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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

蝶恋花·春景

Butterflies over Flowers: Spring Scene

苏轼

Su Shi

时序seasons 爱情love 抒情lyricism

花褪残红青杏小。
燕子飞时，绿水人家绕。
枝上柳绵吹又少。
天涯何处无芳草。
墙里秋千墙外道。
墙外行人，墙里佳人笑。
笑渐不闻声渐悄。
多情却被无情恼。

Blossoms fade, their red all gone; green apricots are still small.
Swallows come and go, green streams winding round the homes.
On the boughs the willow catkins blow, fewer and fewer.
Beyond the sky's edge, where is there no fragrant grass?
Inside the wall a swing; beyond it, the road.
Beyond the wall a traveler walks; within, a fair one laughs.
The laughter fades, unheard; the sound grows still.
The passionate heart is troubled by the one who feels no passion.

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Meaning

This lyric opens with the fading of spring — fallen blossoms, tiny green apricots, and thinning willow catkins — then turns to console the reader that fragrant grass grows everywhere under heaven. The lower stanza stages a little drama of a traveler outside a wall who hears a fair maiden's laughter within, only to be left troubled by his own unrequited feeling. Through scene, incident, and reflection, Su Shi transforms a plaint of passing spring into a cheerful, philosophical acceptance.

花朵褪尽残红，青杏初结尚小。燕子归来的时候，绿水环绕着人家。枝头的柳絮被风吹得越来越少。天涯海角，何处没有芳草呢。墙里有秋千，墙外是道路。墙外的行人走过，墙里的佳人正在欢笑。笑声渐渐听不见了，声音渐渐消歇。多情的人反被无情的佳人所撩拨，惹来烦恼。

Appreciation

The poem moves from scenery to event to reasoning, weaving personification and contrast into a seamless whole. Its charm lies in the colloquial ease with which a lofty idea is carried — the famous lines open a somber mood yet close with wit. Su Shi thus blends the softness of the gentle lyric with the breadth of his own rational, untroubled vision.

【白话串讲】苏轼写蝶恋花·春景：“花褪残红青杏小。燕子飞时，绿水人家绕”。“枝上柳绵吹又少。天涯何处无芳草”——“墙里秋千墙外道。墙外行人，墙里佳人笑”——“笑渐不闻声渐悄。多情却被无情恼”——他写多情被无情恼。【意象与手法】上片以春暮之景起：花褪残红、青杏小、柳绵吹又少，写残春；天涯何处无芳草由惜春翻出新意，于衰飒中见旷达。下片写墙里秋千、墙外行人、佳人笑语，笑渐不闻，多情却被无情恼，将一时感触化为一段小小的戏剧，以俗语入词而妙趣横生。全词以景起、以事承、以理收，拟人（恼）、反衬（无情恼多情）诸法并用。【情感与主旨】此词旧说为苏轼贬谪惠州时作，词中既叹春光流逝，又于芳草天涯处自解自宽；下片墙里墙外的偶遇，更以多情反被无情恼的谐趣，写尽人生中一厢情愿的痴情与无端烦恼，于旷达中见深情，是东坡以理入词、以谐写悲的典型。【名句点睛】天涯何处无芳草与多情却被无情恼皆为千古名句：前者以旷达消解惜春，后者以谐趣写尽痴情，一开一合，正是苏轼词亦庄亦谐的写照。

Background

This lyric, titled 'Spring Scene' and also known as 'Butterflies over Flowers: Blossoms Fade, Green Apricots Small,' is among the most widely circulated of Su Shi's works. Its dating is disputed: some hold it was written during his exile in Huizhou under Emperor Zhezong of Song, where 'fragrant grass beyond the sky's edge' reads as self-comfort on the road of banishment; others place it in his Mizhou or Xuzhou period as a general spring-lament. Most modern scholars favor the former, seeing it as Su Shi's avowal of an untroubled mind amid adversity. Song records say he composed it in Huizhou, singing it after wine, and it spread at once. In the history of the lyric, Su Shi greatly expanded its range, turning poetry into song; this piece, with scenery above and feeling below, joins the tender lyric's spring-sorrow with the Dongpo-style philosophic wit, a fine example of his reform. The line about fragrant grass was already famous then, with Song anecdotes noting someone used it to mock Su Shi for indiscretion, showing its reach. Critics from Chao Buzhi to Wang Shizhen especially praised 'The passionate heart is troubled by the one who feels no passion.'

