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清 Qing · 诗 Poem

葬花吟

The Song of Burying the Flowers

曹雪芹

Cao Xueqin

黛玉Daiyu 咏物Poem on a subject 红楼梦Dream of the Red Chamber

花谢花飞花满天，红消香断有谁怜？
游丝软系飘春榭，落絮轻沾扑绣帘。
闺中女儿惜春暮，愁绪满怀无释处。
手把花锄出绣帘，忍踏落花来复去。
柳丝榆荚自芳菲，不管桃飘与李飞。
桃李明年能再发，明年闺中知有谁？
三月香巢已垒成，梁间燕子太无情！
明年花发虽可啄，却不道人去梁空巢也倾。

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花谢花飞花满天，红消香断有谁怜？
游丝软系飘春榭，落絮轻沾扑绣帘。
闺中女儿惜春暮，愁绪满怀无释处。
手把花锄出绣帘，忍踏落花来复去。
柳丝榆荚自芳菲，不管桃飘与李飞。
桃李明年能再发，明年闺中知有谁？
三月香巢已垒成，梁间燕子太无情！
明年花发虽可啄，却不道人去梁空巢也倾。
一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼。
明媚鲜妍能几时，一朝飘泊难寻觅。
花开易见落难寻，阶前愁杀葬花人。
独倚花锄泪暗洒，洒上空枝见血痕。
杜鹃无语正黄昏，荷锄归去掩重门。
青灯照壁人初睡，冷雨敲窗被未温。
怪奴底事倍伤神，半为怜春半恼春。
怜春忽至恼忽去，至又无言去不闻。
昨宵庭外悲歌发，知是花魂与鸟魂？
花魂鸟魂总难留，鸟自无言花自羞。
愿奴胁下生双翼，随花飞到天尽头。
天尽头，何处有香丘？
未若锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流。
质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟。
尔今死去侬收葬，未卜侬身何日丧？
侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁？
试看春残花渐落，便是红颜老死时。
一朝春尽红颜老，花落人亡两不知！

The blossoms fade and the blossoms fly, filling all the sky —
Who pities the wasted red, the broken fragrance?
Soft threads of spring drift over the pavilion,
Light catkins brush and beat against the embroidered curtain.
In her chamber the young lady grieves the dying spring;
Heavy care fills her breast with no place to spend it.
She takes the trowel and walks out through the curtain,
Reluctant to tread on the fallen flowers, again and again.
The willow twigs and the elm beans bloom as they please,
Careless of the flying peach and the drifting plum.
Next year the peach and plum will blossom again;
But next year, who remains inside these walls?
The sweet-scented nest of the third month is finished;
Only too cruel, the swallows that build beneath the beams.
Next year the flowers may still be pecked at,
But no one thinks: the man is gone, the beam is bare, the nest has fallen.
Three hundred and sixty days a year,
Blades of wind and swords of frost press hard upon her.
Bright and lovely, how long can this last?
Once it drifts away it cannot be found again.
Easy to watch the flowers open; hard to find them fallen;
Beside the steps, the burying of flowers slays the maid with sorrow.
She leans on the trowel and sheds her tears in secret,
And they fall on the bare branch and show as blood.
The cuckoo is silent at this hour of dusk;
With the trowel on her shoulder she goes back and shuts the double door.
Green lamp, a wall lit, and at last she sleeps;
Cold rain beats the window, the quilt not yet warm.
Strange that I should grieve so over nothing;
Half for pity of spring, half for anger at spring.
Pity comes, anger goes:
It comes without a word, it goes without a sound.
Last night a mournful song was raised beyond the courtyard;
Is it the soul of a flower, or the soul of a bird?
The flower's soul, the bird's soul, are hard to hold;
The bird says nothing, the flower hangs its head.
Would that wings might sprout beneath my arms,
To follow the flowers away to the end of the sky.
And where, at the end of the sky, is the grave of fragrance?
Better a brocade bag for these fairest bones,
One cup of clean earth to hide their beauty.
Spotless I came, and spotless let me go —
Better that than sinking in the muck and mire of a ditch.
Now that you are dead, I am the one who buries you;
But when, I wonder, will it be my turn.
Today I am the one who buries the flowers, and men laugh at my folly;
Some other year, who will bury me?
Look: when the spring is spent and the flowers thin out,
That is the hour when fair faces grow old and die.
One day the spring ends, the face grows old:
The flowers fall, the person passes, and neither knows the other.

