近现代 近现代 · 诗 Poem
炉中煤
The Coal in the Stove (Luzhongmei)
啊，我年青的女郎！
我不辜负你的殷勤，你也不要辜负了我的思量。
我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样！
Meaning
Written in early 1920, later collected in Guo Moruo's first collection 'The Goddesses' (published 1921), a representative work of the new poetry of the May Fourth. The poem takes the 'coal in the stove' as the metaphor of the 'I' and the 'young lady' as the metaphor of the 'motherland': the coal burning in the stove is precisely the portrayal of my devotion to the motherland; the coal, buried deep in the ground, mined, thrown into the stove, and burned, also matches the course of my awakening from the sleep and the devotion to the motherland. 'Ah, my young lady! I will not disappoint your kindness, and you too must not disappoint my longing'—the mutual pledge of the 'I' and the motherland, the mutual expectation; 'for my beloved, I have burned to this very state!'—the 'burned to this very state' the utmost of the devotion, the coal burning in the stove, the poet's heart burning for the motherland, the patriotism of the May Fourth youth written to the full.
啊，我年青的女郎！我不辜负你的殷勤，你也不要辜负了我的思量。我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样！
Appreciation
The artistic features of the poem may be analyzed from the metaphor, the feeling, and the structure. First, the strange yet apt overall metaphor: the whole poem takes the 'coal in the stove' as the metaphor of the 'I' and the 'young lady' as the metaphor of the 'motherland'—the coal burning in the stove is the portrayal of my devotion to the motherland; the coal, buried deep in the ground, mined and thrown into the stove and burned, also matches the course of my awakening from the sleep and the devotion to the motherland. The cleverness of this metaphor lies in the 'double correspondence': both the correspondence of the heat of the 'burning and the devotion' and the correspondence of the 'the young lady and the beloved,' the metaphor of the love writing the patriotism, the emotion of the personal and the national in one. Second, the intensity of the feeling: the whole poem is in the tone of the address to the 'young lady,' the 'I will not disappoint your kindness' and the 'you too must not disappoint my longing' the mutual pledge, and the 'for my beloved, I have burned to this very state!' the direct outpouring, the feeling burning like the coal in the stove, the most intense of the May Fourth poetry. Third, the structure of the refrain: the poem repeats the 'ah, my young lady' and the 'for my beloved, I have burned to this very state!' in each stanza, the refrain of the main melody, the burning of the feeling and the refrain of the structure in one.
【白话串讲】 郭沫若写《炉中煤》：“啊，我年青的女郎！我不辜负你的殷勤，你也不要辜负了我的思量”。“我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样”——他把自己比作炉中煤，“我原本是有用的栋梁，我活埋在地底多年”——他写对祖国的深情。 【意象与手法】 此诗是郭沫若《女神》中的名篇，艺术上最突出的是「比喻的奇崛与情感的火山式喷发」：以「炉中煤」自喻、「年青的女郎」喻祖国，把爱国之情化为恋人般的痴恋，新颖而热烈；「燃到了这般模样」的燃烧意象，写尽情感的白热化，正是浪漫主义「情感至上」的典型表达。 【情感与主旨】 主旨是借炉中煤之口，抒发五四时期青年对祖国炽热的爱恋与献身的决心——「我」是炉中燃烧的煤，「你」是年青的祖国，我愿为你燃尽自己；「我不辜负你的殷勤」更暗含报国以谢培育之恩的自觉，是五四时代爱国精神的浪漫主义喷发。 【名句点睛】 「我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样」以「燃烧」写尽爱国之情的白热化，成为现代诗中爱国抒情的最强音之一；「啊，我年青的女郎」的呼唤更以其深情的拟人，成为郭沫若浪漫主义诗风的名片。
Background
The poem was written in early 1920, later collected in Guo Moruo's first collection 'The Goddesses' (published 1921), a representative work of the new poetry of the May Fourth. Guo Moruo (1892–1978), originally named Guo Kaizhen, styled Dingtang, a native of Leshan, Sichuan, a modern man of letters and historian, one of the founders of the Creation Society, the pioneer of the romanticist tradition of the Chinese new poetry. In 1914 Guo Moruo went to Japan for the study, first studying medicine at the Kyushu Imperial University; in 1919 the May Fourth Movement broke out, and Guo Moruo, far overseas, was greatly shaken, echoing the new culture movement at home, and began to write the new poetry in large quantity, his poetic style unrestrained and burning, the imagination strange, deeply influenced by Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' and the romanticism of Goethe; the collection 'The Goddesses' of the outburst of the passion is the monument of the romanticism of the new poetry, and the 'Coal in the Stove,' written with the 'the feeling of the longing for the motherland,' is the most touching of the patriotic works of the collection.
