元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song
折桂令·寄远
Plucking the Cassia Branch · Sent to One Far Away
怎生来宽掩了裙儿？
为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。
饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝。
得受用遮莫害死，果诚实有甚推辞？
干闹了多时，本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思。
Because the jade of my flesh is pared away,
and the sweetness has faded from my waist.
Rice never touches the spoon;
last night I turned like a pancake on the griddle;
my breath is thin as a floating thread.
If I might have him, I would not mind dying of it;
if his heart is truly honest, what excuse could I make?
All this fuss for nothing, and for so long:
what should have been the joy of a wedded pair
has turned instead into a longing that cuts to the bone.
Meaning
How has it come about that my skirt has grown so loose? Only because the jade of my flesh has been pared away and my waist has lost its sweet fullness. I take no rice upon my spoon; last night I turned over and over like a pancake on the griddle; my breath is as faint as a floating thread. If only I could be with him I would not mind dying of it, and if his feeling is truly sincere, what refusal could I make? All this while I have been troubled to no purpose: what should have been the happiness of husband and wife has turned instead into a longing that goes to the very bone.
怎么竟让衣裙宽松了起来？只因玉一般的肌肤消瘦，腰肢也减去了丰润。吃饭不沾勺匙，昨夜翻来覆去如饼，气息微弱得像游丝。若得相守，便害死也情愿；若果真情意殷实，又有什么推辞？白白地折腾了这许久，本该是结发夫妻的欢娱，反倒成了刻骨铭心的相思。
Appreciation
The song is a masterpiece of speaking in another's voice and of colloquial phrases arranged in a rising sequence. It opens with a question, 'How has it come about that my skirt hangs loose?', reasoning backward from the loose clothes to the wasted body, an odd stroke made out of household speech. The pared jade and the faded waist give the wasting itself; the untouched spoon, the pancake on the griddle and the thread of breath pile up in parallel to paint the invalid's look, and the homely image of the pancake is vividly alive. The last lines fall away in a reversal in which resentment and love are woven together, sharp and fresh in Qiao Ji's own manner and sour with real pain.
【白话串讲】 “怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢”——乔吉写一个思念的人：裙子都变宽了，人瘦了。“饭不沾匙”——饭都吃不下。“本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思”——本是夫妻的欢愉，却成了彻骨的相思。 【意象与手法】 此曲擅代言之妙与口语层递。'怎生来宽掩了裙儿'反问破题，由宽松逆推身瘦，奇绝家常。'为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢'写消瘦 【情感与主旨】 乔吉为元后期散曲代表，与张可久并称'乔张'，曲风'尖新倩活'。〔折桂令〕宜于铺叙 【名句点睛】 宜从语言抒情设题。其一，起句：'怎生来宽掩了裙儿'反问由果溯因写瘦，体会'反常合道'。其二，细节
Background
Qiao Ji was the leading sanqu writer of the later Yuan, coupled with Zhang Kejiu as 'Qiao and Zhang', and his manner was called sharp, fresh and quick with life. The Plucking the Cassia Branch tune suits extended description. This song speaks in the person of a wife longing for a husband far from home, and the title means a message sent to a man on his travels. Under the Yuan a great many men left home to trade or to hold office, and the wife's longing became a common theme. Qiao Ji, a man writing in a woman's voice, paints her wasting and her love-sick obstinacy to the last degree, and reflects the pain of separation in the marriages of the Yuan townspeople; his skill at such impersonation is plain.
《折桂令·寄远》为元代乔吉所作，是写女子相思、寄远之情的散曲。乔吉（约1280—1345），字梦符，号笙鹤翁，太原人，元代散曲家。此曲：怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝。得受用遮莫害死，果诚实有甚推辞？干闹了多时。本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思。全曲写女子相思、寄远之情，是乔吉散曲的名篇。
Art
The song excels in impersonation and in colloquial speech arranged in rising steps. 'How has it come about that my skirt hangs loose?' breaks in with a question, reasoning back from the loose garment to the thin body, an extraordinary stroke made of household words. 'Because the jade of my flesh is pared away, and the sweetness has faded from my waist' gives the wasting itself. 'Rice never touches the spoon; last night I turned like a pancake on the griddle; my breath is thin as a floating thread' sets three parallel clauses to paint the sick face and body, and the vulgar image of the pancake is alive on the tongue. 'If I might have him, I would not mind dying of it' gives her infatuation. The closing reversal binds reproach and love together and shows to the full Qiao Ji's sharp, fresh native colour, sour and moving.
《折桂令·寄远》艺术上以相思之状的夸张与寄远之情的深挚见长。全曲写女子相思：首写相思之瘦——“怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢”写裙儿宽掩、玉削肌肤、香褪腰肢；中写茶饭不思——“饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝”写饭不沾匙、昨如翻饼、气若游丝，“得受用遮莫害死，果诚实有甚推辞”写得受用遮莫害死；末写相思之深——“干闹了多时。本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思”写结发欢娱、彻骨相思。全曲以相思之状写寄远之情，正是乔吉散曲深挚的笔法。
Allusions
The song narrates its own occasion and rarely uses deep allusion, yet every phrase has an ancestor. The loosened skirt quietly draws on the old poetic image of the belt growing slacker day by day and the waist shrinking with the moon, as in Liu Yun's poem on beating clothes; Qiao Ji replaces the literary phrase with a colloquial one, and the effect is homelier still. 'Breath thin as a floating thread' comes from medicine and from verse, where it describes the dying or the gravely ill, and here it renders a longing that has almost worn the body out. The bound-hair pair comes from the Nineteen Old Poems, 'we bound our hair and became man and wife', and means a first, loving marriage. Nothing is heaped up for display: common speech carries common feeling, exactly the sanqu ideal of being literary without literariness and popular without vulgarity.
