宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
六幺令·绿阴春尽
Liunyao Ling: Spring's End in the Green Shade
绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁。
晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学。
一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉。
画帘遮币。
新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏。
前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答。
昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押。
都待笙歌散了，记取留时霎。
不消红蜡。
闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角。
At dusk her jade-green brows, cut in the palace style, artfully copy distant hills.
An inch of wild heart, unspoken, is already betrayed by the glances of her rippling eyes.
The painted screen half hides her from sight; the tune she newly arranged is wondrous fine, and she secretly allows some idle admirer to steal it away.
Your last letter was full of coded phrases; my wit too shallow, I could not answer its sorrow.
Last night's poem was a palindrome brocade; the rhymes too hazardous, and I too listless to choose them.
When the singing and pipes are done, remember the moment we lingered, no red candle needed.
After the idle clouds drift home, the moon rests at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers.
Meaning
A boudoir lyric of late spring: a woman paints her eyebrows, arranges a tune, answers letters in coded phrases, and sits through the night watching flower shadows move. Every gesture hides a wild, unspoken heart that her eyes betray, and the lyric ends at the old railing's corner under the moon, the scene of remembered meetings.
绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁。晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学。一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉。画帘遮币。新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏。前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答。昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押。都待笙歌散了，记取留时霎。不消红蜡。闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Green shade deepens, spring is done; drifting catkins circle the fragrant bower. At dusk she pencils her brows in the palace fashion, artfully copying distant hills. An inch of wild heart, unspoken, is already betrayed by the glances of her rippling eyes. Behind the painted screen half hidden, her newly arranged tune is so fine she secretly lets an admirer steal a copy. Your last letter was full of hints my shallow wit could not answer; last night's palindrome poem had rhymes too hazardous for my listless pen. When the singing is done, remember the moment we lingered, no red candle needed. After the idle clouds drift home, the moon rests at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers. [Structure] The upper stanza moves from scenery to cosmetics to music, each layer of adornment betraying the heart it hides; the lower stanza moves from letters to poems to the night's end, every art of correspondence failing to carry the weight of feeling. [Imagery] Yan Jidao's hallmark is plain words with deep aftertaste: the unspoken heart, the stolen tune, the hazardous rhymes, everything happening in gestures left unfinished.
【白话串讲】 晏几道写《六幺令·绿阴春尽》：“绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁”——“一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉”——“画帘遮币。新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏”——他写少女心事——一寸狂心未说。 【意象与手法】 “绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁”以飞絮写春尽；“一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉”写少女心事；“画帘遮币。新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏”写传曲；结以“闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角”以月下旧处写忆。含蓄婉转。 【情感与主旨】 晏几道写闺中怀人之作，写女子春尽画眉、怀人寄书的情态与心事，含蓄婉转，体现晏几道词“淡语皆有味”的特色。 【名句点睛】 常考“一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉”以横波写少女心事；“闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角”以月下旧处写忆念。
Background
Yan Jidao (c. 1038 to 1110), courtesy name Shuyuan and literary name Xiaoshan, was the son of the statesman-poet Yan Zhu; the two are remembered together as the 'Two Yans'. A native of Linchuan in Jiangxi, he spent his life in minor posts and wrote almost exclusively of parting and remembrance in the delicate wanyue manner. This boudoir lyric belongs to his most characteristic vein: not narrative but a sequence of small, intimate actions, painting brows, teaching a tune, reading a coded letter, held together by restraint.
《六幺令·绿阴春尽》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」。此词写闺中怀人。词中「绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁」写春尽之景；「晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学」写画眉之景；「一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉」写心中之情；「新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏」写新曲之妙；「前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答」写寄书之愁；「昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押」写回文诗之忆；「闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角」写月下旧处之忆。晏几道多写离情，此词以女子春尽画眉、怀人寄书之情写闺中幽怀，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《六幺令·绿阴春尽》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 advances by gesture rather than statement. The unspoken heart given away by the eyes, the tune allowed to be stolen, the palindrome poem left unrhymed: each action implies its own opposite, so desire is present everywhere and declared nowhere. The closing image is pure scene-work: after the clouds and the music are gone, the moon at the old railing's corner stands where the loved one once stood. Yan Jidao's technique of ending on scenery rather than sentiment gives the lyric its long, quiet resonance.
