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清 Qing · 词 Ci lyric

如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉

Ru Meng Ling: Drunken among Ten Thousand Yurts

纳兰性德

Nalan Xingde

万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠，归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎。
还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味。

Ten thousand tents — the domed yurts — with men drunk,
The starlight sways, ready to fall.
The homecoming dream is cut off by the Wolf River,
And the sound of the river stirs and shatters it.
Sleep on, sleep on.
For I know well that waking is worth nothing.

Listen

Meaning

Written on campaign in the north-west, this short tune records a night spent in camp: the vast encampment, the drunken men, and stars that seem on the point of toppling. The dream of home is severed by the Wolf River and then broken by the noise of the water itself, so the only remedy left is to sleep again — and yet the poet knows that waking will bring nothing worth having. The poem turns homesickness into a closed circle of sleepless sleep, in which escape and anguish are indistinguishable.

万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠，归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎。还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Beyond the frontier the poet passes a night in camp among ten thousand tents; the stars seem to swim and sink; a dream of home is blocked by a river and destroyed by its noise; so he tells himself to go on sleeping, for he knows waking holds no savor. [Structure] The six-line tune moves in three stages: encampment and sky, then the shattering of the homecoming dream, then the resolution to sleep again. Each stage is short, and the closing couplet of three words — 'huan shui, huan shui' — is the shortest in the piece, like a hand pressed to the eyes. [Imagery] 'Ten thousand tents' and 'domed yurts' give the camp its mass; 'starlight about to fall' gives the sky its vertigo; the river does the damage twice over, first as a boundary that separates, then as a sound that destroys. [Mood] Nothing is stated outright: the loneliness is in the gap between what the dream wants and what the river allows. The last line confesses the futility of waking rather than the pain of leaving, which is precisely what makes the pain so durable.

【白话串讲】纳兰性德写《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》：“万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠”——“归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎”——“还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味”——他在塞外——归梦隔狼河。【意象与手法】 “万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠”以万帐星影写塞外夜景；“归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎”以河声搅碎归梦写思乡；“还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味”以叠句写无味。以景写情、含蓄深婉。【情感与主旨】随驾塞外所作，写边地夜宿的苍茫与归梦难成的乡愁，是纳兰词中写边塞羁旅的代表作。【名句点睛】常考“归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎”以河声搅碎归梦写思乡；“万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠”以万帐星影写塞外夜景。

Background

Nalan Xingde (1655–1685), originally Chengde, courtesy name Rongruo, so-called Lenggashanren, was a Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner and one of the great ci writers of the Qing. Trained in the Confucian classics from childhood, he entered the imperial guard and later served as a resident minister in the northeast, accompanying the Kangxi emperor on campaigns against the Mongols and against rebellious generals — the situation evoked here. His corpus, the Yinshui Ci (Water or Ink Songs), is chiefly lyric rather than heroic, and his style is noted for a candid, almost confessional intimacy. This tune belongs to the group of frontier and journeying pieces that he wrote while absent from his home in the capital; among his work it is a representative of the border-camp genre, declamatory in setting but quiet in feeling.

《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》为清代词人纳兰性德所作词。纳兰性德（1655—1685），原名成德，字容若，号楞伽山人，满洲正黄旗人，清代词人，著有《饮水词》。此词写景羁旅，为塞上之作。词中「万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠」写万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠；「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」写归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎；「还睡、还睡」写还睡、还睡；「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味。纳兰性德此词以写景羁旅、解道醒来无味写其羁旅之情，含蓄深婉，是纳兰性德词中的名篇。此篇《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The art of the piece lies in its economy: thirty words carry an entire scene and an entire state of mind. Nalan builds a vast enclosed picture — the tents, the sky, the river — and then refuses it comfort at the last moment. Two devices do the work. The first is the verb that transfers the mind to the scene: 'stirs and shatters' belongs properly to a river, and by giving it the dream as its object the poet lets water perform the violence of waking a sleeper. The second is the staircase of the closing line: 'huan shui, huan shui, jie dao xing lai wu wei' — an instruction repeated before its justification, so that the reader hears the will first and its reason after, exactly as a sleepless man addresses himself. There is also a deliberate inversion in the final claim: sleep is recommended as the remedy precisely because waking is known to be empty. The result is a poem that withholds consolation while appearing to offer it.

