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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

水龙吟·次韵章质夫杨花

Water Dragon Chant: Answering Zhang Zhifu's Rime on the Willow Catkins

苏轼

Su Shi

咏物Poem on Objects 愁思Sorrowful Reflection 爱情Love

似花还似非花，也无人惜从教坠。
抛家傍路，思量却是，无情有思。
萦损柔肠，困酣娇眼，欲开还闭。
梦随风万里，寻郎去处，又还被、莺呼起。
不恨此花飞尽，恨西园、落红难缀。
晓来雨过，遗踪何在，一池萍碎。
春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水。
细看来，不是杨花点点，是离人泪。

They seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers;
And no one pities them, so let them fall.
Leaving home, by the roadside,
If one thinks it over—
seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling.
They wind and fray the tender heart,
Weary, drowsy, the lovely eyes
Would open, and again close.
In a dream they follow the wind ten thousand miles,
Seeking their love's dwelling—
And are startled up again by the oriole's cry.
I do not grieve that these flowers fly all away,
But grieve that in the western garden the fallen reds can no more be gathered.
In the morning the rain has passed—
Where is their trace? A pool of duckweed, shattered.
Spring's color, divided into three parts:
Two parts become dust,
One part becomes the flowing water.
Look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop,
But the tears of those who part.

Listen

Meaning

Su Shi's celebrated ci on the willow catkin, written to the rime of Zhang Zhifu's original. The catkins 'seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers,' falling unpitied, leaving home and lying by the roadside, 'seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling.' Through personification they become a longing woman: her tender heart wound and frayed, her lovely eyes heavy and drowsy, dreaming that she follows the wind ten thousand miles to seek her love, only to be startled up by the oriole. 'I do not grieve that these flowers fly all away, but grieve that in the western garden the fallen reds can no more be gathered.' Spring's color, divided into three parts, two become dust and one the flowing water. And in the famous close: 'look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop, but the tears of those who part.' The catkin and the parting woman become one, the object and the feeling wholly merged.

杨花像花却又不像花，也没有人怜惜它，任凭它纷纷坠落。它抛离枝头、飘落在路旁，仔细想来，看似无情，实则自有情思。柳絮萦回，仿佛愁损了离人的柔肠；柳眼困倦，仿佛酣睡未醒的娇眼，欲开还闭。梦随风飘向万里，去寻找郎君的去处，却又被黄莺的啼声唤起。不恨杨花飘飞殆尽，只恨西园里落花满地、难以重缀。拂晓雨过，遗踪何在？一池细碎，都是漂萍。若把春色分成三分，二分已化作尘土，一分已随流水飘去。仔细看来，那飘落的点点杨花不是杨花，分明是离人的眼泪。

Appreciation

This ci sings the object without being bound to it, the model of 'neither clinging nor detached.' In structure it is built on 'they seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers,' and the whole grows from this: first their not-flowers (unpitied, left to fall), then their flower-spirit (seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling), then the personification into the longing woman (the tender heart wound, the lovely eyes heavy), then the dream writing the longing (following the wind ten thousand miles, seeking the love), then a turn—'I do not grieve that these flowers fly all away, but grieve that in the western garden the fallen reds can no more be gathered,' the fallen reds set off in reverse against the catkins, then the morning rain and the pool of duckweed writing their end, and the close in the strange thought of spring's three parts and the sudden awakening of 'look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop, but the tears of those who part.' The whole runs on two lines in parallel: one the drifting of the catkin, one the sorrow of the parting woman, the two ever mingling and mirroring, the singing of the object and the speaking of the feeling one body.

