宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
李清照·临江仙·庭院深深深几许
Immortal by the River - How Deep, How Deep the Courtyard Lies
临江仙·庭院深深深几许庭院深深深几许，云窗雾阁常扃。
柳梢梅萼渐分明。
春归秣陵树，人老建康城。
感月吟风多少事，如今老去无成。
谁怜憔悴更凋零。
试灯无意思，踏雪没心情。
the cloud-windows and mist-chambers are always barred.
Willow tips and plum buds grow clear by degrees.
Spring comes home to the trees of Moling;
I grow old in the city of Jiankang.
Of moons that moved me and winds I sang of, how many things there were;
and now, grown old, I have achieved nothing.
Who pities one worn thin and withering further still?
The trying of the festival lanterns holds no interest;
for treading the snow I have no heart.
Meaning
How deep does the courtyard lie, how many layers within? The windows and chambers wrapped in cloud and mist are constantly locked. The outlines of willow tips and plum buds grow clearer by degrees. The spring light returns to the trees of Moling, yet the person grows old inside the city of Jiankang. Of all the past occasions of admiring the moon and singing of the wind, how many there were; and now, grown old, she has accomplished nothing. Who pities her, haggard and withering further still? Even the festival of trying the lanterns holds no interest, and she has still less heart for treading the snow in search of plum blossom.
庭院幽深，深到几许？云雾缭绕的窗阁，常常紧紧关闭着。柳梢吐绿，梅萼含苞，轮廓渐渐分明——春天又来了。春光归到秣陵的树上，人却老在建康的城中。感月吟风的多少往事，到如今老去，一事无成。谁怜我憔悴凋零？试灯佳节毫无意趣，踏雪寻梅也提不起心情。
Appreciation
The opening piles up the word 'deep' three times, reaching back to Ouyang Xiu's famous line and building an atmosphere of enclosure and desolation, while cloud-windows and mist-chambers kept always barred convey the shut-in solitude of the house. Willow tips and plum buds sharpening into view let the season announce spring, which only throws into relief the ageing of the person. The ten characters of 'spring comes home to the trees of Moling, the person grows old in the city of Jiankang' form a matched couplet in which the return of spring measures the traveller's inability to return, and a whole life story is folded into a scene. The second stanza turns from remembered evenings of moon and wind to the bare admission of having achieved nothing, and it closes with the flatness of festival customs gone stale, where the trying of lanterns holds no interest and treading the snow inspires no heart at all. Written around 1129, when the poet was in Jiankang with Zhao Mingcheng or travelling alone there after his death, the piece uses the sparest of language to carry the deepest grief.
【白话串讲】 “庭院深深深几许，云窗雾阁常扃”——李清照借欧阳修的句子写自己的处境：“春归秣陵树，人老建康城”——春天回了秣陵，她却在建康老了。“试灯无意思，踏雪没心情”——她连玩的兴致都没了。 【意象与手法】 起句叠用三「深」字，遥承欧阳修《蝶恋花》而成凄境，「云窗雾阁常扃」写闭锁之孤。「柳梢梅萼渐分明」以物候透露春信，反衬人老。「春归秣陵树，人老建康城」十字对仗，以春归反形人滞，景寓身世之悲。下片「感月吟风」追昔，「老去无成」伤今，「试灯无意思，踏雪没心情」以节俗无味收束，平淡见至哀。 【情感与主旨】 此词约作于建炎三年（1129）前后，李清照随赵明诚居建康时或明诚卒后孤旅建康。南渡后国破家亡，往昔汴京吟风弄月之乐不再，词中「老去无成」「憔悴凋零」既是身世自伤，亦暗含对时局飘摇、中原沦陷的悲慨。 【名句点睛】 常考三「深」字叠用的炼字与欧阳修句的点化；「春归秣陵树，人老建康城」的对仗与身世之悲；「试灯无意思，踏雪没心情」以淡语写至哀的手法。
Background
This lyric was written around the third year of the Jianyan reign, about 1129, when Li Qingzhao was living in Jiankang with Zhao Mingcheng, or travelling there alone after his death. The opening line takes over directly from Ouyang Xiu's celebrated line in Butterfly Loves Flower, and Li Qingzhao composed several pieces matching the rhymes of that original, of which this is one. After the flight to the south, with the state broken and the family destroyed, the old pleasures of singing of the wind and toying with the moon in Bianjing were gone for good; the phrases about growing old with nothing achieved and about withering further still are at once self-lament for her own fortunes and a covert grief for a shaking political order and a lost heartland. The whole piece moves from scene to feeling and from past to present, sombre and plaintive, and it stands among her representative later works.