此词艺术上以「含蓄婉转、以态写情」见长。全词上片写画眉之景与心中之情，下片写寄书之愁与月下旧处之忆。上片「绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁」写春尽之景：绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁；「晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学」写画眉之景：晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学；「一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉」写心中之情：一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉；「画帘遮币。新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏」写新曲之妙：画帘遮币，新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏。下片「前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答」写寄书之愁：前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答；「昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押」写回文诗之忆；「都待笙歌散了，记取留时霎」写留时之忆；「不消红蜡。闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角」写月下旧处之忆。全词含蓄婉转，以态写情，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。
Allusions
The eyebrow style 'like distant mountains' comes from the tradition that Zhuo Wenjun's brows resembled far-off peaks; 'rippling waves' (hengbo) is the standing metaphor for a woman's glancing eyes. The palace-fashion brows name the court style of her make-up. 'Huiwen' refers to the palindrome verse that Su Hui embroidered in brocade for her husband, a woman's wordplay sent across distance. The 'jade terrace' is the immortals' terrace, borrowed here for the moonlit bower. The allusions are dissolved into the texture of the scene, never displayed.
词中「翠眉宫样」「远山」「横波」「回纹」「红蜡」「闲云」等语，皆含典故故实。「翠眉宫样」写宫中样式的翠眉，「巧把远山学」用卓文君「眉色如望远山」之典，写画眉如远山；「横波」以水波喻女子之眼波，「已向横波觉」写其心已从眼波中透出；「回纹」用苏蕙织锦回文诗之典，「昨夜诗有回纹」写回文诗；「红蜡」写红烛，「不消红蜡」写不必红烛；「闲云」写浮云，古诗词多以闲云写超然。词人以翠眉宫样、远山、横波、回纹等典入词，不着痕迹，而把闺中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
Yan Jidao's lyrics were praised by contemporaries for plain words, all with flavor, and this piece is a model of that quality. Later anthologists valued the couplet 'an inch of wild heart, unspoken, already betrayed by the glances of her rippling eyes' as the lyric's eye, concealment and exposure compressed into one line. The closing 'the moon rests at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers' has been compared, for its scene-carries-the-feeling technique, with his own 'the bright moon of that time is still here; it once shone on the returning rosy clouds'. Together with 'Zhegu Tian' it shows the two faces of his boudoir art: one recalls a feast, the other a night's withheld heart.
这首《六幺令·绿阴春尽》，是晏几道写闺中怀人之作，写女子春尽画眉、怀人寄书之情，含蓄婉转。上片写画眉之景与心中之情：「绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁。晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学」——绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁；晚来翠眉宫样，巧把远山学。写春尽之景与画眉之景：绿阴春尽、飞絮绕阁，正是春尽之时；晚来画翠眉、学远山，写女子妆饰之态；「一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉」——一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉。写心中之情：一寸狂心，虽未说出口，已从眼波中透出——这「狂心未说，已向横波觉」，是全词上片之眼，以眼波写心中之情，含蓄而传神；「画帘遮币。新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏」——画帘遮币，新翻曲妙，暗许闲人带偷掏。写新曲之妙：新翻曲妙，暗许闲人偷学。下片写寄书之愁与月下旧处之忆：「前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答」——前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答。写寄书之愁：前度之书多隐语，意浅愁难答；「昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押」——昨夜诗有回纹，韵险还慵押。写回文诗之忆：昨夜回文诗，韵险还慵押；「都待笙歌散了，记取留时霎。不消红蜡。闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角」——都待笙歌散了，记取留时霎；不消红蜡；闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角。写月下旧处之忆：笙歌散后，记取留时；闲云归后，月照庭花旧阑角。这「月在庭花旧阑角」，是全词之结：月照旧阑角，正是当年旧处，如今人去，唯月犹在。全词含蓄婉转，以态写情，正是晏几道「婉约深婉」词风的典型，也是其词中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁。
Green shade deepens, spring is done; drifting catkins circle the fragrant bower.
