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赞美

Praise

穆旦

Mu Dan

九叶派Nine Leaves School 抗战诗歌Anti-Japanese War Poetry 名篇Masterpiece

走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原，数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠，接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上。

Endless ranges of hills rise and fall, rivers and grasslands,
countless dense villages, cocks crowing and dogs barking,
joined together upon the once-barren land of Asia.

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Meaning

The opening lays out a vast panorama of China's land with two sets of 'endless' parallel constructions: hill ranges, rivers, grasslands that one can never finish walking; dense villages, crows and barks that one can never finish counting—from nature to human life, from vastness to intimacy. The closing 'joined upon the once-barren land of Asia' gathers all, writing the land's barrenness and suffering, setting up the later entrance of 'a peasant' and the poem's theme of 'praise.'

走不尽的山峦的起伏，走不尽的河流和草原，数不尽的密密的村庄，数不尽的鸡鸣和狗吠，它们接连在一起，铺展在这片原本是荒凉的亚洲的土地上。

Appreciation

This is the opening of Mu Dan's long Anti-Japanese-War poem of the Nine Leaves School, unfolding through a 'exposition then closure' structure: two sets of 'endless' parallels like a slow tracking shot, from hills to rivers, from villages to crows and barks, space ever expanding; 'joined upon the land' closes like a frozen frame. The word 'barren' is the ground tone of the section, in tension with the later 'peasant's' endurance—typical of Mu Dan's 'lyric through meditation.'

【白话串讲】穆旦写《赞美》：“走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原，数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠”——“接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上”——“一个民族已经起来”——他写苦难中的民族。【意象与手法】此为九叶派抗战长诗的开篇，以「铺陈+收束」的结构展开：两组「不尽」排比如长镜头缓缓推移，由山峦而河流、由村庄而鸡鸣犬吠，空间不断延展；「接连在……土地上」一句收束，如镜头定格。「荒凉」二字是全节的底色，与后文「农夫」的坚韧构成张力，是穆旦「以沉思写抒情」的典型。【情感与主旨】以辽阔的中国大地为对象，写土地之广袤、之荒凉、之坚韧：走不尽、数不尽的是山河与生民，「荒凉的亚洲的土地」上正孕育着「赞美」的力量——对土地的赞美，即对土地上的人民的赞美，是抗战年代民族精神的深沉颂歌。【名句点睛】常考「走不尽的山峦的起伏」「数不尽的密密的村庄」两组排比与「荒凉」一词——排比写土地之辽阔，荒凉写土地之苦难，合观方见穆旦「在荒凉中寻找赞美」的深意。

Background

Written in December 1941, 'Praise' is Mu Dan's representative work of the Anti-Japanese War period. Mu Dan (1918–1977), original name Zha Liangzheng, born in Tianjin, ancestral home Haining, Zhejiang, a leading poet of the Nine Leaves School and a famous translator (of Pushkin and Byron). In 1937 the war erupted; Mu Dan moved south with Tsinghua, via Changsha and Kunming, studying in the foreign languages department of Southwest Associated University; in 1940 he taught there, personally experiencing the Burma front, marching into Burma with the army, tasting war and exile. 'Praise' was written in December 1941, at the hardest stalemate of the war: the land broken, the people suffering, yet the Chinese still labored and resisted on the land. Mu Dan writes 'a peasant'—'his rough body moves in the fields'—and 'I shall embrace you one by one with blood-stained hands,' praising China's land and people with heavy strokes: the land is barren and suffering, but the people are enduring and unyielding. This excerpt is the opening: two sets of 'endless' parallels lay out the vast panorama, from nature (hills, rivers, grasslands) to human life (villages, crows, barks), closing with 'joined upon the once-barren land of Asia,' setting up the later 'peasant' and the 'praise' theme. The background is the Nine Leaves School's pursuit of 'writing reality through meditation'—unlike the July School's high pitch, Nine Leaves poets kept speculative depth in the war's suffering; Mu Dan's 'Praise' is the representative of this 'meditation in suffering.'

