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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

春思

Spring Longing

李白

Li Bai

爱情love 愁思longing

燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝。
当君怀归日，是妾断肠时。
春风不相识，何事入罗帏。

The Yan wilds grow grass like emerald threads; the Qin's green mulberry boughs bend low.
The day you yearn to return home is the very hour my heart is rent in two.
Spring wind, we were never acquainted — why steal into my silken curtain?

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Meaning

A wife in Qin, separated from her husband garrisoned in the northern frontier of Yan, voices her deep longing. As spring unfolds in both places, she imagines that the day he yearns to come home is the day her own heart breaks with grief. The poem closes with a playful rebuke to the spring wind for entering her bed-curtain, capturing both faithful love and lonely waiting.

燕地的春草细嫩得如同碧绿的丝线，秦地的桑树已经长出低垂的绿枝。当你思念家乡、盼望归来的那一天，也正是我思念你而肝肠寸断的时候。春风啊，你我素不相识，你为什么要吹进我的罗帐中来呢？

Appreciation

The poem opens with scenery as a stimulus and ends with feeling, using the 'writing from the other side' technique and an 'irrational yet wonderful' charm. The first two lines set the two distant spring scenes of Yan and Qin; the middle lines imagine the soldier's homeward thought precisely when the wife's heart breaks; the closing rebuke of the wind is tenderly absurd, leaving meaning to linger. Its plain language carries deep, restrained feeling, a model of High Tang chamber-lament poetry.

【白话串讲】李白写《春思》：“燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝”。“当君怀归日，是妾断肠时”——“春风不相识，何事入罗帏”——她怨春风进她的罗帐。【意象与手法】此诗以景起兴、以情作结，善用对写法与无理而妙。首二句以燕草秦桑两地春色起兴，一北一南写出空间的距离；三四句从对方落笔，设想征人怀归之日正是思妇断肠之时；末二句以嗔怪春风的痴语收束，含蓄不尽。【情感与主旨】全诗写春日闺中思妇对远方征人的深切思念。由两地春色引出两地相思，由怀归断肠直抒深情，再由春风入帏的痴问托出坚贞，层层深入，把相思之苦与坚守之情写得含蓄而深挚。【名句点睛】常考『春风不相识，何事入罗帏』的无理而妙，以及『当君怀归日，是妾断肠时』的对写手法。

Background

'Spring Longing' is an early poem of longing by Li Bai, written around the late Kaiyuan to early Tianbao years of Emperor Xuanzong, when Li Bai was staying in Chang'an seeking office. Tang power was at its height; men campaigned or served far from home, so separation of husband and wife was common, and poems of the longing wife flourished. Though voiced by a woman, the poem blends the poet's own experience of wandering and missing his family. Yan (northern Hebei) is the garrison frontier; Qin (Shaanxi) is the wife's home — north and south, vast distance, a true picture of High Tang life. The contrast of frontier and inland mirrors the era's common scene, and the poem stands with Wang Changling's 'A Lament in the Chamber' as twin masterworks of the chamber-lament.

《春思》是李白早期创作的一首思妇诗，约作于唐玄宗开元末年至天宝初年，李白客居长安、谋求仕进期间。唐代国力强盛，男子或从军远戍，或游宦四方，夫妻分离成为普遍的社会现象，思妇诗因此大量涌现。李白此诗虽以思妇口吻写相思，却并非纯粹的代言之作，其中融入了诗人自己离家远游、思念亲人的真切体验。李白一生漫游天下，仗剑去国，辞亲远游，与家人聚少离多，故对闺中相思之苦有深切的体认。此诗以燕草秦桑两地春色起兴，燕地即今河北一带，是征人戍守的边地；秦地即今陕西关中，是思妇所居之乡。一北一南，空间辽阔，正是盛唐游子思妇生活的真实写照。诗中所写燕草秦桑，实为盛唐边塞与内地生活的对照：征人戍边，思妇居家，是那个时代的普遍图景。李白此诗虽以女子口吻出之，而其中漂泊之感、思乡之情，实与其本人经历相通，故能写得如此真切动人。李白善于学习乐府民歌，此诗语言清新自然，情致深婉，是盛唐闺怨诗中含蓄蕴藉的典范，与王昌龄《闺怨》并称双璧。