【白话串讲】苏轼和章质夫的杨花词：“似花还似非花，也无人惜从教坠”。“抛家傍路，思量却是，无情有思”——“梦随风万里，寻郎去处，又还被、莺呼起”——“春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水”——他写杨花如离人之泪。【意象与手法】全词咏物而不滞于物，以似花还似非花立骨，拟人（抛家傍路、困酣娇眼）、比喻（三分春色）、化用（无情有思翻韩愈语）并用，物我双线交融：一条写杨花飘零，一条写离人愁思，终以细看来不是杨花点点、是离人泪的顿悟合而为一，是咏物词不即不离的典范。【情感与主旨】此词以杨花喻离人，寄寓身世飘零与相思之苦。苏轼谪居黄州，身为罪臣，絮之无人怜惜、抛家傍路，正是自己被弃置不用的写照；絮之点点如泪，则兼有对远人的思念与对身世的悲叹，咏物与言情浑然一体。【名句点睛】春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水以数字分配春色，奇想超绝；细看来，不是杨花点点，是离人泪于顿悟中物我合一，王国维谓此词和韵而似原唱，正指此等神来之笔。

Background

In the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081), Su Shi, demoted to vice military training commissioner of Huangzhou for the Crow Terrace Poetry Case, was living in exile there. Zhang Jie (courtesy name Zhifu), then Judicial Commissioner of the Jingzhou North circuit, wrote the ci 'Water Dragon Chant: Willow Catkins' and sent it to Su Shi, who answered it in the same rime and the same rime-words. The catkin is the thing of late spring. Su Shi, at this time a disgraced official, his name on the register of the guilty and his person in effect banished, lodged his feeling in the thing, merging the drifting of the catkin with the longing of the parting woman and his own feeling of the self: the unpitied catkin leaving home and lying by the roadside was the picture of his own discarded state; the catkin wound and frayed, the drops of the parting woman's tears, carried at once the longing for one far away and the grief of his own lot. Though this ci answers a rime, its conception far exceeds the original; Wang Guowei's Talks on Ci in the Human World calls it 'an answer to a rime that seems the original, while the original seems the answer,' a rare model of the ci of objects.

元丰四年（1081），苏轼因乌台诗案被贬为黄州团练副使，谪居黄州。时章楶（字质夫）任荆州北路提点刑狱，作《水龙吟·杨花》一词寄示苏轼，苏轼依其原韵、原韵字次韵相和，成此篇。杨花即柳絮，暮春之物。苏轼此时身为罪臣，名在黄册、形同放逐，寄情于物，遂将柳絮之飘零与离人相思、身世之感融为一体：絮之无人怜惜、抛家傍路，正是自己被弃置不用的写照；絮之萦损柔肠、点点离人泪，则兼有对远人的思念与对身世的悲叹。此词虽为和韵，而意境远出原唱之上，王国维《人间词话》评为和韵而似原唱，是咏物词中不可多得的典范，也是苏轼黄州时期心境最幽微的流露。苏轼咏物词不多，而此词一出，遂成咏物词的极致，为后世咏柳絮、咏落花诸作树立了不即不离的法则。此词在当时即已传诵，后人论咏物词，无不首举此篇，其影响之深远，实为黄州词作之冠。而词中即景言情、物我两忘之致，正是东坡身处逆境而胸次悠然的人格写照。

Art

The art lies in singing the object without being bound to it, the model of 'neither clinging nor detached.' In structure it is built on 'they seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers,' and the whole grows from this: their not-flowers, their flower-spirit, the personification into the longing woman, the dream writing the longing, the turn to the fallen reds, the pool of duckweed, and the close in the strange thought of spring's three parts and the sudden awakening of the parting woman's tears. The whole runs on two lines in parallel, the drifting of the catkin and the sorrow of the parting woman ever mingling and mirroring. In method it gathers the personification (leaving home by the roadside, the lovely eyes heavy and drowsy), the metaphor (spring's three parts), and the sudden awakening (the tears of those who part), and all the allusions are transformed without a trace.

