辛弃疾绝少写自己的爱情经历，偶一为之，便迥异诸家，带着一种击节高歌的悲凉气息。却少有婉转缠绵之意。此词即是其例。据邓广铭《稼轩词编年笺注》，此词可能是淳熙五年（1178）自江西帅召为大理少卿时作。览其词意，当是作者年青时路过池州东流县，结识一位女子，这回经过此地，重访不遇，感发而作此词。

辛弃疾·《念奴娇》

野塘花落，

又匆匆过了清明时节。

铲地东风期限客梦，

一枕云屏寒怯。

曲岸持觞，

垂杨系马，

此地曾经别。

楼空人去，

旧游飞燕能说。

闻道绮陌东头，

行人曾见，

帘底纤纤月。

旧恨春江流不尽，

新恨云山千叠。

料得明朝，

尊前重见，

镜花难折。

也应惊问：

近来多少华发？

Lines Written on a Wall of Dongliu Village

(To the Tune of Niannujiao)

Xin Qiji

Wild pear blossoms start falling again,

so soon, the Qingming festival over.

The cruel eastern wind, for no reason,

Interrupts a traveler’s dream.

I awake, the brocade curtain

Devastatingly cold. Once,

she held the drink to me

on the winding river bank,

and we bade farewell to each other

under a weeping willow tree

with my horse tethered to it.

Now, the pavilion deserted,

there is no trace of her,

only the swallows twittering about bygones.

She’s been seen, people say,

east of the bustling thoroughfare,

behind the curtain, still as graceful

as the new moon. Old regrets

run like the endless spring water.

New griefs pile up

like the clouds over the mountains.

If we were going to meet again,

at a banquet, to tell her all this

would be as impossible

as to pluck the flower from a mirror.

She would say, perhaps,

How white your hair has grown!