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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

蝶恋花·梦入江南

Butterflies Lingering over Flowers · Dreaming of Entering Jiangnan

晏几道

Yan Jidao

愁思melancholy 爱情love

梦入江南烟水路。
行尽江南，不与离人遇。
睡里消魂无说处。
觉来惆怅消魂误。
欲尽此情书尺素。
浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据。
却倚缓弦歌别绪。
断肠移破秦筝柱。

In dream I enter Jiangnan's misty water roads.
I walk all through Jiangnan, yet meet not the one who parted.
In sleep my soul consumes, with no place to tell.
Awake, I am melancholy—the soul-consuming was my undoing.
I would pour this feeling into a letter on fine silk.
But floating geese and sunken fish, in the end give no proof.
Yet I lean on the slow strings to sing my parting grief.
Heart-broken, I move and break the qin zither's bridges.

Listen

Meaning

I dream of entering the misty water roads of Jiangnan. I walk all through Jiangnan, yet do not meet the one who parted. In sleep my soul is consumed, with no place to tell. Awakening, I am melancholy—the soul-consuming was my undoing. I would pour this feeling into a letter on fine silk. But the floating geese and the sunken fish, in the end, give no proof. I lean on the slow strings to sing my parting grief. Heart-broken, I move and break the qin zither's bridges.

梦中来到江南烟水迷蒙的路上。走遍了整个江南，却没有遇到那个离别的人。睡梦之中，黯然销魂，却无处诉说。醒来之后，更觉惆怅，只恨自己被销魂所误。想把这份深情写成一封书信寄去。可是天上的飞雁、水中的游鱼，终究都没有带来凭据。只好靠着舒缓的琴弦，弹唱起离别的心绪。肝肠寸断，把秦筝的弦柱都拨得移了位置。

Appreciation

Plain Retelling: The first stanza writes dreaming of searching all Jiangnan yet not meeting the parted one, waking melancholy and soul-consumed; the second writes wishing to send a letter yet fish and geese give no proof, so only moving and breaking the qin zither's bridges to lodge the parting grief. The whole lyric is threaded by 'dream,' foolish and deep. Images and Technique: Threaded by 'dream,' from dream-entry, dream-search, dream-wake to letter-feeling, send-feeling, play-feeling, layering forward; 'soul-consuming' dotted twice, 'floating geese and sunken fish' writes the roadless message, 'move and break' writes heart-break through action, extremely forceful. Emotion and Theme: It writes the foolishness of longing and the depth of despair: the person cannot be met, the letter cannot be sent, only a deep feeling lodged in the zither's sound. Famous Lines: 'Floating geese and sunken fish, in the end give no proof' and 'heart-broken I move and break the qin zither's bridges' both write deep feeling with foolish words, typical of Little Mountain's 'clear-strong and halting.'

【白话串讲】晏几道写蝶恋花：“梦入江南烟水路。行尽江南，不与离人遇”——梦里走遍江南，遇不到她。“睡里消魂无说处”——“欲尽此情书尺素。浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据”——“断肠移破秦筝柱”——他写思念无凭。【意象与手法】以「梦」为线索，由梦入、梦寻、梦觉到书情、寄情、弹情，层层递进；「消魂」两次点染，「浮雁沈鱼」写传书之无路，「移破」以动作写断肠，力度极强。【情感与主旨】写相思之痴与绝望之深：人不可遇，书不可达，唯有把一腔深情寄于琴声。【名句点睛】「浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据」与「断肠移破秦筝柱」皆以痴语写深情，是小山词「清壮顿挫」的典型。

Background

Yan Jidao (c.1038–c.1110), style Shuyuan, named Little Mountain, of Linchuan, seventh son of Yan Shu. Born in a chief councillor's house, he knew luxury, yet the family declined and he held only minor posts like magistrate of Xutian town in Yingchang, poor and bleak in late life. Proud and upright, he would not mix with the powerful; Su Shi once wished to meet him and was refused. He poured his deep feeling and loneliness into lyric, recalling the singers Lian, Hong, Ping, Yun he met at his father's feasts—'I remember first meeting Little Ping' writes of it. This lyric writes dreaming of searching the parted one yet not meeting, wishing to send a letter yet fish and geese give no proof—another singing of the 'remembrance' motif of his old affairs. Who the 'parted one' was is unknowable, but the regret of 'walking all through Jiangnan' yet not meeting is the miniature of Yan's life 'splendor all gone'—the misty water roads of Jiangnan in dream are the youth he can never return to. Huang Tingjian's preface says he 'failed in office, yet never approached a powerful door'; this lyric's foolish devotion and isolation are exactly his character's portrait.

