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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

清溪行

On the Clear Stream

李白

Li Bai

山水Mountains and Waters 愁思Melancholy and Longing

清溪清我心，水色异诸水。
借问新安江，见底何如此。
人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里。
向晚猩猩啼，空悲远游子。

The Clear Stream clears my heart,
its water's hue unlike that of other waters.
Ask the Xin'an River,
famed for seeing its bed, how does it compare with this?
A man walks as within a bright mirror;
birds pass as through a painted screen.
Toward dusk the orangutans cry,
and in vain I grieve, a traveler far from home.

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Meaning

The poem praises the crystalline water of the Clear Stream near Xuancheng, so clear that a man walks as in a mirror and birds pass as through a painted screen. But the final couplet turns: at dusk the orangutans cry, and the traveler's joy in the landscape gives way to a wordless sorrow at his own homelessness. Bright scenery carries the deeper grief.

清溪的水能涤清我的心灵，它的水色与其他溪水都不相同。请问那以清澈见底闻名的新安江，比起这条清溪来又算得了什么呢？人走在溪边，身影倒映在澄澈的水面上，仿佛行走在明镜之中；鸟从溪上飞过，倒影落在水面，仿佛穿行在画屏之间。傍晚时分，猩猩在山间啼叫，我这远游的游子，不禁空自悲伤。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The Clear Stream, Li Bai says, cleans his very heart; its color is unlike any other water. Even the Xin'an River, famous for clarity, cannot match it. A man walking by the stream moves as inside a bright mirror; birds flying overhead pass as through a painted screen. Then, toward evening, the orangutans cry, and the traveler far from home grieves in vain. [Structure] The first six lines build an ascending praise of the water; the last two collapse it into grief. The steeper the climb of beauty, the heavier the fall. [Imagery] Mirror and screen: the poem's two great metaphors turn a stream into polished metal and a valley into a hanging painting. [Theme] The grief is never explained, only the cry of the animals and the word 'in vain' mark it, which is exactly the poem's depth: beauty is real, and sorrow is real, and neither cancels the other.

【白话串讲】李白写《清溪行》：“清溪清我心，水色异诸水”——清溪的水能洗心。“人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里”——人走在明镜里，鸟飞在屏风里。“向晚猩猩啼，空悲远游子”——黄昏猩猩啼，让远游的人悲伤。【意象与手法】全诗以「清」字立骨，由水之清写到心之清。「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」以明镜状水之澄澈、屏风状山色之如画，比喻精妙，虚实相生，人鸟相映，是「诗中有画」的典范；末二句以猩猩哀啼转入「空悲」，乐景写哀情，反差强烈。【情感与主旨】诗写清溪水色之异，实则寄寓李白晚年政治失意后的落寞。清溪之清照见心志之清，而「空悲远游子」又点出漂泊无依的身世之感，明丽景致中透出深沉的悲哀。【名句点睛】常考「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」的比喻之妙（以镜喻水、以屏喻山，状写清溪之澄澈）与「空悲远游子」以乐景写哀情的手法。

Background

Li Bai (701-762), courtesy name Taibai, was the greatest poet of the High Tang. 'On the Clear Stream,' also titled 'The Clear Stream of Xuanzhou,' was written in his late years, around 753, after the emperor Xuanzong had dismissed him from court with a gift of gold, and he wandered the south. The Clear Stream runs through present-day Xuancheng in Anhui, rising at the northern foot of the Huang Mountains; its water was famed for limpidity and its banks for tiered green hills. In these years Li Bai moved among Jinling, Xuancheng and Qiupu, writing the 'Autumn Pu Songs' and the farewell at Xie Tiao's tower in Xuancheng. This poem belongs to that late flowering of landscape poetry, in which the splendor of the scene is answered by a homelessness the poet can no longer hide from.

