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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

清平乐·红笺小字

Pure, Serene Music: Small Characters on Red Paper

晏殊

Yan Shu

爱情Love 愁思sorrow

红笺小字。
说尽平生意。
鸿雁在云鱼在水。
惆怅此情难寄。
斜阳独倚西楼。
遥山恰对帘钩。
人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流。

Small characters on red paper,
Telling all the meaning of a lifetime.
Wild geese are in the clouds, fish in the water —
Sad that this feeling cannot be sent.
In the slanting sun I lean alone on the western tower;
The distant hills face exactly the hook of the curtain.
Where is the face I knew? No one knows.
Only the green waves still flow eastward as before.

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Meaning

A lyric of unfulfilled love, written by the Northern Song grand councilor Yan Shu. On red paper he has written small characters telling all the meaning of a lifetime — the love letter that holds his whole heart. But the wild geese are in the clouds and the fish in the water: the two traditional letter-carriers are both beyond reach, and the feeling cannot be sent. In the slanting sun he leans alone on the western tower; the distant hills face exactly the hook of his curtain. The face he once knew — where is it now? No one knows. Only the green waves still flow eastward, as before. The lyric is the classic statement of the love that cannot be delivered and the year that passes without the beloved.

红色的信笺上写满了密密麻麻的小字，说尽了我平生的心意。可鸿雁飞在云间、鱼儿游在水中，都传不去我的深情，真令人惆怅：此情难以寄达。斜阳西下，我独自倚在西楼之上；远处的青山，恰好正对着楼前的帘钩。当年的人面不知如今在何处，只有楼下的绿波，依旧日夜东流。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] On red paper, small characters telling all the meaning of my life. The wild geese are in the clouds, the fish in the water — sad that this feeling cannot be sent. In the slanting sun I lean alone on the western tower; the distant hills face just the hook of the curtain. The face of the one I knew — where is it now? Only the green waves still flow eastward as before. [Structure and Thought] The lyric moves from the written letter to the impossibility of sending it, from the solitary tower to the unchanging river, ending on the contrast between the lost face and the waves that flow on. [Key Technique] The poem's art is the contrast of the stable and the changing: the green waves flow eastward 'as before,' while the face 'is nowhere to be found' — the world goes on, the beloved is gone, and the river's constancy is the cruelest comment on the loss. [Emotional Tone] Restrained, elegant, and deeply melancholy: Yan Shu's grief is never loud, but the small characters, the unsendable letter, the lonely tower and the flowing waves carry a lifetime's meaning.

【白话串讲】晏殊写清平乐：“红笺小字。说尽平生意。鸿雁在云鱼在水。惆怅此情难寄”——“斜阳独倚西楼。遥山恰对帘钩”——“人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流”——他写信难寄的惆怅。【意象与手法】上阕写「寄情」之难：红笺写尽心意，却鸿雁鱼龙俱不可托，惆怅顿生；下阕写「倚楼」之望：斜阳、遥山、帘钩，景物含情，人面已杳，唯绿波东流。全词由写信到寄信、由倚楼到望景，层层递进，以「鸿雁在云鱼在水」的「在」字写传书无路，以「绿波依旧东流」的「依旧」写物是人非，情致深婉。【情感与主旨】晏殊此词写离别相思：红笺写尽平生情意，却无从寄达；斜阳独倚，人面不知何处，唯见绿波东流。于惆怅中见深情，于淡远中含执着，是晏殊「富贵闲雅」之外婉约深致的一面。【名句点睛】「人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流」化用崔护「人面不知何处去」而翻出新境——人已远去，绿波无情依旧东流，以景结情，遂成千古名句。

Background

Yan Shu (991–1055), courtesy name Tongshu, was one of the most powerful and refined literary figures of the Northern Song — a grand councilor, a patron of poets, and the leader of the elegant, restrained style of the early Song lyric. This lyric, one of his most famous, shows his art at its most characteristic: the conventional props of the love lyric — the red paper, the geese and fish that carry letters, the western tower, the curtain hook — arranged with perfect balance, and the feeling carried almost entirely by implication. The 'face that is nowhere to be found' echoes the famous line of Cui Hu's 'Written in a Village South of the Capital' — 'the peach flowers still smile in the spring wind, but where is the face I knew?'