晏几道（约1038—约1110），字叔原，号小山，抚州临川人，晏殊第七子。他生于宰相之家，锦衣玉食，然而家道中落，一生只做过颖昌府许田镇监之类的小官，晚年穷愁潦倒，甚至衣食无着。晏几道性格孤傲耿介，不与权贵往来，苏轼曾欲见之而遭其拒。他把一生的深情与落寞都倾注于词，追忆当年在父亲宴席上结识的歌女莲、鸿、苹、云诸人，《临江仙》「记得小苹初见」即写其事。此词写梦寻离人而不得、欲寄尺素而鱼雁无凭，正是小山对旧日情事「追忆」母题的又一次吟唱。词中的「离人」究系何人已不可考，但那种「行尽江南」仍不得遇的怅惘，正是晏几道一生「繁华落尽」的缩影——梦中的江南烟水路，是他永远回不去的青春。黄庭坚《小山词序》谓其「仕宦连蹇，而不能一傍贵人之门」，此词之痴情与孤绝，正是其人格的写照；黄庭坚又称其乐府「狎邪之大雅，豪士之鼓吹」，此词之痴绝，正见狎邪中自有大雅。

Art

The whole lyric is boned on 'dream,' its structure like flowing clouds yet hiding waves. The opening 'in dream I enter Jiangnan's misty water roads' first writes entering Jiangnan in dream, misty and confused, setting the lyric's bewildered base; 'I walk all through Jiangnan, yet meet not the parted one' with 'walk all' writes the persistence and futility of search—walking all Jiangnan yet not meeting, the dream's sense of distance and loss upon the face. The third and fourth lines 'in sleep my soul consumes, with no place to tell; awake, I am melancholy—the soul-consuming was my undoing' write the bewilderment at dream-wake, two 'soul-consuming' echoing: 'no place to tell' writes loneliness—even the dream's consuming has none to tell; 'soul-consuming was my undoing' writes self-blame—awake, I resent that the consuming delayed me, feeling from dream to wake, from bewilderment to self-reflection, twisting and deep. The turn 'I would pour this feeling into a letter on fine silk' writes wishing to confide by letter, the mood seeming to turn; 'but floating geese and sunken fish, in the end give no proof' breaks the hope utterly—geese float, fish sink, the letter cannot be sent, even the message's medium unreliable, despair one step deeper. The close 'yet I lean on the slow strings to sing my parting grief; heart-broken I move and break the qin zither's bridges' ends with action: the slow strings can still be played, yet heart-broken I move the bridges out of place, 'move and break' weighty as a thousand jun, the outburst of feeling at its extreme. The whole from dream to wake, from wishing to send to unable to send, presses step by step, ending in one rent silk, resonance unending.

全词以「梦」为骨，章法如行云流水而暗藏波澜。起句「梦入江南烟水路」先写梦中入江南，烟水迷离，定下全词的迷惘基调；「行尽江南，不与离人遇」以「行尽」二字写寻觅之执着与徒劳——走遍江南而不遇，梦中的距离感与失落感扑面而来。三四句「睡里消魂无说处，觉来惆怅消魂误」写梦觉之际的怅惘，两个「消魂」前呼后应：「无说处」写孤寂——连梦中的销魂都无人可说；「消魂误」写自怨——醒来反恨这销魂耽误了自己，情感由梦入觉、由迷惘而自省，曲折深婉。过片「欲尽此情书尺素」写欲以书信倾诉，情绪似有转机；「浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据」却以鱼雁皆无凭据将希望彻底打破——鸿雁浮空、鱼沉水底，书信无从寄达，连传书的媒介都不可靠，绝望更进一层。结拍「却倚缓弦歌别绪，断肠移破秦筝柱」以动作收束：缓弦尚能弹唱，而断肠之际竟把弦柱拨得移了位置，「移破」二字力重千钧，是痴情至极的爆发。全词由梦到觉、由想寄到寄不成，步步紧逼，结于一声裂帛，余响不绝。