《清溪行》一作《宣州清溪》，是李白晚年流寓宣城一带时所作的五言古诗。清溪在今安徽宣城境内，发源于黄山北麓，溪水澄澈碧透，两岸峰峦叠翠，是江南著名胜景。天宝十二载（753）前后，李白离开长安后漫游江南，先后往来于金陵、宣城、秋浦之间，写下了《秋浦歌》《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》等一批作品，《清溪行》即此期所作。诗中「清溪清我心」直写溪水涤荡心尘的快意，「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」以明镜、屏风为喻状写溪水之澄澈，是李白山水诗中的佳作。此诗表面上写清溪水色之异、景色之幽，实则寄寓了诗人政治失意后的落寞情怀。李白自天宝三载被「赐金放还」后，报国无门，心情郁结，只能寄情山水。末句「向晚猩猩啼，空悲远游子」，以傍晚猩猩的哀啼反衬游子的孤独，点出漂泊无依的身世之感。全诗由景入情，由乐景写哀情，在明丽的水光山色中透出深沉的悲哀，是了解李白晚年心境的重要作品。

Art

The poem is built on the word 'clear,' which appears twice in the very first line: the Clear Stream is limpid, and it makes the poet's heart limpid too, water and temperament fused in six characters. From that double 'clear' everything grows. The second couplet uses the Xin'an River, already famous for clarity since Shen Yue wrote of seeing its bed, as a foil; to say it cannot compare is to praise the Clear Stream by the highest available standard. The third couplet is the poem's jewel: 'A man walks as within a bright mirror; birds pass as through a painted screen.' Mirror for water, screen for the green hills; man below, birds above; one still, one moving; reflection and reality interwoven until the landscape reads as a single painting. Then the final couplet turns, the orangutans' cry, the traveler's 'vain' grief, and the reader understands that all that clarity was being looked at by someone with nowhere to belong.

此诗艺术上最突出的特点是「以水喻心、以景写情」的浑融笔法。全诗八句，前六句极力铺写清溪之清：首句「清溪清我心」连用两个「清」字，一写溪水之清，一写心境之清，水色与心情叠合，为全篇立骨；「水色异诸水」以「异」字点出清溪的独特，总起全诗。三四句「借问新安江，见底何如此」以设问出之，借新安江作比，反衬清溪的清澈见底。五六句是全诗最精妙的比喻：「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」，以「明镜」状溪水之平静澄澈，以「屏风」状两岸青山如画屏罗列，人影、鸟影倒映水中，虚实相生，人鸟相映，将静态的山水写活了。末二句笔锋陡转，「向晚猩猩啼」以听觉写暮色苍茫中的悲声，「空悲远游子」直抒胸臆，由乐景转入哀情，形成强烈的反差。全诗章法上先扬后抑，前六句蓄势愈足，末二句转折愈有力；语言清新自然，不事雕琢，却字字入画，体现了李白「清水出芙蓉，天然去雕饰」的风格，是五言古诗中写水景的典范之作。

Allusions

The poem's allusions are few but telling. 'Ask the Xin'an River' invokes Shen Yue's poem 'The Water of the Xin'an River Is Clear; Shallow or Deep, One Sees the Bottom,' the famous encomium of that river's clarity; Li Bai's rhetorical question, that even this river cannot match the Clear Stream, is a respectful, playful turning of the older poem. The 'bright mirror' continues the ancient practice of comparing still water to a mirror, found in Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Water Classic and in Six Dynasties yuefu. The 'painted screen' pairs with it, since Tang rooms hung screens painted with landscapes, so the valley reads as an interior painting. 'Traveler far from home' echoes the tradition that runs from the Book of Songs through Qu Yuan's 'Li Sao' and his 'Far Roaming,' folding a personal sorrow into a two-thousand-year-old theme. The orangutan's cry belongs to the lore of the Classic of Mountains and Seas and to the melancholy ape-cries of the Water Classic, sounds that have made travelers weep since the Han fisherman's song: 'The Wu Gorges are long, the Shaman Gorges long; three cries of the ape drench one's clothes with tears.'

此诗用典不多而意蕴深婉。首句「清溪清我心」暗用谢灵运《登江中孤屿》以来山水涤心的传统，更直接承自南朝王籍「蝉噪林逾静」一类以清景写心境的写法，将「清溪」与「清心」并置，物我交融。三四句「借问新安江」用沈约《新安江水至清浅深见底》之典，沈约诗中盛赞新安江水清见底，李白却以反问出之，谓清溪更胜一筹，翻用旧典而自成新意，见出诗人自信洒脱的个性。「人行明镜中」的「明镜」意象，可上溯至郦道元《水经注》及六朝乐府中以镜喻水的传统，又以「鸟度屏风里」与之前后对映，水天一色，人鸟共影，意象组合极为巧妙。「远游子」一语，则暗用屈原《远游》篇「悲时俗之迫厄兮，愿轻举而远游」的抒情传统，把个人的漂泊之感融入古人「远游」的母题之中，使一己之悲上升为千古游子共同的感慨。又「猩猩啼」暗合《山海经》及六朝志怪中猩猩善啼的记载，与《水经注》猿鸣催泪的意象相通，以哀声写暮愁，声情相发。全诗熔山水、典故、身世之感于一炉，而浑然无迹，正是大家手笔。

