江畔独步寻花·其七

Meaning

The closing quatrain of Du Fu's set makes its complaint directly. Love of flowers, the poet says, is not a matter of dying for them; the real fear is that when the flowers are gone, old age will have caught up. He then watches the dense branches shedding quickly while the young leaves open hesitantly, as if conferring. In four lines the poem turns spring viewing into an argument with time, and its plain words keep the grief from becoming rhetoric.

不是爱花即欲死，只恐花尽老相催。 繁枝容易纷纷落，嫩叶商量细细开。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] He does not love the blossoms enough to die; he only fears that once they are finished, old age will come. The heavy branches give way and shed their flowers at once, while the young leaves take their time, as if discussing how to open. [Structure] The argument comes first and the observation second. The opening couplet is a declarat of feeling; the second couplet supplies the evidence, and the two are joined by the single image of a falling and an opening that cannot be slowed. [Imagery] Two verbs carry the poem: give way, and take counsel. The first is a quick, unwelcome event, the second a deliberate one, and placing them in the same line makes the haste of loss beside the caution of renewal. [Sentiment] This is the darkest of the flower poems, and its plainness is what makes it work. Du Fu never says that he is old; he says only what he fears will happen when the flowers are done.

【白话串讲】 杜甫写《江畔独步寻花·其七》：“不是爱花即欲死，只恐花尽老相催”——“繁枝容易纷纷落，嫩叶商量细细开”——他说不是爱花爱到死，只怕花尽催人老——繁枝纷纷落，嫩叶细细开——他写惜春。 【意象与手法】 此诗写春景，以赏花写春景，是杜甫的名篇。前二句写惜花：「不是爱花即欲死，只恐花尽老相催」写不是爱花即欲死、只恐花尽老相催——写尽惜花的深情；后二句写望花：「繁枝容易纷纷落，嫩叶商量细细开」写繁枝容易纷纷落、嫩叶商量细细开——写尽望花的期盼。全诗以赏花写春景，写尽惜花的深情与望花的期盼，是杜甫的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写春景，以赏花写春景，是杜甫的名篇。此诗为《江畔独步寻花七绝句》之七。上元元年（760），杜甫定居成都浣花溪草堂，春日独自江畔赏花，作七绝句。此诗写惜花：不是爱花即欲死——此句虽有争议，或作「不是爱花即肯死」意，杜甫以极语写爱花之深；只恐花尽老相催——唯恐花尽而年老相催，正是惜春伤时的感慨。后二句以「繁枝容易纷纷落」写盛花之易落，以「嫩叶商量细细开」拟人写嫩叶缓开之期盼。此诗写惜花：不是爱花即欲死，只恐花尽老相催——写不是爱花即欲死、只恐花尽老相催，写尽惜花的深情；繁枝容易纷纷落，嫩叶商量细细开——写繁枝容易纷纷落、嫩叶商量细细开，写尽望花的期盼。全诗以赏花写春景——那「只恐花尽老相催」写尽惜花的深情，「嫩叶商量细细开」写尽望花的期盼，写尽惜花的深情与望花的期盼，是理解杜甫赏花诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「不是爱花即欲死，只恐花尽老相催」写惜花的深情；「嫩叶商量细细开」写望花的期盼；以及全诗以赏花写春景、以拟人写期盼的手法。

Allusions

There is no quotation or allusion here, which is unusual for Du Fu and is exactly the point: the poem depends on nothing outside itself. What it touches is the older tradition of the flower as a calendar of the self, in which the poet measures his own age against the season, and the habit of addressing plants as if they had opinions, which runs from the classical songs through the Tang poets. The word for conferring is the same verb used of people deliberating, and it imports a small drama into what is otherwise a botanical line.

此诗的用语深植于春景与赏花传统。「爱花即欲死」令人想到「爱花」写爱花的意象——也令人想到「花痴」的意象；「老相催」令人想到「老相催」写年老的意象——也令人想到「岁月催人老」的意象；「繁枝」令人想到「繁枝」写繁枝的意象——也令人想到「千朵万朵压枝低」（杜甫）的意象；「纷纷落」令人想到「纷纷落」写落花的意象——也令人想到「花落知多少」（孟浩然）的意象；「嫩叶」令人想到「嫩叶」写嫩叶的意象——也令人想到「嫩绿」的意象；「商量」令人想到「商量」写商量的拟人——也令人想到「商略黄昏雨」（姜夔）的意象。全诗化用爱花、老相催、繁枝、纷纷落、嫩叶、商量的意象，以赏花写春景，正是杜甫「沉郁」而善写实、承赏花传统写惜春之本领。「老相催」令人想到「岁月不居，时节如流」的人生感慨——也令人想到陆游《书愤》「镜中衰鬓已先斑」的意象；「商量细细开」令人想到「商量」为唐人俗语中拟人常用语——也令人想到「东风知我欲山行，吹断檐间积雨声」（苏轼）的拟人传统。

Commentary

Commentators have long noted how sparing this quatrain is; the usual praise is that the fear is stated plainly instead of being veiled, and that the fourth line, with its quiet word for taking counsel, is the most unexpected image in the set. The poem is frequently anthologised as the close of the group because it reverses the promise of the others: by the last poem the flowers can no longer be shared, only survived. Modern readers value it as the clearest evidence that Du Fu's simplicity was a choice rather than a limitation.

此诗历来被推为杜甫赏花诗的名篇，也是《江畔独步寻花》七首中最富哲思的一首。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以赏花写春景，深沉宛转」；近人更指出「嫩叶商量细细开」写望花的期盼，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惜花的深情与望花的期盼——那爱花，那即欲死，那只恐，那花尽，那老相催，那繁枝，那容易，那纷纷落，那嫩叶，那商量，那细细开，都写尽了杜甫笔下的江畔独步寻花；那「嫩叶商量细细开」更以拟人写尽望花的期盼。此诗与杜甫《江畔独步寻花·其六》（「黄四娘家花满蹊」）同为寻花名篇，一写「千朵万朵压枝低」的繁花（其六），一写「嫩叶商量细细开」的嫩叶（其七）；又与杨万里《宿新市徐公店》「树头新绿未成阴」的写春传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写惜春的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫赏花诗的窗口，也是《江畔独步寻花》的收束——那商量细开的嫩叶，穿越千年，仍在诉说着望花的期盼。

Prosody

Line by line

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