此词咏物而不滞于物，是不即不离的典范。章法上以似花还似非花立骨，全篇皆由此生发：先写其非花（无人惜、从教坠），次写其似花之神（无情有思），再以拟人法将其化为思妇（萦损柔肠，困酣娇眼），复以梦境写其思（梦随风万里，寻郎去处），一转而不恨此花飞尽、恨西园落红难缀，以落红反衬杨花，再以晓来雨过、遗踪何在、一池萍碎写其归宿，终以春色三分的奇想与细看来、不是杨花点点、是离人泪的顿悟收束。全词双线并行：一条写杨花之飘零，一条写离人之愁思，二者时时交融、处处互喻，咏物言情浑然一体。手法上集拟人（抛家傍路、困酣娇眼）、比喻（三分春色）、化用（无情有思翻韩愈语）、设问（遗踪何在）于一身，而皆归于自然，不见斧凿。结拍细看来三字尤见功力：由审视而顿悟，物我之界限在刹那间打通，咏物至此，已是言情。全词层次分明：起以总写，中分写物态人情，终以奇想顿悟收束，脉络清晰而一气流转，堪称咏物词的标准章法。

Allusions

The allusions are few and all transformed without a trace. 'They seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers' carries the Tang tradition of the catkin: Han Yu's 'Late Spring' holds the catkin heartless—'the catkin and the elm pod, with no talent for thought, only know how to scatter through the sky like snowflakes'—and Su Shi reverses it, 'seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling,' the new conception emerging from the turn of the allusion. 'In a dream they follow the wind ten thousand miles, seeking their love's dwelling' transforms the Tang poet Jin Changxu's 'Spring Grief': 'the oriole crying startles my dream, and I cannot reach Liaoxi'—the oriole startling the dream, the dream broken at Liaoxi; Su Shi's oriole startling up the dream-seeker is the same conception made anew, and more drifting and elusive. 'I do not grieve that these flowers fly all away, but grieve that in the western garden the fallen reds can no more be gathered' covertly uses Du Fu's 'Qujiang': 'one petal flying lessens spring; the wind is strong, and the falling reds are many'—the grief of the fading spring.

此词用典不多而皆化于无痕。开篇似花还似非花暗含唐人咏絮传统：韩愈《晚春》杨花榆荚无才思、惟解漫天作雪飞谓杨花无思，苏轼反其意而曰无情有思，一翻案而新境自出；谢道韫未若柳絮因风起以絮喻雪，苏轼则以人喻絮，又一翻案。梦随风万里、寻郎去处化用唐人金昌绪《春怨》啼时惊妾梦、不得到辽西之意——莺啼惊梦，梦断辽西，苏词写莺呼起梦中寻郎之人，正是此意的翻版，而更见飘忽。不恨此花飞尽、恨西园落红难缀暗用杜甫《曲江》一片花飞减却春、风飘万点正愁人之意，以落红之难缀写春色之难留。一池萍碎用杨花落水化为浮萍的旧说（苏轼自注：杨花落水为浮萍，验之信然），则又为全篇添一层物性之趣。结句细看来、不是杨花点点、是离人泪化用其前人之句而青出于蓝，使杨花、离泪、春色三者合一，典故至此已化为血肉，了无痕迹。至于似花还似非花之句，后人以为深得咏物三昧，其取法唐人而自成机杼，尤见东坡学古之深。

Commentary

This ci is Su Shi's representative ci of objects and a peak in the history of the Chinese ci of objects. The critics have rated it most highly: Wang Guowei's Talks on Ci in the Human World holds that 'Dongpo's ci on the catkin answers the rime and seems the original, while Zhang Zhifu's original seems the answer,' and that 'in the ci of objects, Dongpo's Water Dragon Chant is the most accomplished,' pushing it to the extreme of the ci of objects. The ci's wonder lies in its beginning on the ambiguous 'they seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers' to write the full spirit of the catkin, and its close on the sudden awakening of 'look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop, but the tears of those who part,' wholly turning the singing of the object into the speaking of the feeling, feeling and object merged, neither clinging nor detached—the eternal law of the ci of objects for all the later singers of the catkin and the fallen blossom.

