What does 素弦声断 mean?

Question

I tried to translate this using Google Translate. It is hard to understand what 素弦声断 exactly mean.

does 素弦声断 mean: the sound of the broken guitar strings?

or

does 素弦声断 mean: the guitar breaks its strings?

Answer 1

1. Literally, It means strings broken so that the sound of 古箏(or 古琴) stopped.

2. 素絃聲斷 comes from a poem. 素絃聲斷 means "It's no longer possible to hear that the beautiful lady plays 古箏(or 古琴) for me again."

倚危亭。恨如芳草，萋萋剗盡還生。念柳外青驄別後，水邊紅袂分時，愴然暗驚。 無端天與娉婷。夜月一簾幽夢，春風十里柔情。怎奈向、歡娛漸隨流水，素弦聲斷，翠綃香減，那堪片片飛花弄晚，蒙蒙殘雨籠晴。正銷凝。黃鸝又啼數聲。

3. when you see ancient Chinese dramas, the strings breaks when someone plays 古箏(or 古琴)...It's a sign that something BAD will happen.

Answer 2

“素弦声断” means the plain Chinese zither broke its strings so the sound stopped. This word is from a poem describing the sadness of farewell with a friend. Thus, the sound from the zither is generalized to the good feeling brought by the friend which was stopped because of the departure.