宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
满庭芳·夏日溧水
Man Ting Fang: A Summer Day at Lishui
风老莺雏，雨肥梅子，午阴嘉树清圆。
地卑山近，衣润费垆烟。
人静乌鸢自乐，小桥外、新绿溅溅。
凭栏久，黄芦苦竹，拟泛九江船。
年年。
如社燕，飘流瀚海，来寄修椽。
且莫思身外，长近尊前。
憔悴江南倦客，不堪听、急管繁弦。
歌筵畔，先安簟枕，容我醉时眠。
The land is low, the hills are near; my clothes stay damp, and the stove-smoke is wasted drying them.
All is still; crows and kites rejoice in themselves; beyond the little bridge, fresh green water ripples.
Long I lean on the railing, yellow reeds, bitter bamboo, and think of sailing a boat on the Nine Rivers.
Year after year.
Like a festival swallow, I drift over the vast sea, to lodge for a while beneath a borrowed eave.
Think not of matters beyond yourself; stay close to the wine cup.
A weary traveler, haggard in the South, I cannot bear the swift pipes and tangled strings.
Beside the singing feast, first lay out the mat and pillow, let me sleep when I am drunk.
Meaning
Written while Zhou Bangyan governed Lishui, the poem is the confession of a world-weary official. The opening summer landscape is painted with miraculous precision, wind that ages nestlings and rain that plumps plums, but the beauty only sharpens the discomfort: the county is damp and low, and his clothes never dry. Leaning on the railing among yellow reeds and bitter bamboo, he identifies with the banished Bai Juyi by the Nine Rivers. Year after year he has drifted like a festival swallow, and the consolation he can muster is deliberately small: do not think, drink, and let me sleep at the feast. The poem's power lies in the gap between its exquisite surface and its exhausted heart.
春风吹拂，雏莺渐渐长大；夏雨滋润，梅子渐渐肥硕；正午的树阴下，嘉树亭亭，树影清圆。此地地势低洼，又靠近山峦，衣服总是潮湿，要费许多炉火熏烤。人声寂静，乌鸢自得其乐；小桥之外，新涨的绿水溅溅作响。倚着栏杆久久凝望，眼前是黄芦苦竹，心里却想着像白居易一样泛舟九江。一年又一年。我就像春社时来、秋社时去的燕子，飘流过瀚海般的茫茫天涯，暂且寄居在人家修长的屋檐之下。姑且不要去想身外之事，常近酒杯之前。我这个憔悴的江南倦客，已不堪再听那急管繁弦的热闹乐声。歌筵之畔，先铺好竹席枕席，容我醉时酣眠。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] The wind has grown old the fledgling orioles; the rain has fattened the green plums; the noonday shade of fine trees is cool and round. The ground is low and the hills are near; clothes stay moist, and stove-smoke is spent in vain. All quiet, the kites and crows pleased with themselves; beyond the small bridge, fresh green waters murmur. Leaning long on the rail, yellow reeds and bitter bamboo, I think of taking a boat on the Nine Rivers. Year after year: like a festival swallow, blown over deserts of distance, I lodge beneath a borrowed rafter. Think no more of what lies beyond you; keep close to the wine. A haggard traveler of the South, I cannot bear swift pipes and clamorous strings. Beside the singing table, first lay the mat and pillow: let me sleep my drunken sleep. [Structure] The lyric moves in folds: exquisite scenery, then discomfort, then the Bai Juyi identification, then the swallow self-portrait, then three successive consolations, drink, do not think, sleep. Each comfort is thinner than the last, so the poem's apparent relaxation is actually its despair, revealed by accumulation.
