五代 Five Dynasties · 词 Ci lyric
临江仙·金锁重门荒苑静
Immortal by the River · A Gold Lock on the Heavy Gates, the Deserted Garden Still
金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴。
翠华一去寂无音。
玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉。
烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫。
藕花相向野塘中。
暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。
at the carved window I face the autumn overcast in grief.
Since the kingfisher standards went, there has been no word.
The songs and pipes of the jade tower
broke off, and long ago fell silent.
The misty moon does not know that men's affairs are changed:
deep in the night it shines still on the inner palace.
Lotus flowers face one another in the wild pond.
Secretly grieving for a fallen kingdom,
the clear dew weeps on the fragrant red.
Meaning
A gold lock holds the doors one behind another, the ruined palace garden is utterly still, and at the carved window I face the autumn overcast in sorrow. Since the emperor's kingfisher standards departed there has been no word of him. The singing and the pipes that once filled the jade tower broke off long ago and have long been silent. The misty moonlight does not know that the affairs of men have changed, and deep in the night it shines still upon the inner palace. Only the lotus flowers stand facing one another in the wild pond. Grieving in secret for the kingdom that is gone, the cold clear dew weeps upon the fragrant red petals.
金锁牢牢锁着一道道重门，荒芜的宫苑一片寂静，雕花的窗前我愁对着秋天的阴云。皇帝的车驾一去便寂然无音讯。当年玉楼上的歌声管乐，如今声断香消，早已沉沉寂灭。烟笼月色不知人事已改，夜深了仍照着这深宫。唯有荷花在野塘中相对而立。暗自哀伤这亡国之痛，清冷的露珠正泣落在残红之上。
Appreciation
The upper stanza draws in tighter and tighter with the gold lock, the heavy gates, the ruined garden and the autumn overcast, until all is dead still; the departure of the kingfisher standards names the loss of the sovereign outright, and the broken music of the jade tower sets past gaiety against present death. In the lower stanza the line in which the misty moon does not know that men's affairs are changed is the finest in the piece, for unfeeling nature is set against the sudden overturn of human things, while the lotus flowers facing one another in the wild pond use bright blossom to write desolation. The close carries the grief into the dew itself, so that flower and man weep together.
【白话串讲】 鹿虔扆写亡国后的宫廷：“金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴”。“翠华一去寂无音”——皇帝一去无音讯。“烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫”——月亮不知道人间变了，还照着深宫。“暗伤亡国，清露泣香红”——他为亡国而哭。 【意象与手法】 上片以金锁、重门、荒苑、秋阴层层收紧，营造死寂 【情感与主旨】 鹿虔扆（yǐ），五代后蜀词人，官至太尉 【名句点睛】 此诗为五代鹿虔扆之作，精要赏析详见下方深度赏析。
Background
Lu Qianyi was a poet of the Later Shu among the Five Dynasties and rose to be Grand Commandant. When Meng Chang, last ruler of the Later Shu, surrendered to the Song in 965, Lu Qianyi's own kingdom fell, and this lyric mourns the desolation of the Shu palace; with Ouyang Jiong, Yan Xuan and others he belongs to the line of secret grief for a lost country. The gold lock on the heavy gates and the departure of the kingfisher standards refer to Meng Chang's removal to the north and the empty, locked palace, while the songs and pipes of the jade tower, broken off and silent, look back to the splendour of Shu at its height. The poet lived through the rise and fall himself, and so, within the ornate Among the Flowers manner, could write the pain of bronze camels among the brambles, that grief-laden music of a fallen state.
《临江仙·金锁重门荒苑静》为五代鹿虔扆所作，是写故国荒苑、秦离之悲的词。鹿虔扆（五代十国时人），事蜀为永泰军节度使，花间词人。此词：金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴。翠华一去寂无音。玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉。烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫。藕花相向野塘中。暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。全词写故国荒苑之悲，是鹿虔扆词的名篇。
Art
The upper stanza tightens layer by layer with the gold lock, the heavy gates, the ruined garden and the autumn overcast, and builds a dead stillness; the kingfisher standards that went and left no word point straight at the fall of the sovereign, while the songs and pipes of the jade tower, broken and long silent, use the noise of the past to make the death of the present fall the harder. In the lower stanza the line in which the misty moon does not know that men's affairs are changed is the most finely wrought in the piece, since the indifference of nature sets off the suddenness of human change; the lotus flowers facing one another in the wild pond write desolation by means of bright blossom. The close, with its secret grief for a fallen kingdom and its clear dew weeping on the fragrant red, transfers the feeling to the dew, so that flower and man weep together. Throughout, past and present are set against each other and grief is carried in the scene, and the brooding depth outweighs the ornament.
