镜中

Meaning

A short lyric in free verse whose whole action happens inside a mirror. Something she once regretted is enough to make plum blossoms fall; the poems moves through a handful of half-remembered scenes — swimming across the river, climbing a pine ladder, returning on horseback and bowing before the emperor — and closes where it began, with blossoms covering the southern hill. The speaker is guessing at a woman's past rather than describing it, and the falling blossoms are the only thing in the poem that can be measured.

只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落了下来比如看她游泳到河的另一岸比如登上一株松木梯子危险的事固然美丽不如看她骑马归来面颊温暖羞惭。低下头，回答着皇帝一面镜子永远等候她让她坐到镜中常坐的地方望着窗外，只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Whenever she thinks of something in her life she regrets, the plum blossoms fall; the poem adds scenes — swimming to the far bank, climbing a pine ladder, a rider returning warm-faced and ashamed before the emperor — and ends with the blossoms having covered the southern hill. [Structure] The poem is a ring: the opening line and the opening of the last stanza are nearly identical, so the reader is returned to the same instant with one difference — the blossoms have fallen further. [Imagery] The single controlling image is the falling plum, which is at once the product of the regret and its sign; the ladder, the swim, the horse and the mirror extend it into a room and a history. [Voice] The speaker is not the woman and not her lover but an observer who can only infer: every verb is hers ('she thought', 'she climbed', 'she answered'), so what is reported is external, and the inner event is inferred from weather. [Effect] The classic 'plum falling on the southern hill' allusion is quietened down to something that simply has happened, and that restraint is what keeps the poem from becoming a elegy for a lost love.

【白话串讲】 张枣写《镜中》：“只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落了下来”——“比如看她游泳到河的另一岸，比如登上一株松木梯子”——“危险的事固然美丽，不如看她骑马归来”——“只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落满了南山”——他写悔与美。 【意象与手法】 以“只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落了下来”起笔，将抽象的悔与具象的落梅并置；“比如看她游泳到河的另一岸，比如登上一株松木梯子”以意象并置写回忆；“一面镜子永远等候她”以镜写等待；结以“梅花便落满了南山”回环收束。意象空灵、含蓄隽永。 【情感与主旨】 写悔与美、思念与等待的当代抒情诗，以“梅花落”的意象贯穿，将古典意境融入现代诗语，是“第三代诗人”张枣的代表作，体现现代汉诗对古典资源的化用。 【名句点睛】 常考“只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落了下来”以落梅写后悔；“梅花便落满了南山”以落满南山写思念之深。

Allusions

The plum blossoms falling on a southern hill carry the whole weight of the poem. The image goes back to the 'Book of Songs' and to the Han and Tang lines on plum falling, where it commonly marks a lady's withdrawal; a version of the phrase 'plum blossoms fall on the southern hill' appears in the Tang poetry and in the Song tale 'Zui Yi Lu', where a woman's regret makes the blossoms drop. Zhang Zao does not cite his sources — he uses the phrase as if it were weather, which is precisely the gesture that modern Chinese poetry's most consciously literary poets learned from the classical tradition. The emperor and the mirror introduce a second, less specific reference: a woman's historic place in a court that mirrors and judges her.

诗中「只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落了下来」「比如看她游泳到河的另一岸比如登上一株松木梯子」「一面镜子永远等候她让她坐到镜中常坐的地方」「望着窗外只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山」等语，皆含典故故实。「只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落了下来」写只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落了下来；「比如看她游泳到河的另一岸比如登上一株松木梯子」写比如看她游泳到河的另一岸比如登上一株松木梯子；「一面镜子永远等候她让她坐到镜中常坐的地方」用镜之典（镜写照影），写一面镜子永远等候她让她坐到镜中常坐的地方；「望着窗外只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山」写望着窗外只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山。诗人用镜之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把怀人咏镜之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

The poem's difficulty is generally admitted and generally praised; readers are expected to supply the situation rather than be told it. Its most quoted line, 'Whenever she thinks of something in her life she regrets, / The plum blossoms fall,' is often described as a perfect example of how modern Chinese poetry can absorb a classical image into a contemporary lyric without either losing the old resonance or becoming a quotation. Some readers have argued that the poem is easier than its reputation suggests, since the situation — a woman with a past — is ordinary; others reply that its difficulty is not in the plot but in the refusal to say whether the speaker is witness or participant.

这首《镜中》，是张枣写怀人咏镜之作，写只要想起一生中后悔的事、比如看她游泳到河的另一岸、一面镜子永远等候她、梅花便落满了南山之情，隽永咏镜。起「只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落了下来」——只要想起一生中后悔的事，梅花便落了下来。写只要想起一生中后悔的事：只要想起一生中后悔的事、梅花便落了下来——后悔的事、落了下来；「比如看她游泳到河的另一岸，比如登上一株松木梯子」——比如看她游泳到河的另一岸，比如登上一株松木梯子。写比如看她游泳到河的另一岸：比如看她游泳到河的另一岸、比如登上一株松木梯子——河的另一岸、松木梯子；「一面镜子永远等候她，让她坐到镜中常坐的地方」——一面镜子永远等候她，让她坐到镜中常坐的地方。写一面镜子永远等候她：一面镜子永远等候她、让她坐到镜中常坐的地方——永远等候她、镜中常坐的地方；结「望着窗外，只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山」——望着窗外，只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山。写梅花便落满了南山：望着窗外、只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山——望着窗外、落满了南山。这「望着窗外，只要想起一生中后悔的事梅花便落满了南山」，是全诗之结：以梅花便落满了南山写其咏镜。全诗隽永咏镜，以梅写情，正是张枣诗中的名篇。

Prosody

Line by line

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