《炉中煤——眷念祖国的情绪》写于1920年初，后收入郭沫若第一部诗集《女神》（1921年出版），是五四新诗的代表作。郭沫若（1892—1978），原名郭开贞，字鼎堂，四川乐山人，现代文学家、历史学家，创造社发起人之一，中国新诗浪漫主义传统的开创者。1914年郭沫若东渡日本留学，先后学医于九州帝国大学；1919年五四运动爆发，远在海外的郭沫若受到巨大震动，与国内的新文化运动遥相呼应，开始大量创作新诗，其诗风奔放热烈、想象奇崛，深受惠特曼《草叶集》与歌德浪漫主义的影响。写作《炉中煤》时，郭沫若正在日本，据其自述，1919年冬他在博多湾畔「把以前埋在心里的郁积都喷发了出来」，先后写下《立在地球边上放号》《天狗》《炉中煤》等名篇。此诗副题「眷念祖国的情绪」点明主旨：以「炉中煤」自喻，以「年青的女郎」喻祖国，抒写游子对祖国的眷恋与献身之志——其时中国内忧外患、积贫积弱，而五四运动唤起了青年一代改造中国的热情，郭沫若身在异邦，念及祖国，遂以燃烧的煤自况，表达愿为祖国「燃尽自己」的赤子之心。此诗与《女神》中其他诗作一起，以火山喷发般的情感与狂飙突进的姿态，开创了中国新诗浪漫主义的新纪元。
Art
The art lies in the strange yet apt overall metaphor and the intensity of the feeling: the 'coal in the stove' and the 'young lady,' the double correspondence of the burning and the devotion and the love and the patriotism in one; the address and the mutual pledge and the 'burned to this very state' the direct outpouring; and the refrain of the main melody, the burning of the feeling and the refrain of the structure in one.
此诗的艺术特色，可从比喻、情感、结构三端析之。其一，奇崛而贴切的整体比喻：全诗以「炉中煤」喻「我」，以「年青的女郎」喻「祖国」——炉中煤在炉膛里燃烧，正是「我」为祖国奉献的写照；煤本是深埋地下的矿物，被开采、投入炉中而燃烧，又暗合「我」从沉睡中觉醒、为祖国献身的历程。这一比喻的高明处在于「双重对应」：既有「燃烧—献身」的热度对应，又有「女郎—祖国」的深情对应，把抽象的爱国之情化为可感的恋人痴情，新颖而不失真挚。其二，火山式的情感喷发：此诗的情感不是涓涓细流，而是「啊，我年青的女郎」的直呼、「燃到了这般模样」的呐喊，情感以最强烈的形态直接呈现，毫无保留，正是浪漫主义「以情胜」的典型；而「我不辜负你的殷勤，你也不要辜负了我的思量」的往复对答，又使情感在互动中加深，热烈中有缠绵。其三，回旋往复的结构：全诗四节（此节选为前二节），节节以「啊，我年青的女郎」或「啊，我年青的女郎！」领起，复沓回环，如恋歌之反复吟唱；「我为我心爱的人儿」的反复出现，更使全诗在回旋中递进，情感层层加温，最终抵达「燃到了这般模样」的高潮。
Allusions
The cultural import of the poem is deeply rooted in the lyric tradition of the 'the love for the state' of the Chinese literature and the lineage of the imagery of the 'coal and the fire.' First, the tradition of the 'the love for the state': the Chinese literature has always had the device of likening the ruler and the country to the love of the man and the woman—Qu Yuan's 'Li Sao' likens the sovereign to the 'beauty' and writes the seeking of the sovereign with the 'seeking of the woman'; the boudoir poems of Wen Tingyun and Li Shangyin often lodge the grief of the unencountered sovereign and minister; and Guo Moruo, with the 'young lady' for the motherland, inherits this tradition and adds the burning of the modern youth. Second, the 'coal and the fire': the coal, buried deep in the ground and burned in the stove, the image of the burning of the devotion, the coal of the awakening and the burning, the very image of the awakened youth of the May Fourth.
