All poems

唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

南浦别

Farewell at Nanpu

白居易

Bai Juyi

送别Farewell 愁思Sorrow

南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋。
一看肠一断，好去莫回头。

A bleak farewell at Nanpu —
the west wind soughs, autumn is here.
Each glance I cast, and my heart breaks once more;
go on — and do not look back.

Listen

Meaning

A twenty-word farewell: at Nanpu, the classic place of parting, in the soughing west wind of autumn, the poet watches his friend leave. Every backward glance breaks his heart anew, yet he forces himself to the tender, self-denying plea — 'go on, and do not look back' — because each look would be another heartbreak, and because he cannot bear to be seen weeping.

在南浦这令人凄凄然的地方告别，西风袅袅，秋意正浓。你走一步，我的心肠便断一次，你尽管去吧，千万不要回头。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The first couplet fixes the time and place of parting — Nanpu, the west wind, autumn — and the heart's bleakness, in two paired reduplicatives. The second couplet seizes the instant of leaving: each glance breaks a heart, and the poet, swallowing his tears, begs his friend to go on without turning back.
[Structure] Two couplets, scene then act, with the emotional turn hidden in the movement from landscape to the raw moment of parting. The last line reverses the expected farewell logic — instead of 'look back,' 'do not look back' — and that reversal is the whole poem.
[Imagery] The images are archetypal: Nanpu (parting's own place, since Qu Yuan's 'I see my beauty off at Nanpu'), the west wind and autumn (the season of decline). But the real image is the traveler's repeated backward glances and the poet's hidden tears. The poem's power is in what it does not say: no reason for the journey, no promise of return — only the unbearable arithmetic that every look costs one more heartbreak.

【白话串讲】白居易写《南浦别》：“南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋”——“一看肠一断，好去莫回头”——越看越断肠，你走好，别回头——他写送别之痛。【意象与手法】此诗是白居易送别诗中的精品，以二十字写尽送别的凄楚。前两句点明时地：「南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋」，以「南浦」这一送别的特定地点起笔，以「凄凄」「袅袅」两个叠字分别状离情与秋风，一写内心的凄怆，一写景色的萧瑟，情景交融，秋意与别情一并袭来。后两句直写送别的瞬间：「一看肠一断，好去莫回头」，友人每回一望，诗人的愁肠便断一截；而「好去莫回头」却是强忍悲痛、含泪叮嘱——明知回头会肠断，却仍要对方不要回头，正是怕对方看见自己泪流满面，也怕自己再难自持。全诗由景入情，由含蓄到直白，把一个「忍泪相送」的瞬间写得百转千回、感人至深。【情感与主旨】此诗作于白居易早年，具体背景已难确考，或为其送别友人、或是其被贬外任时与人话别之作。南浦，语出屈原《九歌·河伯》「送美人兮南浦」，后世遂以南浦为送别之地的代称。诗写秋日南浦送别，友人离去之际的依依不舍。诗人在西风袅袅的秋日与友人分别，看着友人一步一回头的背影，愁肠寸断，却仍强忍着泪水叮嘱对方「好去莫回头」。这短短二十字，既写出了送别之人的深情与不舍，也写出了人生聚散无常的无奈。诗中的「一看肠一断」与李白的「一叫一回肠一断」有异曲同工之妙，但李诗是听鹃思乡，白诗是目送友人，一闻一见，皆是情到深处的自然流露，真挚动人。【名句点睛】常考“南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋”以叠字写秋意与别情，情景交融；“一看肠一断，好去莫回头”写忍泪相送的瞬间，深挚动人。

Background

Bai Juyi (772–846), the great mid-Tang poet and champion of the plain style, wrote this farewell in his early years, before or around the start of his official career (he passed the jinshi at twenty-nine, in 800), though its exact date and dedicatee are unknown. 'Nanpu' had been the classical word for a place of farewell ever since Qu Yuan's 'Nine Songs' ('I see my beauty off at Nanpu') and Jiang Yan's 'Fu of Parting' ('I see you off at Nanpu — how it wounds!'). The poem is a model of Bai Juyi's creed that 'what moves hearts is nothing before feeling' — plain diction, real feeling, no ornament — and of the 'old woman can understand it' simplicity he demanded of poetry.

