宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
淡黄柳
Pale Yellow Willow
空城晓月。
吹入垂杨陌。
马上单衣寒恻恻。
看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识。
正岑寂。
明朝又寒食。
强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色。
燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。
The wind blows into the lanes of the drooping willows.
On horseback in a single robe, I feel the chill cut to the bone.
I have gazed my fill at the goose-yellow and tender green —
every one an old acquaintance from the land south of the river.
Just now, all is silence and solitude.
And tomorrow is the Cold Food Festival again.
Forcing myself to carry wine to the little house by the bridge,
I fear the pear blossoms will fall to the last, turning the scene to autumn hues.
Swallows come flying,
asking where spring has gone;
only the pond stays green of itself.
Meaning
Sojourning far from home, Jiang Kui greets a dawn of late spring in a deserted city. The pale new willows are so familiar that they feel like old acquaintances from his native south, yet everything reminds him that spring is ending: tomorrow is the Cold Food Festival, and the pear blossoms are about to fall. The poet's consolation is thin, a forced cup of wine with a friend, and the closing image of the pond, green all by itself, leaves nature continuing in indifference to human sorrow. The lyric turns a morning of willow-gazing into a quiet meditation on exile and passing time.
空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌。马上单衣寒恻恻。看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识。正岑寂。明朝又寒食。强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色。燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Dawn in an empty city, the moon still up; the wind moves through the willow lanes. Riding in a single thin robe, the poet feels the chill. The goose-yellow and tender green of the new willows are all old acquaintances from the south of the river. It is the Cold Food season; he drags wine to a friend's house by the bridge, fearing the pear blossoms will all fall and turn the scene to autumn. Swallows fly by as if asking where spring has gone; only the pond remains green of itself. [Imagery] The lyric is built of pale, cool colors — dawn moon, empty city, goose-yellow willow, green pond — so the melancholy of late spring is carried by hue and silence rather than by outcry. [Technique] The swallows' question and the single word 'of itself' (zi) are the two hinges: spring is sought but gone, and nature stays green without any regard for man. The pathos is generated entirely by restraint.
【白话串讲】 姜夔写《淡黄柳》：“空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌”——“马上单衣寒恻恻”——“看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识”——“燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧”——他写客居——唯有池塘自碧。 【意象与手法】 “空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌”以空城晓月写寂寥；“马上单衣寒恻恻”写羁旅之寒；“看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识”以鹅黄嫩绿写春柳兼怀江南；“燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧”以问春写春去。咏柳而写客居之情，清空含蓄。 【情感与主旨】 姜夔客居合肥所作，借咏柳写客居的落寞与对江南的怀念，以“唯有池塘自碧”写春去人愁，是白石词中清空骚雅的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识”以鹅黄嫩绿写柳兼怀江南；“燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧”以问春写春去人愁。
Background
Jiang Kui (c. 1155–c. 1221), courtesy name Yaozhang and sobriquet the White Stone Daoist, was a native of Poyang in Raozhou (modern Poyang, Jiangxi). A poet, lyricist, musician, and calligrapher of the Southern Song, he never held office and lived by his art and by the patronage of officials. His ci established the 'clear and ethereal, refined and elegant' manner that later critics ranked alongside the hearty and the delicate schools. This lyric belongs to the group of poems he wrote while staying in Hefei; the tune pattern 'Pale Yellow Willow' is attributed to Jiang Kui himself and survives in his collection Songs of the White Stone Daoist, where musical notation for it is preserved.