Art

The poem's chief art is restrained implication and 'irrational yet wonderful.' Lines 1–2 use scenery as stimulus: Yan grass and Qin mulberry, two spring scenes, implying shared longing. Lines 3–4 use the 'other-side' writing: rather than stating her own longing, she imagines the day he yearns home is her breaking heart — two places, one feeling. Lines 5–6 rebuke the spring wind in an absurd question, revealing her steadfast love: the wind is unknowing, yet she blames it for intruding, seemingly unreasonable but wonderfully true, capturing the lonely wife's coquettish sorrow. The whole moves from scene to feeling to question, plain yet lingering, embodying Li Bai's 'natural, unadorned' style.

此诗艺术上最大的特点是含蓄蕴藉、无理而妙。全诗六句，前两句以景起兴：燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝，燕草与秦桑对举，既写两地春色之异，又暗含两地相思之同。三四句当君怀归日，是妾断肠时，用对写法，不从己方直写相思，而从对方落笔——设想征人怀归之时，正是思妇断肠之日，两地一心，相照生情，把相思写得既深且真。后两句春风不相识，何事入罗帏，是全诗最精彩处，以嗔怪春风的无理之问，写出思妇坚守的深情：春风本无知，却怨其不相识而闯入罗帏，看似无理，实则无理而妙，把闺中少妇寂寞中略带娇嗔的情态刻画得惟妙惟肖。全诗由景入情，由情生问，层次井然；语言浅白如话而韵味深长，体现了李白清水出芙蓉、天然去雕饰的本色。尤其值得注意的是，此诗六句之中，句句含情而无一字道破，读者须细味其景、其问、其痴，方能领会那深藏于浅语之下的千回百转，这正是李白诗歌语言既清新又含蓄的双重魅力。

Allusions

'Yan grass like green silk; Qin mulberry bends low' uses geographic imagery and a homophonic pun. Yan (north Hebei) is the garrison; Qin (Shaanxi) the wife's home; the differing seasons hint that grass is just sprouting (he has not returned) while mulberry is heavy (she has long waited) — different phenology, same longing. 'Silk' (si) puns on 'thought/longing' (si), a device from southern-dynasty folk songs. 'Silken curtain' (luowei) is the classic chamber image, traceable to the 'Nineteen Old Poems.' 'Breaking heart' (duanchang) comes from the Shishuo Xinyu, meaning extreme grief. The poem absorbs folk-song and ancient-poem imagery seamlessly, punning silk for thought and personifying the wind — both inheritance and innovation. The Qin mulberry also echoes the chaste lady Luofu of 'Mulberry by the Path.'

燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝两句，运用了地理意象与谐音双关。燕指燕地，在今河北北部一带，是征人戍守的边地；秦指秦地，即今陕西关中，是思妇所居之乡。两地春色并举，暗含燕草方生、征人未归，秦桑已低、思妇春深之意，以物候之异写相思之同。丝谐音思，碧丝绵绵正是情思绵绵，这一谐音手法源自南朝乐府民歌理丝入残机、何悟不成匹的传统。罗帏指丝织的帐幔，是古代闺阁的典型意象，春风入帏的构思可上溯至《古诗十九首》明月何皎皎、照我罗床帏的思妇传统。断肠一语，出自《世说新语》中肠皆寸寸断的典故，极言悲伤之甚。全诗化用民歌与古诗的意象而不着痕迹，以丝谐思、以春风拟人，既是继承，又是创新，显示了李白熔铸乐府民歌而入神化的功力。此诗以秦桑对燕草，亦暗用《陌上桑》采桑女秦罗敷的典故，为思妇形象增添了一层贞静自守的底色。

Commentary

Though only six lines and twenty-four characters, 'Spring Longing' is a model of restraint in Li Bai's chamber-lament verse and a fine representative of High Tang longing poetry. Its value lies first in doing much with little: from two spring scenes to two longings, from homecoming thought to breaking heart, from rebuking wind to steadfast love — vast capacity. Second, 'irrational yet wonderful': the wind question breaks daily logic yet fits the wife's psychology, a device later widely adopted by lyricists. Third, it shows Li Bai's fresh, graceful side, unlike the bold 'Invitation to Wine' or strange 'Hard Roads to Shu.' Critics praise its restraint; Shen Deqian called it 'one breath, seamless.' With Wang Changling's 'Lament,' it marks the peak of High Tang chamber-lament. Readers still feel the springtime wistfulness across millennia.