绿阴春尽，飞絮绕香阁。
Green shade, spring at an end; flying catkins circle the perfumed chamber.
首二句写春尽之景，起笔即见其时。「绿阴春尽」写绿阴春尽，「绿阴」写树已成阴，「春尽」写春已将尽；「飞絮绕香阁」写飞絮绕香阁，「飞絮」写柳絮纷飞，「绕香阁」写其绕于香阁。两句一写绿阴春尽、一写飞絮绕阁，写尽春尽之景，也暗含春光易逝、人如飞絮之意，起笔即定下惆怅之调，为全词写闺中怀人作铺垫，是「以景起兴」的妙笔。
The first two lines write the spring's end, the season rising at the first stroke. Green shade, spring at an end writes the shade grown, the spring near its end; flying catkins circle the perfumed chamber writes the catkins swirling, circling the chamber. Two lines, one the green shade and the spring's end, one the circling catkins, exhausting the spring-end scene, and secretly carrying the time's fleetingness and the man like the catkin, the opening setting the wistful tone, storing ground for the ci's chamber longing, the wondrous stroke of rising on scene.
一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉。
An inch of wild heart, unspoken, is already betrayed by the glances of her rippling eyes.
一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉。
An inch of wild heart, unspoken, already read in the darting glance.
此二句写心中之情，是全词上片之眼。「一寸狂心未说」写一寸狂心未说，「一寸狂心」写其心中之狂喜或激情，「未说」写其尚未说出；「已向横波觉」写已向横波觉，「横波」以水波喻眼波，「觉」写其从眼波中被察觉。两句一写狂心未说、一写已向横波觉，以「未说」与「已觉」相对，写其心中之情虽未说出口、却已从眼波中透出——欲掩而难掩，正是少女怀春之态。以眼波写情，含蓄而传神，是「以态写情」的点睛之笔。
These two lines write the heart's feeling, the first stanza's eye. An inch of wild heart, unspoken writes the inch of wild heart's frenzy or passion, the unspoken not yet uttered; already read in the darting glance writes the horizontal wave for the eye's glance, the sensed from the glance. Two lines, one the unspoken wild heart, one the already-read glance, the unspoken set against the already-sensed, writing the feeling though unspoken and yet already shining through the eyes — the wishing to hide and the hard to hide, precisely the maiden's spring mood. Writing feeling through the glance, restrained and vivid, the telling stroke of writing feeling through bearing.
前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答。
Your last letter was full of coded phrases; my wit too shallow, I could not answer its sorrow.
前度书多隐语，意浅愁难答。
The last letter was full of riddling phrases; my meaning shallow, my grief makes it hard to answer.
此二句写寄书之愁，是全词写愁的关键。「前度书多隐语」写前度书多隐语，「前度书」写前次之书信，「多隐语」写其多含蓄隐晦之语；「意浅愁难答」写意浅愁难答，「意浅」写其意之浅、未能解其深意，「愁难答」写其愁于难以作答。两句一写前书多隐语、一写意浅愁难答，以「多隐语」写书信之含蓄、以「愁难答」写其难解难答之愁，写尽闺中女子对情人书信欲答而难答之情。以书写情，含蓄而深挚，是「以书写情」的妙笔。
These two lines write the letter-sending grief, the key of the ci's grief. The last letter was full of riddling phrases writes the previous letter, the many hidden phrases; my meaning shallow, my grief makes it hard to answer writes the shallow meaning and the hard answering. Two lines, one the previous letter's riddles, one the shallow meaning and the hard answer, the many riddles the letter's restraint, the hard-to-answer the grief of the hard reading, exhausting the chamber woman's feeling toward the lover's letter, the wishing to answer and the hard to answer. Writing feeling through the letter, restrained and deep, the wondrous stroke of writing feeling through writing.
闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角。
After the idle clouds drift home, the moon rests at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers.
闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角。
After the idle cloud has returned, the moon shines on the old railing's corner by the courtyard flowers.
