帕布莉卡水龙吟
次韵章质夫杨花词
[宋]苏轼
似花还似非花，
也无人惜从教坠。
抛家傍路，
思量却是，
无情有思[1]。
萦损柔肠，
困酣娇眼[2]，
欲开还闭。
梦随风万里，
寻郎去处，
又还被，
莺呼起。
不恨此花飞尽，
恨西园落红难缀。
晓来雨过，
遗踪何在？
一池萍碎。
春色[3]三分，
二分尘土，
一分流水。
细看来不是杨花，
点点是离人泪。
[1]无情有思（sì）：杨花看似无情，却自有它的愁思。
[2]娇眼：美人娇媚的眼睛，比喻柳叶。古人诗赋中常称初生的柳叶为柳眼。
[3]春色：代指杨花。
Tune: Water Dragon Chant
After Zhang Zhifu’s lyric on willow catkins, using the same rhyming words.
Su Shi
They seem to be yet not be flowers,
None pity them when they fall down in showers.
Forsaking home,
By the roadside they roam;
I think they have no feeling to impart,
But they could have thoughts deep.
See grief benumb their tender heart,
Their wistful eyes near shut with sleep,
About to open, yet closed again.
They dream of going with the wind for long,
Long miles to find a tender-hearted man,
But are aroused by the orioles’ song.
I do not grieve the willow catkins flown away,
But that in Western Garden fallen red
Can’t be restored. When dawns the day
And rain is o’er, we cannot find their traces
But in a pond with duckweeds overspread.
Of Spring’s three graces,
Two have gone with the roadside dust;
One with the waves. But if you just
Take a close look, you will never
Find catkins but tear-drops of those who sever.
This poem written after Zhang Zhifu’s lyric is generally acknowledged to be better than the original, for Su Shi personifies willow catkins as a lonely woman longing for her husband. The “orioles’ song” refers to the following Tang poem:
Drive orioles of the tre
For their songs awake me
From dreaming of my dear
Far of on the frontier
According to Su Shi’s own note, “it is said that when willow catkins fall into the water, they turn into duckweed.” This is of course the poet’s imagination.