《折桂令·寄远》用典在“结发”。“结发”写结发夫妻（《文选》古诗“结发为夫妻”之意）；“玉削肌肤”写玉肤削瘦。全曲以这些意象写女子相思，用典自然而深挚自见，正是乔吉散曲的笔法。
Commentary
Qiao Ji is coupled with Zhang Kejiu as 'Qiao and Zhang', and the Ming writer Li Kaixian ranked him the finest of song writers. Ren Zhongmin said that he 'refines the vulgar into the elegant, sharp and fresh as talk'. This Plucking the Cassia Branch has always been taken as his representative song of the boudoir, and critics praise it for 'writing a woman's infatuation in the language of the market, resentful without being thin, sour and yet spirited'; they regard it as the highest example of sanqu impersonation, fit to stand beside the love songs of Guan Hanqing and Bai Pu.
《折桂令·寄远》是乔吉散曲的名篇，也是元曲中写女子相思的代表作。此曲写女子相思、寄远之情，向为论者称道。论者多赏其相思之状的夸张与寄远之情的深挚——“怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢”写相思之瘦，深挚之极；“饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝”写茶饭不思，更见其苦；“本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思”写结发相思，尤见其深。乔吉以散曲著称，其曲以奇俊深挚著称，此曲正是其代表——以相思之状写寄远之情，正是其曲风。
Prosody
Line by line
怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。
How is it my gown hangs so loose? Because the jade flesh has wasted, the fragrant waist thinned.
怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。
How comes it my skirt hangs so loose? Because the jade flesh has wasted, the fragrant waist shrunk.
首写相思之瘦，是全曲写女子相思的起点。“怎生来宽掩了裙儿”写裙儿宽掩——“怎生来宽掩了裙儿”写怎么裙儿宽掩了——怎生来宽掩了裙儿；“为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢”写玉削香褪——“为玉削肌肤”写为相思而玉肤削瘦，“香褪腰肢”写香体消瘦腰肢（细）——玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。三句写相思之瘦：怎生来宽掩了裙儿？为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢。以“怎生来宽掩了裙儿”写裙宽掩身、人渐消瘦，以“为玉削肌肤，香褪腰肢”写玉肤削瘦、腰肢渐细，正是乔吉散曲写女子相思之状的起点——相思使人瘦。
The opening writes the thinness of longing, the song's starting point. 'How is it my gown hangs so loose?' — the gown grown loose, the person thin; 'because the jade flesh has wasted, the fragrant waist thinned' — the wasted jade skin, the narrowed waist. Qiao Ji's starting point for the woman's longing: longing makes one thin.
饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝。
Food will not touch the spoon; yesterday I tossed like a flipped cake; my breath is like a gossamer thread.
饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝。
Rice will not touch the spoon; I tossed all night like a turned pancake; my breath is like a gossamer thread.
此三句写茶饭不思，是全曲写相思之苦的深化。“饭不沾匙”写饭不沾匙——“饭不沾匙”写饭粒不沾匙（不思饮食）——饭不沾匙；“昨如翻饼，气若游丝”写翻饼游丝——“昨如翻饼”写昨日翻饼（寝不安席如翻饼），“气若游丝”写气息若游丝（气弱）——昨如翻饼，气若游丝。三句写茶饭不思：饭不沾匙，昨如翻饼，气若游丝。以“饭不沾匙”写不思饮食，以“昨如翻饼，气若游丝”写寝不安席、气息微弱，正是乔吉散曲写相思之苦的深化——食不甘、寝不安、气若游丝。
These three lines write the loss of appetite, deepening the pain of longing. 'Food will not touch the spoon' — eating nothing; 'yesterday I tossed like a flipped cake, my breath like a gossamer thread' — restless sleep, failing breath. Qiao Ji's deepening: food tasteless, sleep restless, breath a thread.
本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思。
What was meant to be the joy of wedded love, has turned, instead, to bone-deep longing.
本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思。
What should have been the joy of a first-wedded pair, has become, instead, longing that pierces to the bone.
末写结发欢娱、彻骨相思，是全曲寄远之情的归结。“本是结发的欢娱”写结发欢娱——“本是结发的欢娱”用《文选》结发之意写本是结发夫妻的欢娱——本是结发的欢娱；“倒做了彻骨儿相思”写彻骨相思——“倒做了彻骨儿相思”写倒变成了彻骨的相思——倒做了彻骨儿相思。二句写结发欢娱、彻骨相思：本是结发的欢娱，倒做了彻骨儿相思。以“本是结发的欢娱”写本应结发相守的欢娱，以“倒做了彻骨儿相思”写竟变成彻骨的相思，正是乔吉散曲写寄远之情的归结——欢娱成空，相思彻骨。
The closing resolves the feeling of sending afar: 'what was meant to be the joy of wedded love' — the wedded pair's rightful joy; 'has turned, instead, to bone-deep longing' — turned to piercing longing. Qiao Ji's resolution: the joy gone empty, the longing bone-deep.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
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乔吉《水仙子·寻梅》写寻梅之趣，与本首同为乔吉散曲。差异在主题：折桂令寄远写女子相思；水仙子寻梅写寻梅之趣。一写“思”之怨，一写“梅”之趣。两者并读，可见乔吉散曲的两种主题。
折桂令·客窗清明 Zhe Gui Ling — The Traveler's Window at Qingming 乔吉 · 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.
此处关联乔吉《折桂令·客窗清明》，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。