Allusions

The lyric's allusions all center on 'sending a message.' 'Fine silk' uses the ancient yuefu 'Drinking Horse at the Great Wall'—'a guest comes from afar, sends me twin carp; call the child to cook the carp, inside is fine silk letter'—the ancients wrote on silk, placed in a fish-shaped wooden case to send, hence letter called 'fish letter,' 'fine silk.' 'Floating geese' uses the 'Han Shu · Su Wu' wild-goose message: Su Wu held by the Xiongnu, the Han envoy said the emperor shot a wild goose in Shanglin with a silk letter tied to its foot, Su Wu thus returned, later 'wild-goose foot,' 'wild-goose letter' meant a letter. 'Sunken fish' is the sunken fish, matching the fish-letter allusion—the fish sinks in water, no news at all. One floating one sinking writes that heaven and water both lack a road to send a message, the despair of 'wishing to pour this feeling' yet feeling never arriving. Also, 'Jiangnan's misty water roads' hints the 'misty waves on the river breed sorrow' confused image, in line with the 'Chu Ci' 'gazing faintly, sorrowful am I' lament; 'qin zither' means the zither from Qin, said invented by Meng Tian of Qin, 'qin zither's bridges' 'moved and broken' is the traditional writing of feeling through instrument (Li Shangyin's 'Jin Se' 'why should the Jin se have fifty strings' also lodges regret through instrument); 'slow strings' writes the playing's slowness, exactly the 'parting grief's' lingering. The whole lyric's allusions concentrated yet natural, all serving the theme 'longing without proof.'

本词用典皆围绕「传书」展开。「尺素」用古乐府《饮马长城窟行》「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼。呼儿烹鲤鱼，中有尺素书」——古人以绢帛写信，置于鱼形木函中寄递，故书信称「鱼书」「尺素」。「浮雁」用《汉书·苏武传》鸿雁传书之典：苏武被拘匈奴，汉使言天子射上林中得雁，足系帛书，苏武乃得归，后以「雁足」「雁书」指书信。「沈鱼」即沉鱼，与鱼书之典相合——鱼沉水底，音信全无。一浮一沈，写尽天上水中皆无传书之路，是「欲尽此情」而情终难达的绝望。此外，「江南烟水路」暗含「烟波江上使人愁」的迷离意象，与《楚辞·九歌》「目眇眇兮愁予」的怅望一脉相承；「秦筝」指源于秦地的筝，传说为秦人蒙恬所造，「秦筝柱」上「移破」弦柱，是以乐器写情、声情并茂的传统写法（李商隐《锦瑟》「锦瑟无端五十弦」同以乐器寄恨）；「缓弦」写弹奏之徐缓，正见「别绪」之缠绵。全词用典集中而自然，皆服务于「相思无凭」这一主题。其用典之密而不滞，正是小山「寓以诗人之句法」的具体表现。

Commentary

Yan Jidao's lyrics in the Northern Song are famed for 'clear-strong and halting, able to move the heart' (Feng Xu). This lyric shows it: language clear (misty water roads, fine silk, slow strings), feeling grand (walk all Jiangnan, heart-broken move and break), halting—between dream and wake, letter unsent, feeling rises and falls like nine bends. Critics prize its foolish-devotion lines: Chen Tingzhuo's 'Bai Yu Zhai Ci Hua' says Little Mountain's lyrics 'plain words all have flavor, shallow words all have grace'—this lyric's 'in the end give no proof' and 'move and break the qin zither's bridges' write deep feeling with plain shallow words; Zhou Ji's 'Hui Feng Ci Hua' on Little Mountain's 'truth'—'pure in nature, deep in feeling'—this lyric is its note. In lyric history, Yan Jidao is Yan Shu's son yet surpasses the father in style, pushing the short lyric's love-function to its extreme, directly influencing later gentle lyricists; this lyric with 'Lin Jiang Xian · After Dream the Tower Locked' and 'Zhe Gu Tian · Colored Sleeves Earnest' are together the交汇 of Little Mountain's two motifs 'dream' and 'feeling'—the Jiangnan in dream forever unreachable, just as the old affair can never return, this 'eternal loss' is precisely Little Mountain's lyric's universal appeal beyond one time and thing.