此词约作于南宋建炎三年（1129）前后。是年，李清照随丈夫赵明诚南渡，卜居建康（今南京），春三月赵明诚罢守江宁，五月复起知湖州，途中中暑染疾，八月十八日卒于建康，年仅四十九岁。此词或作于明诚在日、易安居建康之时，或作于明诚卒后其孤旅建康之际，无论何者，皆南渡后国破家亡之痛深植于词心。词题首句「庭院深深深几许」直接袭用北宋欧阳修《蝶恋花》名句，易安曾以此句为韵和作数阕，此即其一，可见其对欧词之偏爱。南渡前，李清照与赵明诚居汴京、青州，夫妇以金石书画相娱，「赌书泼茶」传为美谈，吟风弄月、其乐融融；南渡后，中原沦陷，文物散佚，明诚病故，孤身漂泊，往昔之乐俱成陈迹。词中「老去无成」「憔悴凋零」既是身世自伤，亦暗含对时局飘摇、故土难归的悲慨，是其后期词风由清丽转向沉郁的重要代表作。李清照（1084—约1155），号易安居士，济南人，父李格非为苏门后四学士之一，夫赵明诚为金石学家。她是宋代婉约词之集大成者，前期词清新明丽，后期词沉郁哀婉，词集名《漱玉词》。此词写作之时，正值金兵南侵、建康危殆之际：建炎三年秋，金兀术率军渡江，高宗仓皇南逃，江南烽烟四起。词人于乱离之中深闭孤居，眼见国事日非、身世飘零，遂有此作。全词虽止写庭院之深、春归人老，而时代的动荡、家国的忧患尽在其中，是易安后期「以一身写一国」的典型。
Art
The opening repeats the word 'deep' three times, taking its cue from Ouyang Xiu and forming a bleak world of its own, while cloud-windows and mist-chambers always barred convey the solitude of a locked house. 'Willow tips and plum buds grow clear by degrees' lets the season's signs betray the coming of spring, which sets off the ageing of the person by contrast. 'Spring comes home to the trees of Moling, the person grows old in the city of Jiankang' is a matched couplet of ten characters in which the return of spring measures a life held fast in one place, so that the scene carries the sorrow of a whole biography with weight and completeness. In the second stanza, moons admired and winds sung recall the past, having achieved nothing laments the present, and the pair of closing lines, in which the trying of lanterns holds no interest and treading the snow inspires no heart, ends on the staleness of festival custom, so that the plainest words reach the deepest grief. The whole piece writes sombre feeling in a thin, spare hand, and it takes the true measure of the old poetic ideal.
