Tune: Butterflies in Love with Flowers II (Ouyang Xiu)
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
几日行云何处去？忘了归来，不道春将暮。百草千花寒食路，香车系在谁家树？
English translation
Where has the one who passed like a drifting cloud gone these past days? They have forgotten to return and seem not to notice that spring is nearly over. Along the Cold Food Festival road, grasses and flowers flourish; beneath whose tree is the fragrant carriage tied?
Original Chinese text
泪眼倚楼频独语，双燕来时，陌上相逢否？撩乱春愁如柳絮，依依梦里无寻处。
English translation
With tearful eyes, the speaker leans on the tower and talks alone again and again. When the paired swallows return, will they meet the absent one on the road? Spring sorrow scatters like willow fluff; even in a lingering dream, there is no place to find the beloved.
词句注释 · Notes
上片 · First stanza
“行云”常用来形容来去不定的人或情思。寒食路上的春景与迟迟不归形成反差；“香车系在谁家树”是设问，不足以据此断定出行者的具体去处。
“Drifting cloud” often evokes someone elusive or a feeling that comes and goes. Blossoming roads at Cold Food contrast with the delayed return. The question about the carriage does not reveal where the traveler has actually gone.
下片 · Second stanza
下片把盼归的希望寄托在双燕“来时”，旋即又落到春愁如絮、梦中难寻。燕子归来并不能保证人也归来，反衬等待者的无着。
The hope of reunion is briefly attached to the swallows’ return, then gives way to sorrow scattering like fluff and a beloved who cannot be found even in dreams. Birds return; people are not guaranteed to do so.