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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

渡江云

Crossing the River Clouds

吴文英

Wu Wenying

羞红颦浅恨，晚风为落，片绣点重茵。
旧堤分燕尾，桂棹轻鸥，宝勒倚残云。
千丝怨碧，渐路入、仙坞迷津。
肠漫回，隔花时见，背面楚腰身。
逡巡。
题门惆怅，堕履牵萦，数幽期难准。
还始觉、留情缘眼，宽带因春。
明朝事与孤烟冷，做满湖、风雨愁人。
山黛暝，尘波澹绿无痕。

Blushing shyly and frowning a light resentment, the flowers are felled by the evening wind; scraps of embroidery are scattered over the layered grass.
The old embankment splits into swallow-tails; cassia oars and light gulls, a jewelled bridle resting against the lingering clouds.
A thousand willow strands resent their jade green, as the path leads into the immortal's dell and the lost ford.
My heart circles in confusion; now and then through the flowers I catch sight of that Chu-waist figure, seen from behind.
I hesitate.
Knocking on the door in melancholy, my lost shoe still binding my thoughts, I count the secret trysts so hard to keep.
Only now do I realize: love lingers in a glance, and my loosening sash is the doing of spring.
Tomorrow's affairs will grow cold with the lone smoke, making the whole lake a wind-and-rain of sorrow for the sorrowful man.
The mountain's dark green at dusk; the waves lie pale green, without a trace.

Listen

Meaning

A lyric of spring longing at West Lake. Wu Wenying begins with fallen flowers blushing as if resentful, moves through swallow-tail embankments, cassia oars, and willow strands to a glimpse of a Chu-waist figure seen through the flowers from behind, then into memory of lost trysts. Realizing that love was sealed in a glance and his body wasted for spring, he ends with tomorrow's loneliness, a whole lake of wind and rain, and waves without a trace.

那含羞带颦、浅含幽恨的，是雨后初绽的花朵；晚风尚在飘拂，片片绣瓣点缀在重重茵草之上。旧日湖堤分成燕尾般的双道，桂木的船桨轻荡，白鸥相伴，马勒斜倚在残云之下。千条柳丝含怨凝碧，渐行渐入那仙坞迷津之处。柔肠百转回环，隔着花丛时常见到，那背转身去的楚腰般的倩影。我逡巡不前，题门惆怅，遗履牵萦，数着幽会之期却总难定准。这时才觉，情之所系原在眼波流转，衣带渐宽只因春色撩人。明朝之事与孤烟同冷，都化作满湖风雨、满怀愁人。山色苍茫暝然，尘波澹澹，绿意无痕。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Flowers blush and frown with light resentment as the evening wind strews their petals like embroidery over the grass. West Lake stretches before him: swallow-tail embankments, cassia oars, light gulls, a jewelled bridle against the clouds. Willow strands resent their green as the path loses itself in a fairy's dell. His heart circles; through the flowers he glimpses the slender Chu-waist figure from behind. He hesitates, recalling knocks on the door and lost shoes, secret meetings hard to keep. He realizes love lingered in a glance and his sash loosened for spring's sake; tomorrow's loneliness will fill the lake with wind and rain, until mountain dusk and green waves leave no trace. [Imagery] The figure seen from behind is the poem's center: love glimpsed and lost at once. [Style] Dense, ornate, and deeply indirect, the style called Mi-li.

【白话串讲】吴文英写《渡江云》：“羞红颦浅恨，晚风为落，片绣点重茵”——“旧堤分燕尾，桂棹轻鸥，宝勒倚残云”——“肠漫回，隔花时见，背面楚腰身”——他写春怨——隔花时见。【意象与手法】上阕以“羞红颦浅恨”起笔写花含怨、人含恨；由旧堤燕尾、桂棹轻鸥的西湖春景转入“背面楚腰身”的惊鸿一瞥；下阕以“逡巡”顿挫，写题门惆怅、堕履牵萦的旧情追忆；终以“满湖风雨愁人”的苍茫作结。词风密丽、情感深婉。【情感与主旨】吴文英写西湖清明之际春恨怀人之作，写情缘如烟、旧情难舍的惆怅，是梦窗词中写春恨怀人的佳作。【名句点睛】常考“旧堤分燕尾，桂棹轻鸥，宝勒倚残云”以西湖春景写情；“肠漫回，隔花时见，背面楚腰身”以背面楚腰写惊鸿一瞥。

