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南北朝 Northern and Southern Dynasties · 诗 Poem

秋夜望单飞雁

Watching a Single Flying Goose on an Autumn Night

庾信

Yu Xin

失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边。
无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠。

The cry of a cold goose that has lost its flock is pitiable; at midnight it stays on, flying alone at the edge of the moon.
And there is nothing to be done about it, for my heart too still holds its memory, and tonight neither the goose nor I will sleep.
Listen

Meaning

A cold goose, cut off from its flock, calls through the night with a cry that moves the poet; watched at the edge of the moon, it becomes his own likeness. What begins as pity for a bird turns into an admission that the poet, like the goose, is without a companion and without rest. The poem is short because the situation is complete: observer and observed are both awake, and neither can be consoled.

失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边。无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A cold goose that has lost the rest of the flock cries in a voice that is pitiable; at midnight it is still flying, alone, at the edge of the moon. Then comes the turn: there is no way around it, because the human heart too still holds its memory, and so tonight neither the goose nor the speaker will sleep. [Structure] The four lines run as a single movement: object, time and place, a rhetorical pivot introduced by 'and there is nothing to be done about it', and a conclusion that joins two sleepless beings in one sentence. [Imagery] The goose, the moon and the night are the whole apparatus of the poem, chosen from the stock vocabulary of exile and used without ornament, and their plainness is what makes the identification land. [Acknowledgement] Yu Xin wrote this in the north after being held there by the Western Zhou court, far from the southern dynasty he had served. The goose is not a decoration; it is the situation made visible. What saves the poem from self-pity is its exactness: the poet says he too is awake, and leaves the rest to the reader.

【白话串讲】 庾信写《秋夜望单飞雁》：“失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边”——“无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠”——他写失群的孤雁——无奈人心复有忆。 【意象与手法】 “失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边”以失群寒雁起兴写孤寂；“无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠”以人心有忆与雁俱不眠写羁愁。借物起兴、情景交融，以雁自况。 【情感与主旨】 庾信羁留北朝、望孤雁而自伤之作，借失群寒雁写自己身陷异乡的孤独与乡关之思，是庾信后期感怀诗的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边”以失群寒雁写孤寂；“无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠”以俱不眠写羁愁。

Background

Yu Xin (513-581), courtesy name Zishan, was born at Xinye in Nanyang and served the Liang in the south before being sent as an envoy to the Western Wei, where he was detained and never returned. He spent the last decades of his life in the north under the Zhou and then the Sui, though by then thoroughly northernized in habit and reputation. His later poetry is generally described as clear and melancholy, and this quatrain is among the shortest and starkest of it. It is quoted often in histories of the period precisely because it is so brief: four lines, one image, and a single emotion that can be read as personal, political or generally human.

《秋夜望单飞雁》为南北朝诗人庾信所作诗。庾信（513—581），字子山，南阳新野人，北周文学家，由南入北的重要作家。此诗写羁旅感怀，为秋夜望雁之作。诗中「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」写失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边；「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」写无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠。庾信此诗以羁旅感怀、今暝将渠俱不眠写其感怀之情，凄清感怀，是庾信诗中的名篇。此篇《秋夜望单飞雁》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《秋夜望单飞雁》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem's whole engine is comparison carried invisibly. The goose is never said to stand for the poet, and no parallel is drawn in words; the reader makes the match at 'my heart too still holds its memory', and the identification lands harder for having been left unstated. Both couplets are built on a small conditional logic: the first line presents a fact, the second adds the time and place that make that fact poignant; the third turns with 'and there is nothing to be done about it', and the fourth closes by pairing two subjects in a single predicate, 'neither the goose nor I will sleep'. The word 'it' in the final line is quietly the exploited animal as well as the star of the scene, and the effect of the close is to demote the poet to the goose's company exactly where he had hoped for something higher. Economy is the style: no adjective of emotion appears anywhere, and the feeling is left to accumulate in the image of one bird at the moon's edge.

