元 Yuan · 曲 Qu song
金字经·夜来雨横与风狂
Golden Letters: Last Night the Rain Slashed and the Wind Raged
夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香。
晓来蜂蝶空游荡。
苦难寻红锦妆，问东君归计何忙！
尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠。
and the west garden was undone, its fallen petals fragrant across the ground.
At dawn the bees and butterflies drift about in vain.
Hard now to find that brocade of crimson finery;
I ask the Lord of Spring why his going should be in such haste.
The cuckoo cries until its voice breaks,
and still it leaves a heart broken for nothing.
Meaning
A storm at the end of spring strips the garden overnight, and by morning the bees and butterflies have nothing left to visit. The singer questions the god of spring about his hurried departure and is answered only by the cuckoo's broken cry.
昨夜雨横风狂，断送得西园满地落红飘香。清晨蜜蜂蝴蝶空自游荡。难再去寻那红妆盛妆，问春神归去的计程何等匆忙！只叫得杜鹃声碎，却教人空自断肠。
Appreciation
The song builds the ruin of spring in layers - storm, fallen petals, aimless insects, and finally the cry of the cuckoo - so that the loss is felt from several directions at once. Addressing the Lord of Spring turns an abstract season into a person who can be reproached, which is what gives the complaint its childlike force. The word for undoing at the start and the word for breaking at the end frame the whole piece between violence and exhaustion. The diction is clean and quick, and this belongs to the graceful strain of Ma Zhiyuan's shorter songs rather than to the bleak manner of his best-known work.
【白话串讲】 “夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香”——马致远写一夜风雨：吹落了满园的花。“苦难寻红锦妆，问东君归计何忙”——他问春神：你走得怎么这么急？“尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠”——杜鹃叫得人心碎。 【意象与手法】 以风雨、落红、蜂蝶、鹃声层层写春残；问东君一句拟人，将惜春之怨直诉春神。语言俊爽，是马致远小令清丽一路。 【情感与主旨】 借风雨摧花写惜春迟暮之悲，亦暗含才士不遇、芳华易逝的身世之感。 【名句点睛】 问东君归计何忙——以问春神之匆忙，写尽惜春之痴与落红之怨。
Background
Ma Zhiyuan was one of the four great masters of Yuan drama and song. This piece to the tune Golden Letters mourns the end of spring after a night of wind and rain, and is generally read as carrying his own sense of a talented man left unemployed and a beauty of life passing too fast.
《金字经·夜来雨横与风狂》为元代马致远所作，是写夜雨摧花、惜春伤春之感的散曲。马致远（约1250—约1321），号东篱，大都人，元代杂剧家、散曲家。此曲：夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香。晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆，问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠。全曲写夜雨摧花、惜春伤春，是马致远散曲的名篇。
Art
The whole song laments the passing of spring, moving from the night's rain to the morning scene and from things to people. The question put to the Lord of Spring personifies the season, and the closing image of the cuckoo's breaking cry gathers everything in. The manner is brisk and clean, yet the feeling stays tender.
《金字经·夜来雨横与风狂》艺术上以夜雨摧花的描摹与惜春伤春的深婉见长。全曲写夜雨摧花：首写夜雨风狂——“夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香”写夜来雨横风狂、断送西园满地香；中写蜂蝶空游荡——“晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆”写晓来蜂蝶空游荡、苦难寻红锦妆；末写鹃声断肠——“问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠”写问东君归计何忙、鹃声碎、空断肠。全曲以夜雨摧花写惜春伤春，正是马致远散曲深婉的笔法。
Allusions
The west garden is any pleasure garden. The crimson brocade finery stands for masses of blossom. The Lord of Spring is the god of spring. The cuckoo crying until its voice breaks draws on the legend of the bird that sings until it coughs blood, an old emblem of grief.
《金字经·夜来雨横与风狂》用典在“东君”“鹃声”“红锦妆”。“东君”写春神（东君司春）；“鹃声”写杜鹃啼声（不如归去）；“红锦妆”写如红锦之妆（繁花）。全曲以这些意象写夜雨摧花、惜春伤春，用典自然而深婉自见，正是马致远散曲的笔法。
Commentary
The short songs of Ma Zhiyuan mostly treat reclusion and the lateness of life; this one mourns the spring in a brisk and buoyant voice, a different flavor altogether from the desolation of his Sky-Clear Sand.
《金字经·夜来雨横与风狂》是马致远散曲的名篇，也是元曲中写惜春伤春的代表作。此曲写夜雨摧花、惜春伤春，向为论者称道。论者多赏其夜雨摧花的描摹与惜春伤春的深婉——“夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香”写夜雨摧花、满地香销，深婉之极；“晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆”写蜂蝶空游荡、难寻红锦，更见其伤；“问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠”写鹃声碎、空断肠，尤见其深。马致远为元曲四大家之一，其曲以深婉著称，此曲正是其代表——以夜雨摧花写惜春伤春，正是其曲风。
Prosody
Line by line
夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香。
Last night the rain raged and the wind ran wild, sending all the fragrance of the western garden to the ground.
夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香。
Last night rain and wind burst forth; the fragrance lies scattered all over the western garden.