此词题为《春景》，一名《蝶恋花·花褪残红青杏小》，是苏轼词中流传最广的名篇之一。其创作时间，历代有争议：或以为作于宋哲宗绍圣年间贬谪惠州之时，词中天涯何处无芳草句，正可作贬途自宽之语；或以为作于密州、徐州时期，为一般伤春之作。今人多取前者，以为此词是苏轼晚年身处逆境而心自旷达的表白。据宋人记载，此词作于惠州，苏轼酒醒后倚声而歌，一时传唱。就词史而言，苏轼大力开拓词境，以诗为词，此词上片写景、下片写情，既有传统婉约词的伤春柔情，又有东坡式的理趣旷达，正是苏轼革新词体、情理兼胜的佳例。此词另有异文流传，天涯何处无芳草句在当时即已著名，宋人笔记曾记有人以芳草句讥刺东坡，谓其不知忌惮，可见此句流传之广。晁补之、王世贞等历代评家对下片多情却被无情恼一句尤多激赏，以为能将理趣与谐趣打成一片，是东坡词中雅俗共赏的典范。

Art

The structure sets scenery above and incident below, threaded throughout by feeling and reason. The four upper lines move from fading blossoms and tiny apricots (the phenology of late spring), to swallows and green streams around homes (a still scene), to willow catkins blown ever fewer (a dynamic of late spring), then suddenly turns with 'fragrant grass beyond the sky's edge' — spring's end becomes a spacious, untroubled thought, the first swell. The lower stanza stages a small event: a swing within, a road without, a traveler who hears a maiden laugh; as the laughter fades, the passionate heart is troubled by the heartless — wit writing infatuation, the heartless setting off the passionate, the second swell. From scene to event to reason, the closing 'troubled' gathers spring-sorrow, the sense of a life, and life's insight; the words end yet meaning lingers, uniting the gentle lyric's softness with the breadth of reason — a model of Su Shi's fusion of poetry and song, feeling and principle.

此词章法，上片写景、下片写事，而一以情与理贯穿。上片四句：花褪残红青杏小，写残红褪尽而青杏初结，是春暮的物候；燕子飞时，绿水人家绕，写燕归人家、绿水环绕，是春暮的静景；枝上柳绵吹又少，写柳絮被风吹落，愈吹愈少，是春暮的动态；天涯何处无芳草，则于春色将尽处陡然翻出一层，言芳草天涯、春意并不因残红柳绵而消歇，惜春之情遂化为旷达之思，此为全词第一层波澜。下片写一件小事：墙里秋千墙外道，墙外行人，墙里佳人笑，墙内墙外，一闹一静，行人闻笑而驻足，笑语却渐不闻；笑渐不闻声渐悄，多情却被无情恼，佳人嬉笑本无意，行人却自作多情而生烦恼，以谐趣写痴情，以无情反衬多情，此为全词第二层波澜。全词由景入事、由事入理，结句一恼字，将春愁、身世之感与人生之悟尽数收拢，言有尽而意无穷，兼得婉约之柔情与旷达之理趣，是苏轼以诗为词、情理交融的典范之作。

Allusions

The lyric's allusions sit lightly. 'Blossoms fade' is descriptive yet quietly inherits the Tang tradition of lamenting spring, akin to Du Mu and Cui Hu. 'Willow catkins' is the classic spring-sorrow image — Xie Daoyun's 'catkins borne on the wind' linked them to talent and drifting — here their thinning evokes dispersion. 'Fragrant grass beyond the sky's edge' transforms the Chuci's 'former fragrant grass' and the 'Chu recruits' 'spring grass grows lush' yet reverses their meaning, using fragrant grass everywhere to write spring's universality and dissolve sorrow — a new turn on the poets' fragrant-plant tradition. 'Inside the wall a swing' draws the Cold Food custom of swinging; Wang Jian's 'Swing Song' wrote its joy, and Su Shi uses the swing's sound to suggest the spring within, the sound crossing the wall being most implicit. 'The passionate heart is troubled by the heartless' reverses the Tang saying 'the falling flower has intent, the flowing water no feeling,' turning a folk proverb into elegant verse, gaining both wit and philosophic flavor, thus a timeless line.