尾二句写月下旧处之忆，是全词立意的落点。「闲云归后」写闲云归后，「闲云」写浮云，「归后」写其已归；「月在庭花旧阑角」写月在庭花旧阑角，「庭花」写庭院之花，「旧阑角」写旧时之阑角。两句一写闲云归后、一写月在旧阑角，以「月在庭花旧阑角」写月照旧处、而斯人不在，写尽人去庭空、唯月犹在之情——月犹照旧阑角，而旧时之人已去。以景作结，含蓄而有尽味，是「以景结情」的点睛之笔。
The last two lines write the moonlit memory of the old place, the landing point of the ci. After the idle cloud has returned writes the idle cloud, the returned; the moon shines on the old railing's corner by the courtyard flowers writes the courtyard flowers, the old railing's corner. Two lines, one the cloud's return, one the moon at the old corner, the moon on the old place and the person gone, exhausting the man-gone-court-empty and the moon remaining — the moon still shining on the old railing, and the old person gone. Closing in scene, restrained and flavorful, the telling stroke of ending feeling in scene.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Yan Jidao's 'Zhegu Tian', with 'brocade sleeves eagerly offer the jade cup; that year we gave up soberness for flushed faces' and 'still fearing this meeting is a dream', writes of past revelry and the dreamlike reunion, a masterpiece of remembrance. 'Liunyao Ling' instead writes, in 'an inch of wild heart, unspoken, already betrayed by the glances of her rippling eyes' and 'the moon rests at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers', a withheld heart and the memory of an old moonlit spot. Both are by Yan Jidao and both recall boudoir days past: one recalls a feast and writes feeling through the dream of meeting, the other a withheld heart and writes feeling through glances and moonlit railing; one is reunion, the other quiet remembrance. Read together, they show the two registers of Yan Jidao's tender, restrained boudoir art.
晏几道《鹧鸪天·彩袖殷勤》「彩袖殷勤捧玉钟，当年拚却醉颜红」「犹恐相逢是梦中」，写当年之欢与相逢如梦，是晏几道写忆旧的名篇；《六幺令·绿阴春尽》则以「一寸狂心未说，已向横波觉」「闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角」写女子狂心未说、月下旧处之忆。两词同出晏几道之手、同写闺中忆旧之情：一写彩袖捧钟之旧欢、以相逢如梦写情，一写狂心未说之幽怀、以眼波月阑写情；一写相逢、一写幽忆，并读正可见晏几道「婉约深婉」写闺情的两种情致，皆含蓄深婉。
晏几道·临江仙·梦后楼台高锁 Linjiang Xian: After the Dream the Tower Stands Locked 晏几道 · 同出晏几道之手，同写人去楼空之忆，一写落花独立微雨燕双飞、一写月在庭花旧阑角，皆于景中见深情 Both by Yan Jidao, both mourning an empty chamber where the person is gone: one ends in 'fallen petals, she stands alone', the other in 'the moon at the old railing corner', deep feeling seen through scenery.Yan Jidao's 'Linjiang Xian', with 'fallen petals, she stands alone; fine rain, swallows fly in pairs' and 'the bright moon of that time is still here; it once shone on the returning rosy clouds', writes of the empty tower and the figure standing among petals, his most famous lyric. 'Liunyao Ling' writes instead of 'the moon resting at the old corner of the railing among courtyard flowers', the moon shining on the old spot with the person gone. Both are by Yan Jidao and both mourn an empty chamber: one writes feeling through the scene of fallen petals and paired swallows, the other through the moon at the old railing; one is the grief after the dream, the other the remembrance at spring's end. Read together, they show Yan Jidao's model of restrained, deep feeling in remembrance, both seeing deep feeling through scenery.
晏几道《晏几道·临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》「落花人独立，微雨燕双飞」「当时明月在，曾照彩云归」，写人去楼空、落花独立之怀，是晏几道最著名的词；《六幺令·绿阴春尽》则以「闲云归后，月在庭花旧阑角」写月照旧阑角、斯人已去。两词同出晏几道之手、同写人去楼空之忆：一写落花独立微雨燕双飞、以景写情，一写月在庭花旧阑角、以月写忆；一为梦后之怀、一为春尽之忆，并读正可见晏几道「婉约深婉」写怀人的典范，皆于景中见深情。