Listen

Meaning

Spoken by Lin Daiyu in chapter 27 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the song is sung at the moment she buries the spring blossoms — and so, in the same act, buries herself. On the surface it laments fallen petals; underneath it is a complaint against a household and a set of manners that squeeze a sensitive girl from every side, made worse because she lives as a guest in her grandmother's house. It is also a forecast of her own early death, for the novel is built on her vow to repay a debt of tears, and the flower that must be buried is the girl. The last line lifts the private grief to a universal truth: beauty must perish, and nothing will ever be done about it.

花儿凋谢飘飞落满天空，红颜褪尽芳香断绝有谁怜惜？游丝软软系着飘向春榭，落絮轻轻沾上扑打绣帘。闺中女儿怜惜春暮，愁绪满怀无处排遣。手执花锄走出绣帘，怎忍踏落花来来去去。柳丝榆荚自逞芳菲，不管桃花飘零与李花飞散。桃李明年还能重开，明年闺中谁知还有谁在？三月香巢已然垒成，梁间燕子太无情！明年花开虽可啄食，却不想人去梁空巢也倾塌。一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严厉相逼。明媚鲜妍能有几时，一旦飘泊便难寻觅。花开容易见落难寻，阶前愁杀葬花之人。独倚花锄泪暗自洒，洒上空枝只见血痕。杜鹃无语正是黄昏，荷锄归去掩上重门。青灯照壁人刚睡下，冷雨敲窗被未温暖。怪我底事倍伤神，一半为怜春一半为恼春。怜春忽至恼春忽去，来时无言去时不闻。昨宵庭外悲歌响起，知是花魂还是鸟魂？花魂鸟魂总难留住，鸟自无言花自含羞。愿我胁下生双翼，随花飞到天尽头。天尽头，何处有埋香之丘？不如锦囊收起艳骨，一抔净土掩去风流。质本洁净来还洁净去，强过陷在污淖沟渠。你今死去我收葬，未卜我身何日丧亡？我今葬花人笑我痴，他年葬我知是谁人？试看春残花渐落，便是红颜老死之时。一朝春尽红颜老去，花落人亡两不相知！

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The song moves from the sky full of falling petals to one girl at the foot of a staircase with a trowel, and then out again: to next year's blossoms that will return, to the swallow's nest that has fallen because the bird is gone, to three hundred and sixty days of pressure, and finally to the singer's own future corpse. The argument of the poem is simple and merciless — the flowers return, the girl does not. [Structure] The piece is built on questions rather than description: '有谁怜', '知有谁', '何处有香丘', '知是谁'. One question after another rises and finds no answer, and the silence after each is what gives the poem its weight. [Imagery] The images crowd: threads of spring, catkins, elm beans, swallows, blades of wind, a bare branch marked with blood, green lamp, cold rain. Their pressure is what lets the final abstraction — 'the flowers fall, the person passes, and neither knows' — land so heavily after so much apparent decoration.

【白话串讲】 “花谢花飞花满天，红消香断有谁怜”——林黛玉葬花。“一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼”——她写自己如落花。“质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟”——她宁可干净地死去。“侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁”——今天葬花被人笑痴，将来谁葬我？《红楼梦》最凄美的一段。【意象与手法】以丰富的想象、奇特的譬喻、回环往复的歌行节奏营造凄清哀艳、气象浑成的意境。“风刀霜剑严相逼”暗喻封建礼法摧残，“质本洁来还洁去”是高洁人格的誓言，“侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁”以花喻己预写谶语。“花人合一”的象征结构使葬花之吟升华为对美好生命必归毁灭的宇宙性悲叹。【情感与主旨】出自《红楼梦》第二十七回，为林黛玉葬花时所吟，是塑造黛玉形象、暗伏悲剧命运的核心长歌。借葬花写葬己，把少女对春光、青春、洁净与生命的全部哀挽熔为一炉，是《红楼梦》“千红一哭、万艳同悲”主题的最强音。【名句点睛】常考“一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼”以风刀霜剑暗喻礼法摧残；“质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟”以洁净誓言写高洁人格。

