江畔独步寻花·其五

Meaning

At the pagoda of the monk Huang by the river, Du Fu leans in the mild wind and finds a cluster of peach blossoms growing by the roadside with no owner. The question he puts to them, whether the deep red or the pale red is the lovelier, turns the flowers into the only company he has and turns his own preference into something the reader must answer. Beneath the lightness is Du Fu's standing habit of noticing what no one has claimed.

黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风。桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红？

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Beside the pagoda the river runs east; the spring, heavy and faint, leans on a gentle wind. A cluster of peach flowers has opened by the path with no one to care for it, and the poet asks which shade he should love, the deep red or the pale one. [Structure] The couplets are placed out of order: the opening line gives the place, the second line gives the poet's condition, and only then do the flowers appear. The question at the end reorders everything and puts the reader in the poet's place. [Imagery] Two colours are set against each other, and the choice between them is left open. The drowsiness of the spring and the leaning posture of the poet are the same posture, which lets the landscape carry the mood without a word of it. [Sentiment] Du Fu spends a lifetime writing about things no one else owns; here the ownerless peaches are less a complaint than an invitation, since the absence of an owner is exactly what makes them free to be looked at.

【白话串讲】 杜甫写《江畔独步寻花·其五》：“黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风”——“桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红”——江畔一簇桃花没人管——你喜欢深红还是浅红——他写春光。 【意象与手法】 此诗写寻花，以赏花写春光，是杜甫的名篇。前二句写春光：「黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风」写黄师塔前江水东、春光懒困倚微风——写尽春光的懒困；后二句写桃花：「桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红」写桃花一簇开无主、可爱深红爱浅红——写尽桃花的娇艳。全诗以赏花写春光，写尽春光的懒困与桃花的娇艳，是杜甫的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写寻花，以赏花写春光，是杜甫的名篇。此诗为杜甫《江畔独步寻花》七绝组诗之五，写江畔独步寻花所见。杜甫在成都浣花溪畔定居时，春暖花开，独自漫步江畔，寻花赏花，作此组诗。此诗写春光：黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风——写黄师塔前江水东、春光懒困倚微风，写尽春光的懒困；桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红——写桃花一簇开无主、可爱深红爱浅红，写尽桃花的娇艳。全诗以赏花写春光——那「春光懒困倚微风」写尽春光的懒困，「可爱深红爱浅红」写尽桃花的娇艳，写尽春光的懒困与桃花的娇艳，是理解杜甫赏花诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风」写春光的懒困；「桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红」写桃花的娇艳；以及全诗以赏花写春光、以问答写娇艳的手法。

Allusions

The pagoda of the master Huang is a landmark of that stretch of river bank and nothing more; the poet cites it as he would cite any local feature. The peaches are unremarkable, and their ownerlessness is the only remark made about them. The broader reference is to the tradition of the flower that blooms for no one, a figure that recurs in Chinese verse whenever a poet wants to describe his own situation without claiming pity. The final question form goes back to the classical habit of ending a poem by asking the flowers, the moon, or the wind, which answers rather than concludes.

此诗的用语深植于春光与赏花的传统。「黄师塔」令人想到「黄师塔」写僧塔的意象——黄师为僧人，塔为其墓塔，也令人想到「南朝四百八十寺」的意象；「春光懒困」令人想到「春光懒困」写春光的意象——也令人想到「春眠不觉晓」（孟浩然）的意象；「桃花」令人想到「桃花」写桃花的意象——《诗经》「桃之夭夭，灼灼其华」，也令人想到「人面桃花相映红」（崔护）的意象；「深红浅红」令人想到「深红浅红」写花色的意象——也令人想到「绿肥红瘦」（李清照）的意象；「无主」令人想到「无主」写无主的意象——也令人想到「寂寞开无主」（陆游）的意象。全诗化用黄师塔、春光懒困、桃花、深红浅红的意象，以赏花写春光，正是杜甫「诗史」之外亦工写景、承赏花传统写春光本领。「黄师塔」为僧人墓塔，杜甫以塔前江水东写入诗，正是蜀中常见的佛塔与锦江之景，正见其写实的笔触。又「深红浅红」写桃花之色，暗合《诗经·周南·桃夭》「桃之夭夭，灼灼其华」咏桃的传统，而以「可爱……爱……」的问答句式写爱花之情，正是民歌式的写法，正见杜甫绝句的民歌风味。

Commentary

Commentators have long noted how little happens in these four lines, and how much the little carries. The favourite observation is the repetition of the word 'love' in a question about colour, which turns aesthetic taste into a small public act. The poem is also prized for its deftness of feeling: the drowsy spring and the leaning poet seem to be the same thing, so that by the last line the flowers are less separate from the poet than beside him. Its popularity in anthologies rests on that quiet trick.

此诗历来被推为杜甫赏花诗的名篇，也是《江畔独步寻花》组诗的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以赏花写春光，自在天然」；近人更指出「可爱深红爱浅红」写桃花的娇艳，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以四句的绝句写尽春光的懒困与桃花的娇艳——那黄师塔，那江水，那春光，那微风，那桃花，那一簇，那深红，那浅红，都写尽了杜甫笔下的江畔；那「可爱深红爱浅红」更以问答写尽桃花的娇艳。此诗与杜甫《江畔独步寻花》组诗之六（「黄四娘家花满蹊」）同为寻花名篇，一写「千朵万朵压枝低」的黄四娘家（其六），一写「可爱深红爱浅红」的黄师塔前（其五）；又与杜牧「霜叶红于二月花」、杨万里「映日荷花别样红」的写色传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写花色的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫赏花诗的窗口，也是中国诗写桃花的经典——那深红浅红的桃花，穿越千年，仍在诉说着春光的懒困。

Prosody

Line by line

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