此诗艺术上以「凄清感怀、以雁写情」见长。全诗共四句两联，由失群寒雁声可怜而无奈人心复有忆。起「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」写失群寒雁声可怜：失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边；结「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」写无奈人心复有忆：无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠。全诗以雁写情，由失群寒雁声可怜而今暝将渠俱不眠，凄清感怀，是庾信诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

That the poem presses no named story into service is itself a decision worth noticing: there is no erudite allusion, no borrowed line, no historical figure. Its depth comes instead from the two things it names being saturated with convention already, the cold goose that has lost its flock and the moon at whose edge it flies. In the Chinese tradition the wild goose is the bird of letters and of separation, flying in ranks, sent as a messenger in the old legends, and associated above all with the exiled official writing home. The moon is the same conventional stronghold, the standard ground of northern exile writing after Yu Xin, where looking toward the moon is looking toward the south. The poem works because it touches both and stops.

诗中「失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边」「无奈人心复有忆今暝将渠俱不眠」等语，皆含典故故实。「失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边」写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边；「无奈人心复有忆今暝将渠俱不眠」写无奈人心复有忆今暝将渠俱不眠。诗人以寒雁、月边等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把羁旅感怀之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

Critics have long treated the quatrain as a compressed emblem of Yu Xin's situation: a man of the Liang, held in the north by a court that had no further use for him, watching on a night when the only companion available to him is a bird. Read that way, the sleeplessness is political as well as personal. Read without the biography it is faster and better, which is why it survives anthology after anthology. Later writers echoed the structure rather than the words: the pattern of a small wounded creature, the observer recognizing himself in it, and the two jointly denied rest, recurs well into the Tang and after.

这首《秋夜望单飞雁》，是庾信写羁旅感怀之作，写失群寒雁声可怜、无奈人心复有忆、今暝将渠俱不眠之情，凄清感怀。起「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」——失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边。写失群寒雁声可怜：失群寒雁声可怜、夜半单飞在月边——声可怜、在月边；结「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」——无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠。写无奈人心复有忆：无奈人心复有忆、今暝将渠俱不眠——复有忆、俱不眠。这「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」，是全诗之结：以今暝将渠俱不眠写其感怀。全诗凄清感怀，以雁写情，正是庾信诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Form Shi (seven-character quatrain)诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme A seven-syllable quatrain of four lines. It rhymes in the xian branch, bian (边) and mian (眠), on level tones. Each line is of seven syllables with a mid-line pause, so the cadence is four plus three and the rhyme falls at the end of each couplet's second line; the sustained open vowel gives the poem its thin, lingered quality.此诗为七言绝句，共四句两联。押韵：「边」「眠」押先部韵。前两句起、后两句转合，平仄相间，正与写羁旅感怀的凄清感怀相称，也见其以七绝写感怀的凝练。
Tone pattern There is no strict tonal pattern attached to this poem as it survives, but its sound-track is deliberate. The first and last lines share the rhyme, and both rhymes are long, open and nasal, which suits a night scene and an admission far more than a bright or sharp ending would. The middle line breaks the rhyme, so rhyme and sense coincide at exactly the point where the poet turns from the bird to himself. Read aloud, the verse slows at the closing rhyme; the whole effect is of a sound held out, which is what the sleeplessness describes.句式上，「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」写失群寒雁声可怜，音节凄清；结「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」写无奈人心复有忆，音节悠长。全诗音节随情起伏，由凄清而悠长，正合七绝「凝练」之妙，读来如羁旅感怀、今暝将渠俱不眠之音，凄清而动人。
Reading note The quatrain, and especially the seven-syllable quatrain, is the most compressed form in the tradition, able to hold one scene and one turn of feeling and no more. This poem is a good specimen of how little the form needs: two lines are enough to set an image, one to pivot, one to conclude. The craft visible here is a prosodic one about where the pause falls, since the four-plus-three break keeps the eye on the sky, the moon and the bird, while the long rhyme holds the reader on the last word, which is the word the poet could not avoid saying. It is also a useful contrast with the long loose verse of the older ballads beside it in the anthology.此诗为七言绝句，是庾信写羁旅感怀之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「凄清感怀、以雁写情」：「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」写失群寒雁声可怜、「无奈人心复有忆，今暝将渠俱不眠」写无奈人心复有忆。全诗凄清感怀，以雁写情。尤为精妙者，是「失群寒雁声可怜」写尽声可怜；而「今暝将渠俱不眠」写尽俱不眠，正是庾信诗「凄清感怀」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《秋夜望单飞雁》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边。