Background

The song is placed in chapter 27, 'The Fairy Caught Butterflies at Ruyue Ting; the Swallow Weeps over the Dying Flowers at the Mound of Fragrance', where Daiyu, refused admittance at Bao Yu's gate the previous night and finding the poetry club about to begin, takes a trowel and buries the petals in the garden. Cao Xueqin (about 1715-1763) knew the decline of his own family from its height as imperial silk manufacturers in Jiangning to ruin, and wrote the novel in poverty at the western edge of Beijing after ten years of revision. Daiyu is widely read as a portrait of the author's early life, and this song is the condensed image of her temper — pure, proud, and doomed. Cao wrote verse into his fiction so that the poems would announce the fate of the speakers, and this one is the clearest case.

《葬花吟》为曹雪芹《红楼梦》第二十七回「滴翠亭杨妃戏彩蝶，埋香冢飞燕泣残红」中林黛玉所吟之长篇歌行。小说写暮春之日，黛玉因前一晚夜访怡红院被拒于门外，又值海棠诗社将起，触景伤情，荷锄葬花，遂作此吟。曹雪芹（约一七一五—一七六三）身历江宁织造世家由盛转衰，晚年贫居北京西郊，「披阅十载，增删五次」写成《红楼梦》，借贾府兴衰写自家身世之痛。黛玉形象多有作者表妹（或传闻中竺香玉、脂砚斋等）的影子，而《葬花吟》正是其「孤标傲世、质洁情高」性格的诗化凝结。在小说结构里，此吟非闲笔：它既呼应第二十三回宝黛共读《西厢》的青春觉醒，又预埋「泪尽而亡」的结局谶语（「他年葬侬知是谁」「花落人亡两不知」）。脂砚斋评语已点明「余读《葬花吟》至再三，掩卷思之，可胜叹息」，足见其悲剧力量。曹雪芹以诗入小说，使长歌成为人物命运的交响前奏，这是中国古典小说「诗化叙事」的最高成就之一。就《葬花吟》在全书中的结构功能言，它绝非一时兴到的插曲，而是曹雪芹为黛玉命运预设的「诗谶」。小说以「还泪」神话立黛玉之本——绛珠仙草受神瑛甘露之惠，遂以一生之泪相报，故黛玉之泪尽即其命尽；《葬花吟》通篇泪雨飘零、「洒上空枝见血痕」，正是「还泪」将竭的诗化预演。脂砚斋于此回批语反复致意，谓「不必看完，见此二句即欲坠泪」，又云非「宝玉断不能知」，可见此吟在作者构思中乃勾连宝黛情缘与黛玉夭亡的枢纽。就作者身世言，曹雪芹经历曹家由江宁织造的显赫到抄没败落的剧变，晚岁「举家食粥」而著书西山，其笔下「三月香巢已垒成」而「人去梁空巢也倾」的盛衰之慨，未尝不渗入自家由荣入枯的血泪。故此诗既是黛玉一人之哀音，又是《红楼梦》「好防佳节元宵后，便是烟消火灭时」这一「盛极必衰」总主题的抒情缩影，其重量远出于寻常闺阁咏物之上。

Art

The poem's central device is the fusion of flower and girl, which is carried out in stages until the two cannot be told apart. At first she only pities the flowers from a distance; then the willows and elms are rebuked for blooming regardless of the peach and plum in their fall; then the nest's fall stands for her own; then 'blades of wind, swords of frost' describe both the weather and the household; and by the last stanza she asks who will bury her after she has buried the flowers. Alongside this the poem varies its line lengths — three, five, seven, nine characters — which gives a long song the freedom of aspoken lament. The imagination takes flight in 'wings beneath my arms' only to fall back with 'one cup of clean earth', and the closing line, flat and quiet, carries more than all the passion before it.