此词是苏轼咏物词的代表作，也是中国咏物词史上的一座高峰。词论家于此词评价极高：王国维《人间词话》谓东坡杨花词和韵而似原唱、章质夫词原唱而似和韵，以为和韵之难、东坡之妙，两语道尽；又谓咏物之词自以东坡《水龙吟》为最工，将其推为咏物词的极致。此词之妙，在能以似花还似非花的暧昧起笔写尽杨花之神，更以细看来、不是杨花点点、是离人泪的顿悟收束，将咏物彻底化为言情，情与物、景与思融为一炉。就词史意义言，此词确立了咏物词的两种法则：其一，咏物须不即不离，不粘不脱；其二，和韵之作亦可自成高格，不必甘居原唱之下。苏轼以文为词、以理入词的开拓精神，于此词可见一斑。此词与《卜算子·黄州定慧院寓居作》等篇，共同标示了苏轼黄州时期词的成就，亦为南宋姜夔、史达祖咏物词之先声。自来和韵之作多受掣肘，东坡独能转难为巧，此词遂为词史上和韵胜原唱的罕见之例。

Prosody

Form Tune 'Water Dragon Chant' (double, one hundred and two characters)词牌《水龙吟》（双调一百零二字）

Rhyme Rhymes on oblique tones: zhui, si, bi, qi, zhui, sui, shui, lei, following the rime-words of Zhang Zhifu's original, all in the third rhyme-group of the ci (zhi, wei, qi, hui), rising and falling tones joined押仄声韵，韵脚依次为坠、思、闭、起、缀、碎、水、泪，皆依章质夫原词韵字次韵相和，属词林正韵第三部（支微齐灰）上去通押。

Tone pattern The first half is mostly four-character lines, its rhythm short and pressing; 'spring's color, divided into three parts' of the second half advances in three parallel lines, and 'look closely' turns suddenly, its rhythm from even to swift, carrying the sudden awakening of the close上片以四字句为主，节奏短促；下片春色三分三句排比递进，细看来领起的长句以一字领（细）振起，音节随情感由急促转舒展。

Reading note The tune's short four-character lines in the first half and the three parallel lines and sudden turn of the second half carry the mingling of the catkin and the parting woman.《水龙吟》又名《龙吟曲》《小楼连苑》，双调一百零二字，上片十一句四仄韵，下片十一句五仄韵，为长调中较舒缓的一体。次韵一体最难：须依原词韵脚之字、之序一一相和，而章质夫原词咏杨花已极工致，苏轼和之而能翻出新境，词论家以为难能。就音律言，此词上片四言句居多（似花还似非花／抛家傍路／萦损柔肠），短句促节，正合杨花飘坠的急促之态；下片春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水以三句排比，节奏由急而缓，如絮之渐远渐稀；结拍细看来，不是杨花点点，是离人泪以十二字长句收束，一字领（细）领起，顿挫之间，如凝神审视、恍然大悟。王国维《人间词话》谓东坡此词和韵而似原唱、章质夫词原唱而似和韵，非深于词律者不能道也。

Line by line

似花还似非花，也无人惜从教坠。

They seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers; and no one pities them, so let them fall. (The bone of the whole ci: the ambiguous 'seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers' writes the full spirit of the catkin, and the unpitied falling of the drifting thing.)

杨花像花却又不像花，也没有人怜惜它，任凭它纷纷飘落。

Like a flower, and yet not like a flower; no one pities it, and lets it fall.

起拍两句为全篇立骨，写杨花尴尬的身份与寂寞的处境。似花还似非花五字，将杨花亦花亦絮、非花非絮的特质一语道尽——它有花之名而无花之色香，故无人以花待之；此句既是对咏物对象不即不离的定位，也暗含以花喻人的深意。次句也无人惜从教坠承之：无人怜惜，任其坠落，从教二字写听之任之的漠然。此两句一写物性，一写人情，物之无依与人之无悯相映，为全词定下凄婉的基调。词论家谓咏物词须不即不离，苏轼开篇即示范：不离杨花之形，不粘杨花之迹，故能由物入情、由情入思。

