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Butterfly Loves Flowers: Wishing to Shed My Gauze Robe

By Zhao Ling Song Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

She longs to shed her silken robes, though lingering chills remain,
And leaves the beaded curtains drawn, retired within the deep.
Upon the crimson apricot, how many blooms are slain?
The tear-tracks on her face outlast the Pure Brightness rain.

A single thread of quiet smoke curls through the lingering day,
Her hangover dissolving slow, she breaks with heavy spring.
The flying swallows once again mislead the homeward lay,
Across the little folding screen, where West River waters stray.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

欲減羅衣寒未去。
不卷珠簾，人在深深處。
紅杏枝頭花幾許。
啼痕止恨清明雨。
盡日沈煙香一縷。
宿酒醒遲，惱破春情緒。
飛燕又將歸信誤。
小屏風上西江路。

yù jiǎn luó yī hán wèi qù
bù juǎn zhū lián rén zài shēn shēn chù
hóng xìng zhī tóu huā jǐ xǔ
tí hén zhǐ hèn qīng míng yǔ
jìn rì chén yān xiāng yī lǚ
sù jiǔ xǐng chí nǎo pò chūn qíng xù
fēi yàn yòu jiāng guī xìn wù
xiǎo píng fēng shàng xī jiāng lù

Philological Direct Translation

Wishing to reduce silk robes, the cold not yet gone.
Not rolling up pearl curtains, the person is in the deep depths.
On red apricot branches, flowers how many?
Weeping marks only regret the Qingming rain.
All day quiet smoke, incense one wisp.
Overnight wine waking slowly, irritating and breaking spring emotions.
Flying swallows again will returning letters mistake.
On the small folding screen, the West River road.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This lyric is composed to the celebrated Song Ci tune pattern titled Butterfly Loves Flowers, also known as Three Towers or Rose of Sharon. The metrical structure requires a dual-stanza (shuangdiao) form totaling sixty grains, divided into balanced rhyming segments. The rhyme scheme relies primarily on falling level-tone rhyme groups matching the ancient rhyme dictionaries, producing a melancholic, lingering cadence. The syntax juxtaposes external spring imagery with intimate interior isolation, demonstrating the hallmark antithetical balance of eleventh-century lyricism.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Rooted firmly in the elite literati culture of the Northern Song Dynasty, this lyric captures the refined domestic aesthetics and psychological interiority of the court-adjacent gentry class. The piece reflects the emotional topography of separation, seasonal melancholy, and temporal lingering during the transitional Qingming festival season, when palace women or elite consorts faced enforced seclusion amidst fading spring blossoms and delayed postal communications across provincial waterways.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem unfolds through an intricate interplay between subjective desolation and objective atmospheric pressure, moving from somatic coldness to distant geographical longing.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): Line 1 ("Wishing to shed her silken robes, though lingering chills remain") establishes the awkward threshold between shifting seasons. Line 2 ("And leaves the beaded curtains drawn, retired within the deep") creates an immediate sense of claustrophobic architectural enclosure.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): Line 3 ("Upon the crimson apricot, how many blooms are slain?") uses external floral decay to mirror internal decline. Line 4 ("The tear-tracks on her face outlast the Pure Brightness rain") conflates natural precipitation with personal grief.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): Line 5 ("A single thread of quiet smoke curls through the lingering day") depicts slow interior time. Line 6 ("Her hangover dissolving slow, she breaks with heavy spring") articulates the physiological weight of seasonal awakening under emotional distress.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): Line 7 ("The flying swallows once again mislead the homeward lay") deploys the traditional migratory bird motif as an unreliable messenger. Line 8 ("Across the little folding screen, where West River waters stray") projects the desolation onto decorative cartography, binding physical entrapment to distant horizons.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The poem relies on established Song dynasty literary tropes to convey profound psychological states without explicit exposition.

Qingming Rain: Symbolizes both seasonal renewal and mourning, invoking ancestral grief and the damp chill of abandonment.
West River Screen: Represents unattainable geographical distance, turning domestic decorative art into a poignant reminder of separation across imperial river networks.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The verse synthesizes the classical aesthetic of emotional constraint with the universal experience of human isolation. By anchoring vast existential longing within the intimate details of a secluded chamber, the poet transcends temporal boundaries, offering a timeless meditation on memory, expectation, and the unyielding passage of time.