唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
听筝
Listening to the Zheng
鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前。
欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。
To win a glance from Young Master Zhou, she now and then wrongly brushes the strings.
Meaning
The poem captures a young zheng player who, to catch the eye of the man she admires, deliberately strikes wrong notes. In twenty words it paints the playful, artful coyness of a girl in love.
金粟轴的筝鸣响在玉房之前，为要赢得周郎的回顾，便时时故意弹错了弦。
Appreciation
The poem shows a maiden playing the zheng who, to attract the attention of her beloved (the Young Master Zhou, standing for any man who knows music), deliberately misses the notes. The first two lines depict the beauty of the playing; the last two spotlight the wrongly brushed strings that bring her coquetry to life. The allusion to Zhou Yu lends a double meaning to knowing music, at once a connoisseur and the loved one. It catches that shy, scheming moment of a girl's first love, innocent and playful. A cunning little poem on the feelings of young men and women by a Tang poet.
【白话串讲】 “鸣筝金粟柱，素手玉房前”——李端写听筝。“欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦”——她故意弹错，想引起他的注意。“周郎顾”的典故：周瑜精通音律，弹错了他会回头。一首写小心思的绝句。 【意象与手法】 “周郎”用周瑜精音律、误必顾之典，喻所慕男子；“误拂弦”以反常写娇态，含蓄俏皮。 【情感与主旨】 捕捉少女怀春时小心翼翼又暗含心机的瞬间，天真烂漫，是唐人写儿女情态的精巧小诗。 【名句点睛】 “欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦”——以弹错弦写邀宠，娇憨入骨，遂成写少女情怀的绝唱。
Background
Li Duan was one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era. This poem shows a zheng-playing maiden who wrongly strikes the strings to win a glance from her beloved, written around the pleasure quarters of Chang'an.
《听筝》为唐代李端所作，是写弹筝女子、欲得周郎顾之情的诗。李端（约743—约782），字正己，赵州人，唐代诗人（大历十才子之一）。此诗：鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前。欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。全诗写弹筝女子、欲得周郎顾之情，是李端诗的名篇。
Art
A five-character quatrain, first real (the playing) then unreal (the wrong string), using the Young Master Zhou allusion as a double meaning for a knowing listener; the two words wrongly brush capture all her coquetry — small and exquisite.
《听筝》艺术上以弹筝之态的描摹与欲得周郎顾的巧思见长。全诗四句：首写鸣筝玉房——“鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前”写鸣筝金粟柱、酸弦玉房前；末写欲得周郎顾——“欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦”写欲得周郎顾、时时误拂弦。全诗以弹筝之态写欲得周郎顾，正是李端诗巧思的笔法。
Allusions
Young Master Zhou refers to Zhou Yu, known in history for his mastery of music and his habit of turning at any wrong note; here it stands for the man the maiden admires. Golden-grain pegs are the ornate pegs on the zheng.
《听筝》用典在“金粟柱”“周郎顾”“误拂弦”。“金粟柱”写金粟柱（柱饰如金粟）；“周郎顾”用周瑜知音之典（曲有误、周郎顾）；“误拂弦”写故意误拂弦（引周郎顾）。全诗以这些典故写弹筝女子、欲得周郎顾之情，用典自然而巧思自见，正是李端诗的笔法。
Commentary
The Tang Poetry Annotation says twenty characters exhaust a daughter's heart, with unexpected charm. The Shi Jing Qian Shuo calls it wrong strings writing coquetry — the craft of the Tang little poem.
《听筝》是李端诗的名篇，也是大历诗中写女子心思的代表作。此诗写弹筝女子、欲得周郎顾之情，向为论者称道。论者多赏其弹筝之态的描摹与欲得周郎顾的巧思——“鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前”写鸣筝金粟柱、酸弦玉房前，巧思之极；“欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦”用周郎顾之典写欲得周郎顾、时时误拂弦，更见其巧。李端为大历十才子之一，其诗以工巧著称，此诗正是其代表——以弹筝之态写欲得周郎顾，正是其诗风。
Prosody
Line by line
鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前。
The zither rings on its golden-studded bridges; by the jade chamber, she tunes the strings.
鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前。
The zither resounds with bridges of gold-dust studs; in front of the jade chamber, she adjusts its strings.
首写鸣筝金粟柱、酸弦玉房前，是全诗写弹筝之境的起点。“鸣筝金粟柱”写鸣筝金粟柱——“鸣筝金粟柱”用金粟柱之典写弹筝于金粟柱——鸣筝金粟柱；“酸弦玉房前”写酸弦玉房前——“酸弦玉房前”写酸弦（调弦）于玉房之前——酸弦玉房前。二句写鸣筝金粟柱、酸弦玉房前：鸣筝金粟柱，酸弦玉房前。以“鸣筝金粟柱”用金粟柱之典写鸣筝、柱饰如金粟，以“酸弦玉房前”写调弦于玉房之前、女子所居，正是李端诗写弹筝之境的起点——鸣筝金粟，调弦玉房。
The opening lines write the zither-scene, the starting point of the poem. The zither resounds with bridges of gold-dust studs: golden-studded bridges write the instrument's ornate fittings. In front of the jade chamber, she adjusts its strings: tuning the strings before the jade chamber, the woman's dwelling. One line writes the ringing zither and its gold-dust studs, the other the tuning before the jade chamber - Li Duan's starting point for the zither scene: ringing zither of gold studs, tuning strings in the jade chamber. The ornate instrument and the chamber's elegance set off the player herself before a note is described.
欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。
To win a glance from Young Master Zhou, she now and then wrongly brushes the strings.
欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。
Wishing to win a glance from Zhou Yu, again and again she deliberately strokes a wrong string.
末用周郎顾之典写欲得周郎顾、时时误拂弦，是全诗写女子巧思的归结。“欲得周郎顾”用周瑜知音之典写欲得周郎顾——“欲得周郎顾”用曲有误周郎顾之典写想要周郎回顾——欲得周郎顾；“时时误拂弦”写时时误拂弦——“时时误拂弦”写时时故意拨错琴弦——时时误拂弦。二句写欲得周郎顾、时时误拂弦：欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。以“欲得周郎顾”用周瑜顾曲之典写欲引周郎回顾、得其青睐，以“时时误拂弦”写时时故意误弦、以曲引顾，正是李端诗写女子巧思的归结——欲得郎顾，误拂其弦。
The closing uses the Zhou Yu's glance allusion, the resolution of the woman's cleverness. Wishing to win a glance from Zhou Yu borrows the story of Zhou Yu, the connoisseur who turned his head whenever a tune was played wrong - she wishes for the famous critic's gaze. Again and again she deliberately strokes a wrong string: again and again writes the intentional mis-stroking. One line writes the wish for Zhou Yu's glance, the other the constant false notes - Li Duan's resolution of the woman's clever device: desiring the gentleman's notice, she strikes the strings wrong. The flirtation is never stated; the error itself, repeated, tells the whole heart - a masterpiece of indirection, where the woman's art and longing speak through the strings she bends.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
白居易《琵琶行》写琵琶女弹奏、身世之悲，与本首同为唐诗写弹奏之乐。差异在篇幅：听筝为五绝；琵琶行为长诗。一写“筝”之巧，一写“琶”之悲。两者并读，可见唐诗写弹奏之乐的两种篇幅。
新嫁娘 The New Bride 王建 · 同为唐五绝写女子巧思，一写误拂弦引顾一写遣小姑尝羹，皆工巧 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
王建《新嫁娘》写新妇遣小姑尝羹、巧于周旋，与本首同为唐五绝写女子巧思。差异在情境：听筝写误弦引郎顾；新嫁娘写试羹知姑味。一写“弦”之巧，一写“羹”之巧。两者并读，可见唐五绝写女子巧思的两种情境。
闺怨 The Wife's Lament 王昌龄 · 与本首相关联的同类或同作者作品，供对比阅读 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
此处关联王昌龄《闺怨》，与本首在主题、体裁或作者上相关联，可对比阅读以见其同异。