【白话串讲】 周邦彦在溧水任职，写满庭芳：“风老莺雏，雨肥梅子，午阴嘉树清圆”。“人静乌鸢自乐，小桥外、新绿溅溅”——“年年。如社燕，飘流瀚海，来寄修椽”——“憔悴江南倦客，不堪听急管繁弦”——他写宦游倦怠。 【意象与手法】 上片写景而景中寓情：风老莺雏、雨肥梅子以炼字写时序，地卑衣润写居处之苦，黄芦苦竹暗用《琵琶行》自况贬客；下片抒情而情中有景：年年二字顿挫，社燕自喻飘零，且莫思身外转求自宽，终以容我醉时眠收束。全词一抑一扬、一转一折，正是周邦彦以顿挫见长的典型。 【情感与主旨】 此词写周邦彦任溧水令时的羁旅飘泊之悲：地卑衣润的居处之苦、年年如社燕的身世之叹、憔悴江南倦客的倦怠，皆汇于词中；而且莫思身外、容我醉时眠的自宽自遣，又在沉郁中见出随遇而安的姿态。 【名句点睛】 风老莺雏，雨肥梅子以老、肥二字写尽物候推移，是周邦彦炼字的著名范例；如社燕，飘流瀚海，来寄修椽以燕喻人，贴切沉痛；歌筵畔，先安簟枕，容我醉时眠以醉眠自遣，自宽而愈见其悲。
Background
Zhou Bangyan (1056-1121), courtesy name Meicheng, studio name Qingzhen Jushi (Layman of Pure Truth), was a native of Qiantang (modern Hangzhou). A brilliant musician and poet, he presented the monumental Rhapsody on the Eastern Capital to Emperor Shenzong, was appointed to the Imperial University, and later served in provincial posts as the factional struggles of the Yuanyou era pushed him out of the capital. This lyric was written around 1088-1093 while he was magistrate of Lishui (present-day Lishui District, Nanjing), in his late thirties, a blocked career in a damp southern posting. The poem marks the turn from the rich, ornate style of his youth to the somber, sinewy manner of his maturity, and it prepares the way for later masterpieces such as Lanling wang and Liu chou. It remains one of the Song dynasty's finest poems of official exile and weariness.
《满庭芳·夏日溧水》作于宋哲宗元祐八年（1093）前后，周邦彦任溧水（今江苏南京溧水区）县令时，词题一作《夏日溧水无想山作》。周邦彦早年游太学，献《汴都赋》万余言，得神宗赏识，擢为太学正；然哲宗亲政、新旧党争加剧，周邦彦被外放州县，辗转漂泊。溧水地处江南，卑湿多雨，词人时年近四十，仕途蹭蹬，客居异地，心境郁悒，遂于夏日无想山间作此词，以社燕自况，抒羁旅飘泊之悲。词中地卑山近、衣润费垆烟正是溧水环境之实写，而拟泛九江船则以白居易谪居浔阳自比，可见其以贬客自居的心境。此词是周邦彦中年时期的代表作，标志其词风由早年的绮丽转向中年的沉郁顿挫，也是宋词中写羁旅情怀的典范篇章。此词亦为周词由秾丽转沉郁之关捩，其后《兰陵王》《六丑》诸作，皆承此顿挫沉郁之绪。词中社燕之叹，实为千古宦游人共同的心声，故能引起历代读者的共鸣。
Art
The poem is a textbook of Zhou Bangyan's methods. First, alchemical diction: in the wind has aged the young orioles, the rain has plumped the green plums, the ordinary adjectives old and fat are used as causative verbs, the wind making the nestlings mature and the rain making the fruit swell, so two characters contain a whole season's progress. Second, emotional counterpoint: the beauty of the first three lines exists only to be overturned by the land is low, the hills are near, my clothes stay damp, as joy's scenery becomes the exile's prison. Third, allusion absorbed into scene: yellow reeds, bitter bamboo is lifted straight from Bai Juyi's Song of the Pipa and made to serve as self-portraiture. Fourth, the two-word sentence year after year is the poem's fulcrum, a pause, a sigh and a hinge between landscape and self. Fifth, the close withholds all comment: first lay out the mat and pillow, let me sleep when I am drunk is a request rather than a lament, yet the weariness it conceals is total. Every fold of the poem tightens the grip.
