清明夜

Meaning

On a moonlit Qingming night, the poet, then serving as a prefect, wanders alone through the corridors of his official residence, listening to distant music and gazing at flowers in the dark. A short poem of quiet leisure, it captures a moment of solitude and half-hidden enjoyment within the ease of an official's garden, and has become one of Bai Juyi's best-loved minor poems.

好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家。独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A soft wind and a veiled moon make the Qingming night; the scene is the prefect's residence, with its blue-tiled steps and scarlet windows. The poet walks its winding corridors alone, now pacing, now pausing; he hears music from far away and watches the flowers in the dark. [Structure] The first couplet sets a stage, the second fills it with a single unhurried figure. All the poem's action is walking, listening and looking, the smallest possible amount of event, which is exactly its charm. [Imagery] The hazy moon, the winding corridor and the unseen flowers create layers of distance and dimness, while 'alone' quietly admits a thread of solitude beneath the comfort. [Theme] This is Bai Juyi's leisurely mode at its purest: no political anger, no satire, only a prefect's private enjoyment of a spring night, yet the word 'alone' keeps the poem from being merely decorative, hinting at the loneliness behind official ease.

【白话串讲】 白居易写《清明夜》：“好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家”——“独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花”——他写清明夜——遥听弦管暗看花。 【意象与手法】 “好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家”写清明夜好风胧月；“独绕回廊行复歇”写独绕回廊；结以“遥听弦管暗看花”写遥听弦管。清幽闲适。 【情感与主旨】 白居易写清明夜闲适之作，写好风胧月、独绕回廊而遥听弦管暗看花的清幽，是白居易闲适诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家”写清明夜景；“独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花”写闲适。

Allusions

The poem uses no dense literary allusions; its roots are in custom and in the tradition of the night-garden poem. Qingming is the early-April festival of tomb-sweeping and spring outings, and this is one of the few Tang poems to dwell on the festival's night rather than its day, turning from the customary rain of Du Mu's famous Qingming poem to a fine wind and a hazy moon. 'Strings and flutes' is the standard poetic pairing for banqueting music, while the 'winding corridor' belongs to the vocabulary of aristocratic gardens that runs through Tang poetry. The poem quietly inverts the festival's usual melancholy: where Qingming poems typically grieve for the dead or the rain, Bai Juyi finds, in his own official garden, a living stillness worth savoring.

诗中「好风胧月清明夜碧砌红轩刺史家」「独绕回廊行复歇遥听弦管暗看花」等语，皆含典故故实。「好风胧月清明夜碧砌红轩刺史家」写的好风胧月清明夜碧砌红轩刺史家；「独绕回廊行复歇遥听弦管暗看花」写独绕回廊行复歇遥听弦管暗看花。诗人以好风、胧月等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把清明闲适之情写得真切可感，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

The Night of Qingming has long been treasured for capturing what later readers called the leisurely interest of a Tang official's private life. Its couplet 'Alone I circle the winding corridor, walking now, resting now; listening from afar to strings and flutes, quietly watching the flowers' has been quoted again and again as a model of quiet enjoyment, its charm lying in the pairing of the verbs: walking and resting, listening and watching, each act slowing the next. Where Du Mu's famous Qingming poem asks help of a winehouse to dispel its sorrow, Bai Juyi's finds its comfort already at home. Critics have noted that the single word 'alone' is the poem's emotional hinge, admitting a faint loneliness into the prefect's ease and giving the poem a psychological depth unusual in so small a frame. It shows the range of the poet who could also write 'in Quzhou, men ate men.'

这首《清明夜》，是白居易写清明闲适之作，写好风胧月清明夜、独绕回廊行复歇、遥听弦管暗看花之情，清幽闲适。起「好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家」——好风胧月清明夜，碧砌红轩刺史家。写好风胧月清明夜：好风胧月清明夜、碧砌红轩刺史家——清明夜、刺史家；结「独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花」——独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花。写独绕回廊行复歇：独绕回廊行复歇、遥听弦管暗看花——行复歇、暗看花。这「独绕回廊行复歇，遥听弦管暗看花」，是全诗之结：以遥听弦管暗看花写其闲适。全诗清幽闲适，以月写情，正是白居易诗中的名篇。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

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