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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

留春令·画屏天畔

To the Tune of Liuchunling: The Painted Screen at the Horizon

晏几道

Yan Jidao

画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水。
手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。
别浦高楼曾漫倚。
对江南千里。
楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。

A painted screen at the horizon's edge; waking from the dream, dimly, amid the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles.
I take up a red letter sheet to send my letter to you, writing of endless sorrow over spring.
By the parting ford's high tower I once leaned idly at length,
facing a thousand miles of the southern land.
Below the tower, in the sound of waters that divide and flow apart, are the tears of that day — the tears I shed leaning from the height.
Listen

Meaning

A lyric of longing written in the language of dream and letter. The poet wakes to a dream of the Ten Isles far beyond the painted screen, takes up red paper to write to the one he misses, and then remembers the high tower by the parting ford where he once leaned facing a thousand miles of the south. The poem's discovery is that yesterday's tears are still audible, dissolved into the sound of dividing waters beneath the tower.

画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水。手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里。楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Waking from a dream of the immortal isles, he writes his beloved a letter full of spring sorrow; then memory carries him back to the tower by the parting ford, where he once leaned facing the southern distances; and there, in the noise of waters parting below the tower, he still hears the tears he shed that day. [Structure] The upper stanza is dream and writing (present action), the lower stanza is memory (past action); the two are stitched together by 'that day' and 'now,' past and present sounding at once. The poem moves from the farthest reaches of myth to one sound of water, and the narrowing is the whole design. [Imagery] Distance is the poem's element: a painted screen at the horizon, the Ten Isles, a thousand miles of the south, and finally the sound of dividing water — the widest and the narrowest of images joined by the word 'tears.'

【白话串讲】 晏几道写《留春令·画屏天畔》:“画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水”——“手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事”——“别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里”——“楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪”——他写伤春——有当日凭高泪。 【意象与手法】 “画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水”写梦境之远;“手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事”写寄书伤春;“别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里”写凭高忆旧;结以“楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪”以分流水写当日之泪。含蓄婉转、以景写情。 【情感与主旨】 晏几道写怀人伤春之作,写梦中远游、寄书伤春与凭高忆旧,以“当日凭高泪”写思念之深,是晏几道词中婉约深婉的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水”以十洲云水写梦境之远;“楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪”以分流水写当日之泪。

Background

Yan Jidao (c. 1038-c. 1110), courtesy name Shuyuan and literary name Xiaoshan, was the seventh son of the chancellor Yan Shu — the pair are known as the 'Two Yans' of the Northern Song. From the heights of his father's household he sank into obscurity and poverty, and his lyrics are the record of a man who keeps remembering a vanished world. His collection Xiaoshan Ci became the summit of the small lyric form in the Northern Song; Huang Tingjian praised its 'clear, strong and halting' music, and Feng Xu named him, with Qin Guan, one of 'the true heartbroken men of old.' This lyric, on the tune Liuchunling ('Commanding Spring to Stay'), belongs to his most characteristic vein: dream, letter, memory, and water — the whole machinery of absence.

《留春令·画屏天畔》为北宋词人晏几道所作词。晏几道(1038—1110),字叔原,号小山,临川(今江西抚州)人,晏殊之子,北宋词人,词风婉约,多写离情别恨,与其父晏殊并称「二晏」。此词写怀人伤春。词中「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」写梦境之远;「手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事」写寄书伤春;「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」写凭高忆旧;「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写当日凭高之泪。晏几道多写离情,此词以梦回十洲、寄书伤春、凭高忆旧之情写怀人,含蓄婉转,是晏几道词中的名篇,也是其「婉约深婉」词风的典型体现。此篇《留春令·画屏天畔》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《留春令·画屏天畔》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 craft is a controlled narrowing of scale. It opens at the horizon's edge with a painted screen and the Ten Isles of the immortals — the widest frame available to a poet — then shrinks, stanza by stanza, to a sheet of red writing paper, then to a tower by a parting ford, and finally to a sound of water dividing below that tower. The final couplet is the masterpiece of the whole design: 'below the tower, in the sound of waters that divide and flow apart, are the tears of that day.' Water that divides is the oldest Chinese figure for parting (the classic Song of Dividing Waters exists for this purpose), and to place the tears of long ago inside the sound of the present river is to fuse past and present into a single sensation. Nothing is explained; the ear is asked to do the remembering.