此词用典与化用皆不着痕迹。花褪残红，本为写实，却暗承唐人惜春传统，与杜牧自是寻春去校迟、崔护桃花依旧笑春风同一情脉。枝上柳绵，柳絮为古典诗词中最常见的春愁意象，谢道韫咏雪有未若柳絮因风起之句，柳絮遂与才情、飘零相连；苏轼此词以柳绵吹又少写春之将尽，飘零之感油然而生。天涯何处无芳草，化用《楚辞·离骚》何昔日之芳草兮，今直为此萧艾也，又暗合淮南小山《招隐士》王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋，而反其意用之，以芳草天涯写春意之普遍、不必为一时一地之凋残而伤，将骚人香草传统翻出新境。墙里秋千，则取寒食荡秋千之民俗意象，王建《秋千词》长长丝绳紫复碧，袅袅横枝高百尺写荡秋千之乐，苏轼以秋千之声写墙内春色，隔墙传声，最见含蓄。多情却被无情恼一句，以无情恼多情，翻用唐人所谓落花有意、流水无情之意，化俗谚为雅词，理趣与谐趣兼得，遂成千古名句。

Commentary

The lyric has been extolled through the ages; the Ming critic Wang Shizhen in 'Remarks on Art' praised the lower stanza's 'The passionate heart is troubled by the one who feels no passion' as Su Shi's finest, and the Qing critic Huang Su in 'Liaoyuan Lyric Selection' admired the upper stanza's fusion of scene and feeling and the lower's meaning beyond words. The line 'Beyond the sky's edge, where is there no fragrant grass' has been read variously as consolation or as self-portrait in exile, a sign of its richness; Song anecdotes say it was even quoted to mock Su Shi, showing its wide reach. In lyric history it is the transitional work where Su Shi moves from the gentle to the untroubled, from love to reason — with 'Prelude to Water Melody' and 'Dingfengbo' among his masterpieces that join feeling and principle. The spatial contrast of wall-within and wall-without, and the role-reversal of the passionate and the heartless, have been read as a metaphor for life's encounters: one outside the wall, however passionate, cannot match the careless laughter within — a clear-sighted self-mockery that is Su Shi's understanding after weathering storms. Modern readers find here both the beauty of Song lyrics and Su Shi's breadth and depth, which is why it endures.

此词历代评价极高，明人王世贞《艺苑卮言》评下片多情却被无情恼，以为此语于东坡为最妙；清人黄苏《蓼园词选》亦赏其上片情景交融、下片意余言外。天涯何处无芳草一句，后人或解为宽解之辞，或解为贬谪自况，其说不一，正见其意蕴之丰厚；据宋人笔记，此句在当时还曾被人引为讥刺之语，可见其流传之广、影响之大。就词史地位而言，此词是苏轼词从婉约到旷达、从言情到言理的过渡之作，上片伤春而不哀，下片谐趣而含情，情理相生，雅俗共赏，与《水调歌头》明月几时有、《定风波》莫听穿林打叶声同为东坡词中情理兼胜的名篇。词中墙里墙外的空间对照、有情无情的角色错位，更被后人视为人生际遇的绝妙隐喻：人在墙外，纵有万种多情，也难敌墙内无心的欢笑，这种清醒的自嘲，正是东坡历尽风波之后的通达。现代读者读此词，既可见宋词婉约之美，又可见东坡之旷达与深情，故其传诵不衰。

Prosody

Form Lyric to the tune 'Butterflies over Flowers' (Die Lian Hua): double-stanza, sixty characters, four oblique rhymes per stanza.词牌《蝶恋花》，双调六十字，上下片各四仄韵

Rhyme Upper stanza rhymes on xiao, rao, shao, cao; lower on dao, xiao, qiao, nao — all oblique tones, with rising and departing tones mixed; the abrupt oblique rhymes suit the melancholy of spring-sorrow.上片押小、绕、少、草，下片押道、笑、悄、恼，皆属仄声韵，上声筱、巧、皓与去声啸、效通押，仄声韵急促婉转，与伤春惆怅之情相合。

Tone pattern Lines mix seven-, four-, and five-character phrases with halting rhythm; the lower stanza is more colloquial, its mood shifting from calm to witty, closing on an oblique tone that is crisp and resonant.句式以七、四、五言相间，节奏顿挫；下片多口语化句法，声情由舒缓转谐趣，结句以仄声收束，斩截有味。