此词艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以梦写情」见长。全词共六句，由万帐穹庐人醉而归梦隔狼河而还睡。起「万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠」写万帐穹庐人醉：万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠；「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」写归梦隔狼河：归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎；「还睡、还睡」写还睡：还睡、还睡；结「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味：解道醒来无味。全词以梦写情，由万帐穹庐人醉而解道醒来无味，含蓄深婉，是纳兰性德词中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The Wolf River (Lang He) is the historical name for a stretch of the Amur / Heilong Jiang on the north-eastern frontier, and it supplies the poem's geography of exile: it is the line between the encampment and the homeland. 'Yurt' (qionglu) carries the whole steppe vocabulary of the frontier — felt tent, nomad camp, the life that has carried the poet away from his wives and books. The phrase 'knowing that waking is worth nothing' (jie dao xing lai wu wei) quietly echoes the conventions of ci love-verse, in which the sleeping and waking alternation is a coded way of speaking about separation: the poet borrows the tone of a feelingsong in order to describe a journey. Nothing here is over-elonged; the allusions are topographical rather than literary, and their effect is to make the private sorrow feel like the common lot of everyone who has been sent away.

词中「万帐穹庐人醉星影摇摇欲坠」「归梦隔狼河又被河声搅碎」「还睡还睡」「解道醒来无味」等语，皆含典故故实。「万帐穹庐人醉星影摇摇欲坠」写万帐穹庐人醉星影摇摇欲坠；「归梦隔狼河又被河声搅碎」用狼河之典（狼河写塞上河名），写归梦隔狼河又被河声搅碎；「还睡还睡」写还睡还睡；「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味。词人以狼河之典入词，不着痕迹，而把写景羁旅之情写得真切可感，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。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。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

This tune has long been read as one of Nalan's most characteristic frontier lyrics, valued for the way a public subject — an imperial campaign in the wilderness — is rendered in a private and undecorated voice. Later anthologies single out 'the homecoming dream cut off by the Wolf River, and then shattered by the sound of the river' as the line on which the whole poem stands, both for its imagery and for its suppressed emotion. Critics also note the economy of the ending: instead of concluding with a complaint, Nalan concludes with a resolution that concedes the complaint has no cure. In this he is typical of the late Ming and Qing verse habit of turning experience inward and trusting understatement. The piece remains a standard text for teaching how frontier scenery can become mourning without ever naming it.

这首《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》，是纳兰性德写景羁旅之作，写万帐穹庐人醉、归梦隔狼河、还睡、解道醒来无味之情，含蓄深婉。起「万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠」——万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠。写万帐穹庐人醉：万帐穹庐人醉、星影摇摇欲坠——穹庐人醉、星影欲坠；「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」——归梦隔狼河（用狼河之典），又被河声搅碎。写归梦隔狼河：归梦隔狼河、又被河声搅碎——归梦隔狼河、河声搅碎；「还睡、还睡」——还睡、还睡。写还睡：还睡、还睡——还睡、还睡；结「解道醒来无味」——解道醒来无味。写解道醒来无味：解道醒来无味——醒来无味。这「解道醒来无味」，是全词之结：以解道醒来无味写其羁旅。全词含蓄深婉，以梦写情，正是纳兰性德词中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Ci (a minor tune, Ru Meng Ling)词（小令·如梦令）

Rhyme A short ci of six lines in the fixed Ru Meng Ling metre. The rhymes all belong to the close vowels -ui / -ei: 'fall' (zhui), 'shatter' (sui), 'sleep' (shui), 'worthless' (wei). The same vowel colour runs through the whole piece, so that even the unrhymed phrases sound saturated with the same hollow resonance, and the closing line lands on the quietest and most final of the four.此词为小令，调名《如梦令》，共六句。押韵：「坠」「碎」「睡」「味」押微队部韵。词体依小令而定，句式长短错落，音节随情起伏，正与写写景羁旅的含蓄深婉相称，也见其以小令写羁旅的自然。