《春思》虽仅六句二十四字，却是李白闺怨诗中含蓄蕴藉的典范，也是盛唐思妇诗的杰出代表。此诗的价值，首先在于以少胜多：短短六句，从两地春色写到两地相思，从怀归之日写到断肠之时，从嗔怪春风写到坚守深情，容量之大，令人叹服。其次在于无理而妙：春风不相识，何事入罗帏一问，打破了日常逻辑，却在更深层契合了思妇的心理真实，这种以痴语写深情的手法，后来被词曲家广泛继承。再者，此诗体现了李白诗歌清新俊逸的一面：不同于《将进酒》的豪放、《蜀道难》的奇崛，此诗以浅语写深情，宛如一曲清歌，袅袅不尽。历代评家多称赏其含蓄，清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》评曰一气浑成。此诗与王昌龄《闺怨》同写思妇，而一含蓄一明快，相映成趣，共同标志着盛唐闺怨诗的最高成就。今人读《春思》，仍能从中感受到那种跨越千年的、春天里特有的怅惘与期待，这正是经典历久弥新的力量。

Prosody

Form Five-character ancient verse (close to folk-ballad style)五言古诗（近于乐府民歌体）

Rhyme The poem uses level-tone rhyme throughout; zhi, shi, wei — zhi and shi belong to the Pingshui rhyme 'zhi' (branch), wei to 'wei' (micro); ancient-style allows these to be paired, one rhyme to the end, calm and long, suiting the lingering longing.全诗押平声韵，枝、时、帏三字中枝、时属平水韵上平四支韵，帏属五微韵，古体支微通押，一韵到底，音调平和悠长，正合相思绵邈之情。

Tone pattern Five-character lines with rhythms of 2-1-2 and 2-2-1 alternating; lines 3–4 form a neat antithesis, the tonal pivot of the poem.全诗为五言句式，节奏为二一二与二二一相间，如燕草如碧丝、当君怀归日，读来从容舒缓；三、四句当君怀归日，是妾断肠时对仗工整，是全诗音律的枢纽。

Reading note 'Spring Longing' is a five-character ancient poem of six lines; though not a regulated form, it naturally fits the rules. In sound it has the fluency of folk song and the restraint of ancient verse: five-character lines short and long alternate, level and oblique roughly interspersed, no jarring notes; it rhymes in level tone zhi-wei, with open and closed-mouth sounds alternating, the three rhymes zhi, shi, wei all ending in long resonance, humming like the wife's prolonged sigh when chanted. Though not labeled yuefu, it captures the folk-ballad spirit: regular yet varied form, plain language yet fluent sound, the silk/thought pun and the absurd 'why' question give it folk freshness. Six lines, twenty-four characters, each a scene, two a couplet, from scene to person to question, sound turning with feeling, feeling carried by sound — perfect unity of content and form.《春思》为五言古诗，共六句，虽非律体，却自然合律。此诗在声律上具有民歌的流畅与古诗的含蓄：五言句式短长相间，平仄大致相间，无拗折之音；押平声支微韵，开口音与齐齿音交替，枝时帏三韵皆收于悠长的韵尾，吟诵时余音袅袅，恰如思妇绵长的叹息。李白此诗虽不标乐府，而深得乐府民歌之神：句式整齐中见错落，语言浅白而音韵流利，丝与思的谐音、何事的痴问，都使此诗在声情并茂中透出民歌的清新。全诗六句二十四字，一句一境，两句一联，由景到人，由人到问，声随情转，情借声传，达到了内容与形式的完美统一。

Line by line

燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝。

The grass of Yan grows like green silk threads, while the Qin's mulberry trees bend low their green branches.

燕地的春草细嫩得如同碧绿的丝线，秦地的桑树已经长出低垂的绿枝。

The Yan grass is like emerald silk; the Qin mulberry bows its green boughs.