Reading note 'Butterflies over Flowers' is a short lyric in two stanzas, originally titled 'Magpies on Branches' and also known as 'Phoenix Perched on the Plane Tree.' It is said to take its name from a line by Emperor Jianwen of Liang, 'Butterflies flit among the flowers on the steps.' Each stanza has four lines and four oblique-toned rhymes, sixty characters in all. Su Shi's lyric strictly observes the tonal rules: in the upper stanza the rhymes are xiao, rao, shao, cao, and in the lower stanza dao, xiao, qiao, nao, all oblique tones, with rising and departing tones mixed — the tonal mood is halting and turning, most suited to conveying the low, lingering feeling of lamenting spring's passing. In sentence structure, the upper-stanza lines 'Blossoms fade, their red all gone' and 'On the boughs the willow catkins blow' are seven-character lines, while 'Swallows come and go' and 'green streams winding round the homes' are a mix of four- and five-character lines; in the lower stanza 'Inside the wall a swing' and 'The laughter fades' and 'The passionate heart is troubled' are seven-character lines, while 'Beyond the wall a traveler walks' and 'within, a fair one laughs' are four- and five-character lines — long and short interspersed, the rhythm alternately sparse and dense. The whole lyric uses colloquial language ('where is there no fragrant grass,' 'is troubled by the one who feels no passion'), not avoiding common words yet keeping the tonal rules firm — exactly matching Su Shi's ideal of turning poetry into lyric and the vulgar into the elegant. In recitation, the upper stanza should be slow, depicting the stillness of late spring; the lower stanza should be quick, depicting the play within and without the wall. The line 'The laughter fades' should especially grow lighter and fade, and 'The passionate heart is troubled' should close with a crisp oblique tone, so that sound and sense harmonize and the flavor is attained.《蝶恋花》为双调小令，本名《鹊踏枝》，又名《凤栖梧》，相传取自梁简文帝翻阶蛱蝶恋花情之句，上下片各四句、四仄韵，共六十字。苏轼此词严守词律：上片小、绕、少、草，下片道、笑、悄、恼，皆为仄声韵，且上声与去声通押，声情顿挫，最宜传达惜春伤逝的低回情味。句式上，上片花褪残红青杏小、枝上柳绵吹又少为七字句，燕子飞时、绿水人家绕为四五言错落，下片墙里秋千墙外道、笑渐不闻声渐悄、多情却被无情恼为七字句，墙外行人、墙里佳人笑为四五言，长短相间，节奏疏密有致。全词语言以口语入词（何处无芳草、却被无情恼），不避俗字而声律依然工稳，正合苏轼以诗为词、以俗为雅的主张。诵读此词，上片宜徐，写春暮之静；下片宜快，写墙里墙外之趣，笑渐不闻声渐悄一句尤宜渐轻渐收，多情却被无情恼以仄声斩截收束，声情与辞情相谐，方得其味。

Line by line

花褪残红青杏小。

Blossoms fade, their red all gone; green apricots are still small — the phenology of late spring, where fading flower and newborn fruit mark life's quiet exchange.

花朵已经褪尽了残存的红色，纷纷飘落，枝头结出的青杏还很小很小，正是春暮的时节。

The flowers have faded their last red; the green apricots are small.

此句以物候写春暮，是全词写景的起笔。褪字写花瓣飘落、颜色褪减的过程，仿佛花在脱衣，轻盈而缓慢；残红写褪而未尽的红色，红字点出春色犹存，残字则见凋零已始，二字之间，是春将尽未尽的微妙时刻。青杏小与残红相对：花谢而果生，红褪而青来，一衰一荣，生命的代谢在八个字中完成。苏轼写春暮，不写愁云惨淡，而写青杏初结的生机，可见其胸襟的开阔，也为此词由惜春转旷达埋下伏笔。此句观察入微，以最平常的物候写出春的归去与新生命的萌动，平淡之中自有深意，正是东坡以俗语、常景入词而韵味自长的功力所在。

The line writes the late spring through the season's signs, the opening of the ci's scene. The word faded writes the process of the petals falling and the color ebbing, as if the flower taking off its robes, light and slow; the last red writes the ebbed and yet not gone red, the red marking the spring color still within, the word remnant showing the fall begun, between the two the subtle moment of spring almost gone. The green apricots are small set against the last red: the flower fallen and the fruit born, the red ebbed and the green come, one decay one growth, the metabolism of life completed in eight characters. Su Shi writing late spring, not the grief-clouded sky, but the life of the apricot's first setting, showing the breadth of his breast, and planting the foreshadowing of the ci's turn from spring-grief to breadth. The line observes to the finest, writing spring's going and the new life's stirring in the commonest season's signs, the plain with the depth within, precisely Su Shi's craft of entering the vulgar words and the common scene into ci, the flavor long of itself.

枝上柳绵吹又少。

On the boughs the willow catkins blow, fewer and fewer — the drifting catkins evoke dispersion, and the repeated blowing measures spring's slow consumption.