Commentary

'On the Clear Stream' is not Li Bai's most famous landscape poem, but it has been a favorite of anthologists for the couplet 'A man walks as within a bright mirror; birds pass as through a painted screen,' which has been compared with Xie Lingyun's 'A garden pond grows spring grass' and Wang Wei's 'Bright moon shines among the pines' for the precision of its metaphor. The poem also offers a rare window onto Li Bai's late years: beneath the splendor of the water runs the 'vain grief' of the man dismissed from court, so that the poem reads as a quiet autobiography of disillusion. Critics have traced its influence forward to Song poets like Yang Wanli ('when the water is clear, the stones appear, fish can be counted') and Zhu Xi ('Ask the pool why it is so clear; because it has living water at its source'), who inherited Li Bai's habit of writing the mind through water. Read with 'Sitting Alone at Jingting Mountain' and the 'Autumn Pu Songs,' it shows the face of the immortal poet when he was, for a moment, only a tired traveler.

《清溪行》在李白山水诗中并不算最著名者，却以「清」字立骨、以「明镜」「屏风」两喻传神，历来为选家所重。诸多李白诗选本多收录此篇，作为李白山水诗的代表之一。前人对「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」一联评价尤高，认为此联状物入微，比喻贴切，把清溪水的平静澄澈写得如在目前，可与谢灵运「池塘生春草」、王维「明月松间照」等名句媲美。此诗的价值还在于它提供了一个认识李白晚年心境的独特窗口：表面写清溪之美，实则暗含「空悲远游子」的身世之叹，乐景哀情，情感层次极为丰富。在中国文学史上，李白以豪放飘逸著称，而此诗却以清丽空灵见长，可见其风格的多样性。诗中「清溪清我心」以水写心、以心观水的写法，对后世写景诗影响深远，宋代杨万里「水清石出鱼可数」、朱熹「问渠那得清如许」等句，皆可视为这一传统的余响。此诗更以明镜屏风之喻、乐景哀情之法，成为李白山水清丽一格的代表，与《独坐敬亭山》《秋浦歌》诸作并观，可见诗仙于豪放之外寄情山水的另一番面目。

Prosody

Form Five-character ancient-style poem (gushi)五言古诗

Rhyme Eight lines rhyming every second line; the rhymes are shui, ci, li and zi, all words of the rising tone in the zhi rhyme group, and one rhyme runs through the poem. The low, lingering rising tones suit the stream's soft, limpid flow.全诗八句，隔句押韵，韵脚为「水、此、里、子」，皆属上声纸韵，一韵到底，声调低回婉转，与清溪空灵明澈之境相合。

Tone pattern Five-character lines in ancient style, free of regulated-verse tonal rules, with the natural rhythms 2-2-1 and 2-1-2, as in 'Clear Stream, clears my, heart.' The first six lines flow smoothly like the water itself; the last two close on oblique tones, the sound sinking as the grief arrives.五言句式以「二二一」或「二一二」节奏为主，如「清溪—清我—心」「人行—明镜—中」，读来平稳清朗，节奏舒缓，与山水清景相称；末句「空悲远游子」以仄声收尾，声情转为沉咽。

