Song Dynasty
山花子·此处情怀欲问天
此处情怀欲问天，相期相就复何年。
行过章江三十里，泪依然。
早宿半程芳草路，犹寒欲雨暮春天。
小小桃花三两处，得人怜。
Translation
At this place, with this feeling, I almost want to ask heaven: in what year will we meet and be together again? I have already gone thirty li past the Zhang River, and still my tears remain. I lodge early halfway along a road of fragrant grass. It is late spring, still cold, with rain about to fall. Here and there, a few small peach blossoms appear—so fragile that they stir pity.
Analysis
This lyric presents separation through the experience of travel. The speaker has left the place of parting, but his emotion has not moved on. The opening line, “I almost want to ask heaven,” gives the poem an immediate intensity: the feeling is too heavy to be answered by human speech. The next line asks when the promised meeting will ever come, making uncertainty the center of the poem. The line “I have gone thirty li past the Zhang River, and still my tears remain” is especially effective. Physical distance increases, yet emotional distance does not. The second stanza turns to roadside imagery: an early lodging, fragrant grass, late-spring cold, and rain about to fall. The tiny peach blossoms at the end are not a bright celebration of spring; they are fragile remnants, arousing pity. In pitying the blossoms, the speaker also pities his own unresolved longing.
About the Author
Liu Chenweng, courtesy name Huimeng and literary name Xuxi, was a late Southern Song and early Yuan poet, critic, and loyalist from Luling in Jiangxi. After the fall of the Song, he refused to serve the Yuan and often wrote from the perspective of a displaced survivor of a lost dynasty. His ci poetry is marked by melancholy, historical sorrow, and refined sensitivity to personal grief. While many of his works carry the weight of national loss, he could also render intimate feelings of separation and travel, as in this lyric.