南湖早春

Meaning

After rain the lake is bright and warm, and early spring is everywhere in process: apricots opening in scattered specks of red, duckweed spreading its new green, geese still flying heavily with low wings, an oriole trying out a song it cannot yet finish. Then the poet breaks off. The spring is not at fault: it is he, who for years has been ill and ageing, and whose interest in it has therefore been reduced. The poem's shape is a fine description followed by a sudden personal subtraction.

风回云断雨初晴，返照湖边暖复明。乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生。翅低白雁飞仍重，舌涩黄鹂语未成。不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poem is two movements. Six lines describe the lake with unusual exactness; the last two give the reason the poet cannot share in it. [Structure] A seven-character regulated poem of eight lines. The first couplet is the weather, the second and third are the living things, the fourth closes the subject and turns to the poet himself; the four couplets form a rising then falling movement. [Imagery] The images are chosen for being unfinished: broken red, new green, low wings, a dull tongue. Nothing in the scene is complete, and that is what makes it early spring rather than spring in general. [Emotion] The last couplet is a piece of plain self-knowledge. Bai Juyi does not pretend the weather is bad and does not pretend his illness is not real; he says the spring is fine and that he is the one who has lost the interest. The unspoken contrast is between a world that renews itself every year and a body that does not, and the poem's quietness comes from his naming that rather than complaining.

【白话串讲】 白居易写《南湖早春》：“风回云断雨初晴，返照湖边暖复明”——“乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生”——“翅低白雁飞仍重，舌涩黄鹂语未成”——“不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情”——他写南湖早春——可惜自己衰病减了心情。 【意象与手法】 此诗写南湖早春，以写景写春光，是白居易的名篇。前六句写早春：「风回云断雨初晴，返照湖边暖复明」写风回云断雨初晴、返照湖边暖复明——写尽早春的晴暖；「乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生」写乱点碎红山杏发、平铺新绿水蘋生——写尽早春的生机；「翅低白雁飞仍重，舌涩黄鹂语未成」写翅低白雁飞仍重、舌涩黄鹂语未成——写尽早春的生涩；后二句写感慨：「不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情」写不道江南春不好、年年衰病减心情——写尽衰病的感慨。全诗以写景写春光，写尽南湖早春的明丽与衰病的感慨，是白居易的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写南湖早春，以写景写春光，是白居易的名篇。南湖即鄱阳湖南湖，白居易贬江州（今江西九江）时所作。此诗写早春南湖的景色，又于末二句自叹衰病。此诗写早春：风回云断雨初晴，返照湖边暖复明——写风回云断雨初晴、返照湖边暖复明，写尽早春的晴暖；乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生——写乱点碎红山杏发、平铺新绿水蘋生，写尽早春的生机；翅低白雁飞仍重，舌涩黄鹂语未成——写翅低白雁飞仍重、舌涩黄鹂语未成，写尽早春的生涩；不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情——写不道江南春不好、年年衰病减心情，写尽衰病的感慨。全诗以写景写春光——那「乱点碎红山杏发」写尽早春的生机，「年年衰病减心情」写尽衰病的感慨，写尽南湖早春的明丽与衰病的感慨，是理解白居易贬谪诗的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「风回云断雨初晴，返照湖边暖复明」写早春的晴暖；「乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生」写早春的生机；「不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情」写衰病的感慨；以及全诗以写景写春光、以乐景写哀情的手法。

Allusions

The poem's learned references are few and light. The returning light is the standard word for the sun after rain. The white geese and the oriole are the two birds of the early spring outing and have no special story. 'The spring of Jiangnan is not good' quietly answers the famous line about the delightful scenery of Jiangnan that he had once known well, so the poem reads as a reply to his own earlier self. The phrase about sickness and decline returns throughout his exile poetry. In this way the poem belongs to a tradition of the exiled poet describing a spring he can no longer enjoy, the same tradition as Du Fu's spring view in which flowers and birds, though lovely, only make the exiled poet weep.

此诗的用语深植于早春与贬谪的传统。「风回云断雨初晴」令人想到「雨初晴」写雨霁的意象——「风回云断雨初晴」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「返照湖边暖复明」写返照的意象；「乱点碎红山杏发」令人想到「碎红」写山杏的意象——「乱点碎红山杏发」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「山杏发」写山杏初发的意象；「平铺新绿水蘋生」令人想到「水蘋生」写水蘋的意象——「平铺新绿水蘋生」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「新绿」写新绿的意象；「翅低白雁飞仍重」令人想到「白雁」写白雁的意象——「翅低白雁飞仍重」正是白居易的名句，也令人想到「舌涩黄鹂语未成」写黄鹂初啼的意象；「不道江南春不好」令人想到「江南」写江南的意象——「江南好，风景旧曾谙」，也令人想到「年年衰病减心情」写衰病的意象——「衰病」正是贬谪诗人的常用语。全诗化用碎红、新绿、白雁、黄鹂的意象，以写景写春光，正是白居易「平淡自然」而善写景物、承贬谪传统写感伤的本领。

Commentary

The regulated poem is one of Bai Juyi's best-known spring pieces and a usual example of his careful, unpretentious description. Qing readers called the middle couplets neat and natural; modern readers single out the last couplet, where the poet refuses to blame the season and names his own body as the loss. It is usually read beside 'Walking in Early Spring at Qiantang Lake,' for the same poet's two ways of writing spring — there the delight is complete and he cannot walk enough of the east shore, here the delight is described and then withheld. The poem's reputation rests on that last flat statement, which lets a description of beauty become a statement about a life.

此诗历来被推为白居易早春诗的名篇，也是唐人写江南早春的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以写景写春光，工丽自然」；近人更指出「乱点碎红山杏发，平铺新绿水蘋生」写早春的生机，「不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情」写衰病的感慨，是此诗的名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以八句的律诗写尽南湖早春的明丽与衰病的感慨——那初晴的雨，那返照的暖，那乱点的碎红，那平铺的新绿，那飞仍重的白雁，那语未成的黄鹂，那减心情的衰病，都写尽了白居易笔下的南湖早春；那「不道江南春不好，年年衰病减心情」更以乐景写尽衰病的感慨。此诗与白居易《钱塘湖春行》（「几处早莺争暖树」）同为早春名篇，一写「浅草才能没马蹄」的西湖（钱塘湖春行），一写「乱点碎红山杏发」的南湖（南湖早春）；又与杜甫「感时花溅泪」的以乐景写哀传统一脉相承，可见贬谪诗人写春的感伤。对于今日读者，此诗是理解白居易贬谪诗的窗口，也是中国诗写江南早春的经典——那平铺的新绿，穿越千年，仍在诉说着衰病中的春愁。

Prosody

Line by line

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