宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric
晏几道·清平乐·留人不住
Pure Peace Joy - There Is No Keeping You Here
清平乐·留人不住留人不住，醉解兰舟去。
一棹碧涛春水路，过尽晓莺啼处。
渡头杨柳青青，枝枝叶叶离情。
此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭。
drunk, you loose the orchid boat and go.
One oar on the green waves, the road of spring water,
passing clean beyond the place where the dawn orioles cry.
At the ferry head the willows are green, green;
every branch and every leaf holds the feeling of parting.
From now on send no more letters on brocade:
the clouds and rain of the painted tower were never to be relied on.
Meaning
Try as he might, he cannot keep her; with the wine still in her she unties the orchid boat and goes. A single oar parts the green waves along the road of spring water, and the boat passes clean beyond the place where the dawn orioles are calling. At the ferry head the willows are green upon green, and every branch and every leaf is bound up with the feeling of parting. From now on she need send no more letters, for the clouds and rain of the painted tower were always empty things not to be relied on.
怎么也留不住你，你带着醉意解开兰舟离去。一支船桨划开碧波春水之路，径自穿过那晓莺啼鸣的所在。 渡口杨柳一片青青，枝枝叶叶都牵系着离情。从此之后，你也不必再寄书信来了，那画楼中的云雨欢情，本就虚无难凭。
Appreciation
Short as it is, the piece is built with great rigour. The first stanza narrates: keeping, drinking, loosing, going, the oar, the passing, a run of actions as continuous as shots in a film, and the boat that passes clean beyond the place where the dawn orioles cry sets bright spring scenery against sorrow, so that a happy scene carries an unhappy feeling. The second stanza turns to scene and to feeling together: the willows at the ferry head with the feeling of parting in every branch and leaf fasten an abstract emotion to something concrete and make the empty solid. The last two lines, refusing further letters and calling the clouds and rain of the painted tower unreliable, put on a show of finality and detachment that is in truth the deepest and most wounded speech of all, so that the plainer the words grow the bitterer the feeling. Yan Jidao, youngest son of the chancellor Yan Shu, spent his life in reduced circumstances among singers and dancers, and the piece belongs to the theme of meeting and parting that runs through his collection.
【白话串讲】 “留人不住，醉解兰舟去”——晏几道留不住要离开的人。“此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭”——他说：以后别再寄信了。赌气的话，全是舍不得。 【意象与手法】 此词篇幅虽小，章法却极谨严。上片叙事，连用「留、醉、解、去、棹、过」六个动词，把留人不住、解舟而去的全过程一气写出；「一棹碧涛春水路，过尽晓莺啼处」以明丽的春水、晓莺之乐景反衬离愁之深，是典型的「以乐景写哀」。下片「渡头杨柳青青，枝枝叶叶离情」将抽象的离情附着于具体的枝叶，化虚为实，兼用叠词加重缠绵；结二句「此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭」忽作决绝之语，字面淡然而内里沉痛，所谓「言愈淡而情愈苦」。全词由明丽转凄清，情景相生，跌宕有致。 【情感与主旨】 晏几道为宰相晏殊幼子，一生落拓，多游宴于歌儿舞女之间，与莲、鸿、苹、云诸姬聚散无常，遂把悲欢离合写进词中。此词当为送别某位恋人所作，写留人不住、醉解兰舟的怅惘，与「画楼云雨无凭」的欢情成空，是《小山词》中典型的「悲欢离合」主题，与其《临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》等作情调相续，皆以今日之落拓对写昔日之欢娱，愈写繁华愈见凄凉。 【名句点睛】 常考：一、「枝枝叶叶离情」的手法——以柳寄情、化虚为实、叠词传情、情景交融；二、结句「此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭」的反语——故作决绝正见不能忘情之深；三、上片「以乐景写哀」的反衬手法。
Background
Yan Jidao was the youngest son of the chancellor Yan Shu, and he lived out his life in reduced circumstances, much of it at feasts among singing girls and dancers, in love with several of them and always subject to the accidents of meeting and parting. This lyric was surely written on seeing off one such lover, though the year cannot be determined; it belongs roughly to his middle years of poverty, when he moved between the capital and other places. The opening, with its failure to keep her and her untying of the orchid boat while still drunk, conveys a lover determined to leave and a man drowning his sorrow in wine who cannot hold her back; the closing phrase about the clouds and rain of the painted tower hints that the joys of the past were a dream not to be relied on. The whole piece is a typical treatment of the theme of union and separation in his collected lyrics, and it is of a piece in feeling with such works as his Immortal by the River on waking from a dream to find the tower locked high.