The opening two lines establish the whole piece's bone, writing the catkin's awkward identity and lonely lot. The like-a-flower-and-yet-not-like-a-flower five characters, exhausting the catkin's both-flower-and-yet-fluff and neither-flower-nor-fluff feature in one stroke — it has the flower's name and yet no flower's color or fragrance, hence no one treats it as a flower; this line at once the thing-ode object's neither-too-near-nor-too-far positioning, and secretly the flower-for-person deep meaning. The next line and-yet-no-one-pities-it-and-lets-it-fall inherits: no one pities, letting it fall, the lets-it-fall two words writing the letting-be indifference. These two lines, one the material nature, one the human feeling, the thing's no-lodging and the person's no-pity's mutual setting-off, setting the whole ci's plaintive tone. The ci critics' saying the thing-ode ci must be neither-too-near-nor-too-far, Su Shi's opening at once the demonstration: not leaving the catkin's form, not sticking to the catkin's trace, hence able to enter from thing to feeling and from feeling to thought.

抛家傍路，思量却是，无情有思。

Leaving home, by the roadside, if one thinks it over—seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling. (The turn of the allusion: Han Yu held the catkin heartless, Su Shi reverses it, 'seemingly heartless, yet full of feeling,' the new conception emerging from the turn.)

杨花抛离枝头、飘落在路旁，仔细想来，它看似无情，实则也有情思。

It leaves its home and drifts by the road; on reflection, it seems feelingless, and yet full of longing.

此三句承上坠字展开，写杨花飘落之态与诗人揣摩之意。抛家傍路四字拟人，杨花离枝而去、委身路旁，如离家之人漂泊无依，抛字见决绝，傍字见凄凉。尤妙在思量却是、无情有思八字：以思量领起，仿佛诗人对着飞絮沉吟揣度，终而断定杨花并非无情，而是有其情思——这是以移情法咏物，把无知的柳絮写成有情的生命。此句暗用韩愈《晚春》杨花榆荚无才思、惟解漫天作雪飞之语而反其意：韩愈说杨花无才思，苏轼偏说无情有思，一翻案而境界全出，为下文写离人愁思张本。

These three lines inheriting the above's fall word, writing the catkin's drifting pose and the poet's pondering. The leaves-its-home-and-drifts-by-the-road four characters' personification, the catkin's leaving the branch and committing to the roadside, like the home-leaving person's drifting and no-lodging, the leaves word seeing the resolve, the roadside word seeing the bleakness. The wonder in the on-reflection-and-yet-feelingless-and-yet-full-of-longing eight characters: leading with the on-reflection, as if the poet's facing the flying fluff's murmuring pondering, finally concluding the catkin's not-feelingless, and yet having its longing — this the empathy method's thing-ode, turning the unknowing willow fluff into the feeling life. This line secretly using Han Yu's Late Spring's the catkin-and-elm-pods-have-no-wit-only-know-the-sky-filling-snow-flight words and yet reversing the meaning: Han Yu says the catkin's no-wit, Su Shi precisely says feelingless-and-yet-full-of-longing, one reversal and the realm fully out, storing the ground for the below's parted-person grief-writing.

萦损柔肠，困酣娇眼，欲开还闭。

They wind and fray the tender heart, weary, drowsy, the lovely eyes would open, and again close. (The personification into the longing woman: the catkin wound and frayed into the tender heart, the drowsy lovely eyes, the flower and the woman become one.)

柳絮萦回，仿佛愁损了离人的柔肠；柳眼困倦，仿佛酣睡未醒的娇眼，欲开还闭。

It tangles and wears the soft heart; the drowsy tender eyes, about to open, close again.