此诗的文化意蕴，深植于中国文学「以恋拟国」的抒情传统与「煤火」的意象谱系。其一，「以恋拟国」的传统：中国文学历来有以男女之情拟君臣、家国关系的手法——屈原《离骚》以「美人」喻君主，以「求女」写求君；温庭筠、李商隐的闺怨诗多寄君臣不遇之慨；而郭沫若以「年青的女郎」喻祖国、以恋人痴情写爱国眷恋，正是这一古老传统的现代变奏——所不同者，屈原的「美人」是君主，郭沫若的「女郎」是祖国，从「忠君」到「爱国」，情感的对象随时代而变，而「以情写忠」的抒情模式一脉相承。其二，「炉中煤」的意象选择：煤是工业时代的燃料，是黑暗中的光与热之源，郭沫若以「炉中煤」自喻，既写「我」如煤般深埋而觉醒、燃烧而发光，又暗含对工业文明与新中国的想象——「煤」的意象使此诗带有鲜明的现代气息，是古典意象（如烛、薪）的现代升级；「燃」与「焚」的传统（如李商隐「蜡炬成灰泪始干」的燃烧意象）在此被赋予爱国的新义——燃烧不再是情爱的牺牲，而是报国的奉献。其三，「年青的祖国」的现代性想象：五四时代，「少年中国」「青春中国」的观念风靡一时，梁启超《少年中国说》倡「少年强则国强」，郭沫若以「年青的女郎」拟祖国，正是「青春中国」思潮的诗化表达，把古老祖国的衰朽想象转化为「年青」的、可恋慕的、值得为之献身的形象，寄寓了五四一代改造中国的浪漫理想。
Commentary
The poem has a landmark significance in the literary history, the founding work of the romanticist tradition of the new poetry of the May Fourth. In the history of the new poetry, the poem, together with the 'Heavenly Dog' and the 'Nirvana of the Phoenix' of the 'Goddesses,' completely broke the restraint of the early vernacular poetry of 'the writing of the old feeling in the vernacular,' and, with the volcanic feeling, the strange and unrestrained imagination, and the free and unconstrained form, opened the romanticist tradition of the new poetry; and the devotion of the 'for my beloved, I have burned to this very state!' has become the eternal voice of the patriotism of the Chinese youth, the 'coal in the stove' the eternal image of the awakened and the devoted youth.
《炉中煤》在文学史上具有里程碑式的意义，是五四新诗浪漫主义传统的奠基之作。就新诗史而言，此诗与《女神》中的《天狗》《凤凰涅槃》等一起，彻底打破了初期白话诗「以白话写旧情」的拘谨，以火山喷发般的情感、奇崛奔放的想象、自由不羁的形式，确立了新诗的浪漫主义路向——胡适的《尝试集》重在「白话之解放」，郭沫若的《女神》则实现了「情感之解放」，而《炉中煤》正是后者的代表；自此，新诗不再只是「用白话写的旧诗」，而是真正以新形式、新情感、新想象立身的现代诗，郭沫若也因此被公认为中国新诗浪漫主义之父。就爱国文学传统而言，此诗以「燃烧」写报国之志，其热烈真挚为现代爱国诗歌树立了范式，此后艾青「为什么我的眼里常含泪水？因为我对这土地爱得深沉」、闻一多「我是中国人」等爱国名篇，皆可在此诗中寻见精神源头；「我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样」更成为现代爱国抒情的经典强音。就思想史而言，此诗是五四时期「青春中国」理想与个人觉醒相结合的产物——把祖国的命运与个人的爱情化为一身，正是五四青年「国家兴亡，匹夫有责」与个性解放思潮的交汇。此诗长期入选中学语文教材，与《立在地球边上放号》并列为认识郭沫若与五四新诗的必读之作，其炽热的爱国情怀与奔放的艺术风格，历百年而仍能点燃读者的心。
Prosody
Line by line
啊，我年青的女郎！
Ah, my young lady! (The address: the 'young lady' for the motherland, the refrain of the main melody, the beginning of each stanza, the tone of the address to the motherland.)