《淡黄柳》为南宋词人姜夔所作词。姜夔（约1155—约1221），字尧章，号白石道人，饶州鄱阳（今江西鄱阳）人，南宋词人、音乐家，词风清空骚雅，开「清雅词派」之先。此词写咏柳羁旅，客居合肥之作。词中「空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌」写空城晓月；「马上单衣寒恻恻。看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识」写鹅黄嫩绿；「正岑寂。明朝又寒食」写明朝寒食；「强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色」写怕梨花落尽；「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」写池塘自碧。姜夔此词以咏柳羁旅、池塘自碧写其羁旅之情，含蓄空灵，是姜夔词中的名篇。此篇《淡黄柳》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《淡黄柳》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 lyric's strength lies in its economy. A whole morning of feeling is distributed over eight short lines, each a single stroke: the empty city and dawn moon set the cold, the single robe makes it bodily, the goose-yellow willow turns color into memory. The turn at 'just now, all is silence' pivots from scene to mood, and the Cold Food Festival converts private loneliness into a calendar of parting. The two closing movements — the pear blossoms feared into autumn, the pond left green by itself — push the sorrow for spring beyond the poet: spring goes, and nature does not care. Nothing is explained; the images are simply placed side by side, which is exactly the 'clear and ethereal' effect Jiang Kui's school prized. The word 'of itself' carries the weight of the entire ending.
此词艺术上以「含蓄空灵、以景写情」见长。全词上片写空城晓月与鹅黄嫩绿，下片写明朝寒食与池塘自碧。上片「空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌」写空城晓月：空城晓月，吹入垂杨陌；「马上单衣寒恻恻。看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识」写鹅黄嫩绿：马上单衣寒恻恻，看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识；「正岑寂。明朝又寒食」写明朝寒食：正岑寂，明朝又寒食。下片「强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色」写怕梨花落尽：强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色；「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」写池塘自碧：燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。全词含蓄空灵，以景写情，是姜夔词中的名篇。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 lyric works through seasonal reference rather than formal allusion. The Cold Food Festival (hanshi), held in late spring, was the day when fires were left unlit and cold food eaten, and by Song times it had merged with the Qingming grave-sweeping observances, making it a season of the dead and of partings. Pear blossoms falling mark the last of spring's flowers, and 'goose-yellow and tender green' is the conventional color phrase for the first willow leaves. The 'old acquaintances from the land south of the river' carries the weight of the poet's exile: the willows of Hefei wear the colors of home. The closing pond, green 'of itself', quietly recalls the classical figure of nature's indifferent abundance, though Jiang Kui states it without any overt citation.
词中「空城晓月」「吹入垂杨陌」「马上单衣寒恻恻」「鹅黄嫩绿」「江南旧相识」「岑寂」「寒食」「强携酒」「小桥宅」「怕梨花落尽成秋色」「燕燕飞来」「问春何在」「池塘自碧」等语，皆含典故故实。「空城晓月」写空城晓月；「吹入垂杨陌」写风吹入垂杨陌；「马上单衣」写马上单衣；「寒恻恻」写寒冷恻恻；「鹅黄嫩绿」写柳之鹅黄嫩绿；「江南旧相识」写江南旧日相识；「岑寂」写岑寂；「寒食」写寒食节；「强携酒」写勉强携酒；「小桥宅」写小桥边之宅；「怕梨花落尽成秋色」写怕梨花落尽成秋色；「燕燕飞来」写燕燕飞来；「问春何在」写问春何在；「池塘自碧」写池塘自碧。词人以空城晓月、鹅黄嫩绿、寒食、小桥宅、梨花落尽、池塘自碧等语入词，不着痕迹，而把咏柳羁旅之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸意象的体现。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。
Commentary
This lyric was preserved in Jiang Kui's own collection, Songs of the White Stone Daoist, one of the few Song ci books to transmit musical notation, and it has been anthologized almost continuously since. Qing-dynasty poets of the Zhejiang school, led by Zhu Yizun, enshrined Jiang Kui and Zhang Yan as models of 'clear elegance' and made this kind of restrained, colorless lyric their touchstone. Some modern readers have found Jiang Kui too cool, preferring the more demonstrative sorrow of Su Shi or Xin Qiji, yet the ending of this lyric — the pond green by itself after the swallows' unanswered question — is a small masterpiece of implication. Its influence on the 'clear elegance' tradition of late Song and Qing ci has been considerable.