晏几道词在北宋词坛以「清壮顿挫，能动摇人心」著称（冯煦《宋六十一家词选例言》）。此词正体现了这一特色：语言清丽（烟水路、尺素、缓弦），情感壮烈（行尽江南、断肠移破），顿挫有致——梦觉之间、寄书不成，情感几起几落，如九曲回澜。历代评家多赏其痴情语：清代陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》谓小山词「淡语皆有味，浅语皆有致」，此词「终了无凭据」「移破秦筝柱」正是以淡浅之语写深挚之情；况周颐《蕙风词话》论小山「真」字诀，谓其「纯任性灵，一往情深」，此词可谓注脚。就词史而言，晏几道是晏殊之子而词风过父，他把小令的言情功能发挥到极致，直接影响后来的婉约词人；此词与《临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》、《鹧鸪天·彩袖殷勤捧玉钟》并称，是小山「梦」与「情」两大母题的交汇之作——梦中的江南永远不可抵达，正如旧日的情事永远无法重来，这种「永恒的失落感」，正是小山词超越一时一事的普遍感染力所在。

Prosody

Form Butterflies Lingering over Flowers (double mode sixty characters, five lines four oblique rhymes per section).蝶恋花（双调六十字，上下片各五句四仄韵）

Rhyme It rhymes with the fourth rhyme class (yu, yu) rising and departing tones: roads, meet, place, undoing, silk, proof, grief, bridges (roads, meet, undoing, silk departing tone yu; place, proof departing tone yu; grief rising tone yu; bridges rising tone yu—fourth class rising-departing merged), one rhyme to the end.押词韵第四部（鱼虞）上去声韵：路、遇、处、误、素、据、绪、柱（路、遇、误、素为去声遇韵，处、据为去声御韵，绪为上声语韵，柱为上声麌韵，词韵第四部上去通押），一韵到底。

Tone pattern The two sections share phrasing (seven, four, five, seven, seven), opening seven, next four, uneven length; closing oblique, sound grieved and choking, suiting the pain of longing.上下片句式相同（七、四、五、七、七），首句七言起、次句四言承，音节长短错落；以仄韵收束，声情沉咽，正合相思之苦。

Reading note Butterflies Lingering was originally 'Magpie Treads the Branch,' also 'Phoenix on the Paulownia,' a Tang teaching-ground melody, later a tune, double mode sixty, five lines four oblique rhymes per section, phrasing all 'seven, four, five, seven, seven.' Yan Jidao's lyric is the standard form, one rhyme to the end, fourth class (yu, yu) rising-departing: first roads, meet, place, undoing; second silk, proof, grief, bridges—rhyme words mostly yu, sound reserved and inward, suiting longing's low return. The lyric is mostly seven-syllable lines, with four-syllable lines (walk all Jiangnan, floating geese sunken fish) pausing the rhythm: four-syllable short and urgent, exactly the search's urgency and message's severance, interspersed with seven-syllable long sighs, forming 'uneven length, pausing and turn' sound effect. Especially fine: the opening 'in dream I enter Jiangnan's misty water roads' a seven-syllable long line, drifting into dream; the close 'heart-broken I move and break the qin zither's bridges' a seven-syllable oblique, 'move and break' urgent in tone, matching heart-break, like rent silk abruptly stopped. This lyric's rule, the 'seven-four' phrasing circling like the dream's confused return, tune and feeling matched, exactly the sound note of Yan's 'clear-strong and halting, able to move the heart,' and proof of the tune's maturity in Northern Song short-lyric hands.蝶恋花原名《鹊踏枝》，又名《凤栖梧》，本为唐教坊曲，后用作词牌，双调六十字，上下片各五句四仄韵，句式皆为「七、四、五、七、七」。晏几道此词是蝶恋花正格，一韵到底，押词韵第四部（鱼虞）上去声：上片路、遇、处、误，下片素、据、绪、柱，韵字多属鱼虞，发音含蓄内敛，正合相思之低回。全词以七言句为主，间以四言句（行尽江南、浮雁沈鱼）顿宕节奏：四言句短促，正写寻觅之切与传书之绝，与七言句的悠长叹息相间成趣，形成「长短错落、顿挫有致」的声情效果。尤妙者，上片「梦入江南烟水路」起于七言长句，悠悠入梦；结句「断肠移破秦筝柱」收于七言仄声，「移破」二字声调急促，与断肠之情相应，如裂帛一声戛然而止。此词之律，「七四」句式回环往复，如梦境之迷离往复，调与情合，正是晏几道「清壮顿挫，能动摇人心」的声律注脚，也是蝶恋花词牌在北宋小令词人手中臻于圆熟的明证。

