This poem is a record of a dream. The author may have really had such a dream, but it is more likely to be fictional, and is actually a work of “creating a scene” as the author said in “Human Ci Talks”. The first part of the poem describes the tenderness and sweetness of meeting the person in the “dream”; the second part describes the deep sorrow and hatred of missing the person after waking up. Looking at the first and second parts together, the whole poem is about returning from the dream to the human world, using the warmth of the dream to contrast the desolation of the human world.
此词为记梦之作。作者可能真个做了这样一个梦，但更可能出于虚构，实为作者在《人间词话》中所说的“造境”之作。词的上片写“梦中”与其人相见的柔情蜜意；下片写“觉后”对其人相思的深愁苦恨。合上、下片看，全词所写是由梦境回到人间，以梦境的温馨反衬人间的凄凉。
《蝶恋花》 王国维
昨夜梦中多少恨，
细马香车，
两两行相近。
对面似怜人瘦损，
众中不惜搴帷问。
陌上轻雷听渐隐，
梦里难从，
觉后那堪讯。
蜡泪窗前堆一寸，
人间只有相思分。
Tune: “Butterflies Lingering over Flowers”
How much regret in my dream last night?
I on horseback and you in a carriage,
The two of us drawing closer to each other.
Face to face, you seemed sorry for my haggard look;
Under many eyes, you drew up the curtain to ask for my health.
Then down the road the rumble of your carriage gently died away.
In my dream I find I cannot follow;
Where, on waking, can I have news of you?
By my window, candle’s tears have gathered an inch;
Longing, in this human world, is our common lot.
