创作背景：

　　绍圣元年(1094)，宋哲宗亲政后起用新党，包括苏轼、秦观在内的一大批“元祜党人”纷纷被贬。这首词就是秦观被贬之后的作品。至于写作时地，一说是绍圣二年(1095)谪处州(今浙江丽水)时所作;一说是绍圣三年在谪郴州途中作于衡阳。

　　秦瀛《重编淮海先生年谱节要》，绍圣二年乙亥(1095)少游“在处州……又游府治南园，作《千秋岁》词。后范成大爱其‘花影莺声’之句，即其地建莺花亭。”但吴曾《能改斋漫录》及曾敏行《独醒杂志》都说是作于衡阳，后呈孔毅甫。细考秦观于绍圣三年由处州被贬再去郴州，他经衡阳时已届秋冬，这与其擅长精确的描写特定环境中景物与情思，以及此词所写春景春情不合。该词应当是作于处州，至衡阳后抄录呈给太守孔毅甫。

 　　秦观《千秋岁》 英文版

　　A Thousand Autumns

　　Qin Guan

　　Beyond the sandbar by the waterside,

　　Out of the town the spring chill begins to subside.

　　The flowers' shadows running riot,

　　The orioles' warble breaks the quiet..

　　Lonely, I drink few cups of wine,

　　My belt loosens, for friends I pine.

　　But where are they?

　　In vain clouds gather up at the end of the day.

　　I still remember our Western Pool's rendezvous:

　　Together with our cabs herons and egrets flew.

　　Where we stood hand in hand,

　　Who still stays in the land?

　　My dream can't fly to sunny place;

　　The mirror shows my wrinkled face.

　　Away spring's sped;

　　My grief looks like a sea of failing petals red.