此词章法严谨，全篇以情为骨、以景为表，层层转进。上片写景，而景中寓情：起拍风老莺雏、雨肥梅子、午阴嘉树清圆写夏日之美，是以乐景；继以地卑山近、衣润费垆烟转写居处之卑湿，是以哀景；再以凭栏久、黄芦苦竹、拟泛九江船由景入情，借白居易之谪自况。下片抒情，而情中有景：年年二字顿挫，承上启下；如社燕、飘流瀚海、来寄修椽以燕喻人，是借物写情；且莫思身外、长近尊前一转，以酒自宽；憔悴江南倦客、不堪听急管繁弦再转，写愁之难遣；结句歌筵畔、先安簟枕、容我醉时眠三收，以醉眠作结，自宽而愈见其悲。全词一抑一扬、一转一折，顿挫沉郁，正是周邦彦以顿挫见长的典型。手法上善用典故（黄芦苦竹暗用《琵琶行》）、比喻（社燕自喻）、虚字（且、莫、长）调节情韵，典雅而不失自然。此种顿挫之法，正是清真词于大晟府改制新声之外，于词艺上的最大贡献。其章法之绵密、针线之细密，为南宋词人所共奉。
Allusions
Two allusions carry the poem. Yellow reeds, bitter bamboo and sailing a boat on the Nine Rivers come from Bai Juyi's Song of the Pipa Player: banished to Jiangzhou, Bai lived near the Pen River, in low damp ground, yellow reeds and bitter bamboo all around his house, and found what solace he could in boats and wine. Zhou Bangyan, posted to damp Lishui, sees the same plants and claims the same company, the allusion at once painting the scenery, admitting the exile's self-image and choosing Bai Juyi as spiritual kin. The festival swallow alludes to the swallow that comes at the spring festival and leaves at the autumn festival, migrating without rest: the poet compares himself to a bird whose every lodging is temporary, its borrowed rafter the official residence he must eventually quit. Think not of matters beyond yourself condenses Du Fu's think not of the endless matters beyond the body, drink out your finite cups, and keep close to the wine continues the Tang drinkers' tradition. The allusions never announce themselves; they are dissolved into the diction, the mark of Zhou's seamless craft.
此词用典精当，而皆融入情景。黄芦苦竹、拟泛九江船暗用白居易《琵琶行》住近湓江地低湿、黄芦苦竹绕宅生之句：白居易贬江州司马，谪居浔阳，所见卑湿之景与周邦彦在溧水所见相同，故引以自况，谓欲效白傅泛舟遣愁。此典之用，一石三鸟：既写眼前实景（黄芦苦竹），又写身世之感（同是贬客），更写文化认同（以乐天为知音），是周词以典雅之辞运深挚之思的范例。如社燕、飘流瀚海、来寄修椽以燕子自喻：社燕春社来、秋社去，迁徙无定，正如词人南北宦游；瀚海本指沙漠，此处泛指天涯，极言飘流之远；修椽指官舍屋檐，写寄人篱下之暂。此喻兼含物性（燕之迁徙）与人事（己之飘零），贴切沉痛。且莫思身外化用杜甫《绝句漫兴》莫思身外无穷事、且尽生前有限杯之意，而更简净；长近尊前则承唐人饮者传统。全词用典皆不显山露水，融于叙述与景物之中，正是周邦彦浑化无迹的用典艺术。
Commentary
This lyric is one of Zhou Bangyan's most celebrated and most anthologized works. Chen Tingzhuo's Baiyuzhai ci hua praised Meicheng's art as lying entirely in folds and checks, and this poem is the model: the scenery-beauty of the opening exists only to be overturned, the Bai Juyi allusion converts landscape into self-portrait, and the two-word year after year is cited by critics as the supreme example of the abrupt pause that makes long-tune lyrics breathe. Wang Guowei, though he complained that Zhou had more talent for creating tunes than for creating ideas, conceded his unmatched precision in famous single words. The poem's place in history is secure: it stands with Qin Guan's Man Ting Fang as the twin peaks of the tune, and it founded the tradition, carried on by Jiang Kui and Wu Wenying, of packing exhaustive observation into song lyrics. Above all it gave voice to the weary traveler who has since become the archetype of the Chinese official in exile.
