Song Dynasty
浣溪沙·感别·点点疏林欲雪天
点点疏林欲雪天。
竹篱斜闭自清妍。
为伊憔悴得人怜。
欲与那人携素手，粉香和泪落君前。
相逢恨恨总无言。
Translation
Sparse trees stand here and there beneath a sky about to snow. The bamboo fence is slantingly closed, possessing a clear and delicate beauty of its own. For her I have grown thin and worn, enough to move pity. I long to take that person’s pale hand; fragrance of powder and tears would fall together before you. Yet when we meet, resentment and sorrow fill the heart, and no words can be spoken.
Analysis
This lyric describes the complicated state between longing, parting, and meeting. The landscape is cold and spare, while the emotion is intense. The opening line, with scattered trees under a sky about to snow, creates a suspended chill: snow has not yet fallen, but the atmosphere is already heavy. The slanting bamboo fence is a quiet rural image, and “clear beauty” pauses over the scene even as the heart remains disturbed. The line about growing thin for the beloved makes longing bodily. In the second stanza, the imagined act of taking the beloved’s hand joins intimacy with tears. The final line is especially psychologically true: after long longing, actual meeting may bring not speech but silence, because grievance, pain, and affection block the words. Liu Chenweng’s ci often carries a spare sorrow; even in a love lyric, the feeling is not decorative but austere.
About the Author
Liu Chenweng, style name Huimeng and literary name Xuxi, was a late Southern Song and early Yuan writer, ci poet, and critic. After the fall of the Song, he refused to serve the Yuan, and much of his work carries sorrow for the lost dynasty. His lyrics are often spare, cold, and deeply mournful. Even in poems of love and parting, his emotional tone tends toward severity rather than ornament. “Huanxisha: Parting” sets private sorrow against a clear, wintry landscape.