shuāng霜tiān天xiǎo晓jiǎo角·méi梅

In common editions this ci is titled Plum Blossoms. It shows a scene of looking at plum flowers from an early spring evening into the night. The wind stops, the sky clears and the cold eases. A few branches of white plum bloom against the pale sky. The poet finds it beautiful beyond words, yet his sorrow is just as deep. The poem does not say why he is sad. It is usually read as missing someone far away. We do not know exactly when or where it was written.

这首词通行本题作“梅”，写早春傍晚到夜里赏梅的情景。风停天晴，寒气退去，几枝白梅在淡淡的天色里开着。词人觉得美到了极点，心里却也愁到了极点。他为什么愁，词里没有说，一般理解为思念远方的人。写作的具体时间和地点不清楚。

Fan Chengda (1126–1193), styled Zhineng, called himself the Lay Buddhist of Stone Lake. He came from Wu County near Suzhou and was a Southern Song poet. He held high office and once went as an envoy to the Jin state, where he would not bow to the enemy. In old age he retired to Stone Lake at home and wrote many poems about country life. His ci are fresh and graceful, with finely drawn scenes.

范成大（1126—1193），字致能，号石湖居士，苏州吴县人，南宋诗人。他做过大官，还曾出使金国，在敌人面前不肯低头。晚年他回到家乡石湖隐居，写了很多描写农村生活的田园诗。他的词清新秀丽，写景细腻。

The first stanza is a soft, pale painting. In the evening the sky clears, the wind stops and the cold eases. The sky is pale, the plum flowers are few, and as a cloud passes, a few branches show white as snow. The word mò mò makes the flowers seem to have feelings of their own. Then the second stanza says suddenly: beautiful beyond words, and sorrow just as deep. The more lovely a sight is, the more it reminds us of the person who is not here to see it. But there is no one to tell. Only the two lines of geese flying low know that someone leans on the painted tower in the moonlight. From evening until the moon is up, the person stands there, and the loneliness shows little by little.

上片是一幅淡淡的画：傍晚天晴，风停了，冷意退了。天色很淡，梅花开得很少，云一飘过，露出几枝像雪一样白的花。“脉脉”两个字，让梅花好像也有了心事。下片突然说“胜绝，愁亦绝”：景色美到极点，愁也到极点。越美的东西，越让人想起没能在身边一起看的人。可这份心情没人可说，只有天上低低飞过的两行大雁，知道有个人在月光下靠着画楼。从傍晚写到月出，人一直站在那里，孤单就这样一点点显出来。