此诗为白居易早年之作，具体作年与送别对象已难确考，但从诗风与题材推断，当作于其入仕前后或仕途早期。南浦，本指南面的水边，屈原《九歌·河伯》有「与子交手兮东行，送美人兮南浦」之句，后世遂以南浦为送别之地的代称，南朝江淹《别赋》「送君南浦，伤如之何」更使南浦成为离别文学的经典意象。白居易年轻时才华横溢，二十九岁中进士，此后历任校书郎、盩厔尉等职，期间多有送别酬赠之作。此诗或是他送别赴任的友人，或是自己远行时与亲友话别，虽无确证，但诗中那「凄凄」「袅袅」「肠一断」「莫回头」的真挚情感，正是白居易「感人心者，莫先乎情」诗学主张的生动体现。值得注意的是，白居易主张「文章合为时而著，歌诗合为事而作」，其诗多以平易自然的语言写真情实感，此诗即典型：它不堆砌典故（仅「南浦」一词暗用典），不雕琢辞藻，只以最朴素的语言写出送别的瞬间，却比许多华丽之作更打动人心。这也体现了白居易诗歌语言「老妪能解」而情韵悠长的特色，是其早期抒情短章的优秀代表，与《赋得古原草送别》等同为白居易送别题材的名篇。

Art

Four devices carry this twenty-character poem. First, paired reduplicatives: 'bleak, bleak' for the heart, 'soughing' for the wind — one inner, one outer, their drawn-out sound imitating both grief and the wind's sigh. Second, scene-feeling fusion: Nanpu, west wind, autumn, bleakness — place, season, mood braided into one. Third, the escalator from indirection to directness: the first couplet implies the sorrow, the second states it flatly ('each glance... my heart breaks'), the emotional gate opening all at once. Fourth, the 'do not look back' reversal: the expected farewell trope is 'linger and look back,' yet the poet forbids it — a forbearance more moving than any lament, since it protects both the departing friend and the weeping poet. Every device serves the same end: to make the reader hear the grief behind the calm.

此诗的艺术特色可从四个层面把握。其一，叠字传情的语言技巧。前两句「南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋」，连用「凄凄」「袅袅」两个叠字：「凄凄」状离别时心情的凄凉（语出《诗经·小雅·四月》「秋日凄凄，百卉具腓」），「袅袅」状秋风的轻柔绵长（语出屈原《九歌·湘夫人》「袅袅兮秋风，洞庭波兮木叶下」），两个叠字一写内心一写外景，声调低回悠长，未写别情而别情已浓。其二，情景交融的意境营造。南浦是送别之地，西风是秋季之景，凄凄是离别之情，袅袅是秋风之态——地、时、情、景四者交织，构成一幅秋日送别的典型画面，萧瑟的秋风与凄怆的离情互相生发，正是「一切景语皆情语」。其三，由含蓄到直白的抒情递进。前两句以景语含蓄地渲染离情，后两句转写送别瞬间的直白情感：「一看肠一断，好去莫回头」，由景入情、由隐到显，情感的闸门在此打开。其四，「莫回头」的逆向叮嘱。这是全诗最动人的一笔：通常送别都是「行子肠断」、依依回望，诗人却叮嘱友人「好去莫回头」——因为每一次回头，都是一次肠断；这一叮嘱既是为友人着想（怕他回头更增伤感），也是为自己着想（怕自己看见回望的友人而崩溃），忍泪含悲，情深一往。四重手法层层推进，使这首二十字的小诗成为中国送别诗中的千古名篇。

Allusions

The poem's allusions are worn smooth. 'Nanpu' comes from Qu Yuan's 'Nine Songs — Lord of the River': 'Hand in hand we journey east, I see my beauty off at Nanpu'; Jiang Yan's 'Fu of Parting' then made it the standard name for any place of farewell, so the single word carries millennia of parting. 'Bleak, bleak' adapts the Book of Songs ('The autumn days are bleak, all plants wither'), transferring the withering of plants to the withering of the heart. 'Soughing' descends from the same Songs ('Soughing, oh, the autumn wind over Dongting, the leaves come down'), where the wind's softness measures the season's chill. 'My heart breaks' belongs to the old yuefu tradition of heartbreak ('The waters of Longtou sob; gazing toward Qinchuan, my heart and liver are severed'). None of these is displayed; each is dissolved into the scene, which is why readers feel the weight of tradition without seeing its seams — the hallmark of Bai Juyi's plain-but-learned style.