晏殊（991—1055），字同叔，北宋著名词人，官至宰相，谥元献，时称「晏元献」。晏殊十四岁以神童召试，赐同进士出身，一生仕途显达，位极人臣，其词多写贵族的闲雅生活与淡淡的闲愁，被后人称为「富贵词人」；《清平乐·红笺小字》是其婉约词的代表作之一，写离别相思之情。关于此词的写作背景，向有二说：一说为晏殊晚年寄赠远人（或为思念离别之人的代拟之作），一说为代闺中女子立言的「代言体」。从词意看，「红笺小字，说尽平生意」是以女性口吻写情书，「斜阳独倚西楼」是典型的思妇凭楼远望之态，故此词或为代闺怨之词，或借闺怨写自身之「思」——晏殊的词常于「闲愁」中寄托身世之感，此词虽写儿女相思，而「平生意」三字已将一己之志抱纳入其中。晏殊一生虽富贵，却屡经亲友离别（其弟晏颖早亡，友人范仲淹、欧阳修等皆其僚属门生），词中「惆怅此情难寄」「人面不知何处」的惆怅，恐非单纯的闺怨，而含更深的「人生不相见」之慨。此词与晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》《蝶恋花·槛菊愁烟兰泣露》等同为其「闲愁」词的代表，以淡雅的笔致写深婉的相思，正是「晏殊词」的典型风格——富贵而不俗艳，闲雅而含深情。

Art

The lyric's art is the art of the balanced structure. The first stanza is all attempt and failure: the small characters that tell everything, the geese and fish that cannot carry them — the feeling is written and unsendable. The second stanza is all scene: the slanting sun, the lone tower, the distant hills facing the curtain hook, and the green waves flowing eastward. The lyric's balance is perfect: the human attempt (the letter) against the world's indifference (the river), the written words against the flowing water, the lost face against the unchanged waves. The final couplet states the loss in the simplest possible terms — 'where is the face I knew? Only the green waves still flow eastward as before' — and the contrast does the work.

此词八句四十六字，章法精妙，上阕写「寄」、下阕写「望」，由情书之难寄到凭楼之空望，层层递进。「红笺小字，说尽平生意」起笔即写情书：红笺是精美的信纸，「小字」是密密麻麻的蝇头小楷，「说尽」二字写尽心意之全——满纸都是平生之情，毫无保留；「鸿雁在云鱼在水，惆怅此情难寄」陡转写寄达之难：鸿雁在云、鱼在水，本是中国传统中传书的信使（雁足传书、鱼传尺素），而它们「在云」「在水」，各在其位、不能传情，一「难」字把满怀情意推向无路可寄的惆怅。下阕转写倚楼远望：「斜阳独倚西楼」写黄昏时分独倚西楼的身影，「独」字写孤独，「斜阳」写暮色苍茫；「遥山恰对帘钩」写远山与帘钩相对——「恰对」二字妙，山与帘本不相干，而在倚楼人眼中，远山正对着帘钩，仿佛也在凝望，景物与人同怀怅望；「人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流」收束全词：当年之人不知何处，唯有楼下的绿波依旧东流——「依旧」二字写物之无情、时之流逝，「东流」写水之不息，以景结情，惆怅无尽。全词由「说尽」到「难寄」，由「独倚」到「东流」，情意愈转愈深，而语言始终清丽婉转，正是晏殊「温润秀洁」词风的典型体现。

Allusions

'The wild geese in the clouds, the fish in the water' are the two traditional letter-carriers of Chinese poetry — the geese who carry letters from the Su Wu legend, and the fish whose belly hid the letter of the ancient poem; that both are beyond reach means the letter cannot be sent. 'The western tower' is the conventional place of lonely watching in Tang and Song verse. 'The face of the one I knew' (renmian) is the direct echo of Cui Hu's famous quatrain — the face that was seen one spring and never again; the allusion gives the lyric's loss its haunting resonance.