首二句写两地春色，是典型的以景起兴。燕地在北，春草初生，细如碧丝；秦地在南，桑叶繁茂，绿枝低垂。两句对仗工整，燕草对秦桑，碧丝对绿枝，一北一南，一浅一深，写出春色由北向南次第展开的画面。其妙处有三：一是以物候写相思，燕草方生，则征人未归可知；秦桑已低，则思妇独守日久，两地春色的差异，正是两地相思的写照。二是丝谐思，碧丝绵绵即情思绵绵，暗用民歌谐音双关的手法。三是以乐景写哀情，春光明媚而人不团圆，反衬出思妇内心的孤寂。两句看似纯写景，实则字字含情，为全诗奠定了含蓄蕴藉的基调。

The opening two lines write the spring colors of two lands, the typical rising through scenery. Yan in the north, the spring grass newly sprung, fine as emerald silk; Qin in the south, the mulberry lush, the green boughs bowed. The two lines are a wrought parallel, Yan grass against Qin mulberry, emerald silk against green bough, one north one south, one faint one deep, writing the picture of spring unfolding from north to south. Its beauty is threefold: first, writing longing through phenology - the Yan grass just sprung shows the conscript not yet returned; the Qin mulberry already bowed shows the wife's long lone vigil, the difference of the two springs being the portrait of the two longings. Second, silk homophonous with longing, the emerald silk's lingering being the lingering longing, secretly using the folk song's homophonic pun. Third, writing grief through joyous scenery - the bright spring yet the lovers not reunited, setting off the wife's inner loneliness. The two lines seem pure scenery, yet every character holds feeling, fixing the whole's reserved and pregnant key.

当君怀归日，是妾断肠时。

The day you, my lord, yearn to return home is the very hour, my love, my heart is broken.

当你思念家乡、盼望归来的那一天，也正是我思念你而肝肠寸断的时候。

The day you first long for home is the hour my heart breaks.

三四句是全诗情感的核心，运用对写法从两面落笔。当君怀归日，设想征人在遥远的边地，终于生出思归之心；是妾断肠时，则写思妇在秦地早已柔肠寸断。两句以当与是相呼应，构成因果与对照：君的怀归与妾的断肠，一在燕北，一在秦南，而情同一心。其妙处在于不直言我如何想你，而是推己及人，想象对方也在思念自己，把单向的相思化为双向的牵挂，相思便由此加倍深厚。同时，怀归之念初生，而断肠之苦已深，一浅一深，又暗示思妇用情之专、之苦远过于征人。这种从对面写来的手法含蓄而有张力，历来为评家所称道，也是全诗由景入情的枢纽。

The third and fourth lines are the emotional core of the whole, using the reverse-writing method to write from both sides. The day you first long for home imagines the conscript in the far borderland at last conceiving the wish to return; is the hour my heart breaks writes the wife in Qin whose bowels have long been broken. The two lines set when against is, forming cause-effect and contrast: your longing to return and my heartbreak, one in the north of Yan, one in the south of Qin, yet the feeling one heart. Its beauty lies in not directly saying how I long for you, but projecting the self onto the other, imagining the other also longing for me, turning one-sided longing into mutual care, the longing thereby doubled in depth. At the same time, the wish to return just born while the heartbreak already deep, one faint one deep, further hinting that the wife's devotion and suffering far exceed the conscript's. This method of writing from the opposite side is reserved and tense, praised by critics through the ages, and the hinge of the whole's moving from scenery to feeling.

春风不相识，何事入罗帏。

Spring wind, we were never acquainted — why do you enter my silken bed-curtain?

春风啊，你我素不相识，你为什么要吹进我的罗帐中来呢？

Spring wind, we have never met; why do you enter my silken curtain?