首写夜雨风狂、断送满地香，是全曲写夜雨摧花的起点。“夜来雨横与风狂”写夜来雨横风狂——“夜来雨横与风狂”写夜来雨势横暴、风势狂烈——夜来雨横与风狂；“断送西园满地香”写断送满地香——“断送西园满地香”写断送西园满地花香——断送西园满地香。二句写夜雨风狂、断送满地香：夜来雨横与风狂，断送西园满地香。以“夜来雨横与风狂”写夜来风雨狂暴，以“断送西园满地香”写断送西园满地花香，正是马致远散曲写夜雨摧花的起点——风雨一夜，花落香销。
The opening writes the wild night rain and the fragrance strewn on the ground, the starting point of the song's rain-broken flowers. 'Last night the rain raged and the wind ran wild' renders the storm's fury through the night; 'sending all the fragrance of the western garden to the ground' the fall of every blossom. One night of wind and rain, flowers fallen, fragrance spent — the point from which Ma Zhiyuan begins.
晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆。
At dawn the bees and butterflies drift in vain; in vain they seek the red brocade bloom.
晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆。
At dawn bees and butterflies wander to no purpose; the red brocade flower can hardly be found.
此二句写蜂蝶空游荡、难寻红锦妆，是全曲写花落之伤的深化。“晓来蜂蝶空游荡”写蜂蝶空游荡——“晓来蜂蝶空游荡”写晓来蜂蝶空自游荡——晓来蜂蝶空游荡；“苦难寻红锦妆”写难寻红锦妆——“苦难寻红锦妆”用红锦妆之喻写苦难寻如红锦之花——苦难寻红锦妆。二句写蜂蝶空游荡、难寻红锦妆：晓来蜂蝶空游荡。苦难寻红锦妆。以“晓来蜂蝶空游荡”写晓来蜂蝶空游、无花可采，以“苦难寻红锦妆”写难寻如红锦之花、花已落尽，正是马致远散曲写花落之伤的深化——蜂蝶空游，红锦难寻。
These two lines deepen the grief of fallen blossoms: bees and butterflies drifting in vain, the red brocade bloom hard to find. 'At dawn the bees and butterflies drift in vain' — the insects wandering with no flowers to gather; 'in vain they seek the red brocade bloom' uses the brocade simile for the crimson blossoms, now all fallen. Bees and butterflies at a loss, the red brocade nowhere — the deepened grief of flowers fallen.
问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠。
I ask the Spring God: why this haste to be gone? The cuckoo has cried its voice to shreds, and breaks one's heart for nothing.
问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠。
I ask the Spring God, why hurrying away? The cuckoo's cry is shattered; it breaks one's heart in vain.
末写问东君、鹃声碎、空断肠，是全曲写惜春伤春的归结。“问东君归计何忙”写问东君归计何忙——“问东君归计何忙”用东君司春之典写问春神归去何忙——问东君归计何忙；“尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠”写鹃声碎、空断肠——“尽叫得鹃声碎”写杜鹃啼声都叫碎了，“却教人空断肠”写却教人空自断肠——鹃声碎，空断肠。三句写问东君、鹃声碎、空断肠：问东君归计何忙！尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠。以“问东君归计何忙”用东君之典写问春神归去何其匆忙，以“尽叫得鹃声碎，却教人空断肠”写鹃声啼碎、教人断肠，正是马致远散曲写惜春伤春的归结——东君归忙，鹃声断肠。
The closing resolves the song's lament for spring: the question to the Spring God, the cuckoo's shattered cry, the breaking heart. 'I ask the Spring God: why this haste to be gone?' uses the deity who governs spring, questioning why it departs so soon; 'the cuckoo has cried its voice to shreds, and breaks one's heart for nothing' — the cuckoo's cry worn to tatters, the heart broken to no end. The Spring God's hasty going, the cuckoo's heart-rending cry — the resolution of mourning the lost spring.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Autumn Thoughts treats the sorrow of travel, Golden Letters the grief of a spring that will not stay; both show the clear, brisk touch of Dongli.
马致远《天净沙·秋思》“枯藤老树昏鸦，小桥流水人家”写秋思断肠，与本首同为马致远散曲。差异在情境：金字经写夜雨惜春；天净沙秋思写秋日羁旅。一写“春”之伤，一写“秋”之思。两者并读，可见马致远散曲写羁旅之感的两种情境。
夜行船·秋思 Yexingchuan: Autumn Thought 马致远 · 同为马致远散曲写人生之慨，一写惜春伤春一写秋思之叹，皆深婉 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
马致远《夜行船·秋思》“百岁光阴一梦蝶”写人生之慨，与本首同为马致远散曲。差异在主题：金字经写惜春伤春；夜行船秋思写人生如梦。一写“春”之伤，一写“生”之叹。两者并读，可见马致远散曲的两种主题。
庆东原·叹世 Celebrating the East Origin - Sighing at the World 马致远 · 同为马致远散曲，一写惜春伤春一写叹世之慨，一伤一叹 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
马致远《庆东原·叹世》写叹世之慨，与本首同为马致远散曲。差异在主题：金字经写惜春伤春；庆东原叹世写叹世之慨。一写“春”之伤，一写“世”之叹。两者并读，可见马致远散曲的两种主题。