The cry of a cold goose that has lost its flock is pitiable; at midnight it stays on, flying alone at the edge of the moon.

失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边。

The lone cold goose, its cry piteous, flies alone by the moon at midnight.

起句写失群寒雁声可怜，起笔即见其寒雁。「失群寒雁声可怜」写失群寒雁声可怜，「失群寒雁」写失群寒雁、「声可怜」写声可怜；「夜半单飞在月边」写夜半单飞在月边，「夜半」写夜半、「单飞在月边」写单飞在月边。一句写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边，以失群寒雁声可怜写声可怜、以夜半单飞在月边写在月边，写尽失群寒雁声可怜、夜半单飞在月边之情。以雁起兴，凄清而感怀，是「以雁起兴」的妙笔。

The goose. The lone cold goose, its cry piteous, flies alone by the moon at midnight. The lost-flock cold goose with piteous cry and the midnight-solitary flight by the moon are the opening. To have flown alone would be a flying; the the-lone-cold-goose-its-cry-piteous-flies-alone-by-the-moon-at-midnight is the flying.

无奈人心复有忆，

And there is nothing to be done about it, for my heart too still holds its memory,

无奈人心复有忆，

Yet the human heart must still remember,

此句写无奈人心复有忆，是全诗写人心之态的关键。「无奈人心复有忆」写无奈人心复有忆，「无奈人心」写无奈人心、「复有忆」写复有忆。一句写无奈人心复有忆，以无奈人心写人心、以复有忆写复有忆，写尽无奈人心复有忆之情。以心写情，凄清而感怀，是「以心写情」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

The remembering. Yet the human heart must still remember. The heart-that-must-still-remember is the turn. To have remembered would be a remembering; the yet-the-human-heart-must-still-remember is the remembering.

今暝将渠俱不眠。

and tonight neither the goose nor I will sleep.

今暝将渠俱不眠。

Tonight I lie awake with it, sleepless.

结句写今暝将渠俱不眠，是全诗立意的落点。「今暝将渠」写今暝将渠，「今暝」写今暝、「将渠」写将渠；「俱不眠」写俱不眠，「俱」写俱、「不眠」写不眠。一句写今暝将渠俱不眠，以今暝将渠写将渠、以俱不眠写俱不眠，写尽今暝将渠俱不眠之情。以眠写情，凄清而感怀，是全诗最动人处，也是「以眠写情」的点睛之笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。

The sleepless. Tonight I lie awake with it, sleepless. The tonight-sleepless-with-it is the close. To have lain sleepless would be a lying-awake; the tonight-i-lie-awake-with-it-sleepless is the lying-awake.