此词艺术上以「今昔对照、由梦入情」见长。全词上片写梦境与寄书,下片写凭高忆旧。上片「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」写梦境之远:画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水;「手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事」写寄书伤春:手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。下片「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」写凭高忆旧:别浦高楼曾漫倚,对江南千里;「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写当日凭高之泪:楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。全词今昔对照,由梦入情,是晏几道词中的名篇。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 'Ten Isles' are the ten island-paradises of the immortals described in the Account of the Isles Within the Sea, the standard mythological geography of the Taoist otherworld; to wake 'amid the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles' is to say the dream has traveled farther than any earthly road. The 'red letter sheet' (hong jian) is the tinted stationery of intimate correspondence in the Tang and Song — red was the color of private letters between lovers and close friends. The 'parting ford' (bie pu) is the river crossing where farewells were always spoken, and 'waters that divide' (fen liu shui) is an old poetic figure for separation itself: one stream becomes two, like two people going two ways. Behind these stands the whole tradition of the 'poem commanding spring to stay' — the attempt, doomed and moving, to hold a vanishing season and a vanishing person.

词中「画屏天畔」「十洲」「红笺」「别浦」「分流水」等语,皆含典故故实。「画屏天畔」写画屏之上云天相接,暗含梦境之远;「十洲」用《海内十洲记》之典,指祖洲、瀛洲等十洲,为神仙所居之地,「十洲云水」写梦中所至之十洲云水,极写其远;「红笺」指红色笺纸,为传情之信笺;「别浦」指送别之水滨,「别浦高楼曾漫倚」写曾于送别处高楼倚栏;「分流水」用「分流水」之意,写水之分流,暗含分别之意,「楼下分流水声中」写楼下分流之水声。词人以画屏天畔、十洲、红笺、别浦、分流水等意象入词,不着痕迹,而把怀人之情写得真切可感,是善于熔铸典故的体现。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。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

Among Yan Jidao's lyrics this is the most perfectly distilled. Where his Linjiangxian builds its effect through explicit structure — counting hours, naming the friend — here everything happens through distance and sound: the screen at the horizon, the isles of dream, the thousand miles of the south, and finally the dividing water that carries the poem's only stated emotion, the tears of 'that day.' Later critics treated the closing couplet as the purest example of Yan Jidao's method: never naming the feeling, but placing it where the senses can find it. The tune's title — commanding spring to stay — is itself the poem's quiet confession that the command cannot work.

这首《留春令·画屏天畔》,是晏几道写怀人伤春之作,写梦回十洲、寄书伤春、凭高忆旧之情,含蓄婉转。上片写梦境与寄书:「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」——画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水。写梦境之远:画屏之上云天相接,梦回之时依稀仿佛,身在十洲云水之间——以十洲云水写梦中所至之远,正是所怀之人所在之远;「手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事」——手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。写寄书伤春:手拈红笺,寄书予人,写尽无限伤春之事——梦中不能相会,唯以红笺寄书,写尽伤春怀人之情。下片写凭高忆旧:「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」——别浦高楼曾漫倚,对江南千里。写凭高忆旧:曾于别浦高楼倚栏,面对江南千里——当年送别,正于此高楼倚栏,面对江南千里;「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」——楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。写当日凭高之泪:楼下分流之水声中,有当日凭高之泪——当年在此凭高送别之泪,犹在水分流之声中。这「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」,是全词之结:以分流水之声写当日凭高之泪,今昔对照,含蓄深挚——当年的泪,已融入流水声中。全词今昔对照,由梦入情,正是晏几道「婉约深婉」词风的典型,也是其词中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Ci (song lyric) to the tune Liuchunling — a double-diao form of fifty characters, five lines in each of the two stanzas.词(留春令,双调)
Rhyme The lyric rhymes on oblique (ze) tones of the zhi category: in the upper stanza shui and shi, in the lower stanza yi, li and lei. The rhymes are few and fall slowly, so the sound retreats rather than presses — a hushed obliqueness suited to a poem spoken between dream and memory.此词为《留春令》调,双调五十字,上片下片各五句。押仄声韵:上片「水」「事」押寘部韵;下片「倚」「里」「泪」押寘部韵。词体依词谱而定,句式长短错落,音节随情起伏,正与写怀人伤春的含蓄婉转相称,也见其以词写闺情的自然。
Tone pattern The line-lengths are irregular even for a ci: three-word bursts at the opening ('a painted screen at the horizon's edge'), a seven-word line of action ('I take up a red letter sheet to send my letter to you'), a six-word line of memory ('by the parting ford's high tower I once leaned idly at length'), and a final nine-word line that gathers tower, water, sound and tears into one breath. The rhythm moves from drifting to slowing to gathering — dream, letter, memory, sound.句式上,上片「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」写梦境之远,音节悠远;「手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事」写寄书伤春,音节低回;下片「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」写凭高忆旧,音节舒徐;「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写当日凭高之泪,音节怅惘。全词音节随情起伏,由悠远而低回、由舒徐而怅惘,正合词体「长短句」之妙,读来如怀人伤春、凭高忆旧之音,含蓄而动人。
Reading note The Liuchunling is a rare tune, and Yan Jidao exploits its smallness for an effect of compression. Fifty characters are made to hold a dream journey, a letter, a memory, and a sound of water. The oblique rhymes keep everything low-voiced; the irregular line-lengths mimic the unsteady progress of a man moving between sleeping and waking, past and present. The final long line, carrying tears inside the noise of dividing water, is the form's whole purpose — one long breath in which the years are gathered and released.此词为《留春令》调,是晏几道词中的名篇,也是其「婉约深婉」词风的典型体现。全词的艺术特色在于「今昔对照、由梦入情」:上片「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」写梦境之远、「手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事」写寄书伤春;下片「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」写凭高忆旧、「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写当日凭高之泪。全词今昔对照,由梦入情。尤为精妙者,是「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」以十洲云水写梦中所至之远,含蓄深婉;而「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」以分流水声写当日凭高之泪,今昔对照,正是晏几道「婉约深婉」写怀人的典范,为历代词选所常收。