Line by line

梦入江南烟水路。

The opening seven characters write the dream's entry, the lyric's tone-setting line. 'In dream I enter' directly reveals the lyric boned on dream—Little Mountain's lyrics often write dreams, this opens into dream without hesitation; 'Jiangnan' is the remembered happy land, the background of old affairs, the place the poet's soul haunts; 'misty water roads' three characters write Jiangnan's scene—misty water, winding roads, both the scene's confusion and the heart's bewilderment: Jiangnan in dream is like behind mist, visible yet unreachable. The single 'dream' word etherealizes the whole lyric's time and space: Jiangnan is both a geographic place and a remembered, dreamed Jiangnan. This line writes the bewildered scene for the bewildered feeling, setting the lyric's 'foolish and confused' base, and planting suspense for the later 'walk all through Jiangnan'—entering in dream, can he meet that person in Jiangnan?

睡梦之中，我来到了江南那烟水迷蒙的路上，四下里一片迷离。

In dream I enter the misty waters and roads of Jiangnan.

起句七字写梦之入，是全词的定调之句。「梦入」二字直揭全词以梦为骨——小山词多写梦境，此词起笔即入梦，毫不迟疑；「江南」是追忆中的乐土、旧日情事的背景，也是词人魂牵梦萦之地；「烟水路」三字写江南之景——烟水迷蒙，水路迢迢，既是实景的迷离，更是心绪的迷惘：梦中的江南如隔烟雾，可望而不可即。着一「梦」字，全词的时空便虚化起来：江南既是地理的江南，更是记忆的江南、梦中的江南。此句以迷离之景写恍惚之情，定下全词「痴而迷」的基调，也为下文的「行尽江南」设下悬念——梦既入江南，能在江南遇见那个人吗？

The opening seven characters write the dream's entering, the tone-fixing line of the whole ci. The two words dream I enter directly reveal the ci's bone of the dream — Xiaoshan ci often writes the dream, and this ci enters the dream at the opening, without hesitation; Jiangnan is the happy land of the recollection, the background of the old affair, and also the place the poet's heart clings to; the three words misty waters and roads write the Jiangnan scene — the misty waters, the long roads, at once the real scene's dimness, and the mind's bewilderment: the Jiangnan in the dream, as if behind the mist, seen and not reached. The single word dream virtualizes the whole ci's time and space: Jiangnan at once the geographic Jiangnan, and the Jiangnan of memory, the Jiangnan of the dream. The line writes the dazed feeling through the dim scene, fixing the ci's doting-and-dazed tone, and planting the suspense for the below's wandered all of Jiangnan — since the dream has entered Jiangnan, can the person be met in Jiangnan?

行尽江南，不与离人遇。

These two lines write the persistence and futility of the dream-search, the lyric's first emotional wave. 'Walk all through Jiangnan' four characters weighty as a thousand jun: Jiangnan is so vast, yet in dream he 'walks all'—writing the search's urgency and folly, through hills and waters, only to meet once; 'meet not the parted one' five characters suddenly fall—searching all Jiangnan, in the end not meeting. 'Walk all' against 'not meet' sets hope and disappointment, persistence and failure, completing one full rise and fall in five characters. This line writes the dream-search so concretely (walk all, not meet), exactly showing the longing has sunk into the subconscious, even the dream will not let him go; and not meeting in dream makes the waking all the more hopeless, the lyric's tragic base laid here. The four-syllable 'walk all Jiangnan' is short and forceful, interspersed with the seven-syllable long sigh, the syllable also gaining a halting turn.

在梦里走遍了整个江南，却始终没有遇到那个令我牵挂的离别之人。

I have wandered all of Jiangnan, and not met the parted one.