此词用典不多而意象皆有来历，最见晏殊「以典入情」的功力。「红笺」本是精美小幅信纸，唐宋时以红色薛涛笺最有名——唐代名妓薛涛创制深红小笺写诗，世称「薛涛笺」，后世遂以红笺指情书，晏词「红笺小字」暗含这一风流雅事，为情书增添旖旎色彩。「鸿雁在云鱼在水」用「鱼雁传书」之典：雁足传书出《汉书·苏武传》——苏武被扣匈奴，汉使言天子射上林中得雁，足系帛书，言武等在某泽中，苏武因此得归；鱼传尺素出古乐府《饮马长城窟行》「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼。呼儿烹鲤鱼，中有尺素书」。晏殊翻用此二典，妙在反其道而用之：鸿雁在云、鱼在水，本是传书之物的天然居所，词人却因「此情难寄」而怨其不能传书——信使俱在而情不可达，惆怅愈深，此即「翻案」用典之法，比直用更见新意。「人面不知何处」化用唐人崔护《题都城南庄》「去年今日此门中，人面桃花相映红。人面不知何处去，桃花依旧笑春风」——晏殊变「人面不知何处去」为「人面不知何处」，省去「去」字而情致益婉，且以「绿波依旧东流」对「桃花依旧笑春风」，同是「物是人非」的感慨，而一写桃花一写流水，一为春日之景一为日暮之景，翻新出奇。「斜阳」「西楼」则是唐宋词写思妇凭楼远望的惯用意象，晏殊融会诸典而不露痕迹，正是其「语淡而味永」的体现。

Commentary

This lyric is one of the most admired works of the early Song, quoted as the model of Yan Shu's elegant restraint. The final couplet — 'Where is the face I knew? No one knows. Only the green waves still flow eastward as before' — is often ranked among the finest closings of the ci, the constancy of the river against the loss of the face making the grief both universal and unbearably personal. Critics note the perfect balance of the lyric's two stanzas: the unsendable letter, the unchanging river.

《清平乐·红笺小字》是晏殊婉约词的代表作，历代选家皆录，评价甚高。此词之妙有三：其一，写情之「尽」与「难」的对立——「红笺小字，说尽平生意」写尽一腔深情，而「鸿雁在云鱼在水，惆怅此情难寄」写情之无从寄达，尽而难寄，惆怅遂深，这种「满而空」的反差，是相思词中极富张力的一笔，比直写「相思」更见深婉；其二，写景之「含情」——「斜阳独倚西楼，遥山恰对帘钩」，斜阳、遥山、帘钩皆眼前实景，而著「独倚」「恰对」四字，景物便全著情色，王国维所谓「一切景语皆情语」，此词是最佳注脚；其三，结句之「以景结情」——「人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流」化用崔护诗而翻出新境，以「依旧」写物之恒常，反衬人之杳然，以「东流」写时光之流逝，将一腔惆怅化入无尽流水，余韵悠长，清人谭献《谭评词辨》极赏此词，谓其末二句「纯用兴体」。晏殊词素以「闲雅」著称，而此词于闲雅中见深情，于含蓄中含执著——「平生意」「难寄」「独倚」「依旧」，字字都是放不下的深情；这种「以淡语写深情」的本领，正是晏殊高出一般婉约词人之处，也是此词历千年而弥新的原因。

Prosody

Form Qingpingle (Pure, Serene Music), a short lyric of forty-six characters词（双调四十六字，《清平乐》）