全词以「深」字立骨，由景之深写到情之深。起句「庭院深深深几许」叠用三「深」字，遥承欧阳修而自成凄境：庭院之幽深、帘幕之重重，正是词人深闭孤居的写照；「云窗雾阁常扃」以云窗雾阁写居所之高华冷寂，「常扃」写长闭不启，深居孤闭之态毕现。「柳梢梅萼渐分明」以物候透露春信，柳绿梅开，春意渐明，却反衬人老——春来而人已老，物候之新与身世之衰两相对照。「春归秣陵树，人老建康城」十字对仗，以春归反形人滞：春可以归，人不能归，景寓身世之悲，浑成厚重。下片「感月吟风多少事」追昔，一句收尽往昔欢乐；「如今老去无成」伤今，以「无成」自伤身世；「谁怜憔悴更凋零」以问句自怜；结以「试灯无意思，踏雪没心情」，以节俗之无味写心灰意冷，平淡见至哀。全词由景及情、由昔至今，疏淡写沉郁，深得风人之旨，章法流转自然。全词上下片章法亦见匠心：上片写景，以庭院之深、窗阁之扃、物候之明、春归人老，层层写深闭孤居之境；下片写情，以感月吟风之昔、老去无成之今、憔悴凋零之叹、节俗无味之结，层层写万念俱灰之情。景中有人，情中见景，两片之间以「人老」「老去」的岁月之感贯通。「渐分明」以静写动，柳梢梅萼在词人凝望中轮廓渐明，正见其独坐窗前、望尽春来春去的寂寞光阴；「谁怜」一转，由自伤而问人，无人怜我，我亦无心怜春，百无聊赖之态尽出。
Allusions
The first line takes over directly the ready-made phrase of Ouyang Xiu of the Northern Song, 'how deep, how deep the courtyard lies, the willows heap their mist, the curtains hang past counting', from his Butterfly Loves Flower. Li Qingzhao composed several pieces to that rhyme, and here she borrows the master's language and sense to write her own solitude, a case of remaking an inherited body from within. Moling and Jiankang are both old names for Nanjing, marking the place of her southern wandering. Singing of the wind and being moved by the moon draws on the tradition of elegant leisure associated with Li Bai and Li Yu, so that the refined pastimes of former days set off the emptiness of the present. The allusions leave no visible seam, and their real work is the turn from one atmosphere to another.
首句「庭院深深深几许」直接化用北宋欧阳修《蝶恋花》「庭院深深深几许，杨柳堆烟，帘幕无重数」之成句，易安曾以此句为韵和作数阕，此词即取欧公语意而写己之孤寂，属「夺胎换骨」式点化——欧词以庭院之深写女子之幽居，易安借其语而写南渡后自己的深闭孤居，旧句新境，别见沉痛。「秣陵」「建康」皆南京古称，点出江南漂泊之地，暗含故都汴京不可归之悲，亦见词人由北而南、由盛而衰的完整身世。「感月吟风」化用吟风弄月的传统说法，指其夫妇昔日在青州归来堂赏玩金石、吟咏诗词的雅事，以昔日雅事反衬今日无成，今昔对照，倍增悲慨。全词用典不着痕迹，重在取欧公句意而自铸新境，是宋词「以故为新」的典型，也是易安后期词「语浅情深」的体现。据李清照自序，其「酷爱」欧阳公「深深深几许」之句，故「用其语作庭院深深数阕」，此词即其中之一，可见其点化欧句实出于深挚的喜爱与自觉的承传，而非偶然蹈袭；欧阳修原词「泪眼问花花不语，乱红飞过秋千去」写春残之痛，易安则转写春来而人老，一伤春、一伤老，各有怀抱。「秣陵」之名始于秦始皇东巡时改金陵为秣陵，「建康」则为东晋南朝六朝古都之称，词人并用地名，暗含六朝兴亡的历史沧桑，与眼前国破家亡之局遥相映照，深意自在言外。
Commentary
Chen Tingzhuo of the Qing, in Remarks on Lyrics from the White Rain Studio, described Li Qingzhao's later lyrics as sorrowful and choked, with bleak imagery. This piece has long been regarded as representative of the sombre manner she developed after the flight to the south, and modern critics frequently praise it for reaching the deepest grief through the most casual and plain language, holding that the two closing lines about lanterns and snow appear to say nothing and in fact say the greatest pain. Kuang Zhouyi likewise remarked that her lyrics have both bone and flesh, with feeling and diction generating each other, and this piece bears him out.
清陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》谓易安后期词「哀愁抑塞，兴象萧条」，此词正是其证。词向被认为南渡后「沉郁」一体之代表，近人论者多以「以闲淡语写至哀」许之，谓「试灯无意思，踏雪没心情」二句「看似无情，实乃大痛」——试灯、踏雪本是元宵前后文人雅事，词人竟全无意趣，正是国破家亡、孤身漂泊之后万念俱灰的写照。况周颐《蕙风词话》言易安词「有骨有肉，情文相生」，此篇可证：三「深」字叠用，音情顿挫；「春归秣陵树，人老建康城」对仗浑成，炼字凝重；结句以淡语写至哀，返璞见痛。此词与《永遇乐·落日熔金》「如今憔悴，风鬟霜鬓，怕见夜间出去」同以节俗无味写哀，并为其晚年代表作。在词史上，易安后期词以个人身世写家国之痛，对辛弃疾、刘辰翁等南宋词人以闲淡之笔写故国之思影响深远，此词正是这一脉络上的关键一环。此词之沉郁，不仅在于写个人之老，更在于写时代之哀：南渡词人如陈与义《临江仙》「忆昔午桥桥上饮」亦写乱离之慨，而李清照以女子之身、词人之笔，将闺阁之愁与家国之痛打成一片，开南宋词以节俗无味写故国之思的先河。刘辰翁读《永遇乐》而「为之涕下」，正是此一脉相承的余响。况周颐谓易安词「有骨有肉，情文相生」，此词三「深」字为骨，「无意思」「没心情」为肉，骨肉停匀，遂成南渡词史上一座沉郁的丰碑。
Prosody
Line by line
庭院深深深几许，云窗雾阁常扃
How deep, how deep, how deep does the courtyard lie? The cloud-windows and mist-chambers are always barred.
庭院幽深，深到几许？云雾缭绕的窗阁常常紧紧关闭着。
The courtyard deep, deep — how many layers? The cloud-wreathed windows and misty chambers are always locked.
起句叠用三「深」字，直承欧阳修《蝶恋花》名句而自铸凄境。庭院深深，深几许——以问句发端，一层层写庭院之幽深莫测，暗喻词人深闭孤居、与世隔绝的处境；「云窗雾阁常扃」更以云窗雾阁写居所之高华冷寂，「常扃」写窗阁长闭不启，深居孤闭之态毕现。三「深」字叠用，音情顿挫，一唱三叹，将「深」的感受推向极致；云窗雾阁与常扃相配，华贵之中见冷清，正见南渡后易安虽居江南而心门紧闭的孤寂。起句即笼罩全词的凄寂氛围，是词眼所在。三「深」字层层递进，如幽谷回响，字面写庭院之深，实则写词人心境之深，愁深似海，不可测度。
The opening repeats the three deep words, directly inheriting Ouyang Xiu's famous line and yet forging its own desolate realm. The courtyard deep, deep, how many layers? opens in the question, layer on layer writing the courtyard's unfathomable depth, secretly figuring the poet's locked seclusion and the cut-off from the world; the cloud-wreathed windows and misty chambers are always locked further writes the dwelling's splendor and coldness through the cloud windows and mist chambers, always locked writes the windows never opened, the deep-residing locked solitude vivid. The three deep words repeated, the syllables holding back, one chant of three notes, pushing the feeling of depth to the extreme; the cloud windows and mist chambers paired with always locked, the coldness within the splendor, precisely showing Yi'an after the south fleeance though dwelling in Jiangnan and yet the heart's door shut fast loneliness. The opening at once envelops the ci's desolate atmosphere, the eye of the piece. The three deep words advancing layer on layer, like the echo in a hidden valley, the surface writing the courtyard's depth, in truth writing the poet's mind's depth, grief deep as the sea, unmeasurable.
春归秣陵树，人老建康城
Spring comes home to the trees of Moling; the person grows old in the city of Jiankang.
春光归到秣陵的树上，人却老在建康的城中。
Spring returns to the trees of Moling; the man ages in the city of Jiankang.