《葬花吟》艺术之胜，在「花人合一」的象征结构与歌行体的纵恣驰骋。全诗以七言为主、间以杂言（如「天尽头，何处有香丘」「试看……便是……」），句式长短错落，最宜抒写回环往复的哀情。其章法由景入情、由花及人、由今推昔：开篇「花谢花飞花满天」以漫天飞花造境，接写「游丝」「落絮」衬闺中愁绪；中段「柳丝榆荚自芳菲」转怨草木无情，「一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼」陡作控诉，把自然环境写成迫害力量；后段「愿奴胁下生双翼」奇想飞举，「质本洁来还洁去」立洁身之誓，终以「花落人亡两不知」收束于彻骨之悲。诗中多用拟人、反衬、设问（知是花魂与鸟魂）、呼告（尔今死去侬收葬），情感如潮，一波未平一波又起。想象奇肆处（生双翼、到天尽头、寻香丘）近屈子《离骚》的上下求索，而凄艳处又开晚唐李贺、五代花间之先声，诚为古典抒情长歌的集大成者。就长歌的整体经营言，《葬花吟》尤见「以问领篇、以泪贯串、以谶收束」的匠心。全诗屡以诘问推宕情绪——「红消香断有谁怜」「明年闺中知有谁」「天尽头，何处有香丘」「他年葬侬知是谁」，一问未已，一问又起，层层逼问而无人能答，遂把个体之哀推向天地无应的苍茫。而「泪」与「血」为通篇之血脉：由「愁绪满怀」而「泪暗洒」，而「见血痕」，而「花魂鸟魂」，情感如潮汐迭涌，一浪高于一浪。其想象之奇肆尤为可观：「愿奴胁下生双翼，随花飞到天尽头」凌空飞举，近屈子《离骚》上下求索的浪漫；而「天尽头，何处有香丘」的追问既出，旋即以「未若锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流」跌回现实，扬而复抑，愈显理想之不可即。至结句「花落人亡两不知」，以最平静之语道最彻骨之悲，前之万千哀怨至此凝成一片死寂，是长歌收束「哀极反静」的极高手笔。

Allusions

The song stands in the decline tradition that begins with Qu Yuan's lament over withered plants and runs through Li Qingzhao's piles of yellow chrysanthemum. '游丝' and '落絮' belong to the same language of a spring drawing to a close as Yan Shu's '无可奈何花落去'. The cuckoo recalls the Shu king who became a bird and whose blood reddens the blossom, which is why the tears on the bare branch read as blood. '一抔净土' borrows the phrase for a handful of earth from the tomb of an emperor, so that burying a flower becomes a ritual with some of the weight of an imperial grave. Above all, '质本洁来还洁去' answers the '唯昭质其犹未亏' of the Li Sao: purity is something possessed rather than attained, and the only question is whether it can be kept.

诗中意象群落渊深而新警。「花谢花飞」承《楚辞》「草木零落」的伤逝传统，亦近李清照「满地黄花堆积」的孤楚；「游丝」「落絮」写春之将尽，暗合晏殊「无可奈何花落去」的迟暮之叹。「柳丝榆荚自芳菲，不管桃飘与李飞」以草木之无情反衬人之多情，柳榆桃李皆有所本（陶渊明「榆柳荫后檐」、崔护「桃花依旧」）。「梁间燕子太无情」用燕子垒巢的故实，反用李白「双燕复双燕」的成双，写人去巢倾的孤。「风刀霜剑」以刀剑喻风雨，凝练如辛弃疾「点兵」之锐，却是写摧花之酷，象征礼法压迫。「杜鹃无语」用望帝啼血典，写春残之悲。「锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流」化用葬花实写与「香丘」想象，近俞樾「埋香」之意；「质本洁来还洁去」则直承《离骚》「芳与泽其杂糅兮，唯昭质其犹未亏」的洁身之志。通篇以花为黛玉之身、以葬花为葬己，意象群由此完成「物—人—命」的三重叠合，是咏物诗象征化的极致。就意象渊源的层累言，尚可补数端。「香巢」「梁间燕子」之喻，远绍《诗经》燕燕于飞、近承刘禹锡「旧时王谢堂前燕」的兴亡之感，以燕之垒巢与巢倾，写盛筵必散、人去楼空之兆，与全书「忽喇喇似大厦倾」的总纲暗合。「风刀霜剑」以兵刃拟天时，其取象之源可上溯李贺「羲和敲日玻璃声」一路的奇险想象，而板结为四字成语，则为曹雪芹所独铸。「杜鹃」「花魂鸟魂」用望帝啼血、魂化杜鹃的蜀典，杜鹃声声「不如归去」，最切「无处归」之悲。「一抔净土」语本《史记·张释之传》「取长陵一抔土」，原指帝陵之土，曹雪芹借以写葬花，遂使卑微的葬花之举带上庄重的仪式感。「质本洁来还洁去」则直承屈原《离骚》「唯昭质其犹未亏」的洁身传统，「污淖」「渠沟」之喻亦近屈子「宁赴湘流」的决绝。诸典熔铸无间，共成「花即人、葬花即葬己」的象征体系，是咏物长歌用典的极诣。

