元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song
山坡羊·西湖杂咏·秋
Sheep on the Mountain Slope · Miscellaneous Songs of West Lake · Autumn
疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列。
断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭。
分付画船且慢者。
歌，休唱彻；
诗，乘兴写。
lotus flowers about to fade,
and nature has dressed the hills into a row of autumn screens.
Broken sunset clouds shut the view,
the low sun slants,
and halfway up the hill a quiet pavilion flashes into sight.
Tell the painted barge to go a little slower.
Song, do not sing it through;
poem, write while the mood is on you.
Meaning
Red leaves are scattered through the thin woods and the lotus flowers are about to fall; nature has painted the autumn hills until they stand like a row of screens. Broken evening clouds half hide the view, the setting sun slants down, and halfway up the hill a quiet pavilion and waterside terrace flash suddenly into sight. Tell the painted barge to slow its oars. Singer, do not sing your song to the end; poet, take up your brush while the mood is on you.
稀疏的树林中红叶点点，荷花即将凋谢，天然的秋色妆点得像屏风般排列。断断续续的晚霞遮掩，夕阳西斜，山腰间闪现出悠闲的亭台水榭。嘱咐画船且慢些走。歌者啊，不要唱完；诗人啊，乘着兴致写来。
Appreciation
The images of this song are open and uncrowded. Thin woods with red leaves and lotus about to fade take autumn at its ending and find natural beauty in it, without grief or complaint, while the row of screens turns lake and hills into a painting. The two short clauses about the broken clouds and the slanting sun are neatly matched and yet keep moving, and the pavilion that flashes out on the hillside turns stillness into motion. The close, ordering the boat to go slower, the singer to hold something back and the poet to write while the mood lasts, is easy and free, the true colour of sanqu.
【白话串讲】 薛昂夫写西湖秋色：“疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列”。“断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭”。“分付画船且慢者”——他让画船慢一点。“歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写”——歌别唱完，诗乘兴写。 【意象与手法】 此曲意象疏朗，疏林红叶、芙蓉将谢以秋之将尽写天然之美，不悲不怨。秋屏列以屏喻湖山，构图如画 【情感与主旨】 薛昂夫（约1267—1359），维吾尔族，元散曲名家，汉姓马，字九皋 【名句点睛】 本曲适合考查散曲的意象组合与语言本色
Background
Xue Angfu (about 1267-1359) was a Uighur, a famous Yuan sanqu writer, with the Chinese surname Ma and the courtesy name Jiugao. His Sheep on the Mountain Slope: Miscellaneous Songs of West Lake sings the four seasons, and this autumn song was probably written in his later years, when he lived in retirement at Hangzhou and lingered among lake and hills. Under the Yuan, West Lake was a favourite gathering place for men of letters, and the sanqu written there is generally about leisure and retirement. Xue Angfu, a man of the western regions deeply versed in Chinese culture, turned to landscape after the ups and downs of office, and used the quiet of the autumn lake to write the freedom in his breast. The orders given to the barge, the singer and the poet show exactly his relaxed, self-sufficient pleasure in verse and wine among the hills.
《山坡羊·西湖杂咏·秋》为元代薛昂夫所作，是写西湖秋景、赞西湖之美的散曲。薛昂夫（约1267—约1359），回鹘人，元代散曲家。此曲：疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列。断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭。分付画船且慢者。歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写。全曲写西湖秋景，是薛昂夫散曲的名篇。
Art
The imagery of this song is open and clear. Thin woods with red leaves and lotus about to fade take the last of autumn as the ground of natural beauty, with neither grief nor complaint, and the row of autumn screens makes a composition like a painting out of lake and hill. 'Broken sunset clouds shut the view, the low sun slants' is a neat, brief parallel that still flows, and in 'halfway up the hill a quiet pavilion flashes into sight' one verb turns the still into the moving and gives the whole a spirited charm. The close, ordering the boatman to row slowly, asking the singer to keep something back and urging the poet to write while the mood is on him, finds elegance within ease; the salty, homely flavour of sanqu is here in full, and it is quite unlike the decorum of shi and ci.
《山坡羊·西湖杂咏·秋》艺术上以西湖秋景的描摹与闲适之趣的轻快见长。全曲写西湖秋景：首写秋景如屏——“疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列”写疏林红叶、芙蓉将谢、秋屏如列；中写晚景山亭——“断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭”写断霞夕阳、山腰亭榭，“分付画船且慢者”写分付画船且慢；末写歌诗乘兴——“歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写”写歌休唱彻、诗乘兴写。全曲以西湖秋景写闲适之趣，正是薛昂夫散曲轻快的笔法。
Allusions
The song has no evident allusion and wins by plain description, which suits the sanqu preference for native colour over learned reference. The lotus recalls the Book of Songs, 'on the hill is the mulberry, in the marsh the lotus flower', though here it simply means the lotus in bloom. The autumn screens turn the layered hills into ornament and make the still decorative. The painted barge has been a stock image of the southland ever since Bai Juyi and Su Shi wrote of West Lake. 'Do not sing it through' and 'write while the mood is on you' are pure colloquial speech without a scrap of learning, yet the manner is caught to the life, which shows the peculiar Yuan pursuit of elegance through the vulgar and of depth through the plain.
