唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎
On Early Spring and Early Autumn, Written to the Moment and Sent Also to Vice Minister Li of East Zhejiang
春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光。
和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉。
窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床。
闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄。
理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房。
四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。
How lovely the weather, how fine the season's light.
A mild wind faintly stirs, the bed-curtains grow warm,
Clear dew lightly gathers, the pillow-mat feels cool.
Dozing at dawn beneath the window, I first put aside a coverlet,
Sitting out at dusk beside the pool, I suddenly move my couch.
At ease, I let the thoroughwort creep green over the steps,
In quiet, I let the locust blossoms lie yellow across the ground.
From the back court I hear strings and pipes rehearsing a tune,
In the inner room lamplight shines as the clothes are pressed.
Who else would mark the new scenes of the four seasons?
Far off, I think of you, my warm-hearted Vice Minister Li.
Meaning
Bai Juyi describes the two moments of the year he finds most comfortable - the beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn - when days and nights are balanced and the weather asks nothing of a man. He records the small adjustments by which his household meets the season: a coverlet put away, a couch moved to the water, music from the rear court, linen being ironed at night. Having listed these pleasures, he ends by saying that he can share them only at a distance with an absent friend, and the whole catalogue of ease becomes an act of friendship.
春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光。和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉。窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床。闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄。理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房。四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] Early spring and early autumn are the comfortable seams of the year: the days and nights are evenly long, the weather is kind. A soft breeze warms the curtains, a light dew cools the sleeping mat; he dozes late at the window and puts off a quilt, sits by the pond at evening and has his couch shifted; he lets the sweet grass creep over the steps and the locust petals lie where they fall; he hears musicians practising in the back court and sees the lamplight of the ironing in the inner rooms. Then he asks who else would notice all this, and answers: his friend far away in East Zhejiang. [Structure] The poem is a long regulated octave-plus, and for eleven lines it is pure inventory arranged by season and by hour of day. [Imagery] The images are domestic and tactile rather than grand - curtains, mats, coverlets, a couch, grass at the threshold, fallen petals, distant music, lamplight. [Feeling] The turn in the last couplet is what makes the inventory meaningful. Leisure that cannot be shared is only half enjoyed, and by asking who could appreciate these scenes the poet converts a description of comfort into a letter of friendship, which is exactly what the title promises.
【白话串讲】 白居易写《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》：“春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光”——“和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉”——“闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄”——他写春秋佳日兼寄李侍郎——可怜天气好年光。 【意象与手法】 “春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光”写春秋佳日；“和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉”写春秋天气；“闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄”写闲静之景；“理曲管弦闻后院、熨衣灯火映深房”写闲适生活；结以“四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎”写遥忆李侍郎。闲雅寄怀。 【情感与主旨】 白居易写春秋佳日之作，写春秋两季的宜人天气与闲适生活，结以“遥忆多情李侍郎”写寄怀友人，体现白居易闲适诗的风格。 【名句点睛】 常考“春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光”写春秋佳日；“闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄”写闲静之景。
Background
Bai Juyi (772-846), courtesy name Letian, styled the Hermit of Fragrant Mountain, was the most prolific and most widely read poet of the mid-Tang. He came from a modest official family, passed the jinshi examination in 800, and served in both capital and provincial posts; his outspoken memorials led to exile in 815, after which he held a series of provincial governorships, including Hangzhou and Suzhou, and spent his last years in retirement at Luoyang. He is the central figure of the New Music Bureau movement, which held that poetry should speak plainly about public wrongs, yet the larger part of his surviving work belongs to the so-called leisure poems composed in middle and old age. This piece is one of them: a verse letter to a fellow official, Li, then serving in the East Zhejiang circuit. Verse letters between officials were a social institution in the Tang, and Bai Juyi was its undisputed master, writing them by the hundred and preserving them deliberately for posterity.
