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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

秦观·浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼

Wash-Stream Sand · Faint, Faint, the Light Cold Climbs the Small Tower

秦观

Qin Guan

婉约graceful 春愁spring-sorrow

漠漠轻寒上小楼。
晓阴无赖似穷秋。
淡烟流水画屏幽。
自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁。
宝帘闲挂小银钩。

Faint, faint, the light cold climbs the small tower.
The dawn overcast is shameless, like deep autumn.
Pale smoke and flowing water — the painted screen is dim.
Free, the flying petals are light as a dream;
Boundless, the silken rain is fine as sorrow.
The precious curtain hangs idle on the little silver hook.

Listen

Meaning

Boundless faint chill quietly climbs the little tower. The dreary dawn clouds are helpless, almost like late autumn. Pale smoke and flowing water on the painted screen make it seem especially secluded. The freely flying fallen blossoms are as light as a dream; the boundless fine rain is as fine as sorrow. The precious curtain hangs in leisure on the little silver hook.

无边无际的微微寒意，悄然爬上小楼。拂晓的阴云无可奈何，竟像深秋一般。淡烟流水的画屏，显得格外幽静。自在飞舞的落花，轻盈得仿佛梦境；无边的细雨，细密得如同愁绪。珍贵的帘幕闲闲地挂在小小银钩上。

Appreciation

The whole lyric is governed by the words 'light,' 'small,' 'pale,' 'dim,' building an ethereal, remote mood. The first stanza from 'faint, faint, the light cold' to the dim painted screen layers the cool and lone. The second stanza, 'free, the flying petals are light as a dream; boundless, the silken rain is fine as sorrow,' uses two exquisite metaphors to turn formless idle sorrow into visible, sensible flying petals and silken rain, feeling and scene become one. Through the whole piece not one word 'sorrow,' yet sorrow-thinking fills the air; it ends in the still scene of 'the precious curtain hangs idle on the little silver hook,' the aftertaste leisurely — most showing Shaoyou's beauty of feeling-and-tone alike, fine words and fresh meaning.

【白话串讲】 “漠漠轻寒上小楼。晓阴无赖似穷秋”——秦观写春寒：轻寒爬上小楼。“自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁”——自在飞花轻得像梦，无边丝雨细得像愁。这是宋词里最美的对仗之一。【意象与手法】全词以"轻""小""淡""幽"诸字统摄，营造空灵幽渺之境。上片由"漠漠轻寒"写到画屏幽寂，层层染出清冷【情感与主旨】此词具体作年不可确考，学界多系于秦观晚年屡遭贬谪、行迹漂泊、心境萧索之时，或为其某次春阴闲居、客中无聊所作【名句点睛】中高考常考：一、"漠漠轻寒""晓阴无赖"如何营造氛围

Background

The exact year cannot be fixed; scholars mostly place it in Qin Guan's late years of repeated banishment, drifting and bleak in heart, perhaps written in some spring-overcast leisure or idle lodging away from home. Huaihai lyrics excel in graceful tender feeling; this little piece names no particular affair, purely writing a kind of unspeakable light sorrow in the clear cold of a spring overcast — exactly his manner of 'folding the feeling of his own fate into love-lyrics.' The line 'the dawn overcast is shameless, like deep autumn' leaks a political failure's lonely bleakness, tied to personal fortune yet entrusted to season and scene — a model of Northern-Song graceful short lyrics, implicit and rich.

《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》为北宋秦观所作，是写春愁的词。秦观（1049—1100），字少游，高邮人，北宋词人。此词：漠漠轻寒上小楼。晓阴无赖似穷秋。淡烟流水画屏幽。自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁。宝帘闲挂小银钩。全词写春愁之轻细，是秦观词的名篇。

Art

The whole lyric is governed by the words 'light,' 'small,' 'pale,' 'dim,' building an ethereal, remote mood. The first stanza from 'faint, faint, the light cold' to the dim painted screen layers the cool. The second stanza, 'free, the flying petals are light as a dream; boundless, the silken rain is fine as sorrow,' uses two exquisite metaphors to turn formless idle sorrow into visible flying petals and silken rain, feeling and scene become one. Not one 'sorrow' in the whole, yet sorrow-thinking brims; it ends in the still scene of 'the precious curtain hangs idle on the little silver hook,' the aftertaste leisurely — most showing Shaoyou's beauty of feeling and tone together, fine wording and fresh meaning.