Commentary

Read as a whole, the song is an account of a consciousness turning from pity to self-lament. At the beginning the singer is a bystander admiring the flowers; by the middle she has begun to ask who will be left next year; by the end she is the one asking to be buried. The flower line and the human line cross at '桃李明年能再发' and finallymerge in '侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁'. The last couplet, '花落人亡两不知', places flower and person side by side and then denies both any knowledge of the other, which is the most terrible thing the poem can say: not that the two perish, but that they perish in complete unawareness. It is this that makes the song the central symptom of the novel's theme that everything splendid must end in nothing.

全诗可分四层。起四句写飞花与闺愁：花谢满天、红消香断起悲，游丝落絮衬「愁绪满怀无释处」，定下怜春之调。次八句由葬花及身世：手把花锄、忍踏落花写惜花之痴；柳榆芳菲不管桃李，怨草木无情；「桃李明年能再发，明年闺中知有谁」由花之可再来转到人之不可知，伤己之孤；香巢垒成、燕子无情、人去巢倾，以燕反写人亡之兆。中段八句写逼压与哀绝：风刀霜剑严相逼，写处境之酷；明媚鲜妍能几时，叹青春之促；阶前愁杀、泪洒血痕，悲极成血；杜鹃黄昏、荷锄掩门，景愈凄而情愈沉。后段「怪奴底事倍伤神」至「鸟自无言花自羞」自问自答，怜春恼春、花魂鸟魂皆难留，把春逝写成不可挽回的宿命。末十二句写誓洁与谶亡：愿生双翼随花天涯、寻香丘不得，转而以锦囊净土葬花明志；「质本洁来还洁去」誓高洁，「尔今死去侬收葬，未卜侬身何日丧」由花及己；结以「侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁」「花落人亡两不知」，以花命写己命，把全诗的哀婉推至彻骨的宇宙之悲。若再就「花」「人」二线的交织细看，全诗实是一部由「惜花」渐次转为「自悼」的心灵史。起处「花谢花飞」「红消香断」，所惜者花也，人尚为旁观的怜花者；至「桃李明年能再发，明年闺中知有谁」，则由花之可再生反跌出人之不可再，花线与人线始交；「三月香巢」一段借燕巢之倾暗写人去，是以物兆人；「风刀霜剑严相逼」以下，写迫压、写泪血、写黄昏掩门，境愈凄而花人之界愈泯；至「花魂鸟魂总难留」「愿奴胁下生双翼」，人已欲随花而去，二线遂合；「质本洁来还洁去」立洁身之誓，是以花之洁明人之洁；终至「尔今死去侬收葬，未卜侬身何日丧」「他年葬侬知是谁」，则花之葬径转为己之葬，人花彻底合一。结句「花落人亡两不知」，花落、人亡并举而俱归于「不知」，把一篇葬花之吟推至「美之必毁、生之必灭」的宇宙悲慨，此即黛玉「全部哀音」之所以震撼千古。

Prosody

Reading note The formal freedom is in the service of the singing voice. Because the poem is placed in a novel and spoken by a character, it cannot be a display of metrical skill; it must be able to stop and start, to cry out, to fall silent. The result is the kind of long song that a Lian Changqin might have written in the Tang, re-set for a woman in a garden in the eighteenth century, with all the weight of the chuanqi tradition behind it. That is why the piece can be both so plain — '花落人亡两不知' — and so ornate elsewhere, and why it has been recited, rather than merely read, for two centuries.《葬花吟》为长篇歌行体（七言歌行），句式以七言为主，间以三、五、九言的杂言（如三言「天尽头」、五言「何处有香丘」「试看春残花渐落」、九言「一朝春尽红颜老，花落人亡两不知」），奇偶相生、长短错落，最宜抒写回肠荡气的哀情。用韵方面，歌行本不避转韵，此诗随情换韵、抑扬相生：开篇「天、怜、帘、处、去、飞、谁、情、倾、逼、觅、人、痕、昏、门、温、春、闻、魂、羞、头、丘、流、沟、丧、谁、时、知」等句尾，大致以平水「先、删、真、文、庚、尤、虞、萧、侯」诸部递转，平仄交错、韵随泪转，形成「如泣如诉、一唱三叹」的乐章效果。其对仗多用宽对（「游丝软系」对「落絮轻沾」、「柳丝榆荚」对「桃飘李飞」、「花开易见」对「落难寻觅」），于歌行中见整饬。节奏上「花谢花飞花满天」以三「花」叠字起势，如落英缤纷；「风刀霜剑」「一年三百六十日」以急促句式写逼迫，与「愿奴胁下生双翼」的悠长祈愿形成张弛。整体句式自由而气脉不断，是唐人歌行（如《长恨歌》）之后，以小说人物口吻写就的抒情长歌典范，故能「哀感顽艳、字字血泪」。