《赞美》写于1941年12月，是穆旦抗战时期的代表作。穆旦（1918—1977），原名查良铮，生于天津，祖籍浙江海宁，九叶派代表诗人，同时也是著名的翻译家（译有普希金、拜伦诗作）。1937年抗战全面爆发，穆旦随清华大学南迁，辗转长沙、昆明，就读于西南联大外文系；1940年留校任教，期间亲历滇缅战场，随军入缅作战，饱尝战争与流亡之苦。《赞美》写于1941年12月，时值抗战最艰苦的相持阶段：山河破碎、生灵涂炭，而中国人民仍在土地上坚韧地劳作、抵抗。穆旦在诗中写「一个农夫」——「他粗糙的身躯移动在田野中」，写「我要以带血的手和你们一一拥抱」，以沉重的笔触赞美中国大地与人民：土地是荒凉的、苦难的，但人民是坚韧的、不屈的。本节选正是全诗的开篇：以两组「不尽」的排比铺开中国大地的辽阔图卷，由自然（山峦、河流、草原）到人烟（村庄、鸡鸣、狗吠），末以「接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上」收束，为后文「一个农夫」的登场与「赞美」的主题蓄势。此诗的时代背景，是九叶派「以沉思写现实」的诗歌追求——与七月派的高亢不同，九叶派诗人在抗战的苦难中保持思辨的深度，穆旦的《赞美》正是这种「苦难中的沉思」的代表。

Art

As a Nine Leaves long war poem, the excerpt's outstanding art is the 'structural tension of exposition and closure' and the 'density of imagery.' In structure, the opening two parallel sets move like a slow tracking shot: the first 'endless ranges of hills rise and fall, rivers and grasslands' writes nature—high to low, steep to level, spreading the land's space; the second 'countless dense villages, cocks crowing and dogs barking' writes human life—from thing to sound, visual to auditory, entering the breath of the human world; the anaphora 'endless' and 'countless' writes both infinite space and the hardship of travel, like a walker's panting on the vast land; the closing 'joined upon the once-barren land of Asia' stitches the two image groups onto the land—hills, rivers, grasslands, villages, crows, barks all 'joined' on this 'barren' land, like scattered pearls strung on one thread. In technique, imagery is dense yet ordered: hills, rivers, grasslands are distant, villages near, crows and barks sound—far to near, static to moving, visual to auditory, clear layers; the reduplication 'dense villages' and the attributive 'once barren' show refined diction; 'barren' is the ground tone, echoing the later 'peasant,' 'land,' 'suffering,' setting the 'praise within barrenness' theme. Three lines spread a panorama of China's land—typical of Mu Dan's 'lyric through meditation.'

此诗为九叶派抗战长诗，节选部分艺术上最突出的是「铺陈与收束的结构张力」与「意象的密实」。结构上，开篇两组排比如长镜头缓缓推移：第一组「走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原」写自然——山峦、河流、草原，由高而低、由险而平，铺开大地的空间；第二组「数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠」写人烟——村庄、鸡鸣、狗吠，由物而声、由视觉而听觉，转入人间的气息；「走不尽」「数不尽」的复沓，既写空间之无限，又写行旅之艰难，如徒步者在辽阔大地上的喘息；末句「接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上」以「接连」二字收束，把两组意象缝合在大地之上——山峦、河流、草原、村庄、鸡鸣、狗吠，皆「接连」在这片「荒凉」的土地上，如散落的珍珠被一根线串起。手法上，意象密实而有序：山峦、河流、草原是远景，村庄是近景，鸡鸣、狗吠是声音——由远及近、由静而动、由视而听，层次分明；「密密的村庄」的叠字、「原是荒凉的」的定语，皆见炼意之精；「荒凉」二字是全节的底色，与后文「农夫」「土地」「苦痛」呼应，为全诗「在荒凉中赞美」的主题定调。此节选以三行诗铺开一幅中国大地的画卷，是穆旦「以沉思写抒情」的典型笔法。

Allusions

The poem's cultural meaning is the modern deepening of the Chinese literary 'land' motif. First, 'endless ranges' and 'rivers and grasslands'—in classical poetry, land is often the background of lyric (Du Fu 'the state broken, hills and rivers remain,' Wang Wei 'lonely smoke straight in the desert'); Mu Dan raises it from background to lyric subject: hills, rivers, grasslands are no longer scenery beheld but the living site one 'can never finish walking or counting'—the land is man's land, man is the land's man. Second, 'dense villages, cocks crowing and dogs barking'—'crows and barks' is the oldest image of the human world in Chinese literature (Shijing 'the hen roosts, the sun sets, the sheep and cattle descend,' Tao Yuanming 'dogs bark in deep lanes, cocks crow atop mulberry trees'); Mu Dan writes wartime villages, giving the classical pastoral image a double base of suffering and endurance—the village still crows and barks, yet the land is scarred. Third, 'land of Asia'—introducing 'Asia' puts China's land into Asian and world coordinates: not China's alone, but the whole East's suffering of invasion and colonization—Mu Dan expands the lyric space with 'land of Asia,' raising personal experience to national and epochal. Fourth, 'once barren'—'once' implies time: the land 'originally' barren, and still barren now (in war), barren is the land's fate, the footnote of its people's suffering. Three lines fuse classical image, modern vision, national experience—the modern reconstruction of the 'land' motif in the war context.