此三句由写絮转写人，是无情有思的具体化。杨花随风萦回，恰似思妇愁肠百结，故曰萦损柔肠；柳叶初生如眼（古人称柳叶为柳眼），柳絮纷飞如倦眼迷离，故曰困酣娇眼、欲开还闭。苏轼将柳絮之态与思妇之态打成一片：絮之萦绕即肠之萦损，絮之困倦即眼之困酣，物我交融、亦絮亦人。三个四字句一气而下，损、酣二字写尽愁之深、困之甚，欲开还闭则以欲拒还迎的动态写慵懒无力的神态。此等处最见苏轼咏物词的本领：不写絮而絮自现，不写人而人自见，咏物与言情双线交织，浑融无间。

These three lines from the fluff-writing turning to the person-writing, the feelingless-and-yet-full-of-longing's concretization. The catkin's wind-driven winding, precisely like the longing wife's hundred-knot heart, hence the tangles-and-wears-the-soft-heart; the willow's leaves just sprouting like eyes (the ancients calling the willow leaves the willow eyes), the catkin's flying like the weary eyes' blurredness, hence the drowsy-tender-eyes and the about-to-open-and-close-again. Su Shi fusing the catkin's pose and the longing wife's pose into one: the fluff's winding i.e. the heart's tangle, the fluff's drowsiness i.e. the eyes' drowsiness, the thing-and-self fusion and the fluff-and-person. Three four-character lines in one breath, the wears and drowsy two words exhausting the grief's depth and the drowsiness's extreme, the about-to-open-and-close-again using the would-refuse-and-yet-welcome motion for the languid powerless look. These places the most seeing Su Shi's thing-ode ci craft: not writing the fluff and yet the fluff self-seen, not writing the person and yet the person self-seen, the thing-ode and feeling-uttering double lines' interweaving, fused without seam.

春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水。

Spring's color, divided into three parts: two parts become dust, one part becomes the flowing water. (The strange thought: the spring's color divided into three parts, the end of the fading spring written in the number, the catkin's fate and the parting woman's grief in one stroke.)

若把春色分成三分，二分已化作尘土，一分已随流水飘去。

If spring's beauty be divided in three, two parts go to the dust, one part to the flowing water.

此三句是千古传诵的奇句，以数学式的分配写春色的消逝。将抽象的春色具象为可以分割的三分，二分委于尘土、一分付与流水，杨花的归宿——飘落成泥、随水东流——便成了整个春天凋零的缩影。此句之妙，在把不可量之物（春色）量化，又在量化之中见出不可挽回的怅惘：春色三分，去者已多，存者无几，正是伤春惜别的题中之义。后人词中三分春色二分愁等句皆从此出，正见其独创性。苏轼以议论、以巧思为词，此三句是其以文为词主张在咏物词中的极致体现。

These three lines are a through-the-ages wondrous line, using the mathematical division for the spring-beauty's fading. Turning the abstract spring-beauty into the divisible three parts, two parts committed to the dust and one part entrusted to the flowing water, the catkin's end — the falling-to-mud and the water's east-flowing — hence become the whole spring's withering microcosm. This line's wonder, in the immeasurable thing's (spring beauty) quantification, and within the quantification seeing the irrecoverable wistfulness: the spring's three parts, the gone the already many, the kept the few, precisely the grief-the-spring-and-parting's inherent meaning. The later ci's three-parts-of-spring-two-parts-grief etc. all from this, seeing its originality. Su Shi using argument and ingenuity for the ci, these three lines his prose-as-ci proposition in the thing-ode ci's extreme embodiment.

细看来，不是杨花点点，是离人泪。

Look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop, but the tears of those who part. (The sudden awakening of the close: the catkin drops become the tears of the parting, the singing of the object wholly turned into the speaking of the feeling, the two lines of the ci one body.)

仔细看来，那飘落的点点杨花不是杨花，分明是离人的眼泪。

Looked at closely, those drifting catkins are not catkin flakes, but the tears of parted lovers.