Rhyme The level-tone rhymes yi, shui and dong echo in the qi rhyme group; the third line of each stanza shifts to oblique — ji and chu — in the tune's characteristic pattern.《清平乐》为换韵体：上阕四句四仄韵，押「字、意、水、寄」；下阕四句三平韵，换押「楼、钩、流」。上阕仄韵短促，写情之难寄；下阕平韵舒徐，写景之空远，一仄一平、一促一缓，声情随内容转换。

Tone pattern The first stanza is level and deliberate with the written letter; the second opens into the wide scene of the tower and the hills; the final couplet falls into the long, quiet cadence of the eastward-flowing waves.句式上上阕为四、五、七、六字（红笺小字。说尽平生意。鸿雁在云鱼在水。惆怅此情难寄。），下阕为六、六、七、六字（斜阳独倚西楼。遥山恰对帘钩。人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流。），长短错落，节奏由紧转舒。

Reading note This is a Pure, Serene Music ci by Yan Shu. The small characters on red paper tell the meaning of a lifetime; but the wild geese are in the clouds and the fish in the water — the messengers unreachable — and the feeling cannot be sent. In the slanting sun he leans alone on the western tower; and the close asks where the face is, and finds only the green waves flowing eastward as before — the unchanged world against the changed heart.《清平乐》为双调小令，四十六字，上阕四句四仄韵、下阕四句三平韵，是词调中典型的「换韵体」——上阕押仄韵、下阕换平韵，仄韵短促急收、平韵舒缓悠长，一调之中兼有促与缓两种声情，正合「上阕写情之急切（难寄）、下阕写景之绵长（东流）」的内容需要。晏殊此词严格依调填词：上阕「字、意、水、寄」四仄韵，音节短促，句句如轻叹，写出情意满怀而无法寄达的急切与惆怅；下阕换平韵，「楼、钩、流」三平韵，音节舒展悠长，写出斜阳凭楼、流水东去的苍茫与绵远。句式上，上阕「四、五、七、六」与下阕「六、六、七、六」相错落，长短句交替，读来如流水般起伏；「红笺小字」的四字短句起拍，干净利落，「鸿雁在云鱼在水」的七字长句舒展，一短一长，节奏分明。晏殊精通音律（其《珠玉词》以「闲雅有情思」著称），此词以仄韵写情、平韵写景，声情与词情高度统一，是《清平乐》一调中「以声传情」的典范之作，也体现了晏殊词「温润秀洁、音节谐婉」的一贯特色。

Line by line

红笺小字。

Small characters on red paper,

红色的信笺上写满了密密麻麻的小字。

The red letter paper is filled with tiny characters.

起句四字，写情书之形，而情意已从字里行间溢出。「红笺」是精美的红色信纸，唐宋时以薛涛笺为最著，红笺本为写情诗的雅物，一词之下，旖旎之态自生；「小字」写字迹之细密——蝇头小楷，密密匝匝，正见写信人写得用心、写得满纸。四字不著一个「情」字，而「红」的缠绵、「小」的密致，已把一腔柔情写进纸墨之间。尤妙在与下句「说尽平生意」相连：正因为是红笺小字，才显得这份情书郑重而深情——不是敷衍的短笺，而是写满平生心意的郑重告白。起笔由物及情，以纸墨之精写心意之重，正是晏殊「以淡语写深情」的开端，也为下文「惆怅此情难寄」的转折蓄足了势——写得越尽，寄不出去就越惆怅。

The opening four characters, writing the love letter's form, and the affection already overflowing between the words. The red letter paper means the fine red stationery, the Tang and Song's Xue Tao paper the most noted, the red paper by nature the love-verse elegant thing, one word and the amorous pose self-born; tiny characters writing the writing's minuteness — the fly's small regular script, dense, precisely showing the writer's care and the paper's fullness. Four characters not one word of feeling, and the red's lingering and the small's density already writing the whole soft affection into the ink. The further wonder in joining the below's speaking out the whole life's feeling: precisely because it is the red-paper small characters, hence this love letter's solemnity and depth — not the perfunctory short note, but the whole-life-feeling filled solemn confession. The opening from the thing to the feeling, writing the feeling's weight through the paper-and-ink's fineness, precisely Yan Shu's plain-words-writing-deep-feeling beginning, and storing the force for the below's melancholy-this-feeling-hard-to-send turn — the more the writing's fullness, the more the unsendability's wistfulness.