此词是周邦彦中年词的代表作，也是宋词中写羁旅情怀的名篇。历代评家于此词多致叹赏：陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》谓美成词妙处全在顿挫，此词年年二字之转折、且莫思身外之自宽，正是顿挫之笔的典范；王国维《人间词话》虽评周词创调之才多、创意之才少，然于叶上初阳干宿雨诸句亦不能不叹其精工，此词风老莺雏、雨肥梅子正同其妙。就词史意义言，此词体现了周邦彦词的核心成就：其一，炼字之精，老、肥、费等字以寻常字眼写尽物候与心绪，开南宋姜夔、吴文英炼字一派的先声；其二，章法之密，上片写景、下片抒情，顿挫转合，一毫不乱，为南宋词章法严整树立了典范；其三，用典之化，黄芦苦竹、社燕自喻皆融入情景、了无痕迹。周邦彦被尊为词中老杜（王国维语），正是因其集北宋词之大成而开南宋词之门户，此词即其枢纽之作，足见其在词史转折中的关键位置。
Prosody
Line by line
风老莺雏，雨肥梅子，午阴嘉树清圆。
The wind has aged the young orioles; the rain has plumped the green plums; at noon the fine trees cast a cool, round shade.
春风吹拂，雏莺渐渐长大；夏雨滋润，梅子渐渐肥硕；正午的树阴下，嘉树亭亭，树影清圆。
The wind matures the young orioles, the rain fattens the plums; at noon, the fine tree's shade is cool and round.
起拍三句写溧水初夏之景，字字锤炼。风老莺雏之老，雨肥梅子之肥，皆以形容词作动词（使动），写风使雏莺长成、雨使梅子饱满，两字即将季节的推移、万物在风雨中成熟的过程一笔写尽，是以炼字写时序的典范。午阴嘉树清圆写正午浓阴下嘉树亭亭如盖、树影圆整，一个清字见树阴之清凉，一个圆字见树冠之浑圆。三句由风、雨、阴三种天气写夏日之景，铺陈工致而气韵流动，正是周邦彦富艳精工的词风。唯其景愈美，愈衬出下文地卑衣润、人羁他乡之苦，以乐景写哀情，含蓄深婉。
The opening three lines write the early summer at Lishui, every word hammered. The wind matures the young orioles' mature, the rain fattens the plums' fat, both adjectives used as verbs (causative), writing the wind's maturing of the young orioles and the rain's swelling of the plums, the two characters exhausting the season's turn and all things' ripening in wind and rain, the model of writing the season through word-craft. At noon, the fine tree's shade is cool and round writes the noon thick shade, the fine tree's crown like an umbrella, the shade round, the one word cool the shade's coolness, the one word round the crown's roundness. Three lines, through wind, rain, and shade, write the summer scene, the crafted layering and the flowing breath, precisely Zhou Bangyan's rich, exquisite style. Precisely the fairer the scene, the more it sets off the below low-lander-damp-clothes and the man's drift abroad, writing grief through delighted scene, restrained and deep.
地卑山近，衣润费垆烟。
The land is low, the hills are near; my clothes stay damp, and the stove-smoke is wasted drying them.
此地地势低洼，又靠近山峦，衣服总是潮湿，要费许多炉火熏烤。
The land is low and the mountains near; the clothes are damp, costing much brazier smoke.
此两句是全词的点题之笔，直写溧水环境的卑湿。地卑写地势低洼，山近写山气蒸润，两者相加，便是衣润——衣服常年潮润，须费垆烟（费许多炉火熏烤）才能烘干。一个费字，写尽潮湿之甚与客居之苦，看似只写衣食小事，实则暗含贬谪失意的喟叹。周邦彦此词题一作《夏日溧水无想山作》，正是居官溧水、心境困顿之时；环境的卑湿与心境的郁闷两相映照，物境即心境。此两句纯用白描，不事藻饰，而客居之苦自在其中，与起拍的清丽景物形成冷暖对照，为全词由景入情的转折作了铺垫。
These two lines are the ci's theme-stroke, directly writing Lishui's low dampness. The land is low writes the low ground, the mountains near writes the mountain vapor's dampness, the two together the clothes damp — the clothes long damp, costing brazier smoke (costing much brazier smoke) to dry. The one word cost exhausts the dampness's extremity and the guest's hardship, seeming to write only the small food-and-clothes affair, and yet secretly the exile's frustration. This ci's title also reads Summer at Wuxiang Mountain in Lishui, precisely the time of office at Lishui and the hampered mood; the environment's dampness and the mood's gloom mirror each other, the outer scene being the inner mood. These two lines in pure plain drawing, no ornament, and the guest's hardship within, forming the warm-cold contrast against the opening's fair scene, preparing the ci's turn from scene to feeling.
