Dou Bai Hua (Heavenly Fragrance) - Liu Yong
/斗百花(秀香天) - 柳永/
Where Autumn’s Subtle Perfume Kindles Hidden Longing
【Original Chinese】
斗百花(秀香天)
秀香天，薄雾笼秋，庭院生凉意。
谁谙旧事依稀？闲凭阑干，忽忆初逢际。
檐外疏雨点花影，难续当时醉。
枕边明月自清辉，独伴深宵泪。
一任江湖风浪，纵堪留滞。
怎奈离情无计？又恐重逢，暗添相思泪。
琴心未抵归鸿远，却锁相思意。
念佳期、几度凭高望，但觉魂牵系。
【English Translation (A Prose Rendering)】
Heaven’s fragrance wafts amid a thin autumn mist; the courtyard grows chill.
Who understands those faint memories? Leaning idly on the railing, I recall our early meeting.
Outside, sparse raindrops fall upon flower shadows, unable to restore our past bliss.
Only the clear moonlight accompanies my late-night tears.
No matter how the swirling rivers and lakes might detain me,
Nothing can quell the ache of departure. I fear that even if we meet again, we might only deepen our longing.
My heart, like a lone zither string, cannot match the flight of geese heading into the distance.
Still, I reflect upon the days of promise—time and again ascending high places in hope, my thoughts forever bound.
斗百花(秀香天)
秀香天，薄雾笼秋，庭院生凉意。
谁谙旧事依稀？闲凭阑干，忽忆初逢际。
檐外疏雨点花影，难续当时醉。
枕边明月自清辉，独伴深宵泪。
一任江湖风浪，纵堪留滞。
怎奈离情无计？又恐重逢，暗添相思泪。
琴心未抵归鸿远，却锁相思意。
念佳期、几度凭高望，但觉魂牵系。
【English Translation (A Prose Rendering)】
Heaven’s fragrance wafts amid a thin autumn mist; the courtyard grows chill.
Who understands those faint memories? Leaning idly on the railing, I recall our early meeting.
Outside, sparse raindrops fall upon flower shadows, unable to restore our past bliss.
Only the clear moonlight accompanies my late-night tears.
No matter how the swirling rivers and lakes might detain me,
Nothing can quell the ache of departure. I fear that even if we meet again, we might only deepen our longing.
My heart, like a lone zither string, cannot match the flight of geese heading into the distance.
Still, I reflect upon the days of promise—time and again ascending high places in hope, my thoughts forever bound.
Composed to the tune “Dou Bai Hua” (斗百花), Liu Yong’s “Heavenly Fragrance (Xiù Xiāng Tiān)” continues the poet’s trademark exploration of wistful longing set against a backdrop of subtle seasonal change. In this ci poem, autumn’s chill and sparse rainfall mirror the speaker’s internal climate of reflection and regret.
The opening scene establishes a delicate autumn atmosphere: a light mist, a courtyard turning cool, and the faint scent that seems to evoke a once-vibrant past. In the Song Dynasty ci tradition, the external world frequently serves as a canvas onto which personal emotions are projected. Here, the gentle rainfall on flower petals recalls the vanished sweetness of shared moments—moments that, like the raindrops, have dissolved into memory.
In the middle lines, the poet hints at the uncertainty of reunions and the ache that separation leaves behind. True to Liu Yong’s style, music imagery reappears through references to zither-like sentiments and the distant calls of migrating geese. In classical Chinese literature, geese often symbolize travel, parting, and messages across great distances. Their flight, just out of the poet’s reach, underscores how longing can remain unresolved.
Finally, the poet imagines climbing to lofty heights in an attempt to glimpse some trace of the beloved, or at least to temper the weight of his yearning. Yet even these grand, sweeping views cannot dispel the abiding sense of loss. The poem’s close lingers in that tension: no dramatic resolution is offered, reflecting how separation in ci poetry is often a continuing, gentle sorrow rather than a resolved narrative.
Throughout “Heavenly Fragrance,” Liu Yong combines seasonal detail (drifting autumn mist, sparse raindrops) with quiet emotional notes (memories of intimacy, reluctance to accept a final farewell) to craft a meditation on how time’s passage and physical distance shape our innermost sentiments. As with many of his works, the poem’s power lies in its blend of graceful language, melodic structure, and heartfelt resonance, leaving readers to contemplate the enduring echoes of love that linger even as seasons change and paths diverge.
Key points
• Showcases Liu Yong’s hallmark blend of soft seasonal imagery and poignant emotion.
• Depicts autumn as simultaneously gentle in its beauty and evocative of tender sorrow.
• Reflects a longing intensified by distance, with geese and zither as recurring motifs.
• Leaves the question of reunion open, underscoring the ci tradition’s preference for lingering emotion over neat closure.