《临江仙·金锁重门荒苑静》艺术上以荒苑之景的描摹与故国之悲的深慨见长。全词分两片：上片写荒苑秋阴——“金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴”写金锁重门、绮窗秋阴，“翠华一去寂无音。玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉”写翠华一去、玉楼歌吹声断；下片写月照深宫——“烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫”写烟月不知人事改、夜阑还照深宫，“藕花相向野塘中。暗伤亡国，清露泣香红”写藕花相向野塘、暗伤亡国、清露泣香红。全词以荒苑之景写故国之悲，正是鹿虔扆词深慨的笔法。
Allusions
The lyric transforms several allusions. The kingfisher standards are properly the imperial banners feathered with kingfisher plumes, as in Du Fu's line recalling the standards approaching the purple hall in the poem written on seeing General Cao's painting of horses at the house of the recorder Wei Feng; here they stand for the emperor's carriage. The songs and pipes of the jade tower transform Li Shangyin's line about the feast breaking up in the jade tower amid the drunkenness of spring, and the decadent music of Flowers in the Rear Courtyard from the Sui. The clear dew weeping on the fragrant red answers to the image of fallen petals heaped on the ground in Li Qingzhao and personifies the dew. The allusions never clog the movement but help to build the music of a fallen kingdom.
《临江仙·金锁重门荒苑静》用典在“翠华”“秦离之悲”。“翠华”写帝王仪仗之旗（翠羽之华盖）；“暗伤亡国”写暗自伤悼亡国（黍离之悲意）。全词以这些意象写故国荒苑之悲，用典自然而深慨自见，正是鹿虔扆词的笔法。
Commentary
Shen Xiong, in Discussions of Ci Ancient and Modern, quotes the Records of the Music Bureau to the effect that Lu Qianyi's lyrics are full of the note of lament. Modern critics of the Among the Flowers school treat this piece as the school's exception. Wang Guowei did not judge it directly, but his remark that with the last lord of the Southern Tang the horizon of ci grew wide may serve to show that Lu Qianyi had already sounded the first note of the poetry of fallen kingdoms. Anthologies today generally include it, and Li Bingruo said that its grieving tenderness is not below Li Yu's Waves Wash the Sands.
《临江仙·金锁重门荒苑静》是鹿虔扆词的名篇，也是花间词中写故国之悲的代表作。此词写故国荒苑、黍离之悲，向为论者称道。论者多赏其荒苑之景的描摹与故国之悲的深慨——“金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴”写金锁重门、绮窗秋阴，深慨之极；“翠华一去寂无音。玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉”写翠华一去、歌吹声断，更见其悲；“烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫”写烟月照宫，尤见其痛；“暗伤亡国，清露泣香红”写清露泣红，尤极凄婉。鹿虔扆为花间词人，其词以深慨著称，此词正是其代表——以荒苑之景写故国之悲，正是其词风。
Prosody
Line by line
金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴。
Gilt locks on piled gates, the waste garden still; the carved windows face, grieving, the autumn gloom.
金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴。
Gilded locks bar the double gates, the ruined garden is silent; through the broidered window I gaze sadly at the autumn shade.
首写金锁重门、绮窗秋阴，是全词写荒苑之景的起点。“金锁重门荒苑静”写金锁重门——“金锁重门荒苑静”写金锁锁着重门、荒苑寂静——金锁重门荒苑静；“绮窗愁对秋阴”写绮窗愁对秋阴——“绮窗愁对秋阴”写绮窗含愁对着秋阴——绮窗愁对秋阴。二句写金锁重门、绮窗秋阴：金锁重门荒苑静，绮窗愁对秋阴。以“金锁重门荒苑静”写金锁重门、荒苑寂静之凄凉，以“绮窗愁对秋阴”写绮窗含愁、对秋阴之萧瑟，正是鹿虔扆词写荒苑之景的起点——重门金锁，荒苑寂寂。
The opening writes the gilt locks and the autumn gloom at the carved window, the starting point of the lyric's scenery of the waste garden. 'Gilt locks on piled gates, the waste garden still' writes the gilt locks on the double gates and the silence of the ruined garden. 'The carved windows face, grieving, the autumn gloom' writes the carved window holding grief against the autumn shade. The two lines write the desolation of the locked, silent garden and the bleakness of the grieving window—the starting point of Lu Qianyi's scenery of the waste garden: double gates, gilt locks, the waste garden still and still.
翠华一去寂无音。玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉。
The green-plumed retinue went once, and silence follows. The songs and pipes of the jade tower—their sound has long since died away.
翠华一去寂无音。玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉。
The emperor's green-plumed train went away and never returned. The singing and music in the jade tower have long since faded into silence.