Background

Wu Wenying (c. 1200-1260), courtesy name Junte, style name Mengchuang, was a native of Siming (modern Ningbo, Zhejiang). One of the most celebrated lyricists of the late Southern Song, he lived mostly in Hangzhou and wrote densely allusive poems on West Lake scenery, love, and the fate of a dying dynasty; later critics compared him to Li Shangyin in verse. This Crossing the River Clouds, also known as West Lake at Qingming, recalls a former beloved amid the spring scenery of West Lake.

此词为吴文英的怀人春恨之作，旧题《渡江云·西湖清明》，写词人在西湖清明时节对旧日恋人的追忆与相思。吴文英（约1200—1260），字君特，号梦窗，四明（今浙江宁波）人，南宋后期最著名的词人之一，与周密、王沂孙等并称，其词以密丽深婉著称，善用丽辞藻句与典故，长于写男女之情与身世之感，有「词家之有吴文英，如诗家之有李商隐」之誉。吴文英一生漂泊江湖，久居杭州，其词多写西湖风物与情爱旧事；据研究，他曾与一位苏州歌妓有过一段刻骨铭心的恋情，后因故离散，此词即追忆西湖旧游、怀念伊人之作。上阕写西湖春景与「背面楚腰身」的惊鸿一瞥，下阕写「题门惆怅，堕履牵萦」的旧情追忆，皆可见其情之深挚、思之绵长。全词以西湖为背景，以春恨为底色，把情爱的欢会与离散、眼前的春景与往事的追怀交织在一起，是梦窗词中情感最为深挚的篇章之一。值得注意的是，梦窗词向以「深得义山之神」著称，此词的情感密度与语言张力，正可见其融唐诗情韵于词体的功力。

Art

The lyric's art is density and spatial-temporal shifting. The opening makes even the flowers resentful, blushing shyly and frowning a light resentment, so that landscape and feeling are one from the first line. The middle of the first stanza piles up images (swallow-tail embankments, cassia oars, light gulls, jewelled bridles against lingering clouds) in the typical Mengchuang manner, then dissolves them into the fairy dell and the lost ford. The line about catching sight of the Chu-waist figure from behind is the poem's axis: one word, behind, converts a glimpse into permanent absence. The second stanza turns to memory and self-knowledge, love lingering in a glance and the loosening sash, then widens to a whole lake of wind and rain, and finally dissolves into dusk and traceless waves.

此词艺术上以「密丽」与「时空交错」为特色，在西湖春景中织入深婉的情思。上阕由景入情，层层铺展：「羞红颦浅恨，晚风为落，片绣点重茵」，以「羞红颦浅恨」写花之含怨，一个「恨」字为全词定下情感基调——花亦有恨，人何以堪；「片绣点重茵」，以绣片点缀茵草写落花之景，密丽而凄美。接着写西湖之景：「旧堤分燕尾，桂棹轻鸥，宝勒倚残云」，燕尾之堤、轻鸥之棹、残云之勒，意象密集而清丽，是典型的梦窗笔法。「千丝怨碧，渐路入、仙坞迷津」，以千丝柳之怨碧写春愁，以仙坞迷津写追寻之渺茫，如入桃源而不得其门。「肠漫回，隔花时见，背面楚腰身」，是全词最动人的一笔：隔着花丛，时常见到那背转身去的楚腰倩影——一个「背面」，写尽可望而不可即的怅惘，美人只以背面示人，正见情缘之隔。下阕以「逡巡」二字顿挫，转入追忆：「题门惆怅」用题门求见之典，写相访不遇的惆怅；「堕履牵萦」用遗履之典，写旧情的牵系；「还始觉、留情缘眼，宽带因春」，点破相思之因——情原系于眼波，衣带渐宽只为春色撩人，化用柳永「衣带渐宽」之意而更为含蓄。「明朝事与孤烟冷，做满湖、风雨愁人」，以满湖风雨写愁之弥漫，境界苍茫；「山黛暝，尘波澹绿无痕」，以山暝波绿的远景收束，情思如水，渺然无痕。全词由近景而远景、由实写而虚写，时空流转而情思不断，是梦窗词密丽深婉风格的集中体现。