此二句写梦中寻觅之执着与徒劳，是全词情感的第一层波澜。「行尽江南」四字力重千钧：江南何等广大，而词人在梦中「行尽」——写尽寻觅之切、之痴，走遍山山水水，只为一遇；「不与离人遇」五字陡然跌落——寻遍江南，终究不遇。「行尽」与「不遇」对举，希望与失望、执着与落空，在五个字内完成一次完整的起落。此句写梦中之寻而写得如此具体（行尽、不遇），正见思念之深已深入潜意识，连梦都不肯放过自己；而梦中尚且不遇，醒后更是绝望，全词的悲剧基调于此奠定。四言句「行尽江南」短促有力，与七言句的长叹相间，音节上也见顿挫之致。

The two lines write the devotion and the futility of the dream seeking, the first wave of the ci's feeling. The four words wandered all of Jiangnan carry the weight of a thousand jun: how vast Jiangnan, and the poet in the dream wandered all — writing the seeking's eagerness and doting, wandering the hills and waters, only for one meeting; and not met the parted one five words suddenly falling — Jiangnan wandered through, and at last no meeting. The wandered all and the not met set in contrast, the hope and the disappointment, the devotion and the void, completing one full rise and fall within five words. The line writing the dream-seeking and yet so concretely (wandered all, not met), precisely showing the longing's depth sunk into the unconscious, the dream itself not letting him go; and in the dream yet no meeting, the waking the more desperate, the ci's tragic tone fixed here. The four-character wandered all of Jiangnan short and forceful, set between the seven-character long sighs, the cadence also showing the restrained turning.

浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据。

These two lines write the roadless message, the lyric's emotional lowest point, and the densest allusion. 'Floating geese' uses the wild-goose message (Han Shu · Su Wu), 'sunken fish' uses the fish-letter (Drinking Horse at the Great Wall), one floating one sinking, heaven and water, both ancients' mediums for letters, yet the poet says 'in the end give no proof'—geese float, no letter comes; fish sink, no news; heaven and water both lack a road to send a message. This is a blow to 'I would pour this feeling into a letter on fine silk': not that he will not send, not that it cannot arrive, but none to send to, nowhere to send—the parted one's whereabouts unknown, to whom the fine silk? 'In the end give no proof' five characters write the despair of this feeling having no place to rest, clean and total. Two allusions come out together, natural and whole, a model of 'allusion yet not blocking,' and the extreme of Little Mountain's 'foolish' to the core.

天上的飞雁、水中的游鱼，终究都没有为我带来任何书信凭据。

The floating wild goose, the sunken fish — at last, no pledge at all.

此二句写传书之无路，是全词情感的最低点，也是用典最密处。「浮雁」用鸿雁传书之典（《汉书·苏武传》），「沈鱼」用鱼传尺素之典（《饮马长城窟行》），一浮一沈、一天一水，本都是古人寄托书信的媒介，而词人却说「终了无凭据」——雁浮空际，不见书来；鱼沉水底，杳无消息，天上水中皆无传书之路。这是对「欲尽此情书尺素」的当头一棒：不是不想寄，不是寄不到，而是根本无人可寄、无处可寄——离人不知在何方，尺素寄给谁？「终了无凭据」五字，把「此情」无处安放的绝望写得干干净净。两个典故一联而出，自然浑成，是「用典而不隔」的典范，也是小山词「痴」到极处的表现。

The two lines write the no road of the letter, the lowest point of the ci's feeling, and the densest place of allusion. The floating wild goose uses the wild-goose letter allusion (the Han Shu, the Biography of Su Wu), the sunken fish uses the fish-plain-silk allusion (the Drinking at the Great Wall Tunnel), one floating one sunken, one sky one water, both by nature the ancients' media of the letter, and the poet says at last, no pledge at all — the goose floating in the sky, no letter coming; the fish sunken in the deep, no news, sky and water both no road of the letter. This is the head-on blow to the would send this feeling and the plain silk: not that he does not wish to send, not that it cannot reach, but that there is no one to send to, nowhere to send to — the parted one not known where, the plain silk sent to whom? The five words at last, no pledge at all, writing the despair of the feeling's nowhere to rest, cleanly done. The two allusions in one couplet, natural and fused, the model of allusion-without-barrier, and the extreme of Xiaoshan ci's doting.