Line by line

一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼。

Three hundred and sixty days a year, blades of wind and swords of frost press hard upon her.

Three hundred and sixty days in the year, wind as knife and frost as sword press hard upon me.

此二句为全诗情绪的转折点，也是「以自然环境写社会压迫」的象征妙笔。上句「一年三百六十日」以整数写岁月之全、时间之长，极言并非一时一地之愁，而是全年无休的煎熬；下句「风刀霜剑严相逼」以「刀」「剑」喻风霜，把无形的天时摧残化为有形的兵刃相逼，措辞奇警如侠语，却写尽柔弱生命被围猎的处境。其深层绝非真写天气：黛玉寄居贾府，上有贾母之宠、中有王夫人之疑、下有众人之妒，礼法如刀、闲言如剑，「严相逼」三字正写封建闺阁对异端少女的集体挤压。曹雪芹以「风刀霜剑」四字，把大观园表面的温柔富贵撕开一道裂缝，露出内里吃人的本质。此联前有「柳丝榆荚自芳菲」的冷漠铺垫，后有「明媚鲜妍能几时」的短促慨叹，处于全诗由「惜花」转向「控诉」的枢纽，是黛玉悲剧命运的纲领性写照，亦《红楼梦》「风刀霜剑」总谶的先声。

The two lines are the emotional turning point of the song, and the symbolic masterstroke of writing social oppression through the natural environment. The upper line, three hundred and sixty days in the year, uses the round number for the whole of time, the length of the year, pressing that this is no momentary grief but a year-long siege. The lower line, wind as knife and frost as sword press hard upon me, uses the knife and the sword for wind and frost, turning the intangible weather's cruelty into the tangible pressing of blades, the diction strange and keen as a swordsman's words, yet writing the hunted plight of the fragile life to the full. Its depth is by no means the weather: Daiyu, lodged in the Jia household, has above her Grandmother Jia's favor, around her Lady Wang's suspicion, below her peers' envy; ritual is a knife, gossip a sword, and press hard upon me writes precisely the collective squeeze of the feudal inner quarters on the girl who does not belong. Cao Xueqin, through the four words wind as knife and frost as sword, tears a crack in the surface of the Prospect Garden's gentle splendor, revealing the cannibal essence within. The couplet is preceded by the cold preparation of the willow threads and elm pods bloom of themselves, and followed by the short sigh of bright beauty, how long can it last, lying at the hinge of the song's turning from treasuring the flower to the indictment, the programmatic portrait of Daiyu's tragic fate, and the first voice of A Dream of Red Mansions' total prophecy of wind as knife and frost as sword.

质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟。

Spotless I came, and spotless let me go — better that than sinking in the muck and mire of a ditch.

Pure I came, and pure I go; better than sinking into the mire and the ditches.

此二句是黛玉人格的宣言，也是全诗精神的高标。「质本洁来还洁去」承《离骚》「昭质其犹未亏」的洁身传统，写花（亦写己）生来清净、归去亦清净，不容尘污；「强于污淖陷渠沟」以「污淖」「渠沟」喻浊世与委琐的结局，言宁可保持洁净地消亡，也不愿陷溺污浊地苟活。其分量在以「洁」抗「浊」：在「一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼」的绝境中，黛玉不乞怜、不妥协，唯以「洁去」自守，这是她「孤标傲世」性格的诗化定格。从象征结构看，此联上接「锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流」的葬花实写，下启「侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁」的己谶，是「花—人」叠合的关键纽结：花之洁即人之洁，花之葬即人之殁。曹雪芹借少女之口说出这等决绝之语，使一首闺中葬花吟具有了屈子行吟般的操守之力，故能穿越小说语境，成为千古洁身者的心声。