Allusions

The fairy's dell and lost ford alludes to the Peach Blossom Spring, the fisherman who found the hidden village and could never find it again; the search for a lost love is likewise unrepeatable. Chu waist refers to the King of Chu's love of slender waists, here the slender figure of the beloved. Knocking on the door recalls either Cui Hu, who wrote on the door of the house where he met the peach-blossom girl, or the melancholy of calling on a friend and finding him out. The lost shoe alludes to the King of Chu, who in flight from Wu refused to pick up a lost shoe because it had walked with him, a token that old things and old loves remain binding. Love lingering in a glance echoes the Li Sao's our eyes met and love was made. The loosening sash adapts Liu Yong's my girdle grows loose, and I do not regret it, for her I waste away.

此词用典密集而隐晦，是梦窗词「用事下语」的代表。「仙坞迷津」用桃源之典，武陵渔人偶入桃源而不得复寻，以写追寻旧情之渺茫难求；「楚腰」用《韩非子》「楚灵王好细腰」之典，以「背面楚腰身」写那倩影之美好，一个「背面」，更添可望不可即之感。「题门」用典，或指崔护「人面桃花」题门求见之遗事，或指访友不遇而题门而去之惆怅，皆写相寻不遇的失落；「堕履」用楚昭王失履之典——《韩诗外传》载楚昭王与吴战败，失其一踦履而不拾，曰「楚虽贫，岂爱一踦履哉？思与偕反也」，后以「堕履」喻旧物旧情之可念，此词用之，写对旧情的牵萦难舍。「留情缘眼」，暗用《楚辞》「目成」之典（「满堂兮美人，忽独与余兮目成」），写情爱之结缘于眼波；「宽带因春」，化用柳永《蝶恋花》「衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴」之语，而更含蓄蕴藉。这些典故，或写桃源之渺、或写楚腰之美、或写题门之怅、或写堕履之念，皆围绕怀人相思这一核心，织成一张密丽的情网，正是梦窗词「深得义山之神」的用典艺术。

Commentary

The most admired line is the one in which, through the flowers, the poet catches sight of the Chu-waist figure from behind: the meeting happens, but only as a back turned, present and unreachable at once. Critics have seen in love lingering in a glance and the loosening sash the very essence of Mengchuang's indirectness, the confession of wasting away for you hidden behind the word spring. The close, with mountain dusk and green waves without a trace, has been read as an image of the Southern Song's own fading, all sorrow dissolving into landscape.

读此词，最值得注意的是「隔花时见，背面楚腰身」这一笔写出的惆怅。明明是西湖春日的良辰美景，明明是旧日相爱的恋人，词人却只见到一个「背面」——隔着花丛，那熟悉的倩影背转身去，可望而不可即。这一个「背面」，写尽了情缘的隔断：不是不相见，而是见了面也只是一个背影；不是不相爱，而是爱着却已无法回头。整首词的情感，都系于这一个「背面」之上：上阕的西湖春景、千丝怨碧、仙坞迷津，都是在追寻那个身影；下阕的题门惆怅、堕履牵萦、留情缘眼，都是在追忆那段旧情。而「还始觉、留情缘眼，宽带因春」两句，最是深婉——情爱原结于眼波的一瞬，衣带渐宽只为春色撩人，看似轻淡，实则把「为伊消得人憔悴」的深情写到了骨子里。末句「山黛暝，尘波澹绿无痕」，以远景收束：山色苍茫，波平无痕，那满湖风雨的愁，都化入这澹澹的绿波之中，仿佛什么都未发生，又仿佛一切都在心头。梦窗词以密丽著称，而此词于密丽之中见出深婉，于浓烈之中见出空茫，正是其怀人词的绝调，也是南宋词中写春恨的佳作。