《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》为唐代诗人白居易所作诗。白居易（772—846），字乐天，号香山居士，又号醉吟先生，祖籍太原，生于河南新郑，中唐诗人，新乐府运动倡导者。此诗写景寄怀，为寄浙东李侍郎之作。诗中「春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光」写春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光；「和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉」写和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉；「闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄」写闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄；「四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎」写四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。白居易此诗以写景寄怀、遥忆多情李侍郎写其寄怀之情，闲雅寄怀，是白居易诗中的名篇。此篇《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》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 governing device is accumulation. For five consecutive couplets the poet gives one concrete domestic detail after another, each allotted exactly one line, and refuses to interpret any of them. The effect is that of a well-ordered household seen from inside: the reader infers comfort from facts rather than being told about it. The arrangement is subtle - spring and autumn are paired in the opening line, and thereafter the couplets alternate warmth and coolness, morning and evening, outdoor and indoor, sound and sight, so that the catalogue quietly enacts the balance of the seasons it praises. Bai Juyi's diction is famously plain; here he uses almost no ornament, relying on verb choice to carry the interest, especially the repeated verbs of permission - let the grass creep, let the petals lie - which define leisure as the willingness to let things happen without intervention. The closing couplet breaks the pattern by asking a question, and that abrupt shift from inventory to direct address is the poem's only rhetorical gesture.
此诗艺术上以「闲雅寄怀、以时写情」见长。全诗共十二句六联，由春早秋初昼夜长而和风细动帘帷暖而闲从蕙草侵堦绿。起「春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光」写春早秋初昼夜长：春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光；「和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉」写和风细动帘帷暖：和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉；「窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床」写窗下晓眠初减被：窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床；「闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄」写闲从蕙草侵堦绿：闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄；「理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房」写理曲管弦闻后院：理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房；结「四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎」写遥忆多情李侍郎：四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。全诗以时写情，由春早秋初昼夜长而遥忆多情李侍郎，闲雅寄怀，是白居易诗中的名篇。
Allusions
The poem draws less on books than on a whole inherited vocabulary of retirement. The thoroughwort and the locust blossom are not random flowers: thoroughwort belongs to the symbolic flora of Chu ci, where fragrant plants stand for moral worth, and the locust tree was the tree of office and of the capital, its yellow petals conventionally marking the turn of the academic year. Their presence in a private garden therefore hints at a public life laid down. The coverlet put aside at dawn and the couch moved toward the water echo the poems of Tao Yuanming and the landscape verse of Xie Lingyun, where such small domestic adjustments signal a man living at his own pace. The music from the rear court and the lamplight of the ironing allude to the well-run household of the gentleman, an ideal going back to the Book of Rites. Even the closing question - who else would notice - belongs to a long tradition of poems addressed to absent friends, most famously the asking-about-the-plum-blossom poems exchanged between Wang Wei and his contemporaries.
诗中「春早秋初昼夜长可怜天气好年光」「和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉」「窗下晓眠初减被池边晚坐乍移床」「闲从蕙草侵堦绿静任槐花满地黄」「理曲管弦闻后院熨衣灯火映深房」「四时新景何人别遥忆多情李侍郎」等语，皆含典故故实。「春早秋初昼夜长可怜天气好年光」写春早秋初昼夜长可怜天气好年光；「和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉」写和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉；「窗下晓眠初减被池边晚坐乍移床」写窗下晓眠初减被池边晚坐乍移床；「闲从蕙草侵堦绿静任槐花满地黄」写闲从蕙草侵堦绿静任槐花满地黄；「理曲管弦闻后院熨衣灯火映深房」写理曲管弦闻后院熨衣灯火映深房；「四时新景何人别遥忆多情李侍郎」写四时新景何人别遥忆多情李侍郎。诗人以蕙草、槐花等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景寄怀之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。
Commentary
Bai Juyi's leisure poems were not always admired. Song and later critics who valued concentration and suggestiveness found them too long, too comfortable and too explanatory, and this piece is often cited as an example of the fault: eleven lines of inventory before the point arrives. Defenders reply that the length is the argument - that the poem's whole purpose is to reproduce, at slow pace, a life in which nothing needs to happen, and that its prose-like ease was a deliberate alternative to the high compression of the regulated style. Its documentary value is now generally acknowledged: few Tang poems record so exactly the texture of an official household, from the warming curtains to the ironing lamp. It is also a good illustration of what Bai Juyi meant by poetry as social currency: the last couplet shows that the entire catalogue has been a gift, addressed to one reader who is far away and cannot see any of it.