结拍是全词的点睛之笔，也是咏物词由物到人的完成。杨花点点，细看竟不是杨花，而是离人泪——咏物至此，物与我已完全合一：柳絮即泪，泪即柳絮，惜花之情与离别之痛一并倾泻。此句以细看来领起，仿佛凝神审视、终有所悟，由疑虑而确证，情感步步收紧。王国维《人间词话》谓此词和韵而似原唱，正是因此等神来之笔：和人之韵而能翻出新境，结句一振，全篇皆活。咏物至此，可谓登峰造极；后世咏柳絮者，鲜有能出其右者。

The closing beat is the whole ci's telling stroke, and the thing-ode's thing-to-person completion. The catkin flakes, the close look's actually not catkin, and yet the parted-person tears — the thing-ode to this point, the thing and self already fully one: the willow fluff i.e. the tears, the tears i.e. the willow fluff, the flower-pity feeling and the parting grief together poured out. This line leading with the looked-at-closely, as if the rapt scrutiny's final realization, from doubt to confirmation, the emotion's step-by-step tightening. Wang Guowei's Notes on Ci Poetry holding this ci's rhymed-answer-and-yet-like-the-original precisely because of such inspired strokes: answering another's rhyme and yet able to turn out the new realm, the close's one lift, the whole piece alive. The thing-ode to this point, the peak reached; the later willow-fluff ode writers, few able to surpass.

Study

Word focus

非 Not. The word of the bone: 'they seem like flowers, yet seem not flowers'—the ambiguous 'seem and not seem' writes the full spirit of the catkin, neither clinging nor detached, the whole ci growing from this one word. 似花还似非花之非字，是全篇立意的根柢。杨花名花而非花——无花之色、无花之香、无花之态，故曰非花；然其纷纷飘落、追逐春风的姿态又确有花的神韵，故曰似花。一个非字，把杨花亦花亦絮的两重身份钉在纸面，也把咏物词不即不离的尺度标了出来：若说是花则粘滞，若说非花则脱离，唯似与非两可之间，方有下文无情有思、离人泪的翻腾余地。此字之妙在虚，虚而能实：因非花，故无人惜；因似花，故有离思。全词千回百转，皆由此一字生发。

损 Wound, fray. 'They wind and fray the tender heart'—the personification of the catkin into the longing woman, the drifting thing wound into the wound of the tender heart, the object and the feeling one. 萦损柔肠之损字，义为愁损、折磨至憔悴。柳絮萦回不断，正似愁思萦绕不去，柔肠为愁所损，一个损字写出愁之深、之持久，比断、结等字更见渐进渐损的过程。此字本为俗语（损坏、损耗），入词而愈觉贴切：柔肠不是一下子断的，而是被愁绪日复一日地萦绕、损耗，终于憔悴，正如柳絮日复一日地萦回枝头。与困酣相配，损写肠之内伤，酣写眼之外倦，内外俱损，思妇之憔悴如在目前。苏轼炼字喜用此类力量感强的动词，一个损字，可抵一段铺叙。

三分 Three parts. 'Spring's color, divided into three parts'—the strange thought that divides the fading spring into dust and flowing water, the end of the season written in the number, the most striking stroke of the second half. 春色三分，二分尘土，一分流水之三分，是此三句奇想的关键。以三数分春色，本是数字游戏，而苏轼赋之以诗意：三分春色，二分归尘土，一分付流水，加起来恰是全部，而全部又已零落殆尽——用尽数的分配写春色之消逝，愈精确愈惆怅。此三分之语前无古人，后启来者：宋人词中三分春色二分愁之句皆从此出。数字入词而能如此传情，正见苏轼以议论、以巧思为词的胆识，也见其以俗为雅的本领。

点点 Drop by drop. The word of the close: 'look closely—these are not willow catkins, drop by drop, but the tears of those who part'—the drops of the catkin becoming the drops of tears, the sudden awakening of the whole ci. 不是杨花点点之点点，叠字写杨花飘落之细密。点点是絮的形态，也是泪的形态：絮之点点，细碎而不断，正如泪之点点，断续而不止；物与泪，皆以点点而通。此叠字之妙，在以少胜多：不着纷纷、漫漫等铺张之语，而以点点的细密收束，反而更见情之沉挚。且点点呼应上句三分，一数字一叠字，皆以最素朴的字眼写最深沉的情，正合苏轼绚烂之极归于平淡的审美。