Tone pattern The cadence follows the emotion: 'Ten thousand tents ... the starlight sways, ready to fall' opens broad and reeling; 'the homecoming dream is cut off ...' drops to a low, lingering measure; 'sleep on, sleep on' is extended by the repetition into something slow and beseeching; the close falls further, on the flat, exhausted note of waking that has nothing to offer. The rising and sinking of the voice matches the cycles of sleep and waking the poem describes.句式上，「万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠」写万帐穹庐人醉，音节清丽；「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」写归梦隔狼河，音节低回；「还睡、还睡」写还睡，音节绵长；结「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味，音节低沉。全词音节随情起伏，由清丽而低回、由绵长而低沉，正合小令「含蓄」之妙，读来如写景羁旅、解道醒来无味之音，含蓄而动人。

Reading note As a minor tune (xiaoling), Ru Meng Ling allows the poet a handful of lines and no room for argument, and Nalan uses exactly that compression: the verse is a closed form and the feeling inside it is a closed circle. Five-character and six-character lines alternate with a longer closing phrase, and this shifting line-length is what carries the impression of a mind that cannot settle — the short lines are decisions, the long one is the admission. The rhyme on the same vowel throughout gives the tune a monotone, hypnotic quality well suited to a poem about trying and failing to sleep. The prosody and the plight are therefore in accord: form and feeling reinforce each other, and the sound of the poem is the sound of a man turning over.此词为小令，是纳兰性德写景羁旅之作，也是其词中的名篇。全词的艺术特色在于「含蓄深婉、以梦写情」：「万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠」写万帐穹庐人醉、「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」写归梦隔狼河、「还睡、还睡」写还睡、「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味。全词含蓄深婉，以梦写情。尤为精妙者，是「归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎」用狼河之典；而「解道醒来无味」以问写情，正是纳兰性德词「含蓄深婉」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《如梦令·万帐穹庐人醉》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠

Ten thousand tents — the domed yurts — with men drunk, the starlight sways, ready to fall.

万帐穹庐人醉，星影摇摇欲坠。

Ten thousand yurt-tents, the men are drunk; the star-shadows reel, as if about to fall.

起句写万帐穹庐人醉，起笔即见其景。「万帐穹庐人醉」写万帐穹庐人醉，「万帐穹庐」写万帐穹庐、「人醉」写人醉；「星影摇摇欲坠」写星影摇摇欲坠，「星影摇摇」写星影摇摇、「欲坠」写欲坠。两句一写万帐穹庐人醉、一写星影摇摇欲坠，以万帐穹庐人醉写穹庐人醉、以星影摇摇欲坠写星影欲坠，写尽万帐穹庐人醉、星影摇摇欲坠之情。以景起兴，含蓄而深婉，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。

The opening writes ten thousand yurt-tents, the men drunk, the scene visible from the first stroke. Ten thousand yurt-tents, the men are drunk writes the myriad dome tents and the drunken men. The star-shadows reel, as if about to fall writes the star shadows swaying on the verge of falling. Two lines: one of the drunken men among the yurts, one of the swaying stars. Writing the yurt-drunk man, writing the stars' verge of falling, exhausting the drunken yurt camp and the reeling stars. Rising on the scene, restrained and deeply tender, the fine brush of raising feeling through scene.

归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎

The homecoming dream is cut off by the Wolf River, and the sound of the river stirs and shatters it.

归梦隔狼河，又被河声搅碎。

The homeward dream is barred by the Wolf River; and the river's roar has shattered it to pieces.

