满江红·寄鄂州朱使君寿昌

Meaning

Written from Huangzhou, where Su Shi was banished, to his neighbour across the river, Zhu Shouchang, prefect of Ezhou. The poet sets the rivers coming in from the west past a tall tower in a deep grape-green blue, still bearing the snow-fed waves of his own Sichuan and the spring colours of his home river; then he sets the two men side by side, the friend who governed with kindness at South Mountain and himself, a man from beyond the pass who wants to go home. The second half asks the scene to speak, warns his friend not to read the chronicle of the southern court, pities the mad hermit, gives the cold reeds of the Parrot isle, and ends by smiling at the quarrel of scholars for nothing — Lord Cao and Prefect Huang both gone — and wishing the friend a poetry like the exiled immortal's and the pursuit of the yellow crane.

江汉西来，高楼下、蒲萄深碧。犹自带、岷峨雪浪，锦江春色。君是南山遗爱守，我为剑外思归客。对此间、风物岂无情，殷勤说。江表传，君休读。狂处士，真堪惜。空洲对鹦鹉，苇花萧瑟。独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽。愿使君、还赋谪仙诗，追黄鹤。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The upper half is a place and two men: a blue river coming from far off, the water still tasting of Sichuan, and then the two fates set against each other — the good prefect, the home-sick exilic. The lower half is an argument about what to make of the scene: do not read the chronicle, pity the madman, look at the lonely isle, and then laugh — the two men who killed and were killed by the poet of the Parrot are both dust. [Structure] The poem runs from landscape to self-portrait to precept to release, and the release is earned because the last step is the one that carries the whole poem: a laugh. [Imagery] The visual centre is the grape-deep blue of the river, and the emotional centre is the pair of proper names in the second half. The closing wish is to write poetry like Li Bai's and to follow the crane, which is the poet's answer to ambition: not to win, but to outshine. Nothing in the poem is consolatory in the ordinary sense, and it does not try to be.

【白话串讲】 苏轼写《满江红·寄鄂州朱使君寿昌》：“江汉西来，高楼下、蒲萄深碧”——“君是南山遗爱守，我为剑外思归客”——“空洲对鹦鹉，苇花萧瑟”——他写江汉风物与对友人的话。 【意象与手法】 此词写寄友的感慨，以江汉写景，以鹦鹉洲写感慨，是苏轼的名篇。上阕写景与自况：「江汉西来，高楼下、蒲萄深碧」写江汉西来、高楼之下蒲萄深碧，「犹自带、岷峨雪浪，锦江春色」写犹自带岷峨雪浪、锦江春色，「君是南山遗爱守，我为剑外思归客」写君是南山遗爱守、我为剑外思归客，「对此间、风物岂无情，殷勤说」写对此间风物岂无情、殷勤说；下阕写感慨：「江表传，君休读」写江表传君休读，「狂处士，真堪惜」写狂处士真堪惜，「空洲对鹦鹉，苇花萧瑟」写空洲对鹦鹉、苇花萧瑟，「独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽」写独笑书生争底事、曹公黄祖俱飘忽，「愿使君、还赋谪仙诗，追黄鹤」写愿使君还赋谪仙诗、追黄鹤。全词以江汉写景、以鹦鹉洲写感慨，写尽寄友的感慨，是苏轼的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此词写寄友的感慨，以江汉写景，以鹦鹉洲写感慨，是苏轼的名篇。此词作于宋神宗元丰年间，苏轼贬居黄州（今湖北黄冈）时，寄给鄂州知州朱寿昌。此词写寄友：江汉西来，高楼下、蒲萄深碧——写江汉西来、高楼之下蒲萄深碧，写尽黄州江景；犹自带、岷峨雪浪，锦江春色——写犹自带岷峨雪浪、锦江春色，写尽江水的源远流长；君是南山遗爱守，我为剑外思归客——写君是南山遗爱守、我为剑外思归客，写尽两人身份的对照；对此间、风物岂无情，殷勤说——写对此间风物岂无情、殷勤说；江表传，君休读——写江表传君休读，劝友勿读《江表传》；狂处士，真堪惜——写狂处士真堪惜，用祢衡之典写狂士可惜；空洲对鹦鹉，苇花萧瑟——写空洲对鹦鹉、苇花萧瑟，写尽鹦鹉洲的萧瑟；独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽——写独笑书生争底事、曹公黄祖俱飘忽，写尽功名的飘忽；愿使君、还赋谪仙诗，追黄鹤——写愿使君还赋谪仙诗、追黄鹤，用崔颢黄鹤楼诗之典写追慕。全词以江汉写景、以鹦鹉洲写感慨，写尽寄友的感慨，是理解苏轼贬居黄州词的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「江汉西来，高楼下、蒲萄深碧」写黄州江景；「狂处士，真堪惜」用祢衡之典写狂士可惜；「独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽」写功名的飘忽；「愿使君、还赋谪仙诗，追黄鹤」写追慕崔颢黄鹤楼诗；以及全词以江汉写景、以鹦鹉洲写感慨的手法。

Allusions

The lower half is a chain of old stories. The mad hermit is the poet who wrote the Parrot rhapsody and was killed by the man who sheltered him; the isle facing him takes its name from that rhapsody and from the place where he was buried. Lord Cao is the one who wanted the poet and had him killed; Prefect Huang is the one who did it — the two together stand for all the cost of talent. The chronicle of Jiangbiao is the history of the southern court in the days of the three kingdoms; the poet tells his friend not to read it because it will only bring the old grief back. The exiled immortal is Li Bai, who was banished and who reputedly rode the crane; the yellow crane is the tower and the poem. All of these are known to a reader of the eleventh century without a word of explanation, and Su Shi uses them exactly that way.