晏几道（约1038—1110），字叔原，号小山，临川人，北宋词人，宰相晏殊第七子。他生于贵胄之家，早年锦衣玉食，与歌儿舞女过从甚密；父亲死后家道中落，一生落拓，只做过颖昌许田镇监等小官，晚年更是沉沦下位，穷愁潦倒，黄庭坚《小山词序》说他「仕宦连蹇，而不能一傍贵人之门」，正是其一生际遇的写照。据其自撰《小山词》跋语，他常与沈廉叔、陈君龙两家歌女莲、鸿、苹、云等宴饮唱和，后诸姬流转离散，他便把当年与她们聚散的悲欢写进词里，自称追忆往昔过从饮酒之人所记悲欢合离之事，词集亦因此题名《补亡》。此词正是这类「悲欢离合」之作：某次为恋人送行，留之不住，眼看她醉解兰舟、春水东去，遂将一腔离愁凝于笔端。词中「画楼云雨无凭」暗写往日欢情如梦难凭，与《临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》「记得小苹初见」同一情怀，都是小山追忆歌女、悼念往昔的心血文字。就词史背景言，北宋前期小令经晏殊、欧阳修之手日趋雅正，至晏几道而以深情痴语重振令体，人称「古之伤心人」（冯煦语），此词即其代表作。
Art
Short as the piece is, its structure is extremely rigorous. The first stanza narrates: keeping, drinking, loosing, going, the oar, the passing, a chain of actions as continuous as shots in a film, while the boat passing clean beyond the place where the dawn orioles cry sets bright spring scenery against sorrow, writing grief by means of a happy scene. The second stanza turns to scene and feeling: at the ferry head the willows carry the feeling of parting in every branch and every leaf, fastening an abstract emotion onto something concrete and making what is empty solid. The last two lines, telling her to send no more letters and declaring the clouds and rain of the painted tower unreliable, put on a show of finality and detachment which is in truth the most deeply wounded speech of all, an instance of the saying that the plainer the words the bitterer the feeling. The language is as natural as talk, and the resonance is long.
此词篇幅虽小，章法却极谨严，上下片一叙事、一写景抒情，天然分作两截而又一气贯通。上片连用「留、醉、解、去、棹、过」六个动词，动作连贯如电影镜头，把留人不住、解舟而去的全过程一气写出；「一棹碧涛春水路，过尽晓莺啼处」两句，以明丽的春水、晓莺之乐景反衬离愁之深，正是「以乐景写哀」的典型手法，莺啼愈娇、春色愈好，人去愈觉难堪。下片转写渡头杨柳，「渡头杨柳青青，枝枝叶叶离情」将抽象的离情附着于具体的枝叶，化虚为实，兼用叠词加重缠绵之感，是王国维所谓「一切景语皆情语」的绝佳注脚；结二句「此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭」忽作决绝之语，字面淡然，实则翻进一层——正因为情根深种、思念无望，才说出这等赌气的话，所谓「言愈淡而情愈苦」。全词由明丽转凄清、由叙事转决绝，上片以动写别、下片以静写情，情景相生，跌宕有致，收束处更以反语出之，留下大片回味空间，是小山词「既闲雅，又沉着」风格的最佳注脚。
Allusions
The lyric uses almost no allusion and comes close to plain description; only the phrase for clouds and rain has a source, in Song Yu's Rhapsody on Gaotang, where the goddess of Wu Mountain declares that at dawn she is the morning cloud and at dusk the drifting rain, after which clouds and rain came to stand for the joys of love. Here the clouds and rain of the painted tower carry that sense, saying that the tender pleasures of the painted tower in the past have come in the end to nothing that can be relied on. The orchid boat is the customary short form for a boat of magnolia wood, a general name for a fine small craft rather than a specific reference. The whole piece writes a deep attachment in ordinary words, achieving its finish without any heaping up of learning.
