ChineseStudy

Tune: Butterflies in Love with Flowers I (Ouyang Xiu)

Contents

Text

English translation

Deep, deep is the courtyard—how deep can it be? Haze gathers among the willows, and curtains layer one upon another. The rider with jeweled bridle and carved saddle has gone to places of pleasure; from the tall building, the road to Zhangtai cannot be seen.

At the end of the third lunar month, rain lashes and wind rages. The gate closes at dusk, but there is no way to keep spring from leaving. Tearful eyes ask the blossoms; they do not answer, and scattered petals blow past the swing.

词句注释 · Notes

上片 · First stanza

开篇反复“深”字写庭院幽闭，也暗示人物处境。章台是古代都城中与游冶生活相关的地名意象；词句表达的是楼中人看不到外界去路，不宜据此断定具体人物身份。

The repeated “deep” makes the courtyard feel enclosed and hints at the speaker’s confinement. Zhangtai is a literary place-name associated with urban pleasure; the poem presents a view blocked from the tower without identifying the people involved.

下片 · Second stanza

下片从庭院幽深转到暮春风雨。“问花花不语”把无处诉说的情绪寄托给落花；末句的秋千没有人物出现，只留下春日曾有游乐的痕迹。

The stanza shifts from enclosure to the stormy end of spring. Asking flowers that cannot answer gives voice to unspeakable sorrow. The swing appears without anyone on it, a trace of the play that once belonged to the season.

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