此联以十字对仗写身世之悲，是全词最沉郁之处。「春归秣陵树」写春回大地，柳绿花明，秣陵（南京古称）的树木又逢新绿；「人老建康城」写人滞建康，年华老去。春可以归，人不能归——春归树而人老城，以春之「归」反形人之「滞」，物候之新与身世之衰两相对照，景寓身世之悲，浑成厚重。更深处，「秣陵」「建康」皆南京，而故都汴京（词人曾居之地）已在沦陷之中，「人老建康城」亦含故土难归之痛。十字之中，家国之悲与身世之感并见，炼字凝重，对仗工稳而气脉贯通，向为论者所推，是易安后期词以个人漂泊写时代苦难的典型笔墨。
This couplet writes the fate's grief in the ten-character parallelism, the ci's most somber point. Spring returns to the trees of Moling writes the spring's return to the earth, the willows green and the flowers bright, the trees of Moling (the old name of Nanjing) putting on new green; the man ages in the city of Jiankang writes the man lingering in Jiankang, the years growing old. Spring can return, and the man cannot — spring returns to the trees and the man ages in the city, spring's return set against the man's lingering, the phenology's newness and the fate's decline in contrast, the scene carrying the fate's grief, fused and weighty. The deeper layer: Moling and Jiankang both Nanjing, and the old capital Bianjing (where the poet once dwelt) already within the lost lands, the man ages in the city of Jiankang also carrying the grief of the native land's non-return. Within ten characters, the national grief and the personal feeling together, the word-craft weighty, the parallelism steady and the breath flowing, long praised by critics, precisely the typical brush of Yi'an's later ci writing the age's hardship through personal drift.
感月吟风多少事，如今老去无成
Of moons that moved me and winds I sang of, how many things there were; and now, grown old, I have achieved nothing.
感月吟风的多少往事，到如今老去，一事无成。
So many affairs of moon-feeling and wind-chant; now, old, I have achieved nothing.
此二句今昔对照，自伤身世。「感月吟风」指其夫妇昔日吟咏诗词、赏玩金石的风雅生活——南渡前与赵明诚在汴京、青州归来堂，赌书泼茶、唱和酬答，其乐融融；「多少事」三字收尽往昔欢愉，语极沉痛；「如今老去无成」以「无成」自伤——国破家亡、文物散佚、明诚病故，半生心血尽付东流，老来一事无成。一「多少」一「无成」，往昔之满与今日之空两相对照，倍增悲慨。此句由昔入今，是全词情感转折的枢纽：上片写景之深、人之滞，至此转入对一生的回顾与自伤，亦暗含对时局飘摇、中原沦陷的悲愤，是易安后期「以个人写家国」的典型笔墨，读之令人泫然。
These two lines contrast now and then, self-grieving the fate. Moon-feeling and wind-chant means the couple's old life of chanting verse and appreciating bronzes and stone — before the south fleeance, with Zhao Mingcheng at the Return-to-Truth Hall in Bianjing and Qingzhou, betting on books and splashing tea, singing and answering, the joy warm; the three words how many affairs gather the past delight, the tone grief-stricken; now, old, I have achieved nothing writes the self-grief in the achieved nothing — the broken country and family, the scattered relics, Mingcheng's death, half a life's labor poured into the flowing water, old and achieved nothing. The how many against the achieved nothing, the past's fullness against the present's emptiness, the grief doubled. This line moves from the past to the present, the hinge of the ci's emotional turn: the first stanza's deep scene and lingering man, turning here to the review and self-grief of a whole life, and secretly carrying the grief at the times' drifting and the central plain's fall, precisely the typical brush of Yi'an's later writing the nation through the personal, the reading moved to tears.
试灯无意思，踏雪没心情
The trying of the festival lanterns holds no interest; for treading the snow I have no heart.
试灯佳节毫无意趣，踏雪寻梅也提不起心情。
The lantern trial holds no interest; treading the snow, no mood at all.