此词用典极少，近乎白描，却字字有本。「兰舟」即木兰舟，典出《述异记》所载木兰树可作舟之传说，后泛指华美小船，温庭筠「兰舟桂棹」、柳永「留恋处兰舟催发」词中皆用，此处点出舟之华美，反衬人之无情远去。「晓莺啼」承唐人闺怨、别离诗中莺啼的传统意象，如金昌绪「打起黄莺儿，莫教枝上啼」，以春声之闹写心绪之乱。「渡头杨柳」更是别离诗的固定语码：自《三辅黄图》记汉人于灞桥折柳赠别、「柳」谐「留」音起，柳枝便与挽留、离情结下不解之缘，此处「枝枝叶叶离情」正是把这一传统推到极致，令柳之无情化作离情之化身。「锦书」用前秦苏蕙织锦回文《璇玑图》寄夫窦滔之典，见《晋书·列女传》，后世以「锦书」代指情书，李清照「云中谁寄锦书来」亦用此典；「云雨」出宋玉《高唐赋》巫山神女「旦为朝云，暮为行雨」，专指男女欢情。二典一收一放：「休寄」是情书已断，「无凭」是欢情成空，把昔日之缱绻与今日之决绝绾合一处，典虽隐而情自见，正见小山词融化典故而不露痕迹的功力。
Commentary
Chen Tingzhuo of the Qing, in Remarks on Lyrics from the White Rain Studio, judged the lyrics of Yan Jidao to be at once elegant and steady, and the best of all at speaking of feeling. The phrase about every branch and every leaf holding the feeling of parting has always been admired, and critics say of it that it finds feeling where there is none. Yu Pingbo, in his Selected Tang and Song Lyrics with Explanations, pointed out that the closing lines put on a show of finality precisely because he cannot forget, a remark that goes to the heart of Yan Jidao's art and shows how deep his grief at separation and his longing for the distant really are, as well as how tender the short lyric of the Northern Song could be.
晏几道词历来评价极高。陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》谓小山词「既闲雅，又沉着，最善言情」，又赞其「工于言情，而措辞婉妙，则一时独步」；冯煦《蒿庵论词》更以「古之伤心人」四字许之，谓其词「淡语皆有味，浅语皆有致」。「枝枝叶叶离情」一语，向为论者称赏，谓其以无情之柳写有情之离，于无情处见有情，与王维「客舍青青柳色新」之含蓄相映而更见缠绵；俞平伯《唐宋词选释》评结句「此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭」说：以决绝语写缠绵情，愈决绝愈缠绵。此词与《临江仙·梦后楼台高锁》《鹧鸪天·彩袖殷勤捧玉钟》等并列为小山词中「追忆」主题的杰作，皆以今日之落拓对写昔日之欢娱，愈写繁华愈见凄凉。就词史而言，小令至晏几道而集大成，上承《花间》温韦、南唐二主，下开南宋婉约一脉，其深情痴语影响及于清代纳兰性德——纳兰「家家争唱饮水词」的深婉词风，实与小山一脉相承，王国维《人间词话》以「古之伤心人」并论二人，正见此词的文学史分量。
Prosody
Line by line
留人不住，醉解兰舟去。
I cannot keep you; drunk, you loose the orchids boat and are gone.
怎么也留不住你，你带着醉意解开兰舟离去了。
I could not keep you; drunk, you untied the orchid boat and left.
起笔即写无奈。「留人不住」平铺直叙，一个「不住」见出挽留之力的徒劳；「醉解兰舟去」更进一层——对方带着醉意解缆而去，「醉」字耐人寻味：是借酒壮行，还是借酒浇愁？无论是谁之醉，都说明此别已成定局，纵有千言万语也留他不住。两句叙事而情在其中，不著一「愁」字而离愁已满。尤其「解兰舟」的动作写得干脆利落，与「留人不住」的无力恰成对照：去者决绝，留者难堪，全词的情感基调由此定下。
The opening at once writes the helplessness. The I-could-not-keep-you's plain-narrative, the one bu-zhu word's seeing the retaining's force's futility; the drunk-you-untied-the-orchid-boat-and-left's the one-layer further — the other's the drunken and yet the cable's untied-and-gone, the zui word's the savor-worthy: is it the wine's courage for the journey, or the wine's sorrow's pouring? Whoever's drunken, all's showing this parting's already's the settled end, even's the thousand-and-ten-thousand words' the no-keeping. Two lines narrating and yet the feeling's within, not-landing-one-grief-word and yet the parting-grief's full. Especially the orchid-boat's untying's action's written clean-and-crisp, with the I-could-not-keep-you's powerlessness's precisely-the-contrast: the goer's resolute, the stayer's embarrassed, the whole ci's emotional tone's thus's established.