凭栏久，黄芦苦竹，拟泛九江船。
Long I lean on the railing, yellow reeds, bitter bamboo, and think of sailing a boat on the Nine Rivers.
倚着栏杆久久凝望，眼前是黄芦苦竹，心里却想着像白居易一样泛舟九江。
Long I lean on the rail; the yellow reeds and bitter bamboos — I think of sailing the Jiujian boat.
此三句是全词由写景转入抒情的枢纽。凭栏久写久久倚栏、心事重重，一个久字见出凝望之深、愁绪之长。黄芦苦竹化用白居易《琵琶行》住近湓江地低湿、黄芦苦竹绕宅生之句：白居易谪居浔阳，所见正是黄芦苦竹，周邦彦见溧水同此卑湿之景，遂自比于乐天之贬，故曰拟泛九江船——想要像白居易那样泛舟九江，一遣愁怀。此三句由眼前景（黄芦苦竹）引出古人事（白傅谪居），再落到心中愿（拟泛九江船），今古相映、物我交融，羁旅之叹借古人酒杯浇出，是周词以深挚之思运典雅之辞的典型笔法。
These three lines are the ci's hinge from scene to feeling. Long I lean on the rail writes the long leaning, the heavy heart, the one word long showing the gaze's depth and the grief's length. The yellow reeds and bitter bamboos borrows Bai Juyi's Pipa Player, dwelling near the Pen River, the land low and damp, the yellow reeds and bitter bamboos around the house: Bai Juyi exiled at Xunyang, saw precisely the yellow reeds and bitter bamboos, Zhou Bangyan seeing Lishui's same damp scene, hence comparing himself to Bai's exile, and says I think of sailing the Jiujian boat — wishing like Bai to sail the Jiujian river and send off the grief. These three lines from the present scene (the yellow reeds and bitter bamboos) lead the ancient event (Bai Fu's exile), then land on the heart's wish (the thought of the boat), now-and-then answering, thing and self fused, the travel sigh poured through the ancient man's wine cup, precisely Zhou's typical brush of the deep feeling through the elegant diction.
年年。
Year after year.
一年又一年，漂泊的日子就这样年复一年地过去。
Year after year, the drifting days pass on, year by year.
年年二字独立成句，是词中的顿挫，也是全词情感的凝结点。二字承上启下：承上，是拟泛九江船的羁旅之叹年年如此，飘泊之恨年复一年；启下，是如社燕、飘流瀚海的比喻由此引出。二字音节短促，如一声长叹，将前文铺陈的景物与愁绪猛然收拢，又为后文的自宽自遣蓄势。周邦彦词善用短句顿挫（此词之年年，同时《满庭芳·山抹微云》之销魂亦然），于疏密相间中见章法之妙：长句写景铺叙已足，短句一点，情思便从字缝中逼出，正是以顿挫见功力的词家本色。
The two words year after year a line of their own, the ci's pause, and the emotional condensation point. The two words inherit above and open below: inherit above, the thought-of-the-Jiujian-boat travel sigh year after year, the drift's grief year on year; open below, the like-the-altar-swallow drifting the vast desert metaphor led from here. The two words' short syllables, like a long sigh, suddenly gathering the above scene and grief, and storing force for the below self-consolation. Zhou Bangyan's ci excels at the short-line pause (the year after year of this ci, and the heart-broken of the Man ting fang, Hills Brushed with Faint Clouds), showing the craft's beauty in the dense-and-sparse alternation: the long lines' scenic narrative sufficient, the short line one touch, the feeling forced from between the words, precisely the ci-poet's quality of showing power through the pause.
如社燕，飘流瀚海，来寄修椽。
Like a festival swallow, I drift over the vast sea, to lodge for a while beneath a borrowed eave.
