和张仆射塞下曲 三

Meaning

A twenty-character masterpiece: in the moonless night the wild geese fly high, the enemy chieftain flees, the Tang commander is about to lead the light cavalry after him, and the poem stops, holding the image of snow covering bows and swords. The pursuit is never described; the frozen tableau says everything about frontier valor.

月黑之夜，鴈飞得高。单于趁夜，遁逃而去。欲将轻骑，追逐敌踪。大雪纷纷，落满弓刀。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] In the moonless dark the wild geese fly high; the Chanyu flees under cover of night. I am about to lead the light cavalry in pursuit, and heavy snow fills the bows and swords. [Imagery] The poem is a sequence of four frozen frames: black night, flying geese, fleeing chieftain, snow-covered weapons. There is no battle, no victory, only the moment before the charge. [Technique] The genius is the pause: the poem ends at the instant of readiness, and the snow settling on bows and swords becomes the image of the whole pursuit. This economy, writing the battle by not writing it, is the summit of the frontier quatrain's art.

【白话串讲】 卢纶写《和张仆射塞下曲·其三》：“月黑鴈飞高，单于夜遁逃”——“欲将轻骑逐，大雪满弓刀”——他写夜逐——大雪满弓刀。 【意象与手法】 首句“月黑鴈飞高”写月黑之夜鴈飞高远；次句“单于夜遁逃”写单于趁夜遁逃；三句“欲将轻骑逐”写欲率轻骑追逐；末句“大雪满弓刀”写大雪落满弓刀。凝练雄壮。 【情感与主旨】 卢纶写月黑雪夜轻骑追敌的英姿，以“大雪满弓刀”写追敌的果决，是边塞诗的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“月黑鴈飞高，单于夜遁逃”写月黑夜战；“欲将轻骑逐，大雪满弓刀”写追敌英姿。

Allusions

The poem's allusions are concentrated in two words. Chanyu was the title of the Xiongnu rulers; from Han times onward Chinese poets used the old title for the enemy chieftain of any generation, so the word carries the whole history of frontier conflict behind a fleeing shadow. The moonless dark belongs to the old repertoire of night-battle atmosphere, the darkness in which ambushes and pursuits happen. The wild geese flying high in the dark is the classic sign of a disturbed autumn night on the border, the birds startled into flight by the movement below. The light cavalry, lightly armed and fast-riding, is the traditional arm of pursuit, and the bows and swords are the soldier's own weapons, now half-buried in snow. Every term is conventional, yet their arrangement into a single frozen moment is entirely Lu Lun's own.

此诗用典于关键处见深意。「月黑」，写月黑无光之夜——「月黑」写夜色深黑，正是「月黑杀人夜，风高放火天」的夜战氛围。「鴈」，写鸿鴈——「鴈」为候鸟，月黑之夜鴈飞高，正是边塞秋夜的意象；「月黑鴈飞高」，写月黑之夜鸿鴈高飞。「单于」，用「单于」之典——单于为匈奴首领的称号，汉时匈奴称王为单于，后以「单于」写边地敌首；「单于夜遁逃」，写单于趁夜遁逃。「轻骑」，写轻装的骑兵——「轻骑」写轻装快马之骑，正是追敌之骑；「欲将轻骑逐」，写欲率轻骑追逐。「大雪满弓刀」，写大雪落满弓刀——「弓刀」写弓与刀，正是边塞将士的兵器。值得注意的是「鴈」字——雁为候鸟，秋来南飞，边塞的「鴈飞高」，正写秋夜的天象，也暗含边塞的时令。又「单于」一典出自汉匈之事，借古之敌首写今之边患，正见唐诗「以古写今」的惯例——那月黑之夜的遁逃，那轻骑的追逐，正是历代边塞诗中「胡骑」「单于」意象的延续。这些意象，或写月黑、或写鴈飞、或写单于、或写轻骑、或写弓刀，皆围绕雪夜追敌与边塞英姿这一核心，织成一张凝练而鲜明的画图，正是中唐边塞诗「以景写人」的特点。

Commentary

This third Frontier Song is the most famous of Lu Lun's series and one of the most celebrated short poems in Chinese literature. Its closing line, heavy snow fills bows and swords, has been praised for thirteen centuries as the perfect frontier image: the battle is withheld, the snow does the talking, and the reader is left holding the instant before the charge. Critics note that the poem matures the five-character quatrain's art of implication, writing an entire night pursuit through what it refuses to show. Set against the High Tang frontier manner of Wang Zhihuan and Wang Changling, Lu Lun's poem represents the mid-Tang turn toward compression and restraint, proving that twenty characters can carry a whole night of war.

读此诗，最值得注意的是「欲将轻骑逐，大雪满弓刀」所写出的「追敌的决断与英姿的定格」。前两句写夜与敌情：月黑鴈飞高——那是月黑之夜，鸿鴈高飞，夜的深黑与万籁俱寂；单于夜遁逃——那是敌首趁夜遁逃，正是边塞的敌情。而后两句写追敌：「欲将轻骑逐」——欲率轻骑追逐，那「欲」字，写将要追逐的决断，毫不犹豫；「大雪满弓刀」——大雪落满弓刀，那「满」字，写大雪纷纷落满弓刀，正是追击之际的凛冽。这一结，是全诗的精妙：诗人不写追敌的结果，不写斩敌的胜利，只写那「大雪满弓刀」的瞬间——轻骑追入雪夜，大雪落满弓刀。那「大雪满弓刀」的画面，正是英姿的定格：弓刀之上，落满大雪，那追敌的轻骑，在漫天风雪中疾驰。留白，正是此诗的精妙：追敌的结果如何，那单于是否被擒，诗人都不写，只留下那雪夜追敌的英姿，让读者想象。全诗二十字，写尽雪夜追敌的英姿，那「欲将轻骑逐」的决断，那「大雪满弓刀」的凛冽，正是边塞诗「写英姿」的极致。卢纶《塞下曲》之所以传诵千古，正在于这「大雪满弓刀」的留白与定格。

Prosody

Line by line

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