cǎi采lián莲qǔ曲

"Lotus-Picking Song" is an old title for folk-style ballads. Many poets wrote under it as early as the Southern Dynasties, usually about girls picking lotus in the ponds south of the Yangtze. Wang Changling also wrote lotus-picking poems under this old title, and this is the best known. It shows girls picking lotus in a summer pond. We cannot tell what year it was written.

《采莲曲》是古代乐府诗的一个老题目，南朝时就有很多人写，内容多是江南姑娘在荷塘里采莲的情景。王昌龄也用这个老题目写过采莲诗，这一首最有名，写夏天荷塘里采莲少女的样子。这首诗具体写于哪一年，已经无法确定。

Wang Changling (c. 698–c. 757), also called Shaobo, was a High Tang poet known as the Master of the Seven-Character Quatrain. His frontier poems are strong and stirring, while his poems about women are delicate and fresh. This lotus-picking song has no sorrow at all; it is full of the lively, light spirit of the south.

王昌龄（约698—约757），字少伯，盛唐诗人，被称为“七绝圣手”。他的边塞诗雄壮有力，写女子的诗却细腻清新。这首《采莲曲》没有一点愁苦，满是活泼轻快的江南风情。

This poem is like a game of hide-and-seek. The first line says the girls' green skirts are the same color as the lotus leaves. The second says pink lotus flowers bloom facing their faces, so you cannot tell faces from flowers. So in the third line, as soon as they slip into the pond, they blend into the leaves and flowers and cannot be found. Just as we wonder where they went, in the fourth line a song suddenly rings out, and only then do we know someone is rowing toward us through the leaves. The poet never says directly that the girls are pretty, yet we feel they are as lovely as the lotus. From seen, to unseen, to heard, the picture is lively and full of fun.

这首诗像一个捉迷藏的游戏。第一句说，姑娘的绿裙子和荷叶一个颜色；第二句说，粉红的荷花对着她们的脸开放，人脸和花朵分不清。于是第三句里，她们一进荷塘，就和荷叶荷花混在一起，再也找不着了。正在奇怪人去哪儿了，第四句忽然传来歌声，这才知道有人在荷叶丛中划船过来。诗人没有直接夸姑娘长得美，却让人觉得她们和荷花一样美。从看得见，到看不见，再到听见歌声，画面又生动又有趣。