Prosody

Form Ci (lyric) on the tune Crossing the River Clouds (Du Jiang Yun), double-diao slow song in the Xiaoshi mode词（渡江云·双调慢词，小石调）

Rhyme The tune carries four level-tone rhymes in each stanza on yin, yun, jin, shen, xun, ying, zhun, chun, ren, and hen, a single level rhyme sustained to the end, matching the long, continuous flow of remembered sorrow.此词为《渡江云》双调慢词，上下阕各四平韵，押「茵」「云」「津」「身」「巡」「萦」「准」「春」「人」「痕」等平声真文韵，韵脚整齐而绵长，正合慢词「一韵到底、情思绵长」的声情。词中「羞红颦浅恨」「千丝怨碧」「肠漫回」等句，以仄声起、平声收，形成顿挫；「旧堤分燕尾，桂棹轻鸥，宝勒倚残云」等三句对排，句式整饬而流丽。整体声调由起句的峭拔，到「背面楚腰身」的低回，再到「满湖风雨」的苍茫，起伏有致，正合怀人春恨的词情。

Tone pattern The song is famous for its broken-waist lines such as leading into the fairy's dell and the lost ford, where pauses slow the rhythm like circling thought; the single-word line I hesitate stops the first stanza and turns the poem inward. The movement runs from dense description to low retrospection and finally to open vastness.句式上，此词善用「上三下四」的折腰句式：「渐路入、仙坞迷津」「做满湖、风雨愁人」，以顿号断开，节奏由急而缓，如情思之回旋；「还始觉、留情缘眼，宽带因春」，以「还始觉」领起，顿挫而见醒悟。全词长短句错落，以「逡巡」二字独立成句，顿住前文、开启后文，是词中「一字逗」式顿挫的典范。上下阕皆由写景叙事转入抒情议论，句式随之由密丽转疏朗，声调由急促转悠长，正合梦窗词「密处可容针、疏处可走马」的节奏美学。

Reading note As a slow song, the long single level rhyme carries the unbroken current of longing; Mengchuang's abrupt pauses and dense four-character clusters give the lyric its characteristic pressure, at once dense enough to hold a needle and sparse enough to run a horse.作为南宋慢词，《渡江云》的声律之美，在于以绵长的平韵与顿挫的句式，写出怀人春恨的深婉情思。全词上阕写景，由「羞红颦浅恨」的花怨起笔，经旧堤、桂棹、千丝柳的西湖春景，转入「背面楚腰身」的怅惘一瞥，声调由密丽而低回；下阕以「逡巡」顿挫，转入追忆，由「题门惆怅，堕履牵萦」的旧事，到「留情缘眼，宽带因春」的点破，再到「满湖风雨愁人」的苍茫，声调由沉挚而开阔。词中「隔花时见，背面楚腰身」「做满湖、风雨愁人」等句，句法多变而声情相谐，正是梦窗词「深得义山之神」的体现。就全词而言，此词以密丽的意象、深婉的情感、顿挫的声调，写尽西湖春恨与旧情追忆，是吴文英词中情感最为真挚的篇章之一，也可见南宋雅词在声律与情感两方面的极高造诣。

Line by line

隔花时见，背面楚腰身。

Now and then through the flowers I catch sight of that Chu-waist figure, seen from behind.

隔着花丛，时常见到那背转身去的、楚腰般的纤细倩影。

Beyond the flowers, now and then seen — the back turned, a waist of Chu slenderness.

