The west wind blows across the lake under slanting evening sunlight; the lotus flowers have lost all their red petals. Golden chrysanthemums bloom in full clumps, their tiny buds like pearls; swallows beat their light wings and bid farewell to their old nests. Year after year, these scenes always bring the same reflections.

A cup brims with newly brewed wine, and several lovely songs are sung aloud. If we do not drink together now, how can we bear time flowing endlessly away like the sound of running water, never willing to pause?

红英: red petals. 珠颗: the small buds of chrysanthemums compared to beads. 海燕: swallows, a common term in classical poetry; it does not specifically mean seabirds in modern biological classification.

阕: A measure word for songs. 尊: A wine vessel, the same as 樽. 可奈: What can one do about it; how can one cope? 迢迢: Stretching far into the distance without end.

This is the poem beginning “湖上西风斜日” (West wind over the lake, slanting sunlight), distinct from Yan Shu's other Pozhenzi lyric beginning “燕子来时新社” (When swallows arrive, the spring earth-god festival is newly here).

Reading guide: This lyric moves from autumn scenery on a lake to drinking and listening to song, centering on the passage of the years. Lotuses fade, chrysanthemums bloom, and swallows depart, each in its own rhythm; amid them, the observer both appreciates the scenery and recognizes that time cannot be held.

The colors and movements in the first stanza are sharply defined: the lotus’s red fades, the chrysanthemum’s gold follows, and the swallows prepare for another long journey. The passage of the seasons is conveyed through visible changes rather than abstract reflection.

The second stanza answers time with wine and song. Its tone seems expansive, yet the rhetorical question holds helplessness. At the end, the sound of water becomes a comparison for time, making its invisible passing continuously audible and giving the gathering a sense of cherishing the present.