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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

丹阳送韦参军

Seeing Off Adjutant Wei at Danyang

严维

Yan Wei

丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋。
日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。

Inside the walls of Danyang I see off your travelling boat,
Once we part, we know in our hearts: autumn in two places.
At day's end, south of the river, I gaze toward the north bank,
The cold crows have all flown off, and the water flows on and on.
Listen

Meaning

Yan Wei sees a friend's boat away from the town of Danyang and says that after this parting the same autumn will be felt in two separate places at once. He stays on the southern bank watching the northern shore until evening, by which time the crows have all gone and nothing is left but the river, moving steadily as though nothing had happened. The poem's subject is the moment after the farewell, when feeling has no object left to attach itself to and can only watch the water.

丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋。日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Within the outer walls of Danyang he watches the boat go; they both know that from now on the season will be autumn in two places. Late in the day he stands south of the river looking north, until the last cold crows have flown away and only the water is left, flowing on and on. [Structure] The poem splits neatly between the moment of parting and the moment afterwards: the first couplet contains two people, the second only one. [Imagery] The images are few and plain - a boat, a season, a riverbank, crows, water - and their plainness is deliberate, since anything more striking would distract from the emptiness being described. [Feeling] The most original phrase is autumn in two places: instead of saying they will miss each other, the poet divides a season between them, so that the weather itself becomes the shared condition. The closing line is a classic of the implied ending - the crows go, the water does not, and the contrast between the two kinds of departure is left entirely for the reader to interpret.

【白话串讲】 严维写《丹阳送韦参军》：“丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋”——“日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠”——他送韦参军——寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。 【意象与手法】 “丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋”写送别两地秋；“日晚江南望江北”写望江北；结以“寒鸦飞尽水悠悠”以寒鸦水悠悠写别情。深婉悠长。 【情感与主旨】 严维写送别之作，写丹阳送别韦参军、一别两地秋的离愁，以“寒鸦飞尽水悠悠”写别后怅望，是唐人送别诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋”以两地秋写别愁；“日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠”以寒鸦水悠悠写怅望。

Background

Yan Wei, courtesy name Zhengwen, was a native of Shanyin in Yuezhou, in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and was active around the middle of the eighth century. He passed the jinshi examination, held minor office, and belonged to the wide circle of southeastern poets who wrote for one another in the decades around the An Lushan rebellion; he is remembered today almost entirely for this quatrain. Danyang lay on the Grand Canal south of the Yangtze in what is now Jiangsu, on the main route between the lower Yangtze cities and the capital, so a farewell there meant a friend departing north by water, probably toward office. Farewell poetry was the most heavily worked genre in the Tang, and by Yan Wei's time it had accumulated an enormous stock of conventions - broken willows, cups of wine, parting at the ferry. The distinction of this poem is that it dispenses with almost all of them: there is no wine, no willow, no speech, and after the boat leaves there is not even a person.

《丹阳送韦参军》为唐代诗人严维所作诗。严维（约756年前后在世），字正文，越州山阴（今浙江绍兴）人，唐代诗人。此诗写送别写景，为送韦参军之作。诗中「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」写丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋；「日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。严维此诗以送别写景、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠写其送别之情，深婉悠长，是严维诗中的名篇。此篇《丹阳送韦参军》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《丹阳送韦参军》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 craft is in the second line and the last. Autumn in two places is a conceit of remarkable compression: rather than describing two people who miss each other, it makes a single season occupy two locations simultaneously, so that separation becomes a property of the weather. The word know in that line is also carefully chosen - they know it in their hearts, which means the parting is understood rather than discussed, and it is the last moment at which the two share anything. The closing couplet then performs the standard movement of the best Tang farewell poems, which is to remove the human subject and leave a landscape that outlasts him. The crows are not symbolic; they are simply the last things moving, and when they have gone the eye has nothing to follow but the river. The final phrase, flowing on and on, is a reduplicative that suggests both duration and indifference, and the poem ends on it without a single word of conclusion - the classic yun wai zhi zhi, the meaning beyond the words.

此诗艺术上以「深婉悠长、以景写情」见长。全诗共四句，由丹阳郭里送行舟而日晚江南望江北。起「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」写丹阳郭里送行舟：丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋；结「日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写日晚江南望江北：日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。全诗以景写情，由丹阳郭里送行舟而寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，深婉悠长，是严维诗中的名篇。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

The poem works largely by declining to use the conventional apparatus of the farewell genre, and that refusal is itself meaningful. The broken willow spray, the three cups at the roadside, the legend of the parting at Yang Pass - all are absent, and their absence tells the reader that this is a parting too ordinary and too real for ceremony. The autumn season carries the inherited weight instead: since Song Yu's Nine Arguments, autumn in Chinese poetry has been the season of diminishment and of going away, so the line about autumn in two places quietly borrows the whole tradition and then divides it. The crows belong to a plainer, more recent lineage of riverbank imagery, where they mark the end of the day. And the closing image of water flowing without stopping is one of the oldest figures in the tradition, found in the Confucian anecdote of the master sighing by the river that things pass like this, day and night - here without the philosophy, and only with the watching.