《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》艺术上以愁绪的轻细与意象的精美见长。全词六句，层层写来：前三句写小楼春寒——“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写轻寒上小楼，“晓阴无赖似穷秋”写晓阴似穷秋，“淡烟流水画屏幽”写淡烟流水画屏；后三句写飞花丝雨——“自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁”写飞花丝雨，“宝帘闲挂小银钩”写宝帘银钩。全词以轻细写春愁，正是秦观词婉约精美的笔法。

Allusions

The lyric uses no dense allusion, winning by plain sketch and metaphor. 'Shameless' (wulai) originally meant both helpless and dear (as Xu Ling's 'shameless' for a child), here inverted to write the dawn overcast as annoying as autumn, with a faint personifying petulance. 'Deep autumn' (qiongqiu) is late autumn, a common seasonal word. Overall it borrows no old tale, purely using ordinary words and the scene before the eye to write a subtle mood — exactly the Huaihai trait of 'elegant and plain in form, unbroken in spirit,' naturally wonderful with no piling — the realm of 'allusion without allusion.'

《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》用典少而意象精美。“漠漠轻寒”写弥漫之轻寒；“自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁”以梦喻花、以愁喻雨；“宝帘闲挂小银钩”写宝帘银钩。全词以这些意象写春愁，不用深典而精美自见，正是秦观词的笔法。

Commentary

Wang Guowei, in his Poetic Remarks in the Human World, though he criticised Qin Guan as 'miserable and tender,' could not but prize his craft of phrasing. The modern Yu Pingbo called the 'free, the flying petals' couplet 'sharp and new in metaphor, unmatched in scene and feeling.' Tang Guizhang praised this lyric as 'like the first-day lotus, naturally lovely.' Later critics often set it beside Yan Shu's and Li Qingzhao's idle-sorrow short lyrics, saying Shaoyou, a man writing tender feeling, could be remote — crown of the ethereal graceful school, deeply influencing Zhou Bangyan and Li Qingzhao.

《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》是秦观词的名篇，也是北宋词中写春愁的代表作。此词写春愁之轻细，向为论者称道。论者多赏其愁绪的轻细与意象的精美——“自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁”以飞花比梦、丝雨比愁，轻细精美之极；“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写轻寒上小楼，更见春愁之起。秦观为北宋婉约词代表，其词以婉约精美著称，此词正是其代表——以轻细写春愁，正是其词风。

Prosody

Form Lyric, 'Wash-Stream Sand' (Huan Xi Sha), double-tune 42 characters词·浣溪沙

Rhyme Level rhyme, per Ci Lin Zheng Yun, three level rhymes per stanza《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》为双调词，押平声韵。此词用韵：楼、秋、幽（尤部）、钩（尤部），一韵到底，音节轻婉。

Tone pattern Six seven-character lines plus two three-character lines; gentle metre浣溪沙为双调词，音节轻婉而精美。此词写春愁之轻细，音节轻婉而精美。全词一韵到底，声调与春愁轻细的内容相合，是秦观词中婉约精美的一路。

Reading note 'Wash-Stream Sand' is a Tang banquet tune, fit for idle-sorrow short lyrics — Shaoyou's piece is a representative of ethereal grace.《浣溪沙·漠漠轻寒上小楼》为北宋秦观所作，是写春愁的词。此词以“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写春愁之起，以“自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁”写飞花丝雨、春愁轻细，以“宝帘闲挂小银钩”写帘钩闲挂。以轻细写春愁，正是秦观词的名篇。

Line by line

漠漠轻寒上小楼。晓阴无赖似穷秋。淡烟流水画屏幽。

The pervasive light chill ascends the small tower. The dawn gloom is tiresome, like the deep autumn. The pale mist and flowing water on the painted screen are dim and still.

漠漠轻寒上小楼。晓阴无赖，似穷秋。淡烟流水的画屏幽静。

The light chill spreads over the small tower. The dawn sky, tiresome as the deep autumn. The pale mist and flowing water on the painted screen, secluded.

前三句写小楼春寒，是全词春愁的起点。“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写轻寒上小楼——“漠漠轻寒”写弥漫的轻寒，“上小楼”写上小楼——漠漠轻寒上小楼；“晓阴无赖似穷秋”写晓阴似穷秋——“晓阴无赖”写晓阴无赖（恼人），“似穷秋”写似穷秋——晓阴无赖似穷秋；“淡烟流水画屏幽”写画屏幽——“淡烟流水”写淡烟流水之景，“画屏幽”写画屏幽静——淡烟流水画屏幽。三句写小楼春寒：漠漠轻寒上小楼、晓阴无赖似穷秋、淡烟流水画屏幽。以“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写轻寒弥漫、上小楼，以“晓阴无赖似穷秋”写晓阴恼人、如穷秋之阴，以“淡烟流水画屏幽”写画屏淡烟流水之幽，正是秦观词写春愁之起、以轻寒写愁的起点——轻寒上楼，愁绪渐生。

The first three lines write the small tower's spring chill, the ci's spring grief's starting point. The pervasive light chill ascends the small tower writes the light chill ascending — the pervasive light chill and the ascending the small tower; The dawn gloom is tiresome, like the deep autumn writes the dawn gloom's tiresomeness and the deep-autumn likeness; The pale mist and flowing water on the painted screen are dim and still writes the painted screen's seclusion — the pale mist and flowing water scene, the painted screen secluded. Three lines writing the small tower's spring chill: the pervasive light chill ascending, the tiresome dawn gloom like deep autumn, the pale-mist-flowing-water painted screen secluded. Writing the light chill's spread and the tower's ascent through the first line, the tiresome dawn gloom's deep-autumn likeness through the second, the pale-mist-flowing-water screen's seclusion through the third, precisely Qin Guan's ci's spring-grief start, the light chill writing grief starting point — the light chill ascending, the grief gradually born.