此三句写翠华一去、歌吹声断，是全词写故国之悲的深化。“翠华一去寂无音”写翠华一去——“翠华一去寂无音”写帝王仪仗一去、寂然无音——翠华一去寂无音；“玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉”写歌吹声断——“玉楼歌吹”写玉楼之歌吹，“声断已沉沉”写声音断绝、已沉沉——玉楼歌吹，声断沉沉。三句写翠华一去、歌吹声断：翠华一去寂无音，玉楼歌吹声断已沉沉。以“翠华一去寂无音”写帝王一去、寂无音信，以“玉楼歌吹，声断已沉沉”写玉楼歌吹、声断沉沉，正是鹿虔扆词写故国之悲的深化——繁华已逝，声沉音断。
The three lines write the going of the green-plumed retinue and the breaking of the songs and pipes, deepening the grief for the old kingdom. 'The green-plumed retinue went once, and silence follows' writes the imperial retinue gone and no word since. 'The songs and pipes of the jade tower—their sound has long since died away' writes the music of the jade tower, its sound broken and deep. The three lines write the emperor gone in silence and the music hushed—the deepening of Lu's grief for the old kingdom: splendor gone, sound sunk and broken.
烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫。
The misty moon knows not that human affairs have changed; in the deep of night it still shines on the deep palace.
烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫。
The misty moon knows not that the ways of men have altered; late into the night it still shines upon the deep palace.
此二句写烟月照宫、不知人事改，是全词写故国物是人非的深化。“烟月不知人事改”写烟月不知人事改——“烟月不知人事改”写烟月不知人事已改——烟月不知人事改；“夜阑还照深宫”写夜阑还照深宫——“夜阑还照深宫”写夜深还照深宫——夜阑还照深宫。二句写烟月照宫、不知人事改：烟月不知人事改，夜阑还照深宫。以“烟月不知人事改”写烟月无情、不知人事已改，以“夜阑还照深宫”写夜深还照深宫之冷寂，正是鹿虔扆词写物是人非的深化——月犹照宫，人已去国。
The two lines write the misty moon shining on the palace, knowing not that affairs have changed, deepening the lyric's sense of things remaining while men are gone. 'The misty moon knows not that human affairs have changed' writes the moon's indifference to the altered world. 'In the deep of night it still shines on the deep palace' writes the late moonlight on the cold palace. The two lines write the moon's shining on the palace and its ignorance of change—the deepening of Lu's sense of things remaining while men are gone: the moon still lights the palace, the people have left the state.
藕花相向野塘中。暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。
Lotus flowers face each other in the wild pond. Secretly grieving the fallen state, the clear dew weeps on the fragrant red.
藕花相向野塘中。暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。
Lotuses face one another in the wild pond. Mourning in secret the lost kingdom, the clear dew weeps upon the fragrant red blossoms.
末写藕花野塘、清露泣红，是全词写故国之悲的归结。“藕花相向野塘中”写藕花野塘——“藕花相向野塘中”写藕花相向于野塘之中——藕花相向野塘中；“暗伤亡国，清露泣香红”写暗伤亡国——“暗伤亡国”写暗自伤悼亡国，“清露泣香红”写清露泣于香红（花）——暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。三句写藕花野塘、清露泣红：藕花相向野塘中，暗伤亡国，清露泣香红。以“藕花相向野塘中”写藕花相向于野塘之荒凉，以“暗伤亡国，清露泣香红”写暗自伤国、清露如泣于红花，正是鹿虔扆词写故国之悲的归结——荒塘藕花，如泣如诉。
The closing writes the lotuses in the wild pond and the clear dew weeping on the red, the resolution of the grief for the old kingdom. 'Lotuses face each other in the wild pond' writes the flowers facing one another in the wild pond. 'Secretly grieving the fallen state, the clear dew weeps on the fragrant red' writes the hidden mourning and the dew weeping on the red flowers. The three lines write the lotuses of the wild pond and the weeping dew—the resolution of Lu's grief: lotuses in the desolate pond, as if weeping and lamenting.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
李煜《破阵子·四十年来家国》“四十年来家国，三千里地山河”写去国辞庙之悲，与本首同为五代词写故国。差异在视角：临江仙写荒苑静景；破阵子写别庙之痛。一写“景”之荒，一写“痛”之深。两者并读，可见五代词写故国之悲的两种视角。
虞美人·春花秋月何时了 The Beautiful Lady Yu: When Will Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon End? 李煜 · 同为五代词写亡国之痛，一写荒苑之悲一写春花秋月之问，皆深慨 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
李煜《虞美人·春花秋月何时了》“春花秋月何时了，往事知多少”写亡国之痛，与本首同为五代词写亡国。差异在情境：临江仙写荒苑物是人非；虞美人写春花秋月之问。一写“苑”之荒，一写“月”之问。两者并读，可见五代词写亡国痛的两种情境。
望江南·多少恨 Dreaming of the South: How Much Regret 李煜 · 同为五代词写故国之悲，一写荒苑之景一写多少恨之愁，皆深慨 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
李煜《望江南·多少恨》“多少恨，昨夜梦魂中”写故国之恨，与本首同为五代词写故国。差异在情境：临江仙写荒苑物是人非；望江南写梦魂之恨。一写“苑”之荒，一写“恨”之深。两者并读，可见五代词写故国恨的两种情境。