Reading note As an ancient-style poem, 'On the Clear Stream' does not observe regulated tonal patterns but lets sound follow feeling. The first six lines should be read slowly and clearly, their even rhythms imitating the unhurried flow of the stream; in the couplet 'A man walks as within a bright mirror; birds pass as through a painted screen,' a slight lift on 'mirror' and 'screen' suggests the images rising out of the water. The last two lines drop in pitch and slow down, the orangutan's cry given a low, drawn-out tone, so that 'in vain I grieve' lands in silence: sound serving feeling, the natural music of Li Bai's 'fresh as a lotus out of clear water' style.《清溪行》是一首五言古诗，属古体，不受近体格律的平仄对仗束缚，句式自由，音节自然。全诗八句，隔句押韵，一韵到底，韵脚「水、此、里、子」皆属上声纸韵，上声字音调低回婉转，正与清溪水的柔美空灵相合。古体诗不讲平仄交替，而注重声气的自然流转：前六句写景，句式多为「二二一」节奏（如「清溪清我心」「水色异诸水」），读来平稳清朗，如溪水徐流；「人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里」两句，「二一二」与「二二一」相间，节奏略有变化，恰如人鸟相映的生动画面。末二句「向晚猩猩啼，空悲远游子」，以仄声字收句，声音转为沉咽，与悲情相合。全诗以声助情，以情驭声，音律虽不严格，却自有一种清新流转的音乐美，体现了李白古体诗「清水出芙蓉，天然去雕饰」的风格，是学习古体诗声情结合的上佳范例。

Line by line

清溪清我心，水色异诸水。

The Clear Stream clears my heart; its water's hue is unlike that of other waters.

清溪的水能涤清我的心灵，它的水色与其他溪水都不相同。

The Green Stream clears my heart; its water's color is unlike all other waters.

起句连用两个「清」字，是全文之眼。前一个「清」写溪水之清澈，后一个「清」写心灵之澄明，水能清心，物我合一，将写景与抒情熔铸在一句之中。「水色异诸水」以「异」字总起全诗，点出清溪与众不同之处。两句看似平淡，却暗含两层深意：一是李白晚年政治失意，正需要这样的清景来涤荡心中的尘滓，故「清我心」三字别有怀抱；二是「异」字暗含诗人自视清高、不与世俗同流的孤傲，水之清与人之清相互映照。全诗自此生发，明镜之喻、屏风之景、远游之悲，皆由这个「清」字引出，是典型的立骨之笔。

The opening uses two 'clear' in a row, the eye of the whole. The first 'clear' writes the stream's clarity, the second 'clear' the mind's purity; the water clears the heart, thing and self one, fusing scenic writing and lyric in one line. 'Its water's color is unlike all other waters' — the word 'unlike' opening the whole, naming the Green Stream's distinction. Two lines, plain in seeming, and secretly holding two layers of depth: first, Li Bai in his late years politically thwarted, needing precisely such a clear scene to wash the dust from the heart, hence 'clears my heart' holds a deeper meaning; second, the word 'unlike' secretly holds the poet's self-estimate of purity, refusing the world's mire, the water's clearness and the man's clearness mirroring. The whole grows from this, the mirror metaphor, the screen scene, the far-travel grief, all drawn from this 'clear', the typical bone-setting stroke.

借问新安江，见底何如此。

Ask the Xin'an River, famed for seeing its bed, how does it compare with this?

请问新安江，清澈见底又哪里比得上这条清溪呢？

Tell me of the Xin'an River — its bottom so clear, how does it compare to this?

这两句以设问和对比强化清溪之清。新安江以水清见底著称，南朝沈约曾专门作诗咏其「至清浅深见底」，李白却故意拿它来作比较对象，以「何如此」的反问语气，说连清澈见底的新安江也比不上清溪，从而把清溪之水推到极致。这种写法叫做「以名水衬此水」，借他物之清反衬此物之更清，比正面描写更有力量。「借问」二字使诗句带上口语化的亲切口吻，仿佛诗人真的在向江水发问，见出李白豪爽天真的个性。同时，这两句还暗含一层自比之意：清溪之清异于诸水，正如诗人高洁之志异于世俗。章法上，此二句承首句之「异」而发问，又为下文明镜、屏风的实景描写蓄势，承上启下，位置极佳。

These two lines strengthen the Green Stream's clarity through question and comparison. The Xin'an River is famed for water clear to the bottom; Shen Yue of the Six Dynasties wrote a whole poem on its 'to the bottom clear in depth and shallows', and Li Bai deliberately takes it as the comparison, the counter-question of 'how does it compare to this' saying that even the bottom-clear Xin'an cannot match the Green Stream, pushing the Green Stream's water to the extreme. This method is called 'setting the famous water against this water', using the other's clarity to set off this water's greater clarity, more forceful than a direct description. The words 'tell me' give the line the colloquial, intimate tone, as if the poet were really asking the river, showing Li Bai's bold and naive nature. At once these two lines secretly hold a layer of self-comparison: the Green Stream's clarity unlike all waters, as the poet's lofty will unlike the world. In craft, these two lines carry on the opening's 'unlike' and ask, storing the force for the later mirror and screen's real scene, carrying the above and opening the below, the position perfect.