The two lines are the declaration of Daiyu's character, and the high mark of the song's spirit. Pure I came, and pure I go inherits the Li Sao tradition of the unsullied nature — the light unmarred — writing the flower (and the self) born clean and returning clean, allowing no dust. Better than sinking into the mire and the ditches uses the mire and the ditches for the turbid world and the squalid end, saying it is better to keep one's purity in death than to wallow in filth and survive. The weight lies in the pure against the turbid: in the desperate plight of three hundred and sixty days, wind as knife and frost as sword press hard upon me, Daiyu begs no pity, makes no compromise, guarding only the pure going, the poetic fixing of her character of lofty scorn for the world. In the symbolic structure, the couplet follows the real burial of the flower in the silk pouch I gather the bright bones, a handful of pure earth covers the beauty, and leads to the self-omen of today I bury the flower and men laugh me for a fool; who will bury me when my turn comes? It is the key knot of the flower-person fusion: the flower's purity is the person's purity, the flower's burial the person's death. Cao Xueqin, through the girl's mouth, speaks such resolute words, giving a chamber song of burying flowers the sustaining power of Qu Yuan's wandering, so that it crosses the fictional frame and becomes the voice of all the unsullied through the ages.

Study

Word focus

风刀霜剑 Blades of wind and swords of frost: the four characters turn the softness of a season into an armoury, so that spring's ruin becomes a siege. The strangeness of the image lies in the mismatch of the two pairs — wind compared to a knife, frost to a sword — and it works on two levels at once: the cruelty of the weather and the pressure of the household. It is the hinge of the poem's complaint. 「风刀霜剑」四字是《葬花吟》中最奇警的炼语，亦《红楼梦》象征体系的枢纽意象。风本柔、霜本寒，诗人却以「刀」「剑」拟之，把春风秋霜的摧花之力写为兵刃的杀伐之力，意象的「柔—刚」反差造成强烈的陌生化效果。其妙在以武库之词写园林之景，使自然的「逼」具有了人事的「迫」——风刀霜剑所逼的，表面是花，实则是寄人篱下的黛玉。从修辞渊源看，以兵器喻天时自唐诗已然（如「风如刀」「雪似手」），而「风刀霜剑」四字并举、且冠以「严相逼」，则凝练如成语，把离散的隐喻收束为一具压迫性整体。二字一对（风—霜、刀—剑）又自相对仗，音节铿锵，读来有金铁之声，与前后「游丝软系」「落絮轻沾」的柔婉形成刚柔相济的节奏。曹雪芹以此四字，既写尽暮春摧花之酷，更写尽礼法对人性的围剿，是「以景写政、以物写命」的巅峰一笔。

香丘 A grave of fragrance: the mound where the petals might be buried. The word turns the act of burying flowers into a burial of beauty itself, and because the poet asks where such a grave can be found and cannot answer, it becomes an emblem for a perfection that does not exist. Against 'the muck and mire of a ditch' it stands for everything the singer would choose rather than accept. 「香丘」即埋香之丘，是黛玉为落花（亦为自己）构想的理想归宿，出自「天尽头，何处有香丘。未若锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流」。『香』本指花香，转喻少女的洁净与美好（『艳骨』『风流』皆指花之精魄、人之韶华）；『丘』指土冢。二字合之，是把「葬花」升华为「葬美」——要给洁净易逝的美好寻一处配得的安息地，而非任其沦落污沟。其意象渊源，近「埋香冢」的文学传统与《离骚》「葬江鱼之腹」的高洁想象，而曹雪芹点出「天尽头，何处有」的追问，则使「香丘」成为一种可望不可即的理想国：现实中既无香丘，故唯以「一抔净土」自葬，更显悲凉。『香丘』与『污淖陷渠沟』对举，一洁一浊、一理想一现实，构成全诗价值悬崖的两岸。黛玉寻香丘而不得，正预示她最终只能「质洁」地归于净土（泪尽而亡），这一意象因此成为《红楼梦》「千红一哭」悲剧的核心符号。

葬花吟