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流水落花春去也

liúshuǐluòhuāchūnqùyě
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 flowing water, fallen petals — spring too is gone
  2. 2 (fig.) the pained sigh of an irrecoverable past (and a lost kingdom)
  3. 3 (lit.) flowing-water fallen-flower spring gone indeed

Examples

流水落花春去也，天上人间，李后主这一句道尽亡国之痛。
Liúshuǐ luòhuā chūn qù yě, tiānshàng rénjiān, Lǐ Hòuzhǔ zhè yī jù dào jìn wángguó zhī tòng.
'Flowing water, fallen petals — spring too is gone; heaven above, the mortal world' — Li Yu says everything about the pain of a fallen kingdom.
往事如烟，她只轻叹一句流水落花春去也。
Wǎngshì rú yān, tā zhǐ qīng tàn yī jù liúshuǐ luòhuā chūn qù yě.
The past like smoke — she only softly sighed, 'flowing water, fallen petals, spring too is gone.'

Tips

history
From 李煜《浪淘沙·帘外雨潺潺》(Li Yu, last ruler of Southern Tang, composed in captivity in Kaifeng under the Song, ~976–978 CE): 帘外雨潺潺，春意阑珊。罗衾不耐五更寒。梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢。独自莫凭栏！无限江山，别时容易见时难。流水落花春去也，天上人间 (Beyond the curtain, rain patters; spring is all but spent... Do not lean alone on the railing! Boundless rivers and hills — parting so easy, meeting so hard. Flowing water, fallen petals, spring too is gone — heaven above, the mortal world). Soon after this cí Li Yu was poisoned on Song Taizong's order.
usage
Always paired with 天上人间 as the final two clauses. 也 here is a classical exclamatory final particle ('indeed / alas'), NOT the modern 'also.' The phrase is quoted for any irrecoverable loss — not only literal spring.

Stroke Order

流 liú
水 shuǐ
落 luò
花 huā
春 chūn
去 qù
也 yě