末二句是全诗的点睛之笔，以嗔怪春风的痴语作结，无理而妙。春风本无知无情，思妇却责问它：你我素不相识，为何闯入我的罗帏？这一问看似无理，实则大有深意：其一，思妇独守空闺，最怕春风吹动帐幔、撩起春心，嗔怪春风，正是怨自己情思难已；其二，不相识三字写出思妇与外界隔绝的孤寂，连春风都是陌生的来客；其三，更深一层，是怨春风不解人意——它可自由出入罗帏，而征人却一去不返。以嗔怪之语写深情，含蓄婉转，把思妇坚贞自守、又难抑相思的复杂心理刻画得入木三分。清人评此二句妙在不说破，正见其含蓄之美。

The last two lines are the eye-dotting stroke of the whole, closing in the fond reproach of the spring wind, unreasonable yet beautiful. The spring wind is originally passionless, yet the wife questions it: we have never met, why do you enter my silken curtain? This question seems unreasonable, yet in truth holds deep meaning: first, the wife keeping the empty chamber, most fearing the spring wind stirring the curtain and rousing the spring heart, the reproach of the wind being exactly the grievance that her own longing cannot cease. Second, the words never met write the wife's isolation from the world, even the spring wind a stranger guest. Third, a layer deeper, the grievance that the wind knows not the human heart - it may freely enter and leave the curtain, while the conscript went and returns not. Writing deep feeling through reproach, reserved and winding, it刻画 to the quick the wife's complex heart of loyal keeping yet hard-to-suppress longing. Qing critics say the beauty of these lines lies in not speaking it out, exactly showing the reserved beauty.

Study

Word focus

低 The word 'low' (di) depicts the Qin mulberry boughs bending under the weight of leaves, signaling late spring; it contrasts with the just-sprouting Yan grass, marking the discrepancy in time between the two places' longing, and lends a drooping, melancholy mood. 秦桑低绿枝之低字，是全诗炼字的典范。桑叶繁茂，枝条不堪其重而低垂，一个低字准确写出暮春时节桑枝的形态。其妙有三：一是低字以动态写静态，桑枝本静，因叶重而低垂，暗含春深之意；二是低与上句碧丝呼应，燕草初生如丝是春之始，秦桑叶垂是春之盛，两地物候的差异，正衬出两地相思时间的错落；三是低字暗含情致，桑枝低垂，仿佛低头含愁，与思妇低回婉转的心绪相通。若换垂字则太直，换满字则无神，唯低字既写物态又传人情，一字而境界全出，正是李白炼字看似寻常最奇崛的体现。

断肠 'Breaking heart' (duanchang), from the Shishuo Xinyu, is the classic idiom for extreme grief; here set against 'yearning to return,' it weighs the wife's suffering as deeper and longer than the husband's, a single phrase that pierces. 断肠一词极言悲伤之甚，是古典诗歌中表达极度哀伤的经典语汇。此词典出《世说新语·黜免》桓公入蜀见其肠皆寸寸断的记载，后世遂以断肠形容悲伤到极点。在《春思》中，断肠与怀归对举：君方怀归，妾已断肠，用词上先轻后重，以断肠的极致悲伤反衬思妇相思之深、之切、之久。此词之用有三妙：一是有来历而不晦涩，普通读者亦能会意；二是程度之深，远超相思愁思等泛语；三是与全诗含蓄的风格相配——全诗不直说愁苦，唯此二字点破，恰如画龙点睛。李白以断肠写相思，情真语切，后来温庭筠肠断白蘋洲、马致远断肠人在天涯皆承此脉，可见其影响之深远。

何事 'Why' (heshi) is an ordinary question made profound: the wife knowingly blames the unknowing wind, personifying it and voicing her repressed complaint that the wind may enter her curtain while her man does not — a coquettish, lingering close. 何事即为什么，二字看似平常，在此诗中却大有深意。思妇明知春风无情，却偏要问它何事入罗帏，这一问无理而妙：表面是责问春风，实则是自问自叹——春风尚可入帏，而征人不归；春风无知无觉，而相思难遣。何事二字把春风拟人化，赋予它闯入的动机，也把思妇心底的怨与痴和盘托出。若直说春风莫入帏便索然无味，用何事一问，则嗔中带娇、怨中含情，把闺中少妇寂寞中的幽怨写得生动传神。二字之妙还在于以问句作结，留下无尽余味，让读者仿佛听见思妇轻柔的叹息。这种以虚词传神的手法，正是唐诗不着一字、尽得风流的体现。

春思