此诗的文化内涵，是中国文学「大地」母题的现代深化。其一，「走不尽的山峦」「河流和草原」——中国古典诗歌中，山河大地常是抒情的背景（杜甫「国破山河在」、王维「大漠孤烟直」），穆旦把它从背景提升为抒情主体：山峦、河流、草原不再是被观赏的风景，而是被「走不尽」「数不尽」的生存现场——大地是人的大地，人是大地上的人。其二，「密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠」——「鸡鸣狗吠」是中国文学中最古老的人间意象，《诗经》「鸡栖于埘，日之夕矣，羊牛下来」写乡村暮色，陶渊明「狗吠深巷中，鸡鸣桑树颠」写田园静谧；穆旦以「鸡鸣和狗吠」写抗战中的村庄，使古典的田园意象带上了苦难与坚韧的双重底色——村庄依然鸡鸣犬吠，而土地已满目疮痍。其三，「亚洲的土地」——「亚洲」一词的引入，把中国大地放入亚洲乃至世界的坐标：这不是中国一国的苦难，而是整个亚洲（东方）被侵略、被殖民的苦难——穆旦以「亚洲的土地」扩大抒情空间，使个人体验上升为民族与时代的经验。其四，「原是荒凉的」——「原是」二字暗含时间维度：这片土地「原来」是荒凉的，而如今（抗战中）依然荒凉，荒凉是土地的宿命，也是土地上人民苦难的注脚。三行诗，熔古典意象、现代视野、民族经验于一炉，是「大地」母题在抗战语境中的现代重构。

Commentary

'Praise' is Mu Dan's representative Anti-War poem and a milestone of 'land hymns' in modern Chinese poetry, seen from three aspects. Literarily, with Ai Qing's 'I Love This Land' and Tian Jian's 'To the Fighter' it forms the 'land and people' thematic group of war poetry, but Mu Dan's posture differs from the high-pitched war song: he writes 'the barren land of Asia' with 'blood-stained hands,' replacing slogan-shouting with heavy meditation, a model of the Nine Leaves School's blend of 'reality, symbol, metaphysics'—the poem has real suffering (land, peasant, war), symbolic depth (Asia, barren, praise), and metaphysical speculation (the paradoxical declaration 'a nation has arisen'), marking modern Chinese poetry's maturity from lyric to speculation. In thought, the poem finds reason to praise amid national suffering: 'barren' is not negation but ground tone, 'praise' not whitewash but faith—when the poet writes 'endless' and 'countless' to exhaust the land's vastness and hardship, then writes 'a nation has arisen,' he praises precisely the unyielding people in suffering; this 'seeing hope within barrenness' is the most precious quality of war literature. In influence, images like 'a peasant' and 'blood-stained hands' have become classics of modern Chinese poetry, and the opening 'endless ranges of hills rise and fall' is widely quoted; Mu Dan's status as a modernist poet is founded on such works.

《赞美》是穆旦抗战诗歌的代表作，也是中国现代诗歌史上「土地赞歌」的里程碑，其地位可从三方面看。就文学史言，此诗与艾青《我爱这土地》、田间《给战斗者》等共同构成抗战诗歌的「土地与人民」主题群，但穆旦的姿态迥异于高亢的战歌：他以「带血的手」写「荒凉的亚洲的土地」，以沉重的沉思代替口号式的呐喊，是九叶派「现实、象征、玄学」三结合的典范——此诗既有现实的苦难（土地、农夫、战争），又有象征的深度（亚洲、荒凉、赞美），兼含玄学的思辨（「一个民族已经起来」的悖论式宣言），标志中国新诗由抒情走向思辨的成熟。就思想言，此诗在民族的苦难中寻找赞美的理由：「荒凉」不是否定而是底色，「赞美」不是粉饰而是信念——当诗人以「走不尽」「数不尽」写尽土地的辽阔与艰辛，又写「一个民族已经起来」，他赞美的正是苦难中不屈的人民，这种「在荒凉中看见希望」的深沉乐观，是抗战文学最可贵的品质。就影响言，《赞美》中的「一个农夫」「带血的手」等意象已成为中国现代诗歌的经典，其「走不尽的山峦的起伏」的开篇更被广泛引用，穆旦「现代主义诗人」的地位，正由此类作品奠定。