此诗的典故核心在「南浦」二字，这是中国文学中送别意象的源头之一。南浦典出屈原《九歌·河伯》「与子交手兮东行，送美人兮南浦」，本指水边送别；南朝江淹《别赋》「送君南浦，伤如之何」，更将南浦确立为离别文学的经典空间意象。此后「南浦」遂成送别的代称，范成大「南浦春来绿一川」、柳永「留恋处，兰舟催发」等皆承此脉。白居易于此用「南浦」而不加诠释，正是以其深厚的送别文化积淀，让读者一望而知其别情。「凄凄」一词暗承《诗经·小雅·四月》「秋日凄凄，百卉具腓」，本是写秋日草木凋零之貌，白居易移以状离别之心，化景语为情语；「袅袅」则承屈原《九歌·湘夫人》「袅袅兮秋风，洞庭波兮木叶下」，以秋风的轻柔绵长写景色的萧瑟，两处化用楚辞，不着痕迹。「肠一断」则源于乐府「肠断」的传统意象（如《陇头歌辞》「陇头流水，鸣声呜咽。遥望秦川，心肝断绝」），白居易以「一看肠一断」的递进式写法，将肠断具象为可数的痛楚。全诗用典皆化入情景之中，读者不察其典而自感其情，正是白居易「用典如用家常语」的本领，也是其诗歌通俗而不失雅正的原因所在。

Commentary

The poem is a standard anthology piece, and critics praise 'A bleak farewell at Nanpu, the west wind soughs, autumn is here' for the reduplicatives' songlike grief and 'go on — do not look back' for 'few words, long feeling.' In the history of farewell poetry, 'Nanpu' sealed the word as a synonym for parting, and the 'do not look back' admonition became a model for later farewell poets: Wang Wei's 'I urge you to drink one more cup' urges wine, Bai Juyi urges departure — one for the road, one through tears, each perfect in its way. Compared with the High Tang's broad farewells (Gao Shi's 'Fear not that ahead you'll find no friends'), this poem shows the mid-Tang turn toward private, everyday emotion: no ambition, only attachment; no exhortation, only the difficulty of letting go. For modern readers, these twenty characters are the ideal door into the 'Nanpu' imagery and the farewell tradition — and into Bai Juyi's genius for feeling in plain words.

此诗历来被推为白居易送别诗的佳作，与《赋得古原草送别》《问刘十九》等同为白诗名篇。历代论者多赏其「南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋」的叠字传情与「好去莫回头」的深情叮嘱：清人评此诗「语短情长，含凄楚于言外」，近人更指出「一看肠一断」以直白之语写极痛之情，正是白居易「老妪能解」而感人至深的语言魅力。在送别诗史上，「南浦」自此成为送别的代称，而此诗「莫回头」的叮嘱，更成为后世送别诗竞相仿效的写法——王维「劝君更尽一杯酒」是劝酒，白居易「好去莫回头」是劝别，一为壮行，一为含泪，各极其妙。相较于盛唐送别诗的慷慨豪迈（如高适「莫愁前路无知己」），此诗显出中唐送别诗向日常生活化、私人情感化转型的痕迹：它不写壮志，只写离愁；不写劝勉，只写难舍，感情更细腻、更个人化。这种从「大我」到「小我」的转变，正是中唐诗歌（尤其白居易、元稹）与盛唐诗歌的重要分野。对于今日读者，此诗是理解中国「南浦」意象与送别诗传统的入门之作，也是白居易平易近人、情真意切诗风的最佳体现，二十字间，离愁如秋风般弥漫不尽。

Prosody

Form Five-character quatrain (wuyan jueju), level-tone start, first line not rhyming五言绝句（平起首句入韵）

Rhyme Rhymes on the level-tone you group: qiu 'autumn' and tou 'head' (the first line's 'bie' is oblique and does not rhyme). The level-tone rhymes stretch the close out long and low, echoing the lingering 'do not look back.'押下平十一尤韵，韵脚为「秋」「头」。首句「别」字仄声（入声九屑）不入韵，属首句不入韵之格。韵脚「秋」「头」皆属尤部，韵音悠长苍远，与「莫回头」的叮嘱之音相谐。