我就像春社时来、秋社时去的燕子，飘流过瀚海般的茫茫天涯，暂且寄居在人家修长的屋檐之下。
Like the altar swallow, drifting across the vast desert, I come to lodge beneath the long rafters.
此三句以社燕自喻，是全词的自我写照。社燕即燕子，春社（立春后）来、秋社（立秋后）去，故称社燕；瀚海指沙漠、也泛指天涯海角，修椽指修长的屋椽。周邦彦自比社燕：一生南北宦游，如燕之逐社而飞，飘流瀚海，无处栖身，只能来寄修椽，暂时寄居官舍。比喻贴切而沉痛：社燕之飘流是命定的迁徙，自己之飘流却是仕途的播迁，燕尚有归期，而已之归期渺茫。此三句由年年二字引出，将前文拟泛九江船的羁旅之叹落实到自身的生命处境，是全词情感最沉郁的段落，也为下文且莫思身外的自宽埋下伏笔。
These three lines figure the poet through the altar swallow, the ci's self-portrait. The altar swallow means the swallow, coming at the spring altar (after the spring begins) and leaving at the autumn altar (after the autumn begins), hence the altar swallow; the vast desert means the desert, and generally the world's edge; the long rafter means the long eave. Zhou Bangyan figuring himself as the altar swallow: the life's north-and-south office travel, like the swallow flying after the altars, drifting the vast desert, no place to roost, only coming to lodge beneath the long rafter, temporarily dwelling in the office lodging. The metaphor apt and grief-stricken: the altar swallow's drift the fated migration, and his own drift the office's transfer, the swallow still has the return date, and his return date is blurred. These three lines, led by the year after year, landing the above thought-of-the-Jiujian-boat travel sigh on his own life's plight, the ci's most somber passage, and storing ground for the below do-not-think-of-beyond-the-self consolation.
憔悴江南倦客，不堪听、急管繁弦。
A weary traveler, haggard in the South, I cannot bear the swift pipes and tangled strings.
我这个憔悴的江南倦客，已不堪再听那急管繁弦的热闹乐声。
A haggard, weary wanderer of the southland, I cannot bear to hear the rapid pipes and tangled strings.
此两句直写心境，是全词情感的低谷。憔悴写客居之疲病，江南倦客点明身份——倦于宦游的江南游子，四字自道，沉痛已极。不堪听、急管繁弦写怕听热闹的乐声：急管繁弦本是欢会的象征，而不堪二字，写出憔悴之人最怕热闹反衬寂寥的心理——乐声愈繁，心愈孤寂。此句与下文歌筵畔、先安簟枕、容我醉时眠相呼应：既是不堪听，故要在歌筵之侧先备好枕席，醉倒便睡，躲开那刺耳的繁弦。由不堪听到容我醉时眠，情感由惧热闹到求解脱，层层推进，羁旅之苦至此写尽。
These two lines write the mood directly, the ci's emotional low. The haggard writes the guest's weariness and illness, the weary wanderer of the southland naming the identity — the wanderer tired of office travel, the four words self-spoken, grief-stricken to the extreme. I cannot bear to hear the rapid pipes and tangled strings writes the fear of the bustling music: the rapid pipes and tangled strings by nature the feast's symbol, and the cannot bear writing the haggard man's fear of the bustle setting off the solitude — the more tangled the music, the lonelier the heart. This line echoes the below by the song mat side, first lay the mat and pillow, let me sleep when drunk: since the cannot bear, hence the preparing of the pillow at the feast's side, and the drunk-fallen sleep, escaping the jarring tangled strings. From the cannot bear to the let-me-sleep-when-drunk, the feeling from fearing the bustle to seeking release, advancing layer on layer, the travel's hardship exhausted here.
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Qin Guan's 'mountains streaked with clouds, the sky joined to withered grass, a setting sun beyond, ten thousand dots of cold crows' and its 'heart breaking at this moment' are direct and elegiac in tone; Zhou Bangyan paints summer scenery of exquisite freshness, then overturns it with damp clothes and the swallow's wandering, so melancholy rises from within beauty. Both use a two-word sentence as their pivot (heart-breaking / year after year) and close on a final image (lamps already at yellow dusk / let me sleep my drunken sleep). Qin Guan's sorrow flows; Zhou Bangyan's turns and turns again, the two manners of the finest Song lyricism in one tune.