Prosody

Form Modern free verse (opening of a Nine Leaves long war poem; prose-like long lines)现代自由诗（九叶派抗战长诗开篇，散文式长句）

Rhyme Free verse, no rhyme, rhythm made by the anaphora of 'endless' and the long line's extension: two sets 'endless... endless' and 'countless...' like footsteps, lingering; the layered 'de' phrases (ranges' rise, dense villages) make long, low syllables, like walking the vast land, rhythm matching content (endless, countless).此诗为自由诗，不押韵，以「不尽」的复沓与长句的绵延制造节奏：「走不尽……走不尽」与「数不尽……」两组复沓如脚步声声，一唱三叹；「的」字句层层叠加（山峦的起伏、密密的村庄），音节绵长沉郁，如行走于辽阔大地，节奏与内容（走不尽、数不尽）相合。

Tone pattern Mostly long lines, low and drawn: the first 'endless ranges rise and fall, rivers and grasslands' led by 'endless,' slow like trudging; 'countless dense villages, crows and barks' answered by 'countless,' slightly quicker; the last 'joined upon the once-barren land of Asia' closes with 'joined,' low like a frozen frame, long resonance.句式以长句为主，语气沉郁而绵长：首句「走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原」以「走不尽」领起，语气缓慢如跋涉；「数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠」以「数不尽」对举，语气稍促；末句「接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上」以「接连」收束，语气沉郁，如镜头定格，余味深长。

Reading note This poem is a model of free verse 'writing space through rhythm,' its sound beauty in 'anaphoric rhythm' and 'the long line's breath.' Three lines, with 'endless' and 'countless' as rhythmic skeleton: the two 'endless' like two long sighs, turning the mood of walking and counting into sonic extension—reading 'endless ranges rise and fall, rivers and grasslands,' the sound rises and falls with the hills, extends with river and grass, like a walker's slow steps; 'countless dense villages, crows and barks,' the reduplication 'dense' short and crowded, like the villages' density and the people's multitude, sound density matching image density, then 'crows and barks' closes on the oblique 'barks,' like a dog's bark lingering; the last 'joined upon the once-barren land of Asia' runs nineteen characters in one breath, 'barren's' 'of,' 'Asia's,' 'land's' layered, like the land spreading boundless, the long syllable writing the land's vastness, closing on the oblique 'on' like a long shot frozen, desolate resonance. This 'long lines for vastness, anaphora for mood' is Mu Dan's important development of free-verse rhythm—he proved free verse needs no rhyme, only let sound's breath match feeling's breath and a low power arises. Recite slowly and low, with endless breath, like walking the barren land, to attain the opening's vast realm.此诗是自由诗「以节奏写空间」的典范，其声律之美在于「复沓的韵律」与「长句的呼吸」。全节三行，以「走不尽」「数不尽」的复沓为节奏骨架：两个「不尽」如两声长叹，把行走与点数的心绪化为声音的绵延——「走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原」读来，字音随山峦起伏而起伏，随河流草原而延展，如徒步者的脚步在大地上缓慢移动；「数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠」，「密密」的叠字短促密集，恰如村庄之密、人烟之众，声音的密集与意象的密集相合，随后「鸡鸣和狗吠」以仄声「吠」收束，如犬吠一声、余音未绝；末句「接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上」十九字一气绵延，「荒凉的」「亚洲的」「土地上」的「的」「上」层层叠加，如大地铺展、无边无际，音节之绵长正写土地之辽阔，收束处以「上」字仄声落定，如长镜头定格，余韵苍凉。此种「以长句写辽阔、以复沓写心绪」的声律，是穆旦对自由诗节奏的重要发展——他证明：自由诗不需要韵脚，只需让声音的呼吸与情感的呼吸同步，便自有一种沉郁的力量。诵读此节，当以缓慢沉郁之声、绵延不尽之气出之，如行走于荒凉的大地，方得《赞美》开篇的苍茫之境。