结句以节俗无味收束全词，平淡见至哀。试灯是元宵前张灯试灯之俗，踏雪是文人踏雪寻梅之雅，皆昔日常乐之事，而词人如今「无意思」「没心情」——佳节雅事，全无意趣，正是万念俱灰的写照。此二句不着一哀字，而哀情自深：试灯、踏雪之乐，须有心境方能享受，词人国破家亡、孤身漂泊，纵有良辰美景，亦无心赏玩。看似平淡琐屑，实乃大痛，以淡语写至哀，返璞见痛。以口语入词，「无意思」「没心情」两两对举，重复中见出百无聊赖的绝望，是易安后期词「以闲淡语写沉痛情」的典范，与《永遇乐》「如今憔悴，风鬟霜鬓，怕见夜间出去」同一机杼，余哀不尽。
The close ends the ci in the festival's tastelessness, the plain words showing the extreme grief. The lantern trial the custom of hanging trial lanterns before the Lantern Festival, treading the snow the scholar's elegance of seeking the plum, both the old delights, and the poet now no interest, no mood at all — the festival and the elegance, all taste gone, precisely the portrait of the will burnt out. These two lines not one word of grief, and the grief self-deep: the lantern trial and snow-treading's joy require the mood to enjoy, and the poet's country broken and family lost, drifting alone, though the fair season and scene be there, no heart to appreciate. Seeming plain and trivial, in truth the great pain, writing the extreme grief in the plain words, returning to simplicity and showing the pain. The colloquial in the ci, no interest, no mood at all set side by side, the repetition showing the bored hopelessness, the model of Yi'an's later ci writing grief-stricken feeling in the idle plain words, the same loom as the Sound of Wu Gorge's now haggard, wind-tousled hair and frost temples, afraid to go out at night, the after-grief unending.
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Both write loneliness in the inner chamber, one as a young woman's idle sorrow and the other as the solitary grief of old age, which shows how a changed life shapes the world of a lyric.
《点绛唇》「寂寞深闺，柔肠一寸愁千缕」写前期闺中闲愁，虽曰寂寞，而愁绪轻倩，仍带着青春年少的娇柔；此《临江仙》写老境孤悲，三「深」字叠用，「老去无成」「憔悴凋零」字字沉痛。同写闺中孤寂，一为少女闲愁、一为老境孤悲，情感质地截然不同：前期之愁尚有期待，后期之悲已无望念。合观二词，可清楚看到南渡国变对易安词境的深刻重塑——从「寂寞深闺」的轻愁到「庭院深深」的沉郁，身世变迁如何改变了同一词人的笔墨与心境，亦见其词由前期清丽明快转向后期沉郁哀婉的完整轨迹。
李清照·永遇乐·落日熔金 Everlasting Joy - The Setting Sun Like Molten Gold 李清照 · 同作者，南渡后同以节俗无味写哀 Same (author / late loneliness and grief)Both are works of solitude and grief written after the flight south, and both use the staleness of festival custom to carry sorrow, which allows comparison of her sombre technique.
《永遇乐·落日熔金》「如今憔悴，风鬟霜鬓，怕见夜间出去」写元宵佳节无心出游，与此词「试灯无意思，踏雪没心情」同一机杼——皆以南渡后节俗之无味写万念俱灰之哀。二词同作于晚年，同以「试灯」「元宵」等节俗起兴，同以「淡语写至哀」的手法收束，可比较其沉郁手法的异同：一以今昔盛衰的铺叙写哀（永遇乐），以「中州盛日」与「如今憔悴」对照；一以深闭孤居的叠字写哀（临江仙），以三「深」字写心境之深。而皆以个人之哀写家国之痛，并见易安后期词「以闲淡语写沉痛情」的独特风貌，为其晚年双璧。
李清照·蝶恋花·暖雨晴风初破冻 Butterfly Loves Flower - Warm Rain and Clear Wind First Break the Ice 李清照 · 同作者，春景起兴的闺情词，前期明丽后期哀婉 Different (the same author's early spring chamber against her later Jiankang years)Both are boudoir lyrics opening from a spring scene, the earlier bright and the later plaintive, so the pair shows how one image can carry quite different feeling.
《蝶恋花》「暖雨晴风初破冻，柳眼梅腮，已觉春心动」写初春闺情，暖雨晴风、柳眼梅腮，意象明丽轻快，词心跃动；此《临江仙》亦以「柳梢梅萼渐分明」的春景起兴，而接以「人老建康城」，春意愈明，人愈见老，哀婉沉郁。同写春景、同为闺情，一为前期明丽之春、一为后期哀婉之春，同一「柳」「梅」意象在不同心境下投射出截然不同的情感色彩——前期见春而心动，后期见春而伤老。合观二词，可体会易安词由「春心动」到「老去无成」的完整转变，亦可见同一意象在不同人生阶段的情感内涵差异，正是「一切景语皆情语」的绝佳注脚。