这一句是全词最动人的一笔，也是怀人惆怅的焦点。「隔花时见」，写相见之隔——明明就在眼前，却被花丛隔开，只能时或一瞥；「背面楚腰身」，写所见之憾——那楚腰般的纤细倩影，却总是背转身去，始终以背面示人。「楚腰」用楚灵王好细腰之典，写身影之美好；而「背面」二字，才是全句的魂：美人只以背面示人，正见情缘之隔、可望而不可即的怅惘。不是不相见，而是见了面也只是一个背影；不是不相爱，而是爱着却已无法回头。这一笔，把西湖春景中的一场相遇写得既真切又怅惘，为下阕的追忆相思埋下了情感的伏笔，是梦窗词中以一「背面」写尽万千怅惘的妙笔。

The line is the ci's most moving stroke, and the focus of the longing's wistfulness. Beyond the flowers, now and then seen writes the barrier of the meeting — plainly before the eyes, and yet separated by the flowers, only a glimpse now and then; the back turned, a waist of Chu slenderness writes the regret of the seen — the slender Chu-waist figure, and yet always the back turned, always shown from behind. The Chu waist uses the King Ling of Chu's love of slender waists allusion for the figure's beauty; and the two words back turned are the line's soul: the beauty showing only her back, precisely the barrier of the love, the seen and not reached wistfulness. Not that the meeting is not, but that the meeting and yet only a back; not that the love is not, but that the loving and yet no longer the turning back. The stroke writes the chance meeting in the West Lake spring scene at once real and wistful, planting the emotional foreshadowing for the second stanza's recalled longing, the brush of Mengchuang ci's writing a thousand wistfulnesses through the single back turned.

还始觉、留情缘眼，宽带因春。

Only now do I realize: love lingers in a glance, and my loosening sash is the doing of spring.

这时才觉察到，情之所系原在于眼波的流转，衣带渐宽只因春色的撩人。

Only now I feel: love is bound by the eyes, the loosened belt is because of spring.

这两句是全词情感的点破之处，也是相思之因的揭示。「留情缘眼」，说情爱原是结于眼波的一瞬——那惊鸿一瞥的「背面楚腰身」，那目成心许的眉眼之间，情爱便已种下，暗用《楚辞》「目成」之典；「宽带因春」，说衣带渐宽只因春色撩人——为春而瘦，为伊而憔悴，化用柳永「衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴」之意而更为含蓄。两句以「还始觉」领起，写一种后知后觉的了悟：当时只道是寻常，如今才知那眼波、那春色，早已在心底生了根。「留情缘眼」写情之所系，「宽带因春」写瘦之因由，一因一果，把相思写得既深婉又含蓄，是梦窗词中情语与思语交融的佳句。

The two lines are the ci's point of the feeling, and the revelation of the longing's cause. Love is bound by the eyes says the love by nature tied in the moment of the glance — the startled glimpse of the back-turned Chu waist, the brows and eyes where the eye-and-heart met, the love already sown, secretly using the Chuci eye-meeting allusion; the loosened belt is because of spring says the belt's loosening by nature through the spring's provocation — thinning for the spring, haggard for the one, transforming Liu Yong's the belt ever looser, and yet I never repent; for the one I long for, I am willing to waste to this haggardness, and the more restrained. Two lines opened by the only-now-I-feel, writing the late knowing: at the time it seemed ordinary, and now the eyes, the spring, already rooted in the heart. Love is bound by the eyes writes the tie of the love, the loosened belt because of spring writes the cause of the thinning, one cause one effect, writing the longing at once deep and tactful, the fine line of Mengchuang ci's emotional words and reasoned words fused.

做满湖、风雨愁人。

Making the whole lake a wind-and-rain of sorrow for the sorrowful man.

明朝之事与孤烟同冷，都化作满湖的风雨、满怀的愁人。

Made into a whole lake of wind and rain, a whole breast of the grieving man.