Line by line

走不尽的山峦的起伏，河流和草原，

Endless ranges of hills rise and fall, rivers and grasslands. (Insight: led by 'endless,' it spreads China's land's vastness, the opening of the poem's space. 'Endless ranges rise and fall' writes hills—'ranges' already continuous, 'rise and fall' their unevenness, 'endless' writes both the travel's hardship and the hills' infinity: not beholding but walking the hills, the land is a living site to be measured by steps; 'rivers and grasslands' follow, high to low, steep to level—rivers flowing, grasslands spreading, the hills' steepness and the plains' calm interweave, spreading the land's full picture. Depth: 'endless' is subjective experience implying a walker (poet/exile) trudging the vast land, the war-exile experience condensed in 'endless'; the 'large' images write spatial infinity, contrasting the later 'countless villages' human warmth; the long syntax matches footsteps. The panorama begins here.)

走不尽的山峦的起伏，走不尽的河流和草原。

Endless ridges on ridges, rivers and grasslands,

首句以「走不尽」领起，铺开中国大地的辽阔，是全诗空间的展开。「走不尽的山峦的起伏」写山——「山峦」本已是连绵之山，「起伏」再写其高低错落，「走不尽」三字把行旅的艰难与山峦的无限一同写出：不是看山，而是走山，大地是要用脚步丈量的生存现场；「河流和草原」紧承而下，由高而低、由险而平——河流是流动的、草原是舒展的，山峦的峻拔与河流草原的平旷相间，铺开大地的完整图景。此句的深意在于：其一，「走不尽」不是客观的描述，而是主观的体验——它暗示一个行走者（诗人/流亡者）在辽阔大地上的跋涉，抗战流亡的体验凝于「走不尽」三字；其二，意象的选择（山峦、河流、草原）都是「大」的意象，以大写大，铺出空间的无限，为后文「数不尽的村庄」的人间烟火作对比铺垫——先是自然的苍茫，再是人间的气息；其三，句式的绵长（「走不尽的+名词+的+名词」的叠加）恰如脚步的连绵，形式与内容相合。三行诗的画卷，由此句展开。

The ridges. Endless ridges on ridges, rivers and grasslands. The endless ridges and rivers and grasslands are the first stretch. To have been endless ridges would be an endlessness; the endless-ridges-on-ridges-rivers-and-grasslands is the endlessness.

数不尽的密密的村庄，鸡鸣和狗吠，

Countless dense villages, cocks crowing and dogs barking. (Insight: the second line turns from nature to human life, 'countless' answering 'endless,' spreading the land's human world. 'Dense villages' writes the villages' density—'dense' reduplicated writes both their multitude and crowdedness; 'crows and barks' turns visual to auditory—the village unseen, yet crows and barks heard, the oldest image of the human world (Shijing, Tao Yuanming), Mu Dan writing wartime villages gives the classical pastoral a double base of suffering and endurance. Depth: 'countless' with 'endless' writes the land's vastness and people's multitude—an entire nation's picture; the visual-to-auditory turn makes the picture dynamic and three-dimensional; 'dense' writes the villages' density and hints the land's narrowness—on barren land the dense villages show the people's multitude and survival's hardship.)

数不尽的密密的村庄，数不尽的鸡鸣和狗吠。

Countless close-packed villages, crowing cocks and barking dogs,

次句由自然转入人烟，以「数不尽」与「走不尽」对举，铺开大地上的人间。「密密的村庄」写村庄之密——「密密」叠字，既写村庄之多、之密集，又写其拥挤局促：在辽阔的大地上，村庄一个挨着一个，如星罗棋布；「鸡鸣和狗吠」由视觉转入听觉——村庄看不见了，鸡鸣狗吠却声声入耳，这是中国文学中最古老的人间意象（《诗经》「鸡栖于埘」、陶渊明「狗吠深巷中，鸡鸣桑树颠」），穆旦以「鸡鸣和狗吠」写抗战中的村庄，使古典的田园意象带上苦难与坚韧的双重底色——村庄依然鸡鸣犬吠，而土地已满目疮痍。此句的深意在于：其一，「数不尽」与「走不尽」的复沓，写尽大地之辽阔与生民之众多——山川无限，村庄无限，人烟无限，这是一个民族的完整图景；其二，由视觉到听觉的转换，使画卷由静态变动态、由平面变立体——鸡鸣狗吠之声，把「走不尽」的苍茫化为「数不尽」的亲切；其三，「密密」二字，写村庄之密，更暗写土地之窄——在荒凉的大地上，村庄如此密集，恰见生民之众与生存之艰。

The villages. Countless close-packed villages, crowing cocks and barking dogs. The countless close-packed villages and the cocks-and-dogs are the second stretch. To have been countless villages would be a countlessness; the countless-close-packed-villages-crowing-cocks-and-barking-dogs is the countlessness.