枝头上的柳絮被春风吹落，飘散四方，留在枝头的已经越来越少，春光眼看将尽。

The willow down on the boughs, blown, grows fewer still.

柳绵即柳絮，是古典诗词中最经典的春愁意象，谢道韫咏雪未若柳絮因风起，柳絮遂与飘零、离思相连。吹又少三字极见锤炼：吹字写柳絮飘落的原因，又字写时光的反复，少字写春光的消耗，三个字层层递进，写出柳絮被风一日日吹去、枝头一日日稀疏的过程，春之将尽，尽在这又字与少字之间。苏轼以柳绵写春暮，飘零之感与惜春之情俱在其中，而笔触依然清淡，不发一声叹息。此句还暗含身世之感：柳絮无根，随风飘荡，恰如贬谪中人的身不由己，为下片天涯芳草的旷达与多情恼的谐趣作了情感上的准备。

The willow down is the catkin, the most classical spring-grief image in classical poetry; Xie Daoyun's singing of snow not like the catkins riding the wind, and the catkin then linked to the drifting and the parting thought. The three words blown, again, fewer show the word-craft to the utmost: the blown writes the cause of the catkins' falling, the again the time's repetition, the fewer the spring's spending, the three advancing layer on layer, writing the catkins blown away day by day, the boughs thinning day by day, spring at its end, all within the again and the fewer. Su Shi writing late spring through the catkins, the drifting feeling and the spring grief both within, and the brush still light, not one sigh uttered. The line secretly carries the lot's feeling: the catkin rootless, drifting with the wind, precisely the exiled man's being not his own, preparing the emotional ground for the second stanza's world's-end fragrant grass and the feelingless vexation's humor.

天涯何处无芳草。

Beyond the sky's edge, where is there no fragrant grass — a sudden turn from sorrow to spaciousness, dissolving clinging to one place's decay.

天涯海角，到处都有萋萋芳草，哪里会没有春色呢，不必为眼前凋残而伤怀。

To the world's end, where is there no fragrant grass?

这是全词第一处翻案之笔，也是千古名句。上两句写残红柳绵，春色将尽，一般词人至此必是惜春伤逝；苏轼却陡然一转，以天涯何处无芳草自解：芳草遍天涯，春意并不因一地之凋残而消歇，何必为眼前的衰飒而伤怀。此句化用《离骚》何昔日之芳草兮，又暗合《招隐士》王孙游兮不归，春草生兮萋萋，而反其意用之，将骚人香草传统翻出新境，以旷达消解惜春，以理趣升华柔情。旧说此句是苏轼贬谪惠州时的自宽之语，芳草喻天涯知己与美好希望，则句中的旷达更有一层身在逆境而不改其志的深意，惜春之情至此化为对春意普遍的信心，正是东坡词情理兼胜的标志性句子。

This is the ci's first reversal, and the immortal line. The upper two lines write the last red and the catkins, spring at its end, the usual poet here must grieve the spring and the passing; Su Shi suddenly turns, consoling himself in to the world's end, where is there no fragrant grass?: the fragrant grass over the world's end, the spring color not spent by the decay of one place, why grieve the present desolation. The line transforms the Li Sao's where of old the fragrant grass, and secretly answers the Summons of the Recluse, the prince roams and returns not, the spring grass grows rank, and reverses its meaning, turning the sao tradition of the fragrant plants into the new realm, dissolving the spring grief in breadth, sublimating the soft feeling through reason. The old reading of the line is Su Shi's self-consolation in exile at Huizhou, the fragrant grass figuring the world's-end soulmate and the fair hope, and the breadth carrying a layer of the adversity unaltering the will; the spring grief here turned into the confidence in the spring color's universality, precisely the landmark line of Su ci's feeling and reason both triumphant.

多情却被无情恼。

The passionate heart is troubled by the one who feels no passion — wit writing infatuation, where the heartless and the passionate are crossed.

多情的人，反而被墙里无情的佳人所撩拨，惹来满心的烦恼，真是无可奈何。

The feelingful is vexed by the feelingless.