诗中「丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋」「日晚江南望江北寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」等语，皆含典故故实。「丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋」写丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋；「日晚江南望江北寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写日晚江南望江北寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。诗人以行舟、寒鸦等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把送别写景之情写得真切可感，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

Yan Wei is one of those poets whose entire later reputation rests on a single quatrain, and critics have usually justified the survival by pointing to the closing line. Ming and Qing readers regularly cited the last couplet as an example of the ending that does not end, in which the speaker simply keeps looking while the world empties out around him; some placed it just below the great farewell quatrains of Li Bai and Wang Wei, on the grounds that it achieves the same effect with less apparatus. The phrase autumn in two places has been admired separately, usually with the comment that it says in five characters what other poets take a couplet to say. Modern readers have also noticed how fully the poem describes the physical experience of a departure by water - the boat moving, the friend receding, the watcher left on the wrong bank - and how little of it is stated. It remains a staple of anthologies of Tang quatrains and of school readers precisely because it is short, unornamented and complete.

这首《丹阳送韦参军》，是严维写送别写景之作，写丹阳郭里送行舟、一别心知两地秋、日晚江南望江北、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠之情，深婉悠长。起「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」——丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋。写丹阳郭里送行舟：丹阳郭里送行舟、一别心知两地秋——送行舟、两地秋；结「日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」——日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。写日晚江南望江北：日晚江南望江北、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠——望江北、水悠悠。这「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」，是全诗之结：以寒鸦飞尽水悠悠写其送别。全诗深婉悠长，以景写情，正是严维诗中的名篇。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 A seven-character quatrain (qi yan jueju), regular in form.诗（七言绝句）
Rhyme Two rhyme words, on the second and fourth lines, both level in tone and belonging to the same class of long, rounded finals. That sound is unusually well suited to a poem about water: the rhyme itself seems to go on flowing, and the closing line ends on it rather than on a stop.此诗为七言绝句，共四句。押韵：「秋」「悠」押尤部韵。诗体依绝句而定，句式整齐，音节短促而悠长，正与写送别写景的深婉悠长相称，也见其以绝句写送别的凝练。
Tone pattern Level and oblique syllables follow the standard quatrain arrangement, and the two couplets are properly contrasted. The first couplet is relatively even and conversational, since it records a shared understanding; the second couplet slows, and the closing line is weighted with two drawn-out final syllables that mimic the movement of the river it describes.句式上，「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」写丹阳郭里送行舟，音节低回；结「日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写日晚江南望江北，音节悠长。全诗音节由低回而悠长，正合绝句「凝练」之妙，读来如送别写景、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠之音，深婉而动人。
Reading note The formal poise of the quatrain matters here because the content is deliberately unresolved. Everything hard-edged - the boat, the parting, the crows - is disposed of in the first three lines, and the last line is left entirely to a slow, level, rounded sound that does not close. The result is a poem that is metrically finished and emotionally unfinished, which is exactly the effect the best Tang farewell quatrains aim at.此诗为七言绝句，是严维写送别写景之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「深婉悠长、以景写情」：「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」写丹阳郭里送行舟、「日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写日晚江南望江北。全诗深婉悠长，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「一别心知两地秋」写尽两地之秋；而「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写尽望水之情，正是严维诗「深婉悠长」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《丹阳送韦参军》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

丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋。

Inside the walls of Danyang I see off your travelling boat; once we part, we know in our hearts: autumn in two places.

丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋。

Within the walls of Danyang I see off the traveling boat; once parted, the heart knows two places of autumn.

首句写丹阳郭里送行舟，起笔即见其送。「丹阳郭里送行舟」写丹阳郭里送行舟，「丹阳郭里」写丹阳郭里、「送行舟」写送行舟；「一别心知两地秋」写一别心知两地秋，「一别心知」写一别心知、「两地秋」写两地秋。两句一写丹阳郭里送行舟、一写一别心知两地秋，以丹阳郭里送行舟写送行舟、以一别心知两地秋写两地秋，写尽丹阳郭里送行舟、一别心知两地秋之情。以送起兴，深婉而悠长，是「以送起兴」的妙笔。

The opening line writes within the walls of Danyang I see off the traveling boat, the seeing-off at once. The words within the walls of Danyang write the city; I see off the traveling boat the farewell boat. Once parted, the heart knows two places of autumn writes the two autumns. The two lines, one writing the seeing-off of the boat at Danyang, one writing the two places of autumn once parted, write to the full the feeling of the boat's farewell and the two autumns. Rising through the seeing-off, deep-tender and long, the fine brush of rising through the seeing-off.