Tone pattern 'South-pu bleak bleak part' (level oblique level level oblique); 'West wind soughing autumn' (level level oblique oblique level); 'One glance, gut one break' (oblique oblique oblique oblique oblique); 'Go well, do not turn head' (oblique oblique oblique level level). The third line's five consecutive oblique tones give a staccato jerk — the sound of a heart snapping — while the closing line's level tones smooth it into forced calm, the sound of held-back tears.南浦凄凄别，平仄平平仄；西风袅袅秋，平平仄仄平；一看肠一断，仄仄平仄仄；好去莫回头，仄仄仄平平。全诗平仄大体合于五绝格律，第三句「一看肠一断」以仄声为主，急促顿挫，恰合肠断之痛；末句「好去莫回头」以平声收束，舒缓低沉，正应「莫回头」的忍泪叮嘱。

Reading note The poem's prosody is its acting. Read the first couplet low and drawn out (the reduplicatives must breathe like the wind); read the third line short, hard, and quick — five oblique tones like five cuts; read the last line level, slow, almost whispered, the forced steadiness of a man swallowing sobs. The tonal shape performs the poem: sigh, break, hold.此诗是平起首句不入韵的五言绝句，押平声尤韵，格律严整。全诗声调安排匠心独运：前两句「南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋」以两个叠字「凄凄」「袅袅」入诗，音节低回绵长，如秋风的呜咽；第三句「一看肠一断」四个仄声（一、看、一、断）连用，声调急促顿挫，如心弦崩断之声；末句「好去莫回头」以「平平仄仄平」的平稳声调收束，强作平静，恰合那「莫回头」的忍泪叮嘱。诵读此诗，宜以前两句的低回渲染秋意，第三句的急促传达肠断之痛，末句的平稳低沉传达「好去」的强忍，使声调的起伏与情感的波澜完全同步。白居易诗向以平易自然著称，此诗声律亦然，如家常语般亲切，而情韵悠长。

Line by line

南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋。

A bleak farewell at Nanpu — the west wind soughs, autumn is here.

在南浦这令人凄凄然的地方告别，西风袅袅，秋意正浓。

At the southern shore we part in desolation; the west wind lingers, and autumn is deep.

两句以景起笔，点明送别的时地，情景交融。首句「南浦凄凄别」，用「南浦」这一送别文学的经典意象点明地点，以「凄凄」叠字直写离别时心情的凄凉——不是「凄然」，而是「凄凄」，语出《诗经》「秋日凄凄」，加重了悲凉的浓度；次句「西风袅袅秋」，以「袅袅」叠字状秋风的轻柔绵长（语出《九歌》「袅袅兮秋风」），写尽秋日的萧瑟。「南浦」与「西风」、「凄凄」与「袅袅」，地与时、情与景两两相对，前句写别情之凄，后句写秋景之瑟，而秋景之瑟正是别情之凄的外化。两句共十字，用了两个叠字，声调低回悠长，如泣如诉，未写离别之态而离别之情已弥漫纸上。值得注意的是，诗人没有交代送别的具体场景与人物，只以「南浦」「西风」两个意象，便将读者带入一个典型的秋日送别情境，这正是中国诗歌「以少总多」的概括力。

The two lines open with scene, naming the time and place of the farewell, scene and feeling fused. The first, 'At the southern shore we part in desolation' uses the 'southern shore', the classic image of farewell literature, to name the place, and the doubled word 'desolation' for the bleakness of the parting mood — not 'desolate' but 'desolation', from the Book of Songs, 'autumn days are desolate', thickening the grief. The next, 'the west wind lingers, and autumn is deep' uses the doubled word 'lingers' for the soft, long autumn wind (from the Nine Songs, 'lingering is the autumn wind'), writing the autumn's bleakness. The 'southern shore' and the 'west wind', the 'desolation' and the 'lingering', place and time, feeling and scene, each matched; the first line the grief of parting, the second the bleakness of autumn, and the autumn's bleakness is the outward form of the parting grief. Ten words, two doubled words, the tone low and long, like weeping, the parting feeling already filling the page before the parting is described. Notable: the poet names neither the concrete scene nor the person, yet through the two images of 'southern shore' and 'west wind' brings the reader into a typical autumn farewell — the condensing power of Chinese poetry's 'much through little'.

一看肠一断，好去莫回头。

Each glance I cast, and my heart breaks once more; go on — and do not look back.

你走一步，我的心肠便断一次；你尽管去吧，千万不要回头。

One glance, and my heart breaks; go well, and do not look back.