这是全词的词眼，以谐趣写痴情，将上片的春愁与下片的偶遇一并收束。墙里佳人嬉笑本无心，墙外行人闻声驻足、自作多情，笑渐不闻而烦恼渐生，多情却被无情恼七个字，把这场墙里墙外的无声邂逅写得妙趣横生，又余味无穷。恼字兼有撩拨与烦扰两义：佳人无意撩人，行人却自寻烦恼，无情与多情的错位，正是人生中一厢情愿的常态。此句翻用落花有意、流水无情之意，化俗谚为雅词，谐趣之中含着清醒的自嘲，明写男女之情，暗喻人生际遇：人在墙外，纵有万种多情，也难敌墙内无心的欢笑。以理收情，举重若轻，遂成千古名句。

This is the eye of the ci, writing the doting through the humor, gathering the first stanza's spring grief and the second's chance meeting together. The beauty within the wall laughing, by nature without intention; the traveler without the wall hearing the sound and stopping, self-doting; the laughter growing faint and the vexation growing; the seven words the feelingful is vexed by the feelingless, writing this wordless encounter within and without the wall, witty and yet with an endless aftertone. The word vexed carries at once the provocation and the annoyance: the beauty without intention to provoke, the traveler seeking his own annoyance, the mismatch of the feelingless and the feelingful, precisely the common state of life's one-sidedness. The line reverses the proverbial flowers intend to fall and the flowing water not, turning the vulgar saying into the elegant ci, the humor carrying the clear self-mockery, writing on the surface the love between man and woman, secretly the life's lot: the man without the wall, however much the feeling within, cannot withstand the laughter within the wall without intention. Closing feeling in reason, the weight handled with ease, becoming the immortal line.

Study

Word focus

褪 In 'Blossoms fade, their red all gone,' tui (fade) originally means to take off clothing, here the slow, colored过程 of petals falling — a gentle, temporal word that, opposed to 'green apricots small,' completes life's metabolism in eight characters and sets the poem's untroubled, uncomplaining tone. 花褪残红青杏小之褪，是全词写景最见工力的字。褪本义为脱衣，引申为颜色减淡、消退，此处写花瓣飘落、红色褪减，如花在卸妆脱衣，将花谢的过程写得轻柔而有情致，比直说花落、花谢多了一层时间的缓慢与色彩的动态。褪残红三字连读，褪是过程，残是状态，红是颜色，一字一层，写尽春将尽未尽时的微妙物候；与青杏小相对，红褪而青生，花衰而果萌，一褪一结，生命的代谢在七个字中完成。若易以落、谢等字，则只有结果，不见过程；褪字则写出凋零的从容与新陈代谢的自然，正见苏轼观察之细、炼字之工，也为此词由惜春转旷达的基调定下不悲不怨的底色。

绕 In 'green streams winding round the homes,' rao (wind round) gives the still water life, as if it lingers affectionately by the dwellings; paired with 'swallows come and go,' the moving and the still make the picture live, and the syllable itself turns round and flowing. 绿水人家绕之绕，写溪水环抱人家的景象，一绕字将静止的绿水写得有情有致。绕本写环绕的动作，此处移以写水，绿水便仿佛有了生命，款款地绕村而行，如环佩之声，依依不去；与燕子飞时配合，燕飞于上，水绕于下，一动一静，画面便活了起来。绿水人家构成一幅宁静的江南春居图，人家是人间烟火，绿水是自然风光，二者相绕相亲，正是东坡眼中和谐的春景。若易以流、漾等字，则只见水态，不见水与人的关系；绕字则写出绿水依人、人家傍水的相依相存，音节亦圆转流走。此句以平淡之语写平常之景，而韵致自出，可见东坡炼字不求奇险，但求贴切传神，于不经意处见功力。

恼 In 'The passionate heart is troubled by the one who feels no passion,' nao (trouble) means both to provoke and to vex; it personifies the heartless, and in the crossing of the passionate and the heartless condenses the whole poem's playful self-mockery — light and witty where 'resent' or 'hate' would be heavy. 多情却被无情恼之恼，是全词的词眼，一字收拢上片的春愁与下片的偶遇。恼字在宋词中有撩拨、烦扰之意，此处兼有两义：佳人无心之笑撩拨了行人的心弦，行人情无所寄而自生烦恼，一撩一恼之间，无情与多情的错位被写得活灵活现。恼字还赋予无情以人格，仿佛无情之人竟有恼人的本事，拟人之中透着谐趣；多情却被无情恼，以无情反衬多情，多情的痴、无情的真、错位的憾，尽在这一恼字之中。若易以怨、恨等字，则坐实了愁情，失之板重；恼字则轻灵俏皮，谐趣中含着清醒的自嘲与沉痛的体悟，将人生的无奈写得举重若轻，正是东坡以俗为雅、以谐写悲的炼字绝活，遂使此句成为千古名句。