立春

Meaning

On the day of the beginning of spring Du Fu is exiled in the mountains of Kuizhou and is handed a plate of the new raw vegetables that custom demands at the festival. Instead of eating them he remembers the same plate in the two capitals, Chang'an and Luoyang, at the time the plums flowered — served from a high gate in white jade, greens passed from delicate hands with green wind in them. The memory makes the present unbearable: the cold Wu river and his own Duling far away cannot bear it, and since he does not know where he will end up, he simply tells the boy to fetch paper and writes a poem.

春日春盘细生菜，忽忆两京梅发时。盘出高门行白玉，菜传纤手送青丝。巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲。此身未知归定处，呼儿觅纸一题诗。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem is one long shift from a present object to a memory and back to the same object done differently. Du Fu takes the beginning-of-spring plate, the most ordinary festival thing, and fills the first half with the grandee version of it: white jade, high gates, slender hands. The second half throws that away — a cold river, a stranger, an unsettled body — and the poem ends with the most modest act possible, calling for paper.[Structure] The eight lines divide into recollection and situation, and the hinge is the first pair of lines, where 'suddenly I remember' turns the whole festival into an interior event.[Imagery] The contrast is between colour and cold: white jade and green threads of the capital against the grey of the Wu river. The final couplet's plainness — 'call the boy, find paper, write a poem' — is Du Fu's usual way of closing, as though the poem were just an ordinary household errand.

【白话串讲】 杜甫写《立春》：“春日春盘细生菜，忽忆两京梅发时”——“盘出高门行白玉，菜传纤手送青丝”——“巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲”——“此身未知归定处，呼儿觅纸一题诗”——立春吃春盘，他想起两京——此身未知归定处。 【意象与手法】 此诗写节日，以思乡写节日，是杜甫的名篇。前四句写忆昔：「春日春盘细生菜，忽忆两京梅发时。盘出高门行白玉，菜传纤手送青丝」写春日春盘细生菜、忽忆两京梅发时、盘出高门行白玉、菜传纤手送青丝——写尽两京的立春；后四句写客愁：「巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲。此身未知归定处，呼儿觅纸一题诗」写巫峡寒江那对眼、杜陵远客不胜悲、此身未知归定处——写尽客中的悲愁。全诗以思乡写节日，写尽两京的立春与客中的悲愁，是杜甫的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写节日，以思乡写节日，是杜甫的名篇。此诗写杜甫在夔州立春日，见春盘而生思乡之情。大历二年（767）春，杜甫流寓夔州（今重庆奉节），立春日见当地食春盘的习俗，忆及长安、洛阳（两京）立春时节的盛况，遂生「杜陵远客不胜悲」的羁旅之愁。此诗写忆昔：春日春盘细生菜，忽忆两京梅发时——写春日春盘细生菜、忽忆两京梅发时，写尽两京的立春；盘出高门行白玉，菜传纤手送青丝——写盘出高门行白玉、菜传纤手送青丝，写尽两京的立春；巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲——写巫峡寒江那对眼、杜陵远客不胜悲，写尽客中的悲愁；此身未知归定处，呼儿觅纸一题诗——写此身未知归定处、呼儿觅纸一题诗，写尽漂泊的悲愁。全诗以思乡写节日——那「忽忆两京梅发时」写尽两京的立春，「杜陵远客不胜悲」写尽客中的悲愁，写尽两京的立春与客中的悲愁，是理解杜甫节日诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「春日春盘细生菜，忽忆两京梅发时」写两京的立春；「巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲」写客中的悲愁；以及全诗以思乡写节日、以对照写今昔的手法。

Allusions

The spring plate of raw greens (chunpan) is the old festival custom of arranging sprouts, celery and radish in a dish to mark the turning of the year. 'The two capitals' is Chang'an and Luoyang, the twin seats of the Tang and the two poles of the poet's life. 'White jade' and 'slender hands' are the conventions for aristocratic service and aristocratic women; 'green threads' may also play on the hair, giving the greens a young, ordered beauty. Duling is where the poet's ancestors and wife were buried, so 'a far guest from Duling' recalls both family and the capital at once.

此诗的用语深植于节日与思乡传统。「春盘」令人想到「春盘」写立春食春盘的意象——古俗立春日以葱蒜韭等生菜盛于盘中食之，也令人想到「咬春」的意象；「两京」令人想到「两京」写长安洛阳的意象——也令人想到「忆昔开元全盛日」的意象；「白玉」令人想到「白玉」写白玉盘的意象——也令人想到「玉盘珍羞直万钱」（李白）的意象；「青丝」令人想到「青丝」写生菜细丝的意象——也令人想到「白发三千丈，缘愁似个长」之外的青丝意象；「巫峡」令人想到「巫峡」写巫峡的意象——也令人想到「巴东三峡巫峡长」的意象；「杜陵」令人想到「杜陵」写杜陵的意象——杜甫祖籍京兆杜陵，也令人想到「杜陵野老」的意象。全诗化用春盘、两京、白玉、青丝、巫峡、杜陵的意象，以思乡写节日，正是杜甫「沉郁」而善写实、承节日传统写客愁之本领。「立春春盘」令人想到立春食春盘的时令风俗——唐时长安、洛阳皆有此俗，杜甫以之忆两京；「两京梅发」令人想到两京立春梅花开放的景象——也令人想到杜甫《曲江对雨》「林花著雨胭脂湿」的京华意象。

Commentary

This is counted among Du Fu's festival poems and praised for the way a public occasion becomes a private register of exile. Critics have long noted the violence of the fifth line — 'how can the cold river of Wu face up to this?' — which tears away the beauty of the first half in a single unanswerable question, and the plainness of the last couplet, in which a great exile writes a poem like any householder because he no longer knows where he belongs. Later readers treat it as a small companion to his larger elegies.

此诗历来被推为杜甫节日诗的名篇，也是唐人写立春思乡的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以思乡写节日，沉郁悲怆」；近人更指出「巫峡寒江那对眼，杜陵远客不胜悲」写客中的悲愁，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以八句的七律写尽两京的立春与客中的悲愁——那春日，那春盘，那细生菜，那两京，那梅发时，那高门，那白玉，那纤手，那青丝，那巫峡，那寒江，那杜陵，那远客，那不胜悲，那归定处，那一题诗，都写尽了杜甫笔下的立春；那「呼儿觅纸一题诗」更以动作写尽漂泊的悲愁。此诗与杜甫《月夜忆舍弟》（「戍鼓断人行」）同为思乡名篇，一写「露从今夜白」的月夜（月夜忆舍弟），一写「杜陵远客不胜悲」的立春（立春）；又与王维《九月九日忆山东兄弟》「每逢佳节倍思亲」的节日思乡传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写节日的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解杜甫节日诗的窗口，也是中国诗写立春的经典——那呼儿觅纸的远客，穿越千年，仍在诉说着客中的悲愁。

Prosody

Line by line

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