断肠移破秦筝柱。

The closing line is the lyric's emotional outburst, writing heart-break through action, the most forceful of the whole. 'Yet I lean on the slow strings to sing my parting grief' first writes playing the zither to lodge feeling: slow strings gently played, wishing to dispel parting grief with the music, still restrained; 'heart-broken I move and break the qin zither's bridges' suddenly turns—playing to heart-break, feeling uncontrollable, fingers wildly pluck, moving even the fixed bridges out of place. The words 'move and break'—'move' writes the force, even the fixed bridges moved; 'break' writes feeling's resolve, as if to smash this full sorrow together with the bridges. This line writes the abstract feeling through concrete action, making 'heart-broken' visible and touchable, among the most forceful lines in Song lyric for writing foolish devotion; the lyric stops abruptly here, yet the rent-silk sound of the moved bridges seems still in the ear.

肝肠寸断，弹着弹着，竟把秦筝的弦柱都拨得移了位置。

Heart broken, I have shifted and broken the Qin zither's bridges.

结句是全词情感的总爆发，以动作写断肠，力度之强为全词之最。「却倚缓弦歌别绪」先写弹琴寄情：缓弦徐弹，欲以琴声排遣别绪，尚有节制；「断肠移破秦筝柱」陡然翻转——弹到断肠处，情不能自持，手指乱拨，竟把筝柱都拨得移了位置。着一「移破」，痴情从「缓」到「破」的爆发过程如在目前：缓弦是隐忍，移破是崩溃；「移」写力度之大，连固定的弦柱都被拨动，「破」写情之决绝，仿佛要把这满腔愁绪连同琴柱一起击碎。此句以具体的动作写抽象的感情，把「断肠」写得可见可触，是宋词中写痴情最有力的句子之一；全词至此戛然而止，而移破琴柱的裂帛之声，似仍在耳边回响。

The closing is the total explosion of the ci's feeling, writing the heart-break through action, the force the greatest of the ci. And yet leaning on the slow strings I sing the parting mood first writes the playing of the lute to entrust the feeling: the slow strings played at leisure, the will to dispel the parting mood through the lute, still with restraint; heart broken, I have shifted and broken the Qin zither's bridges suddenly turning — playing to the heart-breaking place, the feeling beyond holding, the fingers straying, and the zither's bridges shifted from their place. The single shifted-and-broken writes the explosion of the doting from the slow to the broken, as before the eyes: the slow strings the suppressed, the broken the collapse; the shifted writes the force's might, even the fixed bridges moved, the broken writes the feeling's resolve, as if to shatter the breast's grief together with the lute's bridges. The line writes the abstract feeling through the concrete action, making the heart-break visible and tangible, one of Song ci's most forceful lines writing the doting; the ci here cut off, and the tearing-silk sound of the broken bridges, as if still ringing in the ear.

Study

Word focus

消魂 The word 'soul-consuming' (xiao hun) appears twice in the lyric (in sleep my soul consumes, with no place to tell; awake, I am melancholy—the soul-consuming was my undoing), the key to understanding the lyric's emotional structure. 'Soul-consuming' originally writes the soul departing, extreme sadness (Jiang Yan's 'Lament for Parting': 'grieving apart, none but parting'); here it writes the pain of longing: in sleep consumed by parting sorrow, the soul seems to leave. Its wonder is in appearing twice with different emphasis: 'in sleep my soul consumes, with no place to tell' writes the dream's pain having none to tell—even in dream alone; 'awake, I am melancholy—the soul-consuming was my undoing' writes the waking blame—resenting that this consuming delayed him. One word twice used, echoing front and back, writing 'sorrow in dream and wake, grief in sleep and waking' exhaustively. Finer still, 'soul-consuming' is abstract pain, yet Little Mountain adds 'with no place to tell' and 'was my undoing,' giving it concrete situation and plot—the depth of devotion, the singleness of feeling, all in these two phrases' turn. 「消魂」一词在全词中出现两次（睡里消魂无说处、觉来惆怅消魂误），是理解全词情感结构的关键。消魂（销魂）本指魂魄离散、形容极度悲伤（江淹《别赋》「黯然销魂者，唯别而已矣」），此处写相思之苦：睡梦中为离愁所苦，魂魄仿佛离散。其妙在两次出现而各有侧重：「睡里消魂无说处」，写梦中之苦无人可说——连在梦里都孤单；「觉来惆怅消魂误」，写醒后之怨——反恨这一场销魂耽误了自己。一词两用，前呼后应，把「梦里梦外皆苦、睡时醒时俱愁」的处境写得曲尽其妙。更妙者，消魂本为抽象的痛感，而小山以「无说处」「误」二字缀之，使其有了具体的处境与情节，痴情之深、用情之专，全在这两个词组的转折里。