这一句是全词情感向苍茫处的拓展，也是「愁」的意象由个体而及于天地。「明朝事与孤烟冷」，写对未来的预感——明朝之事，将与孤烟一同冷却，欢会无期、前途渺茫；「做满湖、风雨愁人」，以「做」字写愁的生成与弥漫——那一点点愁绪，竟化作满湖的风雨，笼罩着满怀愁绪的人。以「满湖风雨」写愁，愁不再是内心的情绪，而弥漫于天地之间，与湖山同其苍茫；「愁人」二字，既是自指，也是那「满湖风雨」的见证者。此句由前文的追忆、点破，忽然转入对明朝的忧惧与满湖愁云的铺展，把个体的相思放大于湖山的背景之中，境界由密丽转为苍茫，是梦窗词中以景写愁、以愁融景的佳句，也为全词的收束作了有力的铺垫。

The line is the ci's expansion of the feeling to the vast, and the grief's image reaching from the individual to heaven and earth. Tomorrow's affairs and the lone smoke are cold writes the premonition of the future — tomorrow's affairs, cooling with the lone smoke, the joyless meeting, the vague future; made into a whole lake of wind and rain, a whole breast of the grieving man uses the word made for the grief's generation and spreading — the little thread of grief, turned into the wind and rain of the whole lake, wrapping the breast of the grieving man. Writing grief through the whole-lake wind and rain, the grief no longer the inner emotion, but spreading between heaven and earth, vast with the lake and hills; the two words grieving man, at once the self, and the witness of the whole-lake wind and rain. The line, from the recalling and the naming before, suddenly turns to the dread of tomorrow and the spreading of the whole-lake grief clouds, placing the individual longing against the background of the lake and hills, the realm from the dense and beautiful to the vast, the fine line of Mengchuang ci's writing grief through scene and fusing scene into grief, and the powerful groundwork for the ci's close.

Study

Word focus

羞红 Blushing: the shy red of new flowers, and of a person blushingly lovely. It merges flower and beloved at the poem's first line. 「羞红颦浅恨」之「羞红」，写雨后初绽花朵的含羞之态，是此词起笔处的意象之眼。「羞红」者，红而含羞也，以人之羞态写花之颜色，花便有了情感——那娇艳的红色，仿佛因见人而羞怯；「颦浅恨」，写花之含怨，如美人轻蹙眉头，浅含幽恨。以「羞红」写花，花与美人合而为一，既是西湖春景的实写，也是词人眼中那位伊人的投影——花之羞红，正如伊之含情；花之浅恨，正如词人之幽怨。这一笔，把春景与情思、花与人都融为一体，为全词的怀人主题奠定了「以花写人」的基调，是梦窗词起笔即见匠心的典型。

千丝 A thousand strands: the willow's catkins and threads of feeling at once, a double image for the countless strands of spring sorrow. 「千丝怨碧」之「千丝」，写千条柳丝含怨凝碧，是此词春愁的物化。「丝」字双关，既是柳丝，也是情思——「千丝」者，千条柳丝，亦千般情思也；「怨碧」者，柳丝凝碧而含怨，以「怨」字写柳色，柳便有了情愁。以千丝柳之怨写春愁之浓，既是西湖春景的实写，也是词人心绪的投射：那千万条柳丝，正如心中千丝万缕的愁绪，剪不断、理还乱。此词写「丝」之怨，与「仙坞迷津」的渺茫、「背面楚腰身」的怅惘相呼应，把春愁写成了弥漫于西湖烟柳之间的漫天情网。「千丝」二字，双关自然，意象密丽，是梦窗词炼字的精妙处。

宽带 Loosening sash: the girdle grown slack from wasting away in love, adapting Liu Yong's famous line while hiding the confession behind the word spring. 「宽带因春」之「宽带」，写衣带渐宽、为情消瘦，是此词化用典故的显例。「宽带」即衣带宽松，人瘦之象；「因春」则点明瘦之由——因为春色，因为春思，因为春恨中那个人。此语化用柳永《蝶恋花》「衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴」，而不着一「悔」字、不着一「伊」字，以「因春」代之，更为含蓄蕴藉——春者，伊人也；因春而宽带，即因伊而消瘦。以「宽带」写相思之瘦，比直说「消瘦」更见形象；以「因春」藏起所念之人，比直说「为伊」更见深婉。这一词之炼，正见梦窗词「用字精严、含蓄深婉」的特点，也可见其对柳永词意的化用与升华。

渡江云