一棹碧涛春水路，过尽晓莺啼处。
One oar on the green wave of the spring-water road, past all the places where dawn orioles sing.
一支船桨划开碧波春水之路，径自穿过那晓莺啼鸣的所在。
One stroke of the oar on the green spring waters, past every place where the dawn oriole sings.
写舟行之景，妙在以乐景写哀。碧涛春水、晓莺啼鸣，本是明媚欢快的春晨画面，舟行其中，一路莺声相伴，看似赏心乐事；但人去楼空，这满眼春色、满耳莺啼，在留者看来都成了刺心的对照——春水愈碧，愈见去路之遥；莺啼愈娇，愈觉人去之速。「过尽」二字尤其传神：它写的是舟行之快、路程之长，实则暗写目送之久与不舍之深，目送者眼睁睁看着画船穿过一片又一片莺啼的岸边，直到望不见为止。以欢景写悲情，一倍增其悲。
Writing the boat's journey's scene, the wonder's in the joy-scene's grief-writing. The green-wave-spring-water-road and dawn-oriole's singing, originally's the bright-cheerful spring-morning picture, the boat's journey within, the oriole's song's companion along the way, the seeming's the delight-matter; and yet the person-gone-tower-empty, this eye-full spring-color and ear-full oriole's song, in the stayer's view's all's the heart-pricking contrast — the spring-water's the greener, the more seeing the goer's road's far; the oriole's song's the sweeter, the more feeling the person's gone's the swift. The guo-jin two words' the most spirit-catching: it's writing the boat's journey's swiftness and the road's length, actually's secretly writing the gaze's long-durability-and-the-reluctance's depth, the gazer's the wide-eyes'-watching-the-painted-boat's crossing the piece-after-piece's oriole-singing banks, until the no-longer-seeable. Using the joy-scene for the grief-writing, the one-fold's the more the doubled grief.
枝枝叶叶离情
Every branch and every leaf of the willows is bound up with the feeling of parting.
杨柳的枝枝叶叶都牵系着离情。
Every branch and every leaf carries parting grief.
全词警句，妙在化虚为实。离情本无形无质，无可捉摸，此处却把它拆散开来，附着于渡口杨柳的每一枝每一叶之上——仿佛那千万条柳丝、千万片柳叶，都是由离情凝成。叠词「枝枝叶叶」用得极妙：一是写柳之繁茂，万千枝叶摇漾眼前；二是写情之细密，离愁千丝万缕、无一处不在；三是音节上绵长低回，正合愁思之萦绕。在折柳送别的传统之外，更翻出「枝叶皆情」的新意，物我交融，情景俱到，故向为词家激赏，堪称以寻常语写深衷的典范。
The whole ci's warning line, the wonder's in the void-to-solid's turning. The parting-grief's originally the shapeless-and-no-substance, the no-graspable, here's and yet's breaking-it-up's, attached to the ferry-willow's every-branch-and-every-leaf's above — as if the ten-thousand willow-threads and the ten-thousand willow-leaves's, all's by-the-parting-grief's congealed. The doubled-word branch-branch-leaf-leaf's the most wondrous: one's the willow's lushness, the ten-thousand-branches-and-leaves's swaying before the eyes; two's the feeling's fineness, the parting-grief's thousand-threads-and-no-place's-not; three's the rhythm's long-and-low, precisely the grief's lingering. Beyond the willow-breaking's farewell tradition, the more's turning-out-the branches-and-leaves-are-all-feeling new meaning, the thing-and-self's fusion, the scene-and-feeling's both-arrived, hence's through-the-ages's the ci-poets' admiration, may's called the common-words-write-the-deep-heart model.
此后锦书休寄，画楼云雨无凭。
From now on send no brocade letter; the painted tower's cloud-rain is all unpledgeable.
从此之后，你也不必再寄书信来了，那画楼中的云雨欢情，本就虚无难凭。
Send no brocade letter after this; the painted tower's cloud-rain has no pledge.