浮雁沈鱼 The four characters 'floating geese and sunken fish' in 'floating geese and sunken fish, in the end give no proof' are the lyric's finest, densest allusion. 'Floating geese'—wild geese floating in the sky, using Han Shu · Su Wu's wild-goose-foot letter; 'sunken fish'—fish sinking in water, using Drinking Horse at the Great Wall's fish-letter. One floating one sinking, heaven and water, set against each other, writing 'heaven and earth, no road to send a letter' in full: the geese unreachable, the fish undeliverable, even the message's medium at the ends of heaven and water, let alone the letter? Four characters allude without piling, bright and dark in color, rising and sinking in motion, the image itself has tension; followed by 'in the end give no proof,' one hammer settles the futility of this image-group—the fuller the image, the more total the loss. These four characters are the most vivid expression of 'wishing to pour this feeling yet feeling never arrives,' and the 'grand' stroke of Little Mountain's 'clear-strong and halting.' 「浮雁沈鱼，终了无凭据」之「浮雁沈鱼」四字，是全词用典最精、意象最密的一组。浮雁者，鸿雁浮于天际，用《汉书·苏武传》雁足系书之典；沈鱼者，游鱼沉于水底，用《饮马长城窟行》鱼传尺素之典。一浮一沈、一天一水，相对成文，把「天上人间，无处传书」之意写得穷形尽相：飞雁够不着，沉鱼寄不到，连传书的媒介都各在天涯水底，何况书信？四字用典而不堆砌，色彩一明一暗、动态一升一沉，本身就有画面的张力；紧接「终了无凭据」，把这组意象的徒劳感一锤定音——意象愈丰满，失落愈彻底。此四字是「欲尽此情」而「情终难达」的最形象表达，也是小山词「清壮顿挫」中「壮」字的注脚。

移破 The words 'move and break' (yi po) in 'heart-broken I move and break the qin zither's bridges' are the lyric's most forceful, most devoted refinement, the extreme of 'writing deep feeling through action.' 'Move' means to pluck and shift; 'break' means to damage. The two together write playing the zither until feeling uncontrolled, moving even the fixed bridges out of place, almost breaking them. Its wonder is threefold: first, 'move' for unstoppable feeling—slow strings were restrained playing, yet at heart-break fingers wildly pluck, even the bridges moved, showing the outburst's violence; second, 'break' for feeling's resolve—not gently plucking, but to 'break' the bridges, as if to vent this full sorrow with the bridges; third, writing the heart's deformation through the object's deformation—the bridges moved and broken exactly show the heart broken. Two ordinary verbs combined weigh as a thousand jun, turning 'heart-broken' from abstract to startling action, a model of Song lyric refinement. 「断肠移破秦筝柱」之「移破」二字，是全词最有力、最见痴情的炼字，也是「以动作写深情」的极致。移者，拨动、移动也；破者，破损、破坏也——二字连用，写弹筝弹到情不能自持，竟把固定的弦柱拨得移了位置、几乎破损。其妙有三：其一，以「移」写情之不可遏——缓弦本是有节制的弹奏，而断肠之际，手指乱拨，琴柱都被移动，可见情之爆发何等猛烈；其二，以「破」写情之决绝——不是轻轻拨动，而是要把琴柱「破」掉，仿佛满腔愁绪无处发泄，只能借这移破琴柱的动作倾泻而出；其三，以物之变形写心之变形——琴柱移破，正见心之破碎。二字皆寻常动词，而组合在一起，力重千钧，把「断肠」二字从抽象化为惊心动魄的动作，是宋词炼字的典范。