接连在原是荒凉的亚洲的土地上。

Joined together upon the once-barren land of Asia. (Insight: the closing stitches the two image groups onto the land like a frozen frame. 'Joined upon the land'—hills, rivers, grasslands, villages, crows, barks all 'joined' on this land, like pearls strung; 'once barren' is deepest—'once' implies time: the land 'originally' barren, barren not the war's accident but the land's fate; 'land of Asia' puts China into Asian and world coordinates—not one nation's suffering but the whole East's. Depth: 'barren' is the ground tone, echoing the later 'peasant,' 'suffering,' 'a nation has arisen'—on barren land grows the power of praise; 'joined' is the hinge gathering nature and human life into one 'land'; the long syntax matches the low content, setting up the later 'peasant's' entrance.)

它们接连在一起，铺展在这片原本是荒凉的亚洲的土地上。

Joined together on this once-desolate land of Asia.

末句是全节的收束，以「接连」二字把前两组意象缝合在大地之上，如镜头定格。「接连在……土地上」——山峦、河流、草原、村庄、鸡鸣、狗吠，皆「接连」在这片土地之上，如散落的珍珠被一根线串起：大地是它们共同的家园，也是它们共同的命运；「原是荒凉的」定语最见深意——「原是」暗含时间维度：这片土地「原来」就是荒凉的，荒凉不是战争的偶然，而是土地的宿命；「亚洲的土地」把中国大地放入亚洲乃至世界的坐标——这不是一国的苦难，而是整个东方被侵略、被殖民的苦难，以「亚洲」扩大抒情空间，使个人体验上升为民族与时代的经验。此句的深意在于：其一，「荒凉」二字是全节的底色，与后文「农夫」「苦痛」「一个民族已经起来」呼应——荒凉的土地上正孕育着赞美的力量，越是荒凉，赞美越深；其二，「接连」二字是全节的枢纽——它把自然（山峦河流）与人烟（村庄鸡犬）连接为整体，把「走不尽」「数不尽」的无限收拢为「一片土地」，如长镜头由推移到定格；其三，句式的绵长（十九字）与内容的沉郁相配，为后文「一个农夫」的登场蓄势——大地铺开之后，人便出场。

The land. Joined together on this once-desolate land of Asia. The joined-once-desolate-Asia land is the close. To have been the once-desolate land would be a being; the joined-together-on-this-once-desolate-land-of-asia is the being.

Study

Word focus

走不尽 'Endless' (in 'endless ranges'). (Analysis: the poem's first keyword and the start of its spatial sense. On the surface it writes the hills' multitude and land's vastness, but the word 'walk' implies a walker (poet/exile) trudging the vast land—not beholding but walking the hills, the land a living site. Three depths: spatial infinity—'endless' writes the land's vastness, the hills' endless rises, the infinite background of a nation's survival; temporal length—'endless' implies long travel, the war-exile experience condensed, every step's hardship; subject's presence—'walk' makes the land a walked site, the poet a witness not bystander, the weariness and persistence of 'endless' is the emotional base of 'praise.' With 'countless' below, one writes travel, one counts, both 'endless,' writing the land's vastness and people's multitude—Mu Dan's 'write space through verbs.') 「走不尽的山峦的起伏」之「走不尽」，是全诗第一个关键词，也是全诗空间感的起点。「走不尽」表面写山峦之多、大地之广，实则以「走」字暗示一个行走者——诗人/流亡者在辽阔大地上的跋涉：不是看山，而是走山，大地是要用脚步丈量的生存现场。此词有三层深意：其一，空间的无限——「不尽」写大地之辽阔，山峦起伏无尽，行路无尽，空间的无限正是民族生存的广袤背景；其二，时间的绵长——「走不尽」暗含行路之久，抗战流亡的漫长体验凝于三字，一步一个脚印的艰辛尽在其中；其三，主体的在场——「走」字使大地成为被行走的现场，诗人不是旁观者而是亲历者，「走不尽」的疲惫与执着，正是「赞美」的情感基础——正因为走不尽、看不够，才要赞美。此词与下句「数不尽」对举，一写行路、一写点数，都是「不尽」，把大地的辽阔与生民的众多一同写出，是穆旦「以动词写空间」的典范。