Line by line

画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水。

A painted screen at the horizon's edge; waking from the dream, dimly, amid the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles.

画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水。

By the painted screen at heaven's edge, waking from the dream, dimly, the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles.

首三句写梦境之远,起笔即见其远。「画屏天畔」写画屏天畔,「画屏」写屏风,「天畔」写云天相接之处;「梦回依约」写梦回依约,「梦回」写其从梦中醒来,「依约」写其依稀仿佛;「十洲云水」写十洲云水,「十洲」为神仙所居之地,写梦中所至。三句以「天畔」写其远、以「十洲云水」写梦中所至之神仙境界,写尽梦境之远——梦中所至,是那十洲云水之远,正是所怀之人所在之远。以梦写远,含蓄而深挚,是「以梦起兴」的妙笔。

The first three lines write the dream's distance, the distance rising at the first stroke. By the painted screen at heaven's edge writes the painted screen, the screen, the heaven's edge where cloud and sky meet; waking from the dream, dimly writes the waking, the waking from the dream, the dimly the vague; the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles writes the Ten Isles, the dwelling place of the immortals, the dreamed destination. Three lines, the heaven's edge the distance, the Ten Isles' clouds and waters the immortal realm in the dream, exhausting the dream's distance — the dreamed destination, the clouds and waters of the Ten Isles' distance, precisely the distance of the beloved. Writing the distance through the dream, restrained and deep, the wondrous stroke of rising on the dream.

手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。

I take up a red letter sheet to send my letter to you, writing of endless sorrow over spring.

手拈红笺寄人书,写无限、伤春事。

Holding the red notepaper, a letter to her, writing endless spring-grief affairs.

此二句写寄书伤春,是全词写情的关键。「手拈红笺寄人书」写手拈红笺寄人书,「手拈」写其手拈笺纸,「红笺」为传情之信笺,「寄人书」写寄书予人;「写无限、伤春事」写写无限伤春事,「无限」写其情之无穷,「伤春事」写其伤春之事。两句一写手拈红笺寄书、一写写尽伤春之事,以「红笺」写其传情、以「无限伤春事」写其情之深,写尽梦中不能相会、唯以红笺寄书之怀人伤春之情。以书写情,含蓄而深挚,是「以书写情」的点睛之笔。

These two lines write the letter-sending and the spring grief, the key of the ci's feeling. Holding the red notepaper, a letter to her writes the hand on the red paper, the hand holding the notepaper, the red paper the feeling-bearing letter, the letter to her the sending to the beloved; writing endless spring-grief affairs writes the infinite spring grief, the infinite the feeling's boundlessness, the spring grief the affairs of the grief. Two lines, one the hand on the red paper and the letter, one the writing of the endless grief, the red paper the feeling-bearing, the endless grief the feeling's depth, exhausting the dream's non-meeting and the red-paper letter's longing for the beloved. Writing feeling through the letter, restrained and deep, the telling stroke of writing feeling through writing.

