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赏心乐事谁家院

賞心樂事誰家院
shǎngxīn lèshì shuí jiā yuàn
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 in whose courtyard are such joys of the heart to be found?
  2. 2 (fig.) lamenting that spring's pleasures belong to others, not to oneself
  3. 3 (lit.) joyful-heart happy-affairs whose family's courtyard

Examples

看到朋友圈里别人的春游照，不禁想起赏心乐事谁家院。
Kàndào péngyǒuquān lǐ biérén de chūn yóu zhào, bùjīn xiǎngqǐ shǎngxīnlèshìshuíjiāyuàn.
Seeing everyone else's spring-outing photos on WeChat, I couldn't help thinking 'in whose courtyard are such joys to be found?'
她独坐窗前，轻叹一句赏心乐事谁家院。
Tā dú zuò chuāng qián, qīng tàn yī jù shǎngxīnlèshìshuíjiāyuàn.
Sitting alone by the window, she softly sighed, 'in whose courtyard are such joys to be found?'

Tips

history
From 汤显祖《牡丹亭·游园》(Tang Xianzu, 'Peony Pavilion,' 1598), Du Liniang's famous aria 《皂罗袍》: 原来姹紫嫣红开遍，似这般都付与断井颓垣。良辰美景奈何天，赏心乐事谁家院 (So all these purples and scarlets have bloomed at last — only to be given to broken wells and crumbling walls. Fine hour, beautiful scene, what to do with such weather? — in whose courtyard are these joys of the heart?). The line launches Liniang's awakening to desire and mortality; one of the most quoted lines in Chinese drama.
usage
Read with the preceding 良辰美景奈何天 — the rhetorical question forms the pair. In Kun opera (昆曲) performance this is the emotional pivot of 游园惊梦.

Stroke Order

赏 shǎng
心 xīn
乐 lè
事 shì
谁 shéi
家 jiā
院 yuàn