此二句写归梦隔狼河，是全词以梦写情的关键。「归梦隔狼河」用狼河之典写归梦隔狼河，「归梦」写归梦、「隔狼河」写隔狼河；「又被河声搅碎」写又被河声搅碎，「又被」写又被、「河声搅碎」写河声搅碎。两句一写归梦隔狼河、一写又被河声搅碎，以归梦隔狼河写归梦隔河、以又被河声搅碎写河声搅碎，写尽归梦隔狼河、又被河声搅碎之情。以梦写情，含蓄而深婉，是「以梦写情」的点睛之笔。

The two lines write the homeward dream barred by the Wolf River, the key to the ci's way of writing feeling through dream. The homeward dream is barred by the Wolf River uses the allusion to the Wolf River, writes the return dream cut off by the river. And the river's roar has shattered it to pieces writes the river's sound smashing the dream. Two lines: one of the dream barred by the Wolf River, one of the river's sound shattering the dream. Writing the return dream cut off by the river, writing the river sound's smashing of the dream, exhausting the river-barred dream and the shattered dream. Writing feeling through the dream, restrained and deeply tender, the pointed brush of writing feeling through dream.

还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味

Sleep on, sleep on — I know well that waking is worth nothing.

还睡、还睡，解道醒来无味。

Sleep again, sleep again — I know too well that waking is tasteless.

结句写解道醒来无味，是全词立意的落点。「还睡、还睡」写还睡、还睡，「还睡」写还睡、「还睡」写还睡；「解道醒来无味」写解道醒来无味，「解道」写知道、「醒来无味」写醒来无味。两句一写还睡、还睡、一写解道醒来无味，以还睡、还睡写还睡、以解道醒来无味写醒来无味，写尽还睡、还睡、解道醒来无味之情。以梦写情，含蓄而深婉，是全词最动人处，也是「以梦写情」的点睛之笔。

The close writes knowing that waking is tasteless, the landing point of the ci's intent. Sleep again, sleep again says again and again return to sleep. I know too well that waking is tasteless says the knowing, that waking is flavorless. Two lines: one of the repeated return to sleep, one of the tasteless waking. Writing the return to sleep, writing the tasteless waking, exhausting the returning to sleep and the waking's flatness. Writing feeling through dream, restrained and deeply tender, the most moving passage of the ci, and the pointed brush of writing feeling through dream.

Study

Word focus

穹庐 A felt tent of the steppe people, domed and portable; here the 'yurt' of ten thousand tents, the whole nomad encampment that measures the poet's distance from the settled south. 「穹庐」写万帐穹庐人醉，是写穹庐之态的关键。「万帐穹庐人醉」着一「穹庐」，写穹庐——着一「穹庐」，写万帐穹庐人醉，见其庐之穹。两字写尽穹庐之态，是「以词写庐」的妙笔。「穹庐」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

摇摇 Slipping, unsteady, on the point of toppling; the word gives the stars their drunken dance and, more quietly, gives the poet's own footing no purchase either. 「摇摇」写星影摇摇欲坠，是写星摇之态的关键。「星影摇摇欲坠」着一「摇摇」，写摇摇——着一「摇摇」，写星影摇摇欲坠，见其星之摇。两字写尽摇摇之态，是「以词写摇」的点睛之词。「摇摇」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

搅碎 To stir with a rod and break to pieces; transferred from the water to the dream, it makes the river the agent that ruins the sleep even as it spoils the waking. 「搅碎」写又被河声搅碎，是写搅碎之态的关键。「又被河声搅碎」着一「搅碎」，写搅碎——着一「搅碎」，写又被河声搅碎，见其梦之碎。两字写尽搅碎之态，是「以词写碎」的点睛之词。「搅碎」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

无味 Tasteless, lacking savor; the poet's verdict on waking life, and the reason sleep is preferred — not as joy, but as the one thing still not yet spoiled. 「无味」写解道醒来无味，是写无味之态的关键。「解道醒来无味」着一「无味」，写无味——着一「无味」，写解道醒来无味，见其醒之无味。两字写尽无味之态，是「以词写味」的点睛之词。「无味」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。