人行明镜中，鸟度屏风里。

A man walks as within a bright mirror; birds pass as through a painted screen.

人走在溪边，身影倒映在水面，仿佛行走在明镜之中；鸟从溪上飞过，倒影落在水面，仿佛穿行在画屏之间。

Men walk as in a mirror of bright glass; birds pass as within a painted screen.

此联是全诗最精妙的一笔，也是李白写水景的名句。「明镜」状溪水之平静澄澈，人影映于其中，人行即如镜中行；「屏风」状两岸青山之罗列如画，鸟飞其间，如度画屏。「明镜」「屏风」两个比喻，一个写水，一个写山，一个近观，一个远望，一俯一仰，将清溪的立体画面铺展开来。更妙的是「人行」与「鸟度」对举，一静一动，一实一虚，人影与鸟影都倒映在清溪水中，人与鸟、山与水、天与影交相辉映，境界空灵而生机盎然。这八个字以实景写虚境，不著一个「清」字，却把「清」字写到极致——正因为水清如镜，才能照见人影鸟影。此联对仗工整而自然天成，读来如见其景，是「诗中有画」的典范。

This couplet is the finest stroke of the whole, and Li Bai's famous line of water scenery. 'A mirror of bright glass' shapes the stream's still clarity, the human figure reflected within, and walking by the stream is as walking within a mirror; 'a painted screen' shapes the green hills along both banks ranged like a painting, the bird flying between as passing through a painted screen. The two metaphors of 'mirror' and 'screen', one writing water one writing hills, one near view one far, one bowing one looking up, spreading the Green Stream's three-dimensional picture. The more exquisite, 'men walk' and 'birds pass' set against, one still one motion, one real one imagined, the human figure and the bird's shadow both reflected in the Green Stream, man and bird, hill and water, sky and shadow glowing together, the realm ethereal and alive. These eight words write the unreal through the real, not one word 'clear', and write 'clear' to the extreme — precisely because the water is clear as a mirror, it can reflect the human figure and the bird's shadow. This couplet, exact in craft and natural of itself, the reading as if seeing the scene, the model of 'poetry within painting'.

向晚猩猩啼，空悲远游子。

Toward dusk the orangutans cry; in vain I grieve, a traveler far from home.

傍晚时分，猩猩在山间啼叫，我这远游的游子，不禁空自悲伤。

At dusk, the gibbons cry in the hills; in vain, they grieve the far-wandering traveler.

末二句由乐景陡转哀情，是全诗情感的重心。前三联极写清溪水色之美、景物之幽，一派明丽空灵，至此「向晚猩猩啼」一声哀啼划破宁静，暮色苍茫中猩猩的悲鸣与清溪的明澈形成强烈反差。「空悲远游子」直抒胸臆，「空」字下得极重，写出无可奈何的怅惘——悲亦无用，无人理解，只能空自悲伤。猩猩啼在古诗中常与旅愁相关，郦道元《水经注》引渔歌「巴东三峡巫峡长，猿鸣三声泪沾裳」，李白此处以猩猩啼写暮色游子之悲，正是同一抒情传统。全诗以乐景写哀情，景物愈美，哀情愈深；水色之清与心境之悲两相对照，见出诗人山水之乐背后的身世之痛，含蓄深婉，余味不尽。

The last two lines turn abruptly from the joyous scene to the grief, the emotional center of the poem. The first three couplets write to the utmost the beauty of the Green Stream's water, the stillness of the scene, all bright and ethereal, and here 'at dusk, the gibbons cry in the hills' one grieving cry cuts the quiet, the gibbon's wail in the gathering dusk and the Green Stream's clarity forming a sharp contrast. 'In vain, they grieve the far-wandering traveler' speaks from the breast, the word 'in vain' laid the cruellest, writing the helpless wistfulness — grief is of no use, no one understands, only the vain grief. The gibbon's cry in the old verse is often linked to the traveler's grief; Li Daoyuan's Commentary on the Waterways Classic quotes the fisher's song, 'long are the gorges of Ba Dong and Wu, three cries of the gibbon and tears wet the robes', and Li Bai here uses the gibbon's cry for the dusk traveler's grief, precisely the same lyrical tradition. The whole writes grief through the joyous scene, the fairer the scenery the deeper the grief; the water's clarity and the mood's grief set against, showing the life's pain behind the poet's joy in hills and streams, restrained and lingering, the aftertaste unending.

