Its famous couplet:
疏影横斜水清浅，
暗香浮动月黄昏。 'Sparse shadows slant across the clear, shallow water; a hidden fragrance drifts in the moonlit dusk.'
林逋 (967–1028) lived as a recluse on Solitary Hill at West Lake and never married; people said he took the plum trees as his wife and the cranes as his sons,
梅妻鹤子. The Song poet
姜夔 named two ci tunes
暗香 and
疏影 after these lines.