鸿雁在云鱼在水。

Wild geese are in the clouds, fish in the water —

鸿雁飞在云间，鱼儿游在水中。

The wild goose flies in the clouds, the fish swims in the water.

此句写传书信使的「在」，是全词由「写」转「寄」的枢轴。鸿雁、鱼皆是中国传统中传书的信使——雁足传书出《汉书·苏武传》，鱼传尺素出古乐府「客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼」，而它们此刻「在云」「在水」，各在其位：鸿雁高飞于云，鱼儿深游于水，都在它们该在的地方，却都不来为词人传书。妙在「在」字：信使不是没有，而是「在」而不可用——它们在云在水，与词人隔着天渊，无法召唤，无从托付。一个「在」字，把「有信使却传不了信」的无奈写得具体可感：天地之大，竟无一处可寄此情。此句表面写景（云中之雁、水中之鱼），实则句句是情——以信使的「在」反写寄情的「不能」，正是晏殊「翻案用典」的妙笔，为下句「惆怅此情难寄」作了最自然的铺垫。

This line writes the letter messengers' in, the ci's write-to-send hinge. The wild goose and the fish both the Chinese tradition's letter messengers — the goose-foot-letter from the Book of Han's Su Wu biography, the fish-carrying-foot-long-paper from the old yuefu's a guest came from afar, giving me twin carp, and they now in the clouds and in the water, each in its place: the wild goose high in the clouds, the fish deep in the water, all in their right places, and yet none come to carry the poet's letter. The wonder in the word in: the messengers not absent, but in and yet unusable — they in the clouds and in the water, separated from the poet by the heaven's gulf, un-summoned, un-entrusted. The one word in, writing the have-messenger-and-yet-cannot-send helplessness concretely: the heaven and earth's vastness, and yet no place to send this feeling. This line on the surface the scene (the cloud goose, the water fish), in truth every word feeling — setting the messengers' in against the feeling's unsendability, precisely Yan Shu's reversal-allusion wondrous brush, storing the most natural ground for the below's melancholy-this-feeling-hard-to-send.

惆怅此情难寄。

Sad that this feeling cannot be sent.

真令人惆怅：这满怀深情难以寄达。

I am melancholy: this deep feeling is hard to send.

此句直揭题旨，是全词的词眼所在。「惆怅」二字点明全词的情感基调——不是刻骨的悲恸，而是淡淡的、绵长的惆怅，正合晏殊词「闲愁」的分寸；「此情」回指前文的「平生意」——红笺写尽的情意，此刻成为无处安放的重负；「难寄」是全词的关键词：不是不能写，而是写尽亦难寄；不是没有信使，而是信使在云在水、无法托付。六字之中，「惆怅」是情，「难寄」是事，情与事相激相生：正因为「此情」太重、太尽，才愈觉「难寄」之惆怅。此句由前两句的含蓄写景，转为直接抒情，如一声轻叹，把「满而空」的失落和盘托出；而下阕的「独倚西楼」「人面不知何处」，正是这「难寄」之情的延伸——寄不出的情，只能在斜阳中独自凭栏，望尽天涯。

This line directly revealing the theme, the ci's eye. The two words melancholy naming the whole ci's emotional tone — not the bone-cutting grief, but the faint, lingering melancholy, precisely matching Yan Shu's ci's idle-grief measure; this feeling pointing back to the above's whole-life feeling — the red paper written-out affection, now become the nowhere-to-place burden; hard to send the whole ci's key word: not the cannot-write, but the written-out-and-yet-hard-to-send; not the absence of messengers, but the messengers' in-cloud-and-in-water and the un-entrustable. Within six characters, the melancholy the feeling, the hard to send the affair, feeling and affair mutually stoking: precisely because this feeling too heavy and too full, the more the hard-to-send melancholy. This line from the above two lines' restrained scene, turning to the direct lyric, like one light sigh, turning out the full-and-empty loss; and the second stanza's the lone west-tower leaning and the human-face-gone-unknown-where, precisely this hard-to-send feeling's extension — the unsendable feeling, only in the setting sun's solitary railing leaning, gazing the horizon to the end.