Study

Word focus

清 Qing, 'clear' or 'limpid,' the poem's structural word. In the first line it appears twice: the Clear Stream is limpid, and it makes the poet's heart limpid too; the first usage describes the water, the second, used causatively, the stream's effect on the mind. The word then governs the whole poem: the hue unlike other waters, the bed seen through the water, the mirror-bright surface that catches man and bird. Yet 'clear' also characterizes the poet himself: the stream's clarity, unlike all other streams, is the poet's own integrity, unlike all other men. 全诗以「清」字立骨，首句「清溪清我心」一句之中连用两个「清」字，是炼字的关键。前一个「清」是形容词，状溪水之清澈明净；后一个「清」作使动用法，谓溪水能使我的心灵变得清澈澄明。一水一心，一实一虚，由物及人，由景入情，仅两字便完成了从写景到抒情的转换。「清」字贯穿全诗：水色异诸水，是水之清；见底何如此，是水清到极致；人行明镜中，是水清如镜方能照影；鸟度屏风里，是水清如镜方能映影。四联八句，处处不离「清」字，而「清」字又不只写水，更写心境、写人格——清溪之清异于诸水，正如诗人高洁之志异于世俗。一字立骨，全篇生色，是李白炼字功夫的典型体现。

明镜 Mingjing, 'bright mirror,' the poem's most famous metaphor. It compares the still stream to polished metal: so complete is the water's clarity and stillness that a man's reflection walks in it as in a mirror. The metaphor works by indirection, never saying 'clear,' yet the mirror is the proof of clarity, and paired with the 'painted screen' of the next line, it gives the landscape the precision of polished metal and a hanging painting in one. 「明镜」是全诗最传神的比喻。明镜即明亮的镜子，此处喻指平静澄澈的溪水。这个比喻的妙处在于：其一，贴切，溪水平静无波时确如镜面，能倒映人影鸟影；其二，含蓄，不直接说水清，而以「镜」暗示水之明净如镜，用形象说话；其三，动态，人行走其中，身影随行，如镜中移动之影，把静态的比喻写出了动态之美。与下句「屏风」相配，「明镜」写水、「屏风」写山，一低一高，一近一远，共同构成清溪立体而空灵的画卷。后世写水景多用镜喻，如刘禹锡「潭面无风镜未磨」、苏轼「水光潋滟晴方好」，溯其源头，李白此联实开其先声。以镜喻水，以水喻心，比喻层层递进，正是大家手笔。

空 Kong, 'in vain' or 'to no purpose,' the word that turns the poem. In 'in vain I grieve, a traveler far from home,' it admits that the grief is wordless and useless: no one hears it, nothing comes of it. Set against the bright scenery before it, the word 'in vain' shows that beauty cannot cure homesickness; indeed, by the contrast, it deepens it. Li Bai uses the word often for frustrated longing, as in 'in vain remembering General Xie,' and here it gives the poem its quiet, unanswerable sadness. 末句「空悲远游子」的「空」字，是全诗情感的定音之字。「空」即徒然、白白地，写尽无可奈何的怅惘：悲而无人知，悲而无所用，悲而只能独自承受，一个「空」字把游子的孤独无助写得入骨。这个字还与前面的乐景形成强烈反差——清溪如此之美，景物如此之幽，诗人却「空悲」，美景不但不能消解悲哀，反而以乐景衬哀情，使悲哀更加深沉。李白的诗中常用「空」字，如「空忆谢将军」，皆写理想落空的怅惘，此处的「空悲」亦然。同时，「空」字又与「远游子」呼应：远游他乡，本已孤独，再加「空」字，倍增其悲。一字之下，全诗由明丽转为苍凉，情感基调为之一变，收束有力，余韵悠长，是炼字传神的佳例。

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