这首《淡黄柳》，是姜夔写咏柳羁旅之作（客居合肥），写空城晓月、鹅黄嫩绿、池塘自碧之情，含蓄空灵。上片写空城晓月与鹅黄嫩绿：「空城晓月。吹入垂杨陌」——空城晓月，吹入垂杨陌。写空城晓月：空城晓月、吹入垂杨陌——空城晓月、风吹垂杨陌；「马上单衣寒恻恻。看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识」——马上单衣寒恻恻，看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识。写鹅黄嫩绿：马上单衣寒恻恻，看尽鹅黄嫩绿、都是江南旧相识——马上单衣寒恻、看尽鹅黄嫩绿皆江南旧识；「正岑寂。明朝又寒食」——正岑寂，明朝又寒食。写明朝寒食：正岑寂、明朝又寒食——正岑寂、明朝又是寒食。下片写明朝寒食与池塘自碧：「强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色」——强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色。写怕梨花落尽：强携酒、小桥宅，怕梨花落尽成秋色——强携酒小桥宅、怕梨花尽成秋色；「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」——燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。写池塘自碧：燕燕飞来、问春何在，唯有池塘自碧——燕燕飞来问春、唯池塘自碧。这「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」，是全词之结：以池塘自碧写春之无寻。全词含蓄空灵，以景写情，正是姜夔词中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
空城晓月。
An empty city beneath the dawn moon.
空城晓月。
The empty city, the dawn moon.
首句写空城晓月，起笔即见其境。「空城晓月」写空城晓月，「空城」写空寂之城、「晓月」写拂晓之月。一句以「空城」写城之空寂、以「晓月」写晓月，写尽空城晓月之境——城空月晓、清冷寂寥。以景起兴，含蓄而空灵，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The opening line writes the empty city and the dawn moon, the scene at the first stroke. The empty city, the dawn moon: the empty city for the silent city, the dawn moon for the morning moon. One line, the empty city for the city's silence, the dawn moon for the morning moon, exhausting the empty city and the cold dawn. Rising in scene, restrained and ethereal, the fine brush. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识。
I have gazed my fill at the goose-yellow and tender green — every one an old acquaintance from the land south of the river.
看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识。
I have seen all the goose-yellow and tender green — all old acquaintances from the southland.
此二句写鹅黄嫩绿，是全词写咏柳的关键。「看尽鹅黄嫩绿」写看尽鹅黄嫩绿，「看尽」写看尽、「鹅黄嫩绿」写柳之鹅黄嫩绿；「都是江南旧相识」写都是江南旧相识，「都是」写都是、「江南旧相识」写江南旧日相识。两句一写看尽鹅黄嫩绿、一写都是江南旧相识，以鹅黄嫩绿写柳色、以江南旧相识写其似曾相识，写尽柳色鹅黄嫩绿、如江南旧相识之情。以柳写忆，含蓄而空灵，是「以柳写忆」的点睛之笔。
The two lines write the goose-yellow and tender green, the key of the ci's willow song. I have seen all the goose-yellow and tender green writes the seen-all, the willow's goose-yellow and tender green; all old acquaintances from the southland writes the all, the southland old acquaintances. Two lines, one the seen yellow and green, one the southland acquaintances, the yellow-green for the willow color, the old acquaintances for the seeming-known, exhausting the willow color like the southland old acquaintance. Writing memory through the willow, restrained and ethereal, the pointed brush.
正岑寂。
Just now, all is silence and solitude.
正岑寂。
Just then, the loneliness.
此句写正岑寂，是全词写羁旅孤寂的关键。「正岑寂」写正岑寂，「正」写正当、「岑寂」写寂静冷清。一句以「正」写正当其时、以「岑寂」写其寂静，写尽此时正岑寂之况——客居孤城、岑寂难耐。以境写情，含蓄而深沉，是「以境写情」的点睛之笔，也是全词由上片写景转入下片写情的枢纽。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The line writes just then, the loneliness, the key of the ci's exile solitude. Just then, the loneliness: the just for the moment, the loneliness for the silent cold. One line, the just for the time, the loneliness for its stillness, exhausting the moment's loneliness — lodging in the lone city, the loneliness hard to bear. Writing feeling through the realm, restrained and deep, the pointed brush, and the hinge of the ci's turning from the first stanza's scene to the second's feeling. The line writes the depth in scant words, the feeling and flavor both fine, the pointed stroke. Its hidden undercurrents call for repeated brooding.
燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。
Swallows come flying, asking where spring has gone; only the pond stays green of itself.
燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧。
The swallows come flying, asking where spring is; only the pond lies green, by itself.
尾三句写池塘自碧，是全词立意的落点。「燕燕飞来」写燕燕飞来，「燕燕」写燕子、「飞来」写飞来；「问春何在」写问春何在，「问春」写询问春色、「何在」写在何处；「唯有池塘自碧」写唯有池塘自碧，「唯有」写只有、「池塘自碧」写池塘自己碧绿。三句一写燕燕飞来、一写问春何在、一写唯有池塘自碧，以燕燕问春写春之无寻、以唯有池塘自碧写春唯在池，写尽燕燕飞来问春、唯池塘自碧之情。以景写情，含蓄而空灵，是全词最动人处，也是「以景写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing three lines write the pond's own green, the landing point of the ci. The swallows come flying writes the swallows, the coming; asking where spring is writes the asking of the spring, the where; only the pond lies green, by itself writes the only, the pond's own green. Three lines, one the swallows' coming, one the asking where spring is, one the pond's own green, the swallows asking for spring's no-finding, the pond's green for spring only in the pond, exhausting the swallows asking and the pond's green. Writing feeling through scene, restrained and ethereal, the most moving place, the pointed brush.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Yan Shu's lyric — 'the light chill of the gauze curtain, a pair of swallows fly away' — writes autumn parting-sorrow through the swallows' departure; Jiang Kui's 'Pale Yellow Willow' writes late-spring sorrow through the goose-yellow willows and the pond green by itself. Where Yan Shu uses the swallows' going to voice grief, Jiang Kui uses their question and spring's silence; Yan Shu's manner is warm and mellow, Jiang Kui's clear and ethereal. Read together, they show two Song ways of writing 'swallows and the colours of spring'.
晏殊《蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露》「槛菊愁烟兰泣露。罗幕轻寒，燕子双飞去」，写秋景离愁、燕子飞去，是宋词写愁的名篇；姜夔《淡黄柳》则以「看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识」「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」写鹅黄嫩绿、池塘自碧。两词同写春色无寻、独自凝愁：一写燕子双飞去、以燕去写愁，一写燕燕飞来问春何在、以燕问写春；一为晏殊之温润、一为姜夔之清空，并读正可见宋词写「燕与春色」的两种笔法，皆于燕飞之中见春色之无寻。
浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Huan Xi Sha (Washing Creek Sand): 'A new song, and one cup of wine' 晏殊 · 同写时序无情、独自徘徊，一写小园香径独徘徊、一写唯有池塘自碧，皆于徘徊池塘之中见时序之无情 Both face the ruthlessness of time in solitude; one paces alone down the fragrant garden path, the other is left with a pond green by itself — each finds, in solitary pacing and the silent pond, the indifference of the seasons.Yan Shu's 'helplessly the flowers fall away, the familiar swallows return; alone I pace the fragrant path of the little garden' watches time pass in resigned pacing; Jiang Kui's lyric, ending on 'only the pond stays green of itself', watches spring go with no one to detain it. Yan Shu turns the season's change into a melancholy of acceptance, Jiang Kui into a colder stillness; the one is warm and rounded, the other clear and austere. Together they show the two classic faces of Song lyric mourning for spring.
晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来。小园香径独徘徊」，写时序流转、独自徘徊，是宋词写惜时的名篇；姜夔《淡黄柳》则以「看尽鹅黄嫩绿，都是江南旧相识」「燕燕飞来，问春何在，唯有池塘自碧」写鹅黄嫩绿、池塘自碧。两词同写时序无情、独自徘徊：一写小园香径独徘徊、以独徘徊写惜时，一写唯有池塘自碧、以池碧写无主；一为晏殊之温润、一为姜夔之清空，并读正可见宋词写「时序无情」的两种笔法，皆于徘徊池塘之中见时序之无情。