斜阳独倚西楼。

In the slanting sun I lean alone on the western tower;

斜阳西下，我独自倚在西楼之上。

In the setting sun, I lean alone on the west tower.

此句写倚楼之态，是全词由「寄」转「望」的场景转换。「斜阳」点明时间——黄昏时分，暮色苍茫，正是离人最易感怀的时辰；「独倚」写人物状态——一个「独」字写尽孤独，无人相伴，只有自己倚着栏杆；「西楼」点明地点——西楼是唐宋词中思妇凭栏远望的惯常处所，楼高望远，正宜凝望归人。五字一句，时间、人物、地点俱全，画出一个在斜阳中独倚西楼的剪影。「独倚」二字是全句之眼：倚栏而望，是有所期待的姿态——望的是远方的人，盼的是未归的信；而「斜阳」的苍茫、「独」的孤寂，已暗示这期待注定落空。此句承接上阕「难寄」之惆怅，把无法寄出的深情，转化为凭楼远望的执著身影，由内向外、由情及景，为末句「人面不知何处」的怅望收束铺设了画面。

This line writes the railing-leaning pose, the ci's send-to-gaze scene turn. The setting sun naming the time — the dusk hour, the twilight vast, precisely the parting man's most feeling-prone time; the lone leaning writing the person's state — the one word lone exhausting the loneliness, no companion, only himself leaning on the rail; the west tower naming the place — the west tower the Tang and Song ci's longing-woman's railing-gazing usual place, the tower high and the gaze far, precisely fitting the gaze at the returning man. Five characters a line, time, person, place all complete, drawing a silhouette in the setting sun's lone west-tower leaning. The two words lone leaning the whole line's eye: the railing-leaning and gazing, the expecting pose — the gazed the far man, the hoped the unreturned letter; and the setting sun's vastness and the lone's solitude, already hinting the expectation's destined fall. This line inheriting the above stanza's hard-to-send melancholy, turning the unsendable deep feeling into the railing-tower gaze's clinging figure, from within to without, from feeling to scene, storing the picture for the close's human-face-gone-unknown-where wistful gaze.

人面不知何处，绿波依旧东流。

Where is the face I knew? No one knows. Only the green waves still flow eastward as before.

当年的人面不知如今在何处，只有楼下的绿波依旧日夜东流。

The human face is gone, I know not where; the green waves still flow east.

结句是全词的落点，以景结情，遂成千古名句。「人面不知何处」化用崔护《题都城南庄》「人面不知何处去」——当年的人儿已不知去向，一个「不知」写尽杳无音信的茫然；「绿波依旧东流」写眼前之景——楼下的绿水，依旧无情地日夜东流。两句对照，妙在「依旧」二字：绿波年年如是、日日东流，是「恒」；人面一去不返、不知所踪，是「变」——以物之恒常反衬人之杳然，物是人非之慨尽在其中；而「东流」更暗含时光的流逝——绿波东流如时光东去，带走一切，却带不走倚楼人的惆怅。晏殊变崔护的「桃花依旧笑春风」为「绿波依旧东流」，由春日之景翻为日暮流水之景，惆怅愈见绵长：桃花尚有笑春风的明丽，绿波则只有无语东流的苍茫。以景结情，不著一「愁」字，而万种惆怅尽付东流，正是此词「含蓄深婉」的最高境界。