自在飞花轻似梦，无边丝雨细如愁。宝帘闲挂小银钩。

The free flying petals are light as a dream; the boundless fine rain is fine as grief. The jeweled curtain hangs idle on the small silver hook.

自在飞花，轻似梦；无边丝雨，细如愁。宝帘闲挂于小银钩。

The freely flying petals, light as a dream; the boundless fine rain, fine as grief. The jeweled curtain idly hangs on the small silver hook.

后三句写飞花丝雨、春愁之轻细，是全词春愁的归结。“自在飞花轻似梦”写飞花轻似梦——“自在飞花”写自在飘飞之花，“轻似梦”写轻似梦——自在飞花轻似梦；“无边丝雨细如愁”写丝雨细如愁——“无边丝雨”写无边的丝雨，“细如愁”写细如愁——无边丝雨细如愁；“宝帘闲挂小银钩”写宝帘银钩——“宝帘闲挂”写宝帘闲挂，“小银钩”写小银钩——宝帘闲挂小银钩。三句写飞花丝雨、春愁之轻细：自在飞花轻似梦、无边丝雨细如愁、宝帘闲挂小银钩。以“自在飞花轻似梦”以梦喻飞花之轻，以“无边丝雨细如愁”以愁喻丝雨之细，以“宝帘闲挂小银钩”写帘钩闲挂之静，正是秦观词写春愁轻细的归结——飞花如梦，丝雨如愁，愁绪轻细而不绝。

The last three lines write the flying petals and fine rain, the spring grief's lightness and fineness, the ci's spring grief's close. The free flying petals are light as a dream writes the petals' dream-like lightness — the freely flying petals, the light as dream; the boundless fine rain is fine as grief writes the silk rain's grief-like fineness — the boundless fine rain, the fine as grief; The jeweled curtain hangs idle on the small silver hook writes the curtain and hook — the jeweled curtain's idle hanging, the small silver hook. Three lines writing the petals and rain, the grief's lightness and fineness: the free petals light as dream, the boundless rain fine as grief, the jeweled curtain idle on the silver hook. Writing the petals' lightness through the dream metaphor, the rain's fineness through the grief metaphor, the curtain-hook's stillness through the idle hanging, precisely Qin Guan's ci's spring-grief-light-fineness close — the petals like dream, the rain like grief, the grief light and fine and yet unending.

Study

Word focus

漠漠轻寒 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “漠漠轻寒上小楼”之“漠漠轻寒”，写弥漫的轻寒，是全词写春愁之起的关键词。“漠漠”写弥漫广布，“轻寒”写轻微之寒——漠漠轻寒上小楼。这一词写春寒之象：不是重寒之凛，而漠漠轻寒；不是有形之寒，而弥漫之轻寒。以“漠漠轻寒上小楼”写轻寒弥漫、上小楼，正是秦观词写春愁之起的笔法。

晓阴无赖 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “晓阴无赖似穷秋”之“晓阴无赖”，写晓阴恼人，是全词写春日阴霾之愁的关键词。“晓阴”写拂晓之阴，“无赖”写无赖（恼人、可憎）——晓阴无赖似穷秋。这一词写晓阴之恼：不是晴明之晓，而晓阴；不是可亲之日，而无赖恼人之阴。以“晓阴无赖似穷秋”写晓阴恼人、如穷秋，正是秦观词写春愁的笔法。

飞花轻似梦 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “自在飞花轻似梦”之“飞花轻似梦”，以梦喻飞花之轻，是全词写春愁轻细的名句。“自在飞花”写自在飘飞之花，“轻似梦”写轻似梦——自在飞花轻似梦。这一句写飞花之轻：不是重坠之花，而轻似梦；不是可捉之瓣，而如梦般飘忽。以“自在飞花轻似梦”写飞花之轻、如梦之飘忽，正是秦观词写春愁轻细的笔法。

丝雨细如愁 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “无边丝雨细如愁”之“丝雨细如愁”，以愁喻丝雨之细，是全词写春愁轻细的名句。“无边丝雨”写无边的丝雨，“细如愁”写细如愁——无边丝雨细如愁。这一句写丝雨之细：不是粗急之雨，而细如丝；不是可断之愁，而无边之愁。以“无边丝雨细如愁”写丝雨无边、细如愁绪，正是秦观词写春愁轻细的归结。