啊，我青春年少的姑娘！诗人把祖国比作年青的女郎，深情地呼唤着她，向她倾诉满腔的眷恋与炽热的情感。
Ah, my young mistress!
此句是诗的领起，一声深情呼唤，为全诗定下热烈缠绵的基调。「啊」字以感叹词起笔，如火山爆发前的第一声轰鸣，把积郁已久的情感一下子喷发出来；「我年青的女郎」是对「祖国」的拟人化称呼——「年青」二字尤堪玩味：祖国本是古老的，郭沫若却称其「年青」，正寄寓了五四一代「青春中国」的想象，把积贫积弱、百废待兴的祖国想象为朝气蓬勃、有待热恋的「年青女郎」，使爱国之情带上恋爱的温度；「女郎」的称呼比「祖国」更具个人性、更富柔情，把宏大的家国之爱化为如对恋人的痴恋。此句以呼告的修辞直接向「女郎」倾诉，省略一切铺垫，情感以最直接的形态呈现，正是浪漫主义「直抒胸臆」的典型；而「我」与「女郎」的关系也由此确立——不是臣民与国家的仰望，而是恋人与恋人的平视，爱国不再是抽象的忠诚，而是具体的、炽热的、双向的深情。一句呼唤，写尽五四青年的赤子之心。
The mistress. Ah, my young mistress! The young mistress address is the opening. To have addressed the young mistress would be an address; the ah-my-young-mistress is the address.
我不辜负你的殷勤，你也不要辜负了我的思量。
I will not disappoint your kindness, and you too must not disappoint my longing. (The mutual pledge: the mutual expectation of the 'I' and the motherland, the mutual pledge of the devotion, the firmness of the love for the state.)
我不会辜负你的深情厚意，你也不要辜负了我对你的思念。
I will not betray your fond devotion; do you not betray my longing.
此句以相互承诺的句式写「我」与「女郎」的双向深情，是全诗情感互动的枢纽。「我不辜负你的殷勤」——「殷勤」写「女郎」（祖国）对「我」的厚待，在郭沫若的构思中，祖国以文化、土地、历史哺育了游子，此处的「殷勤」暗含游子对祖国养育之恩的铭记；「你也不要辜负了我的思量」——「思量」写「我」对「女郎」的日夜思念，游子在异邦，念及祖国，思之切、念之深，尽在此二字。两句以「我不辜负……你也不要辜负……」的对称句式互约，如恋人的盟誓，把爱国之情写成双向的、互不负心的深情——「我」报国以谢恩，「你」勿负我之痴心，一来一往，情感在互动中加深。在修辞上，「殷勤」与「思量」相对，「不辜负」与「不要辜负」相映，句式整饬而语气恳切；「也」字更写出平等的对话关系——不是单方面的奉献，而是「我」与「女郎」之间的深情相许。此句把抽象的爱国写得具体而温柔，正是郭沫若「以恋写爱」手法的精彩呈现。
The promise. I will not betray your fond devotion; do you not betray my longing. The mutual not-betraying promise is the bond. To have promised not to betray would be a promise; the i-will-not-betray-your-fond-devotion-do-you-not-betray-my-longing is the promise.