The close is the ci's landing, closing feeling in scene, hence a famous line through the ages. The human face is gone, I know not where borrows Cui Hu's inscribed at the capital's southern village's the human face gone, I know not where — that year's person unknown where now, the one word not-knowing exhausting the trace-less blankness; the green waves still flow east writes the present scene — the tower's green water, still heartlessly flowing day and night. Two lines set against, the wonder in the two words still: the green waves year by year and day by day eastward, the constant; the human face once gone and the unknown where, the change — setting the thing's constancy against the man's trace-lessness, the thing-is-there-and-the-man-is-not sigh all within; and the eastward flow secretly carrying the time's passing — the green waves eastward like the time's eastward going, carrying all, and yet unable to carry the railing-leaning man's melancholy. Yan Shu turning Cui Hu's the peach blossoms still smile in the spring wind into the green waves still flow east, from the spring scene to the dusk flowing-water scene, the melancholy the more lingering: the peach blossoms still have the smile-in-the-spring-wind brightness, and the green waves only the wordless eastward flow's vastness. Closing feeling in scene, not one word of grief, and the ten thousand melancholy all entrusted to the eastward flow, precisely this ci's restrained-deep-grace highest realm.

Study

Word focus

尽 'All, to the full' — telling all the meaning of a lifetime in the small characters, the letter's completeness. 「说尽平生意」之「尽」字，是上阕情感的分量所在，写情书之「满」最有力的一笔。「说尽」不是「说」，而是「说尽」——把平生的心意全部写尽、毫无保留，一个「尽」字写尽写信人的赤诚与深情：不是三言两语的客套，而是倾尽一生的告白。此字之妙在于为下文蓄势：正因为「说尽」，才显出「难寄」之惆怅——心意越是写尽，寄不出去的空落便越深；「尽」是情感的顶峰，「难寄」是情感的悬崖，二者之间的落差，正是全词张力的来源。若作「说尽」为「写出」「述说」，则分量顿减；唯「尽」字以极限之词写情感之满，与「难寄」的极限之词写寄达之空两相对照，尽而难寄、满而落空，六字之间，深情与惆怅并存，正是晏殊炼字以少胜多的典范。

独 'Alone' — leaning alone on the western tower in the slanting sun, the solitary vigil. 「斜阳独倚西楼」之「独」字，是下阕情感的支点，写孤独最凝练的一笔。一个「独」字，写尽三层孤独：一是身之独——斜阳之下，西楼之上，只有一个人倚着栏杆，无人相伴；二是心之独——满腹情意「难寄」，无人可诉，无人知晓，心事只能自己吞吐；三是境之独——斜阳苍茫、人去楼空，天地之间只剩下倚楼的身影与无尽的怅望。「独倚」二字，把「倚」的姿态与「独」的处境结合：倚栏是有所待，独倚是待而无人——期待的姿态与孤独的现实叠合，正是相思最典型的剪影。此字与上阕「难寄」遥相呼应：情难寄，故只能独倚；独倚而人终不来，惆怅遂成永恒。以一字写尽孤独的姿态与心境，晏殊之炼字，如盐入水，不见痕迹而味在其中。

依旧 'As before' — the green waves still flowing eastward as before, the world's indifference. 「绿波依旧东流」之「依旧」二字，是结句的诗眼，写「物是人非」最沉痛的一笔。「依旧」即「还是那样」——绿波还是当年那样，日夜东流，不增不减，不改不变；而人呢？「不知何处」，一去无踪。二字之妙，全在与「不知」的对照：人「不知」而水「依旧」，人的行踪不可知，水的东流不可改——以水的恒常写人的渺茫，以自然的不变写人事的无常，「物是人非」四字，尽在「依旧」二字之中。晏殊变崔护「桃花依旧笑春风」为「绿波依旧东流」，「依旧」二字正承崔诗而来，而用意更深：桃花「笑」春风尚有情意，绿波「流」只是无情；桃花是春日明丽之景，绿波是日暮东逝之水——以更无情之景写更深的惆怅，正是晏殊对前人名句的翻新出奇。「依旧」二字平平，而全词的怅惘、无奈、苍茫，皆系于此。