《山坡羊·西湖杂咏·秋》用典少而取景自然。“山坡羊”为曲牌名；“秋屏列”写秋景如画屏排列；“断霞”写残霞。全曲以这些意象写西湖秋景，不用深典而轻快自见，正是薛昂夫散曲的笔法。
Commentary
Wang Deyuan, in his preface to Xue Angfu's collected poems, called his work fresh, strict and buoyant, and this autumn song deserves the phrase. Modern critics of Yuan songs on West Lake generally rank Xue's four seasonal Sheep on the Mountain Slope pieces first among them. They are unpolished and yet far-reaching in flavour; the flashing verb is alert and the close is free, enough to stand with Ma Zhiyuan's Sky-Clear Sand. Later anthologies of sanqu usually place this piece at the head of the West Lake poems and treat it as the representative of the leisure school, and the praise is not empty.
《山坡羊·西湖杂咏·秋》是薛昂夫散曲的名篇，也是元曲中写西湖秋景的代表作。此曲写西湖秋景、赞西湖之美，向为论者称道。论者多赏其西湖秋景的描摹与闲适之趣的轻快——“疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列”写秋景如屏，轻快之极；“断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭”写晚景山亭，更见其趣；“歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写”写歌诗乘兴，尤见其逸。薛昂夫以散曲著称，其曲以清丽轻快著称，此曲正是其代表——以西湖秋景写闲适之趣，正是其曲风。
Prosody
Line by line
疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列。
Sparse woods, red leaves; the hibiscus about to fade — nature's own dressing, like a screen of autumn ranged before me.
疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列。
Sparse woods with red leaves, hibiscus nearly faded; nature has dressed them, ranged like an autumn screen.
首写西湖秋景，是全曲咏西湖之秋的起点。“疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢”写疏林芙蓉——“疏林红叶”写疏林之中红叶，“芙蓉将谢”写芙蓉将要凋谢——疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢；“天然妆点秋屏列”写秋屏如列——“天然妆点秋屏列”写天然妆点如秋屏排列——天然妆点秋屏列。三句写西湖秋景：疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢，天然妆点秋屏列。以“疏林红叶，芙蓉将谢”写疏林红叶、芙蓉将谢之秋色，以“天然妆点秋屏列”写天然妆点、如秋屏排列，正是薛昂夫散曲写西湖秋景的起点——西湖之秋，如画屏初展。
The opening writes the West Lake in autumn, the starting point of the song's ode. 'Sparse woods, red leaves; the hibiscus about to fade' — red leaves in the sparse woods, hibiscus nearly withered; 'nature's own dressing, like a screen of autumn ranged' — nature's adornment, ranged like an autumn screen. Red leaves and fading hibiscus, autumn's colors; the natural adornment, like a screen — the point from which Xue Angfu begins: the West Lake in autumn, like a painted scroll first unfurled.
断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭。分付画船且慢者。
Broken clouds veiling the sky; the setting sun slanting; from the hillside peeps an idle pavilion. I bid the painted boat go slow, just go slow.
断霞遮，夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭。分付画船且慢者。
Broken clouds veiling, the sun slanting; an idle pavilion peeps from the hillside. I tell the painted boat: go slow, go slowly.
此四句写断霞夕阳、山腰亭榭，是全曲写西湖晚景的深化。“断霞遮，夕阳斜”写断霞夕阳——“断霞遮”写断霞遮掩，“夕阳斜”写夕阳西斜——断霞遮，夕阳斜；“山腰闪出闲亭榭”写山腰亭榭——“山腰闪出闲亭榭”写山腰闪出闲亭榭——山腰闪出闲亭榭；“分付画船且慢者”写分付画船且慢——“分付画船且慢者”写吩咐画船暂且慢行——分付画船且慢者。四句写断霞夕阳、山腰亭榭：断霞遮夕阳斜，山腰闪出闲亭榭，分付画船且慢者。以“断霞遮，夕阳斜”写断霞夕阳之晚景，以“山腰闪出闲亭榭”写山腰闪出亭榭之趣，以“分付画船且慢者”写留连画船、且慢行之，正是薛昂夫散曲写西湖晚景的深化——晚景如画，留连不舍。
These four lines write the broken clouds and setting sun, the hillside pavilion, deepening the West Lake evening. 'Broken clouds veiling the sky; the setting sun slanting' — the cloud-wrack veiling, the sun inclining; 'from the hillside peeps an idle pavilion' — the terrace peeping out; 'I bid the painted boat go slow, just go slow' — telling the painted craft to linger. The evening scene, the peeping terrace, the lingering boat — the deepened evening: scenery like a painting, loath to leave.
歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写。
Song — sing not it through; verse — write on the moment's mood.
歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写。
Song, sing it not to the end; verse, write as the mood takes you.
末写歌诗乘兴，是全曲写闲适之趣的归结。“歌，休唱彻”写歌休唱彻——“歌，休唱彻”写歌且休要唱尽（留余味）——歌，休唱彻；“诗，乘兴写”写诗乘兴写——“诗，乘兴写”写诗且乘兴而写——诗，乘兴写。二句写歌诗乘兴：歌，休唱彻；诗，乘兴写。以“歌，休唱彻”写歌休唱尽、留有余味，以“诗，乘兴写”写诗乘兴而写、随兴而作，正是薛昂夫散曲写闲适之趣的归结——歌诗自适，乘兴尽欢。
The closing writes song and verse in the moment, resolving the song's leisure. 'Song, sing it not to the end' — leave the song unfinished, its aftertaste; 'verse, write on the moment's mood' — write verse as the mood takes you. Leave the song with its lingering sound, write verse on the spur — the resolution of leisure: song and verse at ease, enjoying the moment to the full.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
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张养浩《山坡羊·骊山怀古》咏骊山之史，与本首同为山坡羊曲。差异在主题：西湖杂咏秋写西湖秋景；骊山怀古咏骊山之史。一写“景”之丽，一写“史”之叹。两者并读，可见山坡羊曲的两种主题。