这首《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》，是白居易写写景寄怀之作，写春早秋初昼夜长、和风细动帘帷暖、闲从蕙草侵堦绿、遥忆多情李侍郎之情，闲雅寄怀。起「春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光」——春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光。写春早秋初昼夜长：春早秋初昼夜长、可怜天气好年光——昼夜长、好年光；「和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉」——和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉。写和风细动帘帷暖：和风细动帘帷暖、清露微凝枕簟凉——帘帷暖、枕簟凉；「窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床」——窗下晓眠初减被，池边晚坐乍移床。写窗下晓眠初减被：窗下晓眠初减被、池边晚坐乍移床——初减被、乍移床；「闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄」——闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄。写闲从蕙草侵堦绿：闲从蕙草侵堦绿、静任槐花满地黄——侵堦绿、满地黄；「理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房」——理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房。写理曲管弦闻后院：理曲管弦闻后院、熨衣灯火映深房——闻后院、映深房；结「四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎」——四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。写遥忆多情李侍郎：四时新景何人别、遥忆多情李侍郎——何人别、李侍郎。这「四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎」，是全诗之结：以遥忆多情李侍郎写其寄怀。全诗闲雅寄怀，以时写情，正是白居易诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光。
In early spring and early autumn the days and nights are long; how lovely the weather, how fine the season's light.
春早秋初昼夜长，可怜天气好年光。
Early spring, early autumn, the days and nights long; what lovely weather, what fine days.
起句写春早秋初昼夜长，起笔即见其春早。「春早秋初昼夜长」写春早秋初昼夜长，「春早秋初」写春早秋初、「昼夜长」写昼夜长；「可怜天气好年光」写可怜天气好年光，「可怜天气」写可怜天气、「好年光」写好年光。一句写春早秋初昼夜长可怜天气好年光，以春早秋初昼夜长写昼夜长、以可怜天气好年光写好年光，写尽春早秋初昼夜长、可怜天气好年光之情。以时起兴，闲雅而寄怀，是「以时起兴」的妙笔。
The opening line writes early spring, early autumn, the days and nights long, the early spring at once. The words early spring, early autumn write the season; the days and nights long the lengthened days. What lovely weather, what fine days writes the fair time. The line writes to the full the feeling of the long days and the lovely weather. Rising through the season, leisured and graceful, lodging the feeling, the fine brush of rising through the season.
和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉。
A mild wind faintly stirs and the bed-curtains grow warm; clear dew lightly gathers and the pillow-mat feels cool.
和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉。
The gentle breeze stirs faintly, the curtains warm; clear dew faintly forms, the pillow mat cool.
此句写和风细动帘帷暖，是全诗写和风之态的关键。「和风细动帘帷暖」写和风细动帘帷暖，「和风细动」写和风细动、「帘帷暖」写帘帷暖；「清露微凝枕簟凉」写清露微凝枕簟凉，「清露微凝」写清露微凝、「枕簟凉」写枕簟凉。一句写和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉，以和风细动帘帷暖写帘帷暖、以清露微凝枕簟凉写枕簟凉，写尽和风细动帘帷暖、清露微凝枕簟凉之情。以风写景，闲雅而寄怀，是「以风写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes the gentle breeze stirs faintly, the curtains warm, the key of the whole's writing the gentle breeze. The words the gentle breeze stirs faintly write the soft wind; the curtains warm the warmth. Clear dew faintly forms, the pillow mat cool writes the cool. The line writes to the full the feeling of the warm curtains and the cool mat. Writing scenery through the wind, leisured and graceful, lodging the feeling, the eye-dotting brush.
闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄。
At ease, I let the thoroughwort creep green over the steps; in quiet, I let the locust blossoms lie yellow across the ground.
闲从蕙草侵堦绿，静任槐花满地黄。
At leisure I watch the orchid grass creep green up the steps; in quiet I let the scholar-tree flowers lie yellow on the ground.
此句写闲从蕙草侵堦绿，是全诗写蕙草之态的关键。「闲从蕙草侵堦绿」写闲从蕙草侵堦绿，「闲从蕙草」写闲从蕙草、「侵堦绿」写侵堦绿；「静任槐花满地黄」写静任槐花满地黄，「静任槐花」写静任槐花、「满地黄」写满地黄。一句写闲从蕙草侵堦绿静任槐花满地黄，以闲从蕙草侵堦绿写侵堦绿、以静任槐花满地黄写满地黄，写尽闲从蕙草侵堦绿、静任槐花满地黄之情。以草写景，闲雅而寄怀，是「以草写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes at leisure I watch the orchid grass creep green up the steps, the key of the whole's writing the orchid grass. The words at leisure I watch the orchid grass write the unhurried gaze; creep green up the steps the encroaching green. In quiet I let the scholar-tree flowers lie yellow on the ground writes the yellow carpeting. The line writes to the full the feeling of the grass creeping the steps and the flowers yellow on the ground. Writing scenery through the grass, leisured and graceful, lodging the feeling, the eye-dotting brush.