别浦高楼曾漫倚。

By the parting ford's high tower I once leaned idly at length.

别浦高楼曾漫倚。

By the parting water, in the high tower, I once leaned idly.

此句写凭高忆旧,是全词由今入昔的转折。「别浦高楼曾漫倚」写别浦高楼曾漫倚,「别浦」指送别之水滨,「高楼」写高楼,「曾漫倚」写曾经倚栏。一句以「别浦」写送别之地、以「曾漫倚」写当年倚栏,写其当年曾于送别处之高楼上倚栏——正是当年送别凭高之处。以「曾」写追忆,含蓄而深挚,是「由今入昔」的转折之笔,也是全词今昔对照的枢纽。

This line writes the leaning on the height in memory, the ci's turn from the present to the past. By the parting water, in the high tower, I once leaned idly: the parting water the water's edge of farewell, the high tower the high building, the once leaned the old railing. One line, the parting water the place of farewell, the once leaned the old railing, writing the old leaning at the farewell place's high tower — precisely the old place of the height and the farewell. The word once writes the recollection, restrained and deep, the turning stroke from the present to the past, and the hinge of the ci's now-and-then contrast.

楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。

Below the tower, in the sound of waters that divide and flow apart, are the tears of that day — the tears I shed leaning from the height.

楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪。

In the sound of the divided water below, there are the tears I shed, gazing from the height, that day.

尾二句写当日凭高之泪,是全词立意的落点。「楼下分流水声中」写楼下分流水声中,「分流水」写分流之水,「水声中」写水流之声;「有当日、凭高泪」写有当日凭高泪,「当日」写当年,「凭高泪」写凭高之泪。两句一写楼下分流水声、一写其中有当日凭高泪,以「分流水声中」写今日所闻、以「当日凭高泪」写当年之泪,写当年送别凭高之泪,已融入今日分流之水声中——当年的泪,犹在流水声中。以声写泪,今昔对照,含蓄深挚,是全词最动人处,也是「以声写情」的点睛之笔。

The last two lines write the tears of that day's height, the landing point of the ci. In the sound of the divided water below writes the divided water's sound, the divided water the branching stream, the water's sound the flowing; there are the tears I shed, gazing from the height, that day writes the that day, the height-gazing tears. Two lines, one the divided water's sound below, one the height-gazing tears within, the divided water's sound the heard today, the height-gazing tears the old tears, writing the old farewell's height-gazing tears, already melted into today's divided water's sound — the old tears, still within the water's sound. Writing tears through sound, the now-and-then contrast, restrained and deep, the most moving place of the ci, the telling stroke of writing feeling through sound.

Study

Word focus

依约 'Dimly' — the word that renders the texture of the half-woken dream. 'After the dream, dimly' describes neither the dream nor waking but the blurred boundary between them, where the Ten Isles still seem present yet cannot be grasped. Two syllables that give the lyric its characteristic softness of focus. 「依约」写梦境依稀仿佛,是写梦境之远的关键。「梦回依约」着一「依约」,写其梦回时依稀仿佛——着一「依约」,写梦境之朦胧模糊,梦中所见之十洲云水,依稀仿佛。两字写尽梦境之朦胧,是「以词写梦」的点睛之词。「依约」一字之用而全篇生色,与诗中情韵相为表里,正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会,自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
拈 'To pick up' (between the fingers) — the delicate verb with which the letter is lifted. Where a stronger verb (grasp, snatch) would suggest urgency, 'to pick up between the fingers' conveys hesitation and care: the paper is weightless but the act is deliberate, as if the sheet itself were fragile with feeling. 「拈」字写手拈红笺,是写寄书之态的关键。「手拈红笺寄人书」着一「拈」,写手拈笺纸——着一「拈」字,写其以指拈起笺纸之态,见其寄书之郑重、之深情。一字写尽寄书之态,是「以一字写态」的妙笔。「拈」一字之用而全篇生色,与诗中情韵相为表里,正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会,自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
漫 'Idly / at length / aimlessly' — the adverb of leaning at the tower rail. It compresses two things: the leisure of an afternoon spent leaning with nothing to do, and the duration (the leaning went on and on). The single word makes the past visible as a long, slow posture — the shape memory leaves behind. 「漫」字写曾漫倚高楼,是写凭高忆旧的关键。「别浦高楼曾漫倚」着一「漫」,写曾经漫倚——着一「漫」字,写当年倚栏之随意、之长久,倚栏漫望。一字写尽当年凭高之态,是「以一字写态」的点睛之词。「漫」一字之用而全篇生色,与诗中情韵相为表里,正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会,自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
当日 'That day' — the pivot of the whole lyric, the two characters that join past to present. Everything before them is memory ('that day' at the tower); everything after is hearing ('now' at the water). With two flat words the poet turns a landscape into a recording of his own grief. 「当日」写当年凭高之日,是写今昔对照的关键。「有当日、凭高泪」着一「当日」,写当年之日——着一「当日」,写当年凭高之泪,与今日分流之水声相对,今昔对照。两字写尽今昔之对照,是「以词写忆」的点睛之词。「当日」一字之用而全篇生色,与诗中情韵相为表里,正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会,自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