这两句是全诗情感的高潮，写送别的瞬间，直白而沉痛。「一看肠一断」，友人每回头望一眼，诗人的愁肠便断一截——「一看」与「肠一断」一一对应，把抽象的「肠断」具象为每一次回望的痛楚，仿佛友人的目光是一把刀，每望一次便割一次。这里隐含着一个画面：友人依依不舍，一步一回首，而诗人看着那一次次回望的身影，心已碎成万段。「好去莫回头」却陡然一转，诗人强忍悲痛，叮嘱友人「你好好去吧，千万不要回头」——这一叮嘱深藏着矛盾与深情：明知回头会肠断，却偏要对方莫回头；这既是为友人着想（怕他回头更增离愁），也是为自己着想（怕自己看到回望的友人而再也绷不住眼泪）。「好去」二字，更是强作平静的诀别语，愈是平静，愈见心中翻江倒海的痛苦。两句一写痛，一写忍，把送别之人「忍泪含悲、强作潇洒」的复杂心态写得淋漓尽致。

This couplet is the emotional climax, the instant of farewell, plain and bitter. 'One glance, and my heart breaks' — each glance the friend casts back, the poet's heart breaks another stroke; 'one glance' matched with 'heart breaks', turning the abstract 'broken heart' into the pain of each backward look, as if the friend's gaze were a knife, cutting again at every look. The hidden picture: the friend, unwilling to part, looks back at every step; the poet, watching those returning figures again and again, his heart already shattered into ten thousand pieces. 'Go well, and do not look back' turns abruptly — the poet, forcing back his grief, charges the friend 'go well, and do not look back'; the charge holds contradiction and deep feeling: knowing the backward look breaks the heart, yet insisting on no backward look — both for the friend (fearing his look would double the grief) and for himself (fearing to see the looking-back friend and break at last). 'Go well' the words of a forced calm farewell, the calmer they sound, the more the turmoil within shows. One line the pain, one line the restraint, writing the farewell-er's complex state of 'holding back tears, forcing a carefree air' to the full.

Study

Word focus

凄凄 Bleak, bleak (qiqi): a reduplicative taken from the Book of Songs ('The autumn days are bleak, all plants wither'), moved from plants to the human heart; doubled, it gives the grief a long, low, reverberating sound, heavier and more prolonged than any single 'bleak' could be. 「凄凄」二字是全诗情感的底色，以叠字写离别之悲，源自《诗经·小雅·四月》「秋日凄凄，百卉具腓」。凄凄本状草木凋零的萧瑟，白居易移以写离别时的心情，便使抽象的情感获得了具体可感的质地——离别之悲，如秋日百卉俱腓，万物失色，天地同哀。叠字的使用也极见匠心：「凄凄」比「凄然」更沉重，比「凄凉」更绵长，两字相叠，声调低回往复，如心中绵延不绝的悲绪。同时，「凄凄」与下句「袅袅」相对，一写内心之悲，一写秋风之态，内外呼应，使「南浦凄凄别，西风袅袅秋」成为一个完整的悲秋伤别之境。值得注意的是，白居易用「凄凄」而非「凄清」「凄切」，正是取其古朴绵长之意，与整首诗平易自然的语言风格相统一，看似寻常，实则是千锤百炼后的选择。

好去 Go well (hao qu): the ordinary words of parting — 'go safely' — here carrying an unbearable weight; spoken through tears, this everyday phrase is the poet's forced composure, a blessing that is really a sob, its ordinariness making the heartbreak behind it deeper. 「好去」二字是全诗最不动声色、也最令人心碎的两个字。好去，即「好好去吧」，是唐人分别时的叮嘱语，看似平常的客套，在此诗中却承载着千钧之重。诗人与友人依依惜别，肠已寸断，却还要强作平静，说出「好去莫回头」——「好去」的「好」字，是强忍泪水挤出的平静与祝福，仿佛在说「你走吧，我没事」；而这「我没事」的故作坚强，恰恰暴露了内心的溃不成军。若换作「莫回头」的直接哀求，或「且去」的坦然放行，都失去这种「明明痛彻心扉却偏要装作洒脱」的复杂况味。唯有「好去」二字，把送别之人强忍悲痛、为对方着想、不愿让对方看见自己悲伤的全部心理，浓缩在这两个最平常的字里。愈是平常，愈见深情；愈是克制，愈是心碎。这正是白居易「于平淡处见奇警」的语言功力。

南浦别