密密 'Dense' (reduplicated). (Analysis: the poem's refined diction, the reduplication showing craft. 'Dense' writes the villages' multitude and crowdedness—on the vast land villages one against another, like stars; the reduplication's short, dense sound matches the villages' density and people's multitude, sound matching image. Depth: writes the people's multitude—dense villages, dense people, a nation's full existence; hints survival's hardship—villages 'densely' crowded on 'barren' land shows the contradiction of multitude and poor land, tension born; contrasts with 'barren'—the human warmth of 'dense villages' above, the desolate 'barren land' below, the dense-and-barren contrast is the source of the poem's 'praise within barrenness' tension. Two characters write the villages' state—proof of Mu Dan's 'refine words like gold.') 「数不尽的密密的村庄」之「密密」，是全诗炼字的妙笔，叠字的使用尤见匠心。「密密」写村庄之多、之密集——在辽阔的大地上，村庄一个挨着一个，如星罗棋布、如织如网；叠字的音韵（密密）短促密集，恰如村庄之密、人烟之众，声音与意象相合。此词的深意在于：其一，写生民之众多——村庄密密，人烟密密，这是中国大地上的人民图景，「数不尽」与「密密」配合，写出一个民族的完整存在；其二，暗写生存之艰——村庄「密密」地挤在「荒凉」的土地上，正见生民之众与土地之贫的矛盾，密密的人烟与荒凉的大地并置，张力自生；其三，与「荒凉」对照——前有「密密的村庄」的人间烟火，后有「荒凉的亚洲的土地」的苍凉底色，密与荒、多与贫、生与难的对照，正是全诗「在荒凉中赞美」的张力的源头。叠字「密密」，以两字写尽村庄之态，是穆旦「炼字如金」的明证。

荒凉 'Barren' / 'desolate.' (Analysis: the ground-tone word of the section and the whole poem, the key to understanding 'Praise.' 'Barren' writes the land's poverty, desolation, emptiness—hills rise yet uninhabited, rivers grasslands yet lifeless, dense villages yet crows and barks show hardship; 'barren' writes the land's suffering side starkly. Three depths: temporal—'once' implies barren is not the war's accident but the land's fate, the footnote of its people's suffering; contrastive power—the poem is titled 'praise' yet grounded in 'barren': the more barren, the more the land's people unyield; the deeper the barren, the deeper the praise—as the later 'a nation has arisen,' on barren land arises resistance and rebirth, praise not whitewash but homage to life in suffering; spatial—'land of Asia' expands barren's scope to the whole East's invasion, raising personal pity to national, epochal pity. Two characters weigh more than a thousand words, the base of Mu Dan's 'lyric through meditation.') 「原是荒凉的亚洲的土地」之「荒凉」，是全节乃至全诗的底色词，也是理解《赞美》的钥匙。「荒凉」写土地的贫瘠、萧索、无人烟——山峦起伏而荒无人烟，河流草原而生机寥寥，村庄密密而鸡鸣犬吠中透着艰辛，「荒凉」二字，把中国大地的苦难一面写得触目惊心。此词的深意有三：其一，「原是」的时间维度——荒凉不是战争的偶然，而是土地的宿命，「原来」就荒凉，如今（抗战中）依然荒凉，荒凉的宿命正是土地上人民苦难的注脚；其二，反衬的力量——全诗题为「赞美」，而底色是「荒凉」：越荒凉，越显出土地上人民的不屈；越荒凉，赞美的理由越深——正如诗后文所写「一个民族已经起来」，荒凉的大地上正发生着反抗与新生，赞美不是粉饰，而是对苦难中生命的致敬；其三，「亚洲的土地」的空间维度——荒凉的不只是中国，而是整个亚洲（东方）被侵略、被殖民的处境，以「亚洲」扩大荒凉的疆域，使个人的悲悯上升为民族的、时代的悲悯。二字之重，重过千言，是穆旦「以沉思写抒情」的基石。

赞美