Study

Word focus

寒雁 寒雁 (han yan) means a cold-weather wild goose, that is one of the autumn flights. It is not a generic bird: the goose flies in ordered ranks, carries letters in the old legends, and returns from the far north in spring, so a cold goose that has lost its flock is at once a wounded creature and an exile's emblem. 「寒雁」写失群寒雁声可怜，是写寒雁之态的关键。「失群寒雁声可怜」着一「寒雁」，写寒雁——着一「寒雁」，写失群寒雁声可怜，见其雁之寒。两字写尽寒雁之态，是「以词写雁」的妙笔。「寒雁」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
单飞 单飞 (dan fei) means to fly alone. The word does the identifying work of the whole first couplet: the goose's solitariness is stated in a single term, so that when the poet admits his own sleeplessness later, the reader already holds the mirror. 「单飞」写夜半单飞在月边，是写单飞之态的关键。「夜半单飞在月边」着一「单飞」，写单飞——着一「单飞」，写夜半单飞在月边，见其飞之单。两字写尽单飞之态，是「以词写飞」的点睛之词。「单飞」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
人心 人心 (ren xin) means the human heart, here the speaker's own. Its placement after 'and there is nothing to be done about it' gives the turn of the poem: the outer scene is finished and what remains is inner. The heart is the reason the night cannot be ended, and the poem's refusal to name any happier feeling gives the line its force. 「人心」写无奈人心复有忆，是写人心之态的关键。「无奈人心复有忆」着一「人心」，写人心——着一「人心」，写无奈人心复有忆，见其心之人。两字写尽人心之态，是「以词写心」的点睛之词。「人心」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
不眠 不眠 (bu mian) means does not sleep. It matters that the verb is shared: the word for both makes the goose and the poet the subject together, so the closing image of the night is not one lonely man watching a bird but two lonely beings kept awake, with no comfort available to either. 「不眠」写今暝将渠俱不眠，是写不眠之态的关键。「今暝将渠俱不眠」着一「不眠」，写不眠——着一「不眠」，写今暝将渠俱不眠，见其眠之不。两字写尽不眠之态，是「以词写眠」的点睛之词。「不眠」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

水调歌头·明月几时有 Shui Diao Ge Tou — 'When Will the Moon Be Bright?' 苏轼 · 同写感怀羁旅、凄清旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边，皆于感怀之中见凄清 Both are poems of a sleepless night spent looking at the moon, one finding in mood and reason a way to let the night pass, the other finding only that it cannot.

Su Shi's long tune admits that people have their partings and the moon its phases, and concludes that this has been so since of old, an argument whose end is to let the night go by since all things share the same rule. Yu Xin offers no argument. He has a memory and cannot lay it down, and the goose keeps him company in it. Set beside each other the two show what Chinese poetry does with sleeplessness: one converts pain into a general law and is comforted by it, the other stays inside the pain and is honest about it. Yu Xin is the briefer and the harder of the two, and the poem gains from that refusal.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写感怀羁旅、凄清旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；庾信《秋夜望单飞雁》则以「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」「今暝将渠俱不眠」写在月边、俱不眠。两诗同写感怀羁旅、凄清旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边、以寒雁写感怀；一为苏轼之旷达、一为庾信之凄清，并读正可见诗写「感怀羁旅」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见凄清。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou — 'Dusk Rain Bathes the Sky Over the River' 柳永 · 同写月边凝望、凄清清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边，皆于月边之中见凝望 Both are poems of watching from outside oneself at night, the one by a traveller in a boat or on a road, the one here by a man at a window, and each takes its colour from weather and from the moon.

Liu Yong's famous opening, over the river the dusk rain falls in cracks and a shower has washed one clear autumn, builds a whole geography of loneliness out of weather, and then confesses that to look toward home would only pull the rein tighter. Yu Xin's poem needs none of that apparatus: one goose, one moon, four lines. What the comparison shows is how much of the older poem's weight is elaboration, and therefore how much the short poem has won by leaving things out; the two are best read as the two ends of the same tradition, both about a man with no one to return to.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写月边凝望、凄清清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；庾信《秋夜望单飞雁》则以「失群寒雁声可怜，夜半单飞在月边」「无奈人心复有忆」写在月边、复有忆。两诗同写月边凝望、凄清清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写失群寒雁声可怜夜半单飞在月边、以寒雁写感怀；一为柳永之清丽、一为庾信之凄清，并读正可见诗写「月边凝望」的两种笔法，皆于月边之中见凝望。