我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样！
For my beloved, I have burned to this very state! (The burning: the coal burning in the stove, the poet's heart burning for the motherland, the 'burned to this very state' the utmost of the devotion.)
我为了我心爱的人儿，燃烧成了现在这个样子！
For the one I love, I have burned to this shape!
此句是全诗的情感高潮，以「燃烧」的意象写尽「我」为祖国献身的炽热，也是全诗最著名的名句。「我为我心爱的人儿」——「心爱的人儿」与开篇「年青的女郎」呼应，再次点明「我」所爱恋的对象，而「心爱」二字比「年青的女郎」更进一层，写「我」对祖国不只是眷恋，更是刻骨铭心的爱；「燃到了这般模样」——「燃」字是全诗的诗眼，炉中煤在燃烧，正是「我」为「女郎」燃尽自己的写照，「这般模样」四字更暗示燃烧之烈、付出之巨——烧成了炉灰，化作了光与热，也在所不惜。此句以感叹号收束，情感如决堤之水喷涌而出；「燃到了这般模样」的燃烧意象，既写出爱国之情的白热化，也暗含「我」因思念、因献身而憔悴的牺牲感——燃烧即是爱，爱即是燃烧，把报国之志写得如此炽烈、如此痴绝，正是郭沫若浪漫主义诗风的巅峰呈现，也是五四一代青年为祖国献身的时代强音。
The burning. For the one I love, I have burned to this shape! The burned-to-this-shape for the beloved is the climax. To have burned to this shape would be a burning; the for-the-one-i-love-i-have-burned-to-this-shape is the burning.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Guo Moruo's 'Standing by the Edge of the Earth, Blowing the Conch'—'oh, the rolling waves of the boundless, the rising force of the myriad images... the ever-revolving and ever-deepening force'—is the wild passion of the 'Goddesses,' the force of the nature and the awakening of the age written with the volcanic imagination. The 'Coal in the Stove'—'for my beloved, I have burned to this very state!'—is the tenderness of the 'Goddesses,' the devotion of the love for the state. One the force and one the devotion; one the wild of the sea and one the burning of the coal—the two faces of the romanticism of the 'Goddesses,' the force and the burning of the May Fourth, both the monuments of the new poetry.
《立在地球边上放号》与《炉中煤》同出郭沫若《女神》，同为五四浪漫主义的代表作，而情感方向有别。《立在地球边上放号》以「不断的毁坏，不断的创造，不断的努力哟」的呼号，写力的奔涌、创造的热情，是向外扩张的「力」的颂歌，如海涛咆哮；《炉中煤》以「我为我心爱的人儿，燃到了这般模样」的燃烧，写眷恋、奉献的深情，是向内燃烧的「爱」的恋歌，如炉火熊熊。一者写「毁坏与创造」的进取，一者写「眷念与献身」的深情；一者如狂飙，一者如烈焰——前者是五四「破坏旧世界」的时代强音，后者是五四「建设新祖国」的赤子之心。合观二诗，恰见《女神》精神的两翼，也见郭沫若浪漫主义诗风的完整光谱。
我为少男少女们歌唱 Singing for the Boys and Girls 何其芳 · 同以青春与歌唱写时代情怀 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
何其芳《我为少男少女们歌唱》与《炉中煤》同属现代爱国抒情诗，同以「歌唱」与「燃烧」写对年轻一代、对新时代的热烈情怀，而时代语境各异。《炉中煤》写于1920年五四浪潮中，以「年青的女郎」喻祖国，以炉中煤自喻，写游子眷恋祖国、愿为祖国燃尽的炽热，情感如火山喷发；《我为少男少女们歌唱》写于1941年延安时期，以「我为少男少女们歌唱」起笔，写诗人愿以歌声融入青春、歌唱崭新的生活与希望，情感如朝阳初升。一者燃烧自己以报国，一者歌唱青春以迎新；一者如烈焰，一者如晨光。二诗合观，可见现代爱国诗由「献身」到「歌唱」的情感流变，也可见不同时代语境下「个人与时代」关系的不同书写。