结句故作决绝，实为至痛之语。「锦书休寄」是赌气：既然人去不返，情书又寄给谁看？「云雨无凭」是醒悟：回想画楼中的欢情，本如朝云暮雨，聚散无端，终究是一场虚妄。两句把怨与悟合写——怨的是对方薄情，悟的是欢情本空，而怨之深正见情之切，悟之透正见痛之真。俞平伯评此词以决绝语写缠绵情，愈决绝愈缠绵，可谓知言。词至结处，不哭不喊，只以冷淡的口气斩断情丝，而余痛袅袅，比痛哭流涕更令人低回，正是小山词「浅语皆有致」的深婉本色。
The closing line's the fake-resoluteness, actually's the extreme-pain words. The send-no-brocade-letter-after-this's the angry-stance: since the person's gone-and-return's-no, the love-letter's and yet's sent-to-whom? The painted-tower's-cloud-rain-is-all-unpledgeable's the awakening: the recollection's the painted-tower's joy, originally's like the morning-cloud-and-evening-rain, the gathering-and-scattering's no-reason, ultimately's the one-illusion. Two lines writing the resentment-and-awakening jointly — the resentment's the other's thin-feeling, the awakening's the joy's originally-void, and yet the resentment's depth's precisely's the feeling's earnest, the awakening's thoroughness's precisely's the pain's truth. Yu Pingbo's reviewing this ci's the resolute-words-write-the-lingering-feeling's, the more-the-resolute-the-more-the-lingering, may's called the knowing-words. The ci's to-the-close's, the no-weeping-and-no-shouting, only's using the cold tone's severing-the-love-thread, and yet the remaining pain's curling, compared to the tear-flowing's the more's the lingering-turning, precisely the Xiaoshan ci's shallow-words'-all-with-charm's deep-gentle nature.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Both come from his collected lyrics and both remember a singing girl with deep and graceful feeling; they are worth reading together.
两词皆出《小山词》，同写晏几道与歌女聚散后的追忆深情。《临江仙》以「梦后楼台高锁，酒醒帘幕低垂」起笔，写梦醒后的空寂，落点在「当时明月在，曾照彩云归」的物在人亡；此词则从送别一刻写起，落点在「画楼云雨无凭」的欢情成空。一写别后之追忆，一写临别之决绝；《临江仙》含蓄蕴藉，以景结情，《清平乐》明快如话，以淡语写深痛。两词合观，可见小山写同一类情事而章法、口吻各异，然皆以「痴」字为骨——明知聚散无常，偏要念念不忘，正所谓「古之伤心人」也。
晏几道·蝶恋花·梦入江南烟水路 Butterfly Loves Flower - In Dream I Enter the Misty Waterways of Jiangnan 晏几道 · 同作者，同写离人难寻、相思无凭 SameBoth write of seeking a lover in dream and failing to find her, with dream and parting sorrow reflecting each other.
《蝶恋花·梦入江南烟水路》写「梦入江南烟水路，行尽江南，不与离人遇」，以梦境之追寻写相思之无着；此词写「过尽晓莺啼处」「画楼云雨无凭」，以送别之实景写欢情之难凭。一写梦寻不得，一写人去不返；一用虚境（梦）织成迷离烟水，一用实景（舟、柳）托出萧索渡头，而「寻遍不见」「留之不住」的绝望则一。两词对读，最可见晏几道「追忆」主题的两副笔墨：或以梦写情之痴，或以别写情之痛，而其词「淡语皆有味，浅语皆有致」的风神，两作同臻其妙。
雨霖铃·寒蝉凄切 Bells Ringing in the Rain - Cold Cicadas' Sad Cry 柳永 · 同写水路送别、离愁别绪，宋词双峰 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
柳永《雨霖铃》与晏几道此词同写水路送别，而气象迥异。《雨霖铃》以「寒蝉凄切，对长亭晚」铺写黄昏别宴，长调慢词，层层铺叙，至「今宵酒醒何处，杨柳岸晓风残月」而极，写尽江湖羁旅之悲；此词令体短章，四十六字，点到即止，以「过尽晓莺啼处」的明丽与「画楼云雨无凭」的冷淡，写出贵介公子式的痴情与矜持。一悲凉豪放，一深婉含蓄；一为羁旅之叹，一为情场之伤。二词并读，可见北宋词写别情的两大路数，亦见小令与慢词在章法、情调上的分野。