我的迷醉」——「它」指梦（或梦中之爱），「温存」写梦之柔暖，「我的迷醉」写我的沉溺，两两相对，人与梦交融为一，梦境从外在的「轻波」（环境）进入内在的「温存迷醉」（感受），诗人在梦中彻底迷失了自己。「它的温存，我的迷醉」六个字，四个名词两个「的」字，如两个和弦轻轻相撞，音节柔美，情调缠绵，是全诗最令人沉醉的句子。此节与第一节的差异，正见复沓之妙：同一母题，意象层层递进，情感步步加深，读者随诗人的「依洄」而愈陷愈深，为后文「在梦的悲哀里心碎」的转折埋下温柔的伏笔。

The tenderness. I know not in which direction the wind blows—I am in a dream: its tenderness, my intoxication. The repeated wind-not-known and the its-tenderness-my-intoxication are the variation. To have been intoxicated would be an intoxication; the i-know-not-in-which-direction-the-wind-blows-i-am-in-a-dream-its-tenderness-my-intoxication is the intoxication.

Study

Word focus

依洄 In 'lingering upon the dream's gentle waves,' yihui fuses 'clinging' with the classical sense of water swirling back, depicting the dreamer drifting and turning in the dream like a boat upon rippling water. 「在梦的轻波里依洄」之「依洄」二字，是全诗最富古典韵味的新诗词汇。「依」训依恋、依傍，「洄」本指水流回旋（《诗经》「溯洄从之」），二字合用，写人在梦中如水波般回旋往复、依恋不去。这个词的妙处有三：其一，以「水」写「梦」——梦如水波，人如浮舟，「依洄」写出梦中的漂浮感与不舍感，比直说「徘徊」「流连」更切梦的流动质地；其二，承古典「溯洄」传统——《诗经·蒹葭》「溯洄从之，道阻且长」的求索意象，被徐志摩化为无目的的依恋徘徊，由「求而不得」的清醒变为「不求而醉」的沉溺，见出现代诗人对古典意象的温柔改造；其三，「依洄」音节柔美（阴平加阳平），读来如微波荡漾，与全诗的音乐性浑然一体，是新月派炼字的典范。

温存 In 'its tenderness, my intoxication,' wencun denotes gentle, doting affection, giving the abstract dream a bodily warmth the speaker can nestle against. 「它的温存，我的迷醉」之「温存」二字，是全诗情感的暖色调核心。「温」写温度之暖，「存」写存在之实，「温存」本指温柔体贴、柔情缱绻，是情爱话语中极柔软的词。徐志摩用它写梦中的「它」（爱人或理想），把抽象的梦具象为可感的温度：梦是温的，存着柔情的实体，「它的温存」四个字，让梦境有了体温。与下句「我的迷醉」对读，「温存」是对方的给予，「迷醉」是我的回应，一施一受，情爱交融，两个三字短句如两片花瓣相叠，音节轻软，正是「迷醉」状态的声化。徐志摩极善用这种温软的词语（如「康桥」的「软泥上的青荇」），「温存」二字是其中最具代表性的，它让虚无的梦境有了可以依偎的实体。

迷醉 Mizui unites the loss of direction ('lost') with the drowning of consciousness ('drunk'), naming the poet's clear-eyed yet willing surrender to love and illusion. 「我的迷醉」之「迷醉」，是「依洄」的情感终点，也是全诗情调的词眼。「迷」写方向的丧失（呼应「我不知道风在哪一个方向吹」），「醉」写意识的沉溺，「迷醉」二字把「不知道」与「在梦中」统一起来——正因为迷，所以醉；正因为醉，所以不在乎迷。这个词写尽徐志摩式的精神状态：对爱情与理想明知其虚而沉醉其中，「迷醉」不是糊涂，而是清醒者的主动沉溺，带着悲剧性的甜蜜。与「温存」对举，「温存」是外来的暖意，「迷醉」是内在的沉沦，一外一内，诗人的梦由环境（轻波）经对象（温存）而最终成为自己的状态（迷醉），情感的进程在两组词的推进中完成。二字皆为平声，读来绵软悠长，如饮醇酒，余味不散。

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