劳燕分飞

Origin and story

An old yuefu song, Dongfei bolao ge, opens with a shrike flying east and a swallow flying west, then mentions the separated celestial lovers associated with the Weaver Girl. The song is preserved in Yutai xinyong and later anthologies; its precise author and date are uncertain. The birds supply an image of lives moving apart.

劳 here abbreviates 伯劳, the shrike; it does not mean hard labor, and the phrase is not about two swallows. The condensed idiom became a literary way to describe separation, especially between lovers or spouses. Depending on the circumstances, it can mean a breakup or simply being forced to live far apart.