日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。

At day's end, south of the river, I gaze toward the north bank; the cold crows have all flown off, and the water flows on and on.

日晚江南望江北，寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。

As day declines, from the south shore I gaze to the north; the cold crows have flown away, the waters flow on and on.

结句写日晚江南望江北，是全诗立意的落点。「日晚江南望江北」写日晚江南望江北，「日晚江南」写日晚江南、「望江北」写望江北；「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，「寒鸦飞尽」写寒鸦飞尽、「水悠悠」写水悠悠。两句一写日晚江南望江北、一写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，以日晚江南望江北写望江北、以寒鸦飞尽水悠悠写水悠悠，写尽日晚江南望江北、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠之情。以水写情，深婉而悠长，是全诗最动人处，也是「以水写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing line writes as day declines, from the south shore I gaze to the north, the landing of the whole's bent. The words as day declines, from the south shore write the evening; gaze to the north the looking. The cold crows have flown away, the waters flow on and on writes the endless water. The two lines, one writing the evening gaze from south to north, one writing the crows flown and the waters on, write to the full the feeling of the gaze and the endless water. Writing feeling through the water, deep-tender and long, the most moving place of the whole and the eye-dotting brush.

Study

Word focus

行舟 The travelling boat. It is the moving object of the whole poem: the friend is carried off in it, and everything afterwards is measured from its departure, which is why the speaker is left on the wrong bank. 「行舟」写丹阳郭里送行舟，是写行舟之态的关键。「丹阳郭里送行舟」着一「行舟」，写行舟——着一「行舟」，写丹阳郭里送行舟，见其舟之行。两字写尽行舟之态，是「以词写舟」的妙笔。「行舟」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。
两地秋 Autumn in two places. The poem's central conceit - a single season divided between two separated people, so that the weather, rather than any statement of feeling, becomes the register of their separation. 「两地秋」写一别心知两地秋，是写两地秋之态的关键。「一别心知两地秋」着一「两地秋」，写两地秋——着一「两地秋」，写一别心知两地秋，见其秋之两地。三字写尽两地秋之态，是「以词写秋」的点睛之词。「两地秋」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。
寒鸦 Cold crows, the birds of the riverbank at dusk. They are the last living things in the scene, and their departure empties the landscape; the poem then has nothing to watch but water. 「寒鸦」写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，是写寒鸦之态的关键。「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」着一「寒鸦」，写寒鸦——着一「寒鸦」，写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，见其鸦之寒。两字写尽寒鸦之态，是「以词写鸦」的点睛之词。「寒鸦」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。
悠悠 On and on, endlessly - a reduplicative suggesting both duration and indifference. As the final word of the poem it sets the endless flowing of the river against the finished departure of the crows and the unfinished watching of the speaker. 「悠悠」写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，是写悠悠之态的关键。「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」着一「悠悠」，写悠悠——着一「悠悠」，写寒鸦飞尽水悠悠，见其水之悠悠。两字写尽悠悠之态，是「以词写悠」的点睛之词。「悠悠」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

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 · 同写送别凝望、深婉悠长，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋，皆于送别之中见凝望 Both are riverbank poems of someone watching across water toward what he has lost.

Liu Yong builds a vast, slow panorama and then explains his longing in detail, his speaker stranded in an autumn that is explicitly described. Yan Wei gives four lines and one conceit, and after the crows have gone he says nothing at all. The comparison is a convenient illustration of the long lyric's expository patience against the quatrain's reliance on a single unglossed image.

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」，写送别凝望、深婉悠长，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；严维《丹阳送韦参军》则以「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写送行舟两地秋、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。两诗同写送别凝望、深婉悠长：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋、以望江北写送别；一为柳永之清丽、一为严维之深婉，并读正可见诗写「送别凝望」的两种笔法，皆于送别之中见凝望。

 水调歌头·明月几时有 Song of the Water Melody: When Did the Bright Moon First Appear 苏轼 · 同写离别感怀、旷达超然，一写人有悲欢离合、一写丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋，皆于离别之中见感怀 Both respond to separation, and both end by handing the emotion to something impersonal.

Su Shi answers separation with a general truth about the moon and about life, and reaches a consolation. Yan Wei answers it by watching a river and stops. One poet resolves the emotion by thinking it through; the other leaves it standing at the water's edge, which is why his twenty-eight characters have been read as the purest form of the implied ending.

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」，写离别感怀、旷达超然，是宋词长调的名篇；严维《丹阳送韦参军》则以「丹阳郭里送行舟，一别心知两地秋」「寒鸦飞尽水悠悠」写送行舟两地秋、寒鸦飞尽水悠悠。两诗同写离别感怀、旷达超然：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写丹阳郭里送行舟一别心知两地秋、以送别写两地秋；一为苏轼之超然、一为严维之深婉，并读正可见诗写「离别感怀」的两种笔法，皆于离别之中见感怀。