和晋陵陆丞早春游望

Meaning

A wandering official greets the new spring with a start: dawn clouds over the sea, plum and willow crossing the river, orioles urged by the warm air, duckweed greening in the light. The season's beauty intensifies rather than cures his homesickness, and when his friend sings the old poem, tears wet his kerchief. Du Shenyan's five-character regulated verse is a landmark in the maturing of the form.

独有宦游人，偏惊物候新。云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春。淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹。忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Only one who travels in office is startled anew by each shift of the seasons. Dawn clouds and rosy light rise from the sea; plum and willow carry spring across the river. The mild air hurries the orioles to sing; the clear sunlight turns the duckweed green. Then I suddenly hear you singing your old poem, and my longing for home is enough to soak my kerchief. [Structure] The poem moves from thesis, only the wanderer startles at the seasons, through three couplets of spring scenery to the emotional release of the closing couplet: the classic regulated-verse arc. [Imagery] Clouds and glow rising from the sea and plum and willow crossing the river are among the most famous lines in early Tang poetry; spring is given motion and scale, as if the season itself were traveling south. The scenery is not decorative but the very force that startles the wanderer.

【白话串讲】 杜审言写《和晋陵陆丞早春游望》：“独有宦游人，偏惊物候新”——“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”——“淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹”——“忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾”——他写早春游望——云霞出海曙。 【意象与手法】 “独有宦游人，偏惊物候新”写宦游惊物候；“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”写云霞梅柳；“淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹”写淑气晴光；结以“忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾”写归思沾巾。清丽警策。 【情感与主旨】 杜审言和晋陵陆丞早春游望之作，写宦游见早春物候之新而触发归思，以“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”写春景之壮，是五律中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“独有宦游人，偏惊物候新”写宦游惊物候；“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”写春景之壮。

Allusions

The poem's references are few but weighty. The wanderer in office names the condition of the traveling official, a stock but deeply felt figure in Tang poetry. The turning seasons refers to the twenty-four solar terms and seasonal signs whose change is felt most sharply by those far from home. The yellow oriole is spring's standard bird and the green duckweed its standard water plant, the conventional vocabulary of early spring, here refreshed by active verbs. The old tune is the friend's poem in the old style, heard as a melody, and wetting the kerchief alludes to the classical expression of grief for home so deep it soaks one's sleeve. The opening phrase about being startled by the turning seasons became so famous that later poets echo it whenever they write the official-traveler's spring.

诗中「独有宦游人偏惊物候新」「云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春」「淑气催黄鸟晴光转绿苹」「忽闻歌古调归思欲沾巾」等语，皆含典故故实。「独有宦游人偏惊物候新」写独有宦游人偏惊物候新；「云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春」写云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春；「淑气催黄鸟晴光转绿苹」用黄鸟之典（黄鸟即黄莺，鸣于春），写淑气催黄鸟晴光转绿苹；「忽闻歌古调归思欲沾巾」写忽闻歌古调归思欲沾巾。诗人以黄鸟等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把写景羁旅之情写得真切可感，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。

Commentary

This poem is one of the canonical works of early Tang regulated verse, and its second couplet, morning clouds and glow rising from the sea with plum and willow carrying spring across the river, has been quoted for thirteen centuries as the supreme image of spring's arrival. Critics have noted how the poem matures the regulated form: the parallelism is exact but alive, and the emotional arc from startlement at the seasons to thoughts of home wetting the kerchief gives the form a psychological completeness it had not previously achieved. Du Shenyan's fame rests substantially on this poem; as Du Fu's grandfather, he also stands at the head of the great Du poetic lineage. The opening line in particular established the wanderer in office startled by the seasons as a permanent theme of Chinese poetry.

这首《和晋陵陆丞早春游望》，是杜审言写写景羁旅之作，写独有宦游人、云霞出海曙、淑气催黄鸟、归思欲沾巾之情，清丽警策。起「独有宦游人，偏惊物候新」——独有宦游人，偏惊物候新。写独有宦游人：独有宦游人、偏惊物候新——宦游人、物候新；「云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春」——云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春。写云霞出海曙：云霞出海曙、梅柳渡江春——出海曙、渡江春；「淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹」——淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹。写淑气催黄鸟：淑气催黄鸟、晴光转绿苹——催黄鸟、转绿苹；结「忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾」——忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾。写归思欲沾巾：忽闻歌古调、归思欲沾巾——歌古调、欲沾巾。这「忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾」，是全诗之结：以归思欲沾巾写其羁旅。全诗清丽警策，以景写情，正是杜审言诗中的名篇。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。

Prosody

Line by line

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