144. Falling Flowers | Li Shangyin

写落花有两条路：一条写花开时的盛况，衬托现在的凋零；一条直接从落花写起，不复述过去。李商隐走的是第二条，全诗第一句花已经在飞了，读者没见到它开的样子。这样写更冷——树下的热闹从来没有出现过，只有人和残花相对。省略掉「曾经」是这首诗的一个关键选择。

There are two ways to write falling blossoms: dwell on the days of bloom to set off the present decline, or begin with the falling and never look back. Li Shangyin takes the second — by the first line the petals are already flying and the reader never sees them open. This is colder: the bustle under the tree never happened, and only a man and ruined flowers face each other. Omitting the "once" is a key choice here.

第三联是全诗最见人心的地方，因为它不合逻辑。花落在地上是事实，扫掉只是收拾；作者不忍扫，又盼着它们回来。这两件事不可能同时成立，但正是这种不成立写出了惜花的程度。李商隐常在这种矛盾处用力——理说不通的地方，情才显得真。

The third couplet is where the poem shows the most of a person, because it does not follow logic. The petals on the ground are a fact and sweeping is only tidying; the poet cannot bear to sweep and hopes they return. Both cannot hold at once, and exactly that impossibility measures how much he prizes the flowers. Li Shangyin works hard at such contradictions: where reason fails, feeling begins to look true.

「所得是沾衣」用了商业算账的语气：投入的是什么，得到的是什么。投入的是一颗芳心随春而尽，得到的只有沾湿衣服的泪。李商隐把情感结算成一本收支表，收支极不相称，而无处申诉。这是他的典型写法——用冷静的词去说最不堪的处境。

"What it came to was a wet coat" uses the tone of settling accounts: what was put in and what came out. What went in was a fragrant heart spent with spring; what came out is tears on the coat. Li Shangyin settles a feeling like a ledger, with the two sides wildly unequal and no one to appeal to. This is characteristic of him: cool wording for the least bearable situation.