晏几道·临江仙·梦后楼台高锁 Yan Jidao, To the Tune of Linjiangxian: After the Dream the Tower Stands Locked High 晏几道 · 同出晏几道之手,同写梦回忆旧之情,一写梦后楼台高锁与落花独立、一写梦回十洲云水与别浦高楼,皆于梦中见怀人之情 Both are Yan Jidao lyrics of remembering the beloved through dream; one wakes to find the tower locked and empty, the other wakes with the dream still faintly present and writes a letter.

'After the dream the tower stands locked high; sober, the curtain hangs low' — the famous opening of Yan Jidao's best-known lyric — describes the moment after a dream reunion, when waking reveals only an empty house; 'the moon of those days is still here, it once shone on the returning colored clouds' places the whole grief in one unchanged moon. Liuchunling begins instead from the dream still lingering ('waking from the dream, dimly') and answers it with action: the red letter, the memory of the tower, the tears inside the dividing water. One lyric looks at the empty house after the dream; the other carries the dream forward into paper and water — two faces of the same homesickness.

晏几道《临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》「梦后楼台高锁,酒醒帘幕低垂」「当时明月在,曾照彩云归」,写梦后酒醒、人去楼空之怀,是晏几道最著名的词;《留春令·画屏天畔》则以「画屏天畔,梦回依约,十洲云水」「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写梦回十洲、凭高忆旧。两词同出晏几道之手、同写梦回忆旧之情:一写梦后楼台高锁、以落花明月写情,一写梦回十洲云水、以分流水声写泪;一为梦后之怀、一为梦回之忆,并读正可见晏几道「婉约深婉」写忆旧的两种情景,皆于梦中见怀人之情。

晏殊·蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露 Yan Shu, To the Tune of Dielianhua: The Fence Orchids Sorrow in Mist, the Orchids Weep Like Dew 晏殊 · 同写伤春怀人、凭高望远,一写独上高楼望尽天涯路、一写别浦高楼曾漫倚对江南千里,皆以凭高望远写怀人 Both lyrics climb a high tower to gaze toward the beloved; father and son, one autumnal and broad, the other dreamlike and narrow.

Yan Shu — Yan Jidao's father — writes 'last night the west wind withered the green trees; alone I climb the high tower and gaze to the end of the sky's road,' the most famous climb-and-gaze in Song lyric: autumn, distance, and a gaze that sees nothing. Yan Jidao answers with 'by the parting ford's high tower I once leaned idly at length, facing a thousand miles of the southern land,' and then adds what his father left implicit: not only the gaze but the tears, still audible in the water below. The father's lyric widens until the road ends; the son's narrows until only a sound remains — the difference between the Two Yans in a single image.

晏殊《蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露》「昨夜西风凋碧树,独上高楼,望尽天涯路」,写秋日离恨、独上高楼望尽天涯,是宋词写离愁的名篇;晏几道《留春令·画屏天畔》则以「别浦高楼曾漫倚。对江南千里」「楼下分流水声中,有当日、凭高泪」写别浦高楼倚栏、对江南千里。两词同写伤春怀人、凭高望远:一写独上高楼望尽天涯路、以望尽写怅,一写别浦高楼对江南千里、以流水声写泪;一为父晏殊之温润、一为子晏几道之深婉,并读正可见「二晏」写凭高望远怀人的传承与不同,皆以凭高望远写怀人。