秦观《满庭芳·山抹微云》与周邦彦此词同调，同为宋词《满庭芳》双璧。差异在题旨与色调：秦词写离别，山抹微云、天连衰草，斜阳外、寒鸦万点，销魂当此际，色调萧瑟凄迷，情感直白哀感；周词写羁旅，风老莺雏、雨肥梅子，虽写夏景之清丽，而地卑衣润、年年飘流，色调于清丽中见沉郁，情感含蓄内敛。二词皆以二字短句为顿挫（销魂／年年），皆以结句收束全篇（灯火已黄昏／容我醉时眠），而秦词由景入情、一路伤感，周词由景入情、转求自宽，一婉约哀感，一沉郁顿挫，恰见婉约词的两副笔墨。
苏幕遮·燎沉香 Su mu zhe: Burning the Aloeswood 周邦彦 · 同是周邦彦客居怀乡之作 Both are Zhou Bangyan's summer lyrics of the stranger in a strange land.'Burning aloeswood against the damp heat, on the leaves the early sun dries last night's rain, the water's surface clear and round, each lotus held up by the wind': Su mu zhe rises from summer scenery to a dream of home, ending 'awake, I ask the boatman, how goes the dream of entering the lotus country?' Man Ting Fang moves from the same summer scenery to 'let me sleep my drunken sleep.' One dreams of home, the other sleeps off exile. Both are famous for alchemical diction (dry in one, old and fat in the other); read together, they show the range of the exile's consolation, dream and wine.
《苏幕遮·燎沉香》燎沉香，消溽暑……叶上初阳干宿雨，水面清圆，一一风荷举，与《满庭芳·夏日溧水》同是周邦彦客居他乡、夏日怀人怀乡之作，同写夏日之景。差异在归宿：《苏幕遮》由眼前风荷写到故乡渔郎，终以梦入芙蓉浦的归乡之梦作结，乡愁有了温柔的着落；《满庭芳》则由夏日之景写到年年飘流、不堪闻乐，终以容我醉时眠的醉眠自遣作结，愁绪只能以酒麻醉。两词一暖一冷、一梦一醉，正见周邦彦词境的多面；而叶上初阳干宿雨之干与风老莺雏之老，同为周词炼字的著名范例，两词并读，可见其精工一以贯之。
定风波·莫听穿林打叶声 Ding feng bo: Heed Not the Rain Beating through the Trees 苏轼 · 同写愁中自宽，一旷达一沉郁 Both console themselves in trouble, one with magnanimity, the other with drowsy sleep.Su Shi's 'heed not the rain beating through the forest, why not whistle and stroll slowly, one raincoat of misty rain lets my life go its way, and going home there is no wind, no rain, no clear weather' transforms difficulty into philosophical calm and walks out of the storm. Zhou Bangyan's 'think not of matters beyond yourself, keep close to the wine, first lay the mat and pillow, let me sleep when I am drunk' anesthetizes difficulty in wine and sleep. One heroic and one gentle, one transcending and one enduring: two classic Song answers of the scholar-official to adversity.
苏轼《定风波·莫听穿林打叶声》莫听穿林打叶声，何妨吟啸且徐行……一蓑烟雨任平生，与《满庭芳·夏日溧水》同写人生困境中的自我宽解。差异在气质与方式：苏轼以旷达化解，竹杖芒鞋、吟啸徐行，归去，也无风雨也无晴，把困境化入自然的哲思；周邦彦以醉眠逃避，且莫思身外、长近尊前，先安簟枕，容我醉时眠，把困境化入杯酒的麻醉。一豪一婉、一哲一酒，恰见宋人面对仕途挫折的两种典型姿态：苏轼之旷是超越，周邦彦之醉是承受。两词并读，可见同是宋代文人，因性情与处境不同，其化解愁绪的方式竟如此悬殊，而皆成千古名作。