此词的用语深植于黄州与寄友的传统。「江汉西来」令人想到「江汉」写长江汉水的意象——「江汉朝宗于海」，也令人想到「西来」写江汉西来的意象；「高楼下、蒲萄深碧」令人想到「蒲萄深碧」写江水如葡萄深碧的意象——「鸭头绿」写江水，也令人想到「高楼」写黄州临皋亭等高楼的意象；「犹自带、岷峨雪浪，锦江春色」令人想到「岷峨」写岷山峨眉山的意象——岷山雪水为长江之源，也令人想到「锦江春色」写成都锦江的意象；「君是南山遗爱守」令人想到「遗爱」写遗爱的意象——「遗爱」指为官有惠政而受人爱戴，也令人想到「南山守」写知州的意象；「我为剑外思归客」令人想到「剑外」写剑门关外的意象——杜甫「剑外忽传收蓟北」，也令人想到「思归客」写思归的意象；「江表传，君休读」令人想到「江表传」写记江东三国史事的典籍——劝友勿读《江表传》以免感慨，也令人想到「休读」写勿读的意象；「狂处士，真堪惜」用祢衡之典——祢衡恃才傲物，号狂处士，击鼓骂曹，终为黄祖所杀，令人想到「狂处士」写祢衡的典故，也令人想到「堪惜」写可惜的意象；「空洲对鹦鹉，苇花萧瑟」令人想到「鹦鹉洲」写鹦鹉洲的典故——祢衡作《鹦鹉赋》，葬于鹦鹉洲，也令人想到「苇花萧瑟」写苇花萧瑟的意象——「蒹葭苍苍」；「独笑书生争底事」令人想到「书生」写书生的意象——「百无一用是书生」，也令人想到「争底事」写争什么的意象；「曹公黄祖俱飘忽」令人想到「曹公」写曹操的意象——曹操爱才而杀祢衡（借刀），也令人想到「黄祖」写黄祖的意象——黄祖杀祢衡，也令人想到「俱飘忽」写俱已飘忽的意象；「愿使君、还赋谪仙诗，追黄鹤」用崔颢黄鹤楼诗之典——崔颢《黄鹤楼》「昔人已乘黄鹤去」，李白见而叹服，也令人想到「谪仙诗」写李白诗的意象——李白号谪仙，也令人想到「追黄鹤」写追慕黄鹤楼的意象。全词化用江汉、岷峨、锦江、祢衡、鹦鹉洲、曹公黄祖、黄鹤楼的典故与意象，以江汉写景、以鹦鹉洲写感慨，正是苏轼「豪放旷达」而善用典、承寄友传统写感慨的本领。

Commentary

This is among the most quoted of Su Shi's letters in verse. Later readers have usually pointed to the sudden laugh in 'I can only smile at what scholars fight about' as the moment the poem becomes itself, and to the closing wish, in which the banished man's friend is asked to write the poetry of another exiled poet. It stands beside the Niannujiao on the Red Cliff, written in the same years from the same shore, where the same river runs east and the same hero of the past is measured — and where the conclusion is a sacrifice to the river moon. Here the conclusion is a letter to a friend. Both poems put the poet beside a famous death and both end by refusing to be measured by it.

此词历来被推为苏轼寄友词的名篇，也是宋词写黄州的名作。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以江汉写景、以鹦鹉洲写感慨，潇洒旷达」；近人更指出「狂处士，真堪惜」用祢衡之典写狂士可惜，「独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽」写功名的飘忽，是此词的名句。在词史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以十一句的长调写尽寄友的感慨——那西来的江汉，那深碧的蒲萄，那岷峨的雪浪，那锦江的春色，那南山遗爱守的友人，那剑外思归客的自己，那休读的江表传，那堪惜的狂处士，那空洲的鹦鹉，那萧瑟的苇花，那飘忽的曹公黄祖，那追黄鹤的谪仙诗，都写尽了苏轼寄友的感慨；那「独笑书生争底事，曹公黄祖俱飘忽」更写尽功名的飘忽。此词与苏轼《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》（「大江东去」）同为黄州名篇，一写「浪淘尽、千古风流人物」的赤壁，一写「狂处士，真堪惜」的鹦鹉洲；又与祢衡、崔颢的典故一脉相承，可见苏轼贬居黄州而借古抒怀的心境。对于今日读者，此词是理解苏轼黄州词的窗口，也是中国词写寄友感慨的经典——那萧瑟的苇花，穿越千年，仍在诉说着书生的感慨。

Prosody

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