太阳吟

Meaning

Written while studying in the United States, 'Song of the Sun' is an impassioned lyric of homesickness in which the poet addresses the sun as a shared presence linking him to his distant homeland. Through repeated apostrophe, the wandering student's grief, weariness, and sense of rootlessness are transformed into a spiritual belonging—his true home, he concludes, lies not on earth but in heaven.

太阳啊，火一样烧着的太阳！你烘干了小草尖头的露水，可烘得干我游子盈眶的冷泪吗？太阳啊，火一样烧着的太阳！楼角新升的太阳，请照见我的楼头吧，可照得见我的家园吗？太阳啊，我家乡来的太阳！北京城里的宫柳该裹上一身秋色了吧？唉！我也憔悴得同深秋一样了！太阳啊，奔波不息的太阳！你也好像无家可归似的呢。啊！你我的身世一样地不堪设想！太阳啊，自强不息的太阳！大宇宙许就是你的家乡吧，可能指示我我家乡的方向？太阳啊，这不像我的山川，太阳！这里的风云另带一种颜色，这里鸟儿唱的调子格外凄凉。太阳啊，生命之火的太阳！可是谁不知道你是球东半的情热，同时又是球西半的智光？太阳啊，也是我家乡的太阳！此刻我回不了我往日的家乡，便认你为家乡也还得失相偿。太阳啊，慈光普照的太阳！往后我看见你时，就当回家一次；我的家乡不在地下，乃在天上！

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poet repeatedly cries 'O Sun' and asks whether the sun that dries dew can dry a wanderer's tears, whether it can show him his homeland, and finally declares his homeland is in heaven. [Structure] Built on a refrain of 'O Sun' openings, the poem spirals from personal grief to cosmic identification to spiritual transcendence. [Imagery] The sun as 'fire,' as 'wandering,' as 'self-strengthening,' and as 'eastern passion / western wisdom-light' expands a natural body into a symbol of both personal and civilizational meaning. [Tone] The emotional arc moves from anguish ('cold tears') through solidarity with the sun's rootlessness to a defiant, uplifting close. Fiery and musical, the poem is a landmark of modern Chinese lyric romanticism.

【白话串讲】 闻一多写《太阳吟》：“太阳啊，火一样烧着的太阳！烘干了小草尖头的露水，可烘得干游子的冷泪盈眶”——“太阳啊，我家乡来的太阳！”——他望太阳想家——可烘得干游子的冷泪盈眶。 【意象与手法】 以太阳为倾诉对象，“太阳啊，火一样烧着的太阳”以呼告起笔；“烘干了小草尖头的露水，可烘得干游子的冷泪盈眶”以对比写思乡；“太阳啊，我家乡来的太阳”以太阳联系家乡；把“家乡”升华为天上的精神故乡。情感炽烈、想象奇崛，复沓句式层层推进。 【情感与主旨】 闻一多留学美国时的思乡名篇，以太阳为枢纽由望日而念家、由念家而及身世，写尽游子的冷泪、憔悴与身世之感，是闻一多前期诗作中“爱国主义”与“浪漫主义”交融的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“太阳啊，我家乡来的太阳”以太阳联系家乡写思乡；“烘干了小草尖头的露水，可烘得干游子的冷泪盈眶”以冷泪盈眶写游子之悲。

Allusions

Though a modern free-verse poem, it carries the residue of classical tradition. The sun motif reaches back to the 'Lord of the East' (Dongjun) hymn in the Chu Ci and to Qu Yuan's exile melancholy; the wanderer chasing the sun echoes the myth of Kuafu. 'Palace willows' invokes the old parting tradition of 'breaking the willow' and Tang poems of longing from afar; 'withered' (憔悴) echoes the Shi Jing's lovesick aging and Qu Yuan's exiled haggardness. The sense of 'fate' (身世) connects to the southern dynastic plaint of 'mourning the south.' Wen, a scholar steeped in the classics, dissolves these allusions into modern syntax like salt in water—evidence of his deep old-learning even as he wrote new poetry.

此诗为现代自由诗，用典不着痕迹，而传统意象的余韵自在其中。「太阳」这一意象，在中国古典诗歌中源远流长：《楚辞·九歌·东君》有「暾将出兮东方，照吾槛兮扶桑」的太阳神赞歌，陶渊明《读山海经》亦有「夸父诞宏志，乃与日竞走」的逐日精神，曹植《与杨德祖书》更有「夸父逐日，而竟不反」的悲壮寓言。闻一多此诗中的太阳，既有《九歌·东君》那样对光明与温暖的礼赞，又暗含夸父逐日般「逐之而不及」的执拗与悲慨——游子逐日，正如夸父逐日，追的是光明，也是家乡。「宫柳」一词，暗合古乐府「折杨柳」的离别传统与唐人「一上高城万里愁，蒹葭杨柳似汀洲」的登高怀远之意，北京城里的宫柳，正是故国风物的象征；「憔悴」一词，则暗用《诗经·小雅》「行行重行行」之「思君令人老，岁月忽已晚」的相思迟暮之意，亦承屈原《渔父》「颜色憔悴，形容枯槁」的流放憔悴之象。「身世」之感，又遥接庾信「哀江南」的飘零传统。全诗虽为新诗，而古典的意象、典故的余韵如盐着水，融入现代诗的句式中，正见闻一多这位「中西艺术结婚后产生的宁馨儿」的深厚旧学根柢。

Commentary

Readers are most moved by the poem's near-pleading invocations: the sun becomes a substitute for home because it is the one thing shared between Chicago and Beijing. This 'taking the sun as homeland's stand-in' writes homesickness as both fervent and helpless—not that he will not return, but that he cannot; since he cannot, he adopts the sun as home and counts each sight of it as a return. The deepest turn is the ending's ascent: when the real homeland grows remote, the poet finds a metaphysical refuge in the sky. Wen later gave his life for that land, proving 'my homeland is in the heavens' was no empty phrase but his heaviest, never-abandoned love. The poem thus transcends ordinary wanderer verse into something near-religious in solemnity.

读此诗，最令人动容的是那一声声近乎哀求的呼唤。太阳啊，火一样烧着的太阳；太阳啊，我家乡来的太阳；太阳啊，也是我家乡的太阳——诗人一遍遍地唤着太阳，其实是在一遍遍地唤着自己的家。在异国的天空下，太阳是唯一与家乡共有的东西：它照过北京的宫柳，也照着芝加哥的楼角；它烘干了小草的露水，却烘不干游子的冷泪。这种「以太阳为家乡的替身」的写法，把思乡之情写得既炽烈又无告：不是不想回家，而是回不去；既然回不去，便只能认这普照两地的太阳为家乡，往后看见它，就当回家一次。而全诗最深刻处，在于结尾的升腾：「我的家乡不在地下乃在天上」——当现实的故园变得遥远而模糊，诗人便为乡愁找到了一个形而上的归宿，把对故土的爱升华为一种超越地理的精神信仰。这种由「地下」到「天上」的飞跃，使此诗超越了普通游子诗的格局，带有了一种近乎宗教般的庄严。闻一多后来果然为这片土地献出了生命，他用行动证明了「我的家乡乃在天上」不是一句空话，而是他一生未曾放下的、最沉重的爱。

Prosody

Line by line

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