理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房。
From the back court I hear strings and pipes rehearsing a tune; in the inner room the lamplight glows as the clothes are pressed.
理曲管弦闻后院，熨衣灯火映深房。
Tuning the tune, strings and pipes are heard in the rear court; the ironing lamp shines in the deep room.
此句写理曲管弦闻后院，是全诗写管弦之态的关键。「理曲管弦闻后院」写理曲管弦闻后院，「理曲管弦」写理曲管弦、「闻后院」写闻后院；「熨衣灯火映深房」写熨衣灯火映深房，「熨衣灯火」写熨衣灯火、「映深房」写映深房。一句写理曲管弦闻后院熨衣灯火映深房，以理曲管弦闻后院写闻后院、以熨衣灯火映深房写映深房，写尽理曲管弦闻后院、熨衣灯火映深房之情。以乐写景，闲雅而寄怀，是「以乐写景」的点睛之笔。
This line writes tuning the tune, strings and pipes are heard in the rear court, the key of the whole's writing the strings and pipes. The words tuning the tune, strings and pipes write the music; heard in the rear court the sound. The ironing lamp shines in the deep room writes the lamplight. The line writes to the full the feeling of the pipes in the rear court and the lamp in the deep room. Writing scenery through the music, leisured and graceful, lodging the feeling, the eye-dotting brush.
四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。
Who else would mark out the new scenes of the four seasons? Far off, I think of you, my warm-hearted Vice Minister Li.
四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎。
Who is there to share the four seasons' new scenes? From afar I think of the passionate Vice-Minister Li.
结句写遥忆多情李侍郎，是全诗立意的落点。「四时新景何人别」写四时新景何人别，「四时新景」写四时新景、「何人别」写何人别；「遥忆多情李侍郎」写遥忆多情李侍郎，「遥忆多情」写遥忆多情、「李侍郎」写李侍郎。一句写四时新景何人别遥忆多情李侍郎，以四时新景何人别写何人别、以遥忆多情李侍郎写李侍郎，写尽四时新景何人别、遥忆多情李侍郎之情。以忆写情，闲雅而寄怀，是全诗最动人处，也是「以忆写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing line writes from afar I think of the passionate Vice-Minister Li, the landing of the whole's bent. The words who is there to share the four seasons' new scenes? write the solitude; from afar I think of the passionate the longing. Vice-Minister Li points the addressee. The line writes to the full the feeling of the unshared scenes and the distant memory. Writing feeling through the memory, leisured and graceful, lodging the feeling, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi reaches his friend through a cosmic image - the same moon over a thousand miles - and rises to a general truth about separation being inescapable. Bai Juyi reaches his by accumulation of trivial facts, and his truth is smaller: that comfort is only real when someone else can be made to see it. The contrast is between a poetry of the sky and a poetry of the household.
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」，写四时感怀、闲雅旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；白居易《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》则以「四时新景何人别，遥忆多情李侍郎」「春早秋初昼夜长」写李侍郎、昼夜长。两诗同写四时感怀、闲雅旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写四时新景何人别遥忆多情李侍郎、以四时写寄怀；一为苏轼之旷达、一为白居易之闲雅，并读正可见诗写「四时感怀」的两种笔法，皆于四时之中见闲雅。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of Ganzhou: Facing the Evening Rain That Sweeps the River Sky 柳永 · 同写窗下凝望、闲雅清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉，皆于窗下之中见凝望 Both use indoor and waterside imagery to express the condition of a man at a distance from what he cares about.Liu Yong's speaker is drenched, exposed and gazing outward, his longing sharpened by discomfort. Bai Juyi's speaker is warm, dry and comfortably occupied, and his longing takes the form of wanting to show someone how pleasant things are. The two together illustrate how the same theme of absence can be rendered as privation or as surplus.
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」，写窗下凝望、闲雅清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；白居易《春早秋初因时即事兼寄浙东李侍郎》则以「和风细动帘帷暖，清露微凝枕簟凉」「窗下晓眠初减被」写枕簟凉、初减被。两诗同写窗下凝望、闲雅清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写和风细动帘帷暖清露微凝枕簟凉、以和风写寄怀；一为柳永之清丽、一为白居易之闲雅，并读正可见诗写「窗下凝望」的两种笔法，皆于窗下之中见凝望。