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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

岁除夜有怀

Thoughts on New Year's Eve

孟浩然

Meng Haoran

迢递三巴路羁危万里身乱山残雪夜孤灯异乡人渐与骨肉远转于奴仆亲那堪正飘泊来日岁华新

The road to the Three Ba stretches far, remote;
my body, in peril, is ten thousand li from home.
A night of tumbled mountains and lingering snow;
a lone lamp — a stranger in a foreign land.
Little by little I drift from my own flesh and blood;
I turn instead to my servants for closeness.
How can I bear it — still drifting;
tomorrow the year is renewed.

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Meaning

Alone in the Sichuan mountains on New Year's Eve, the poet takes stock of his exile. The road behind him is impossibly long, the night is filled with tumbled mountains and lingering snow, and a single lamp lights a stranger's face. Worst of all, long wandering has thinned his bonds with his own family until his servants have grown closer than his kin. As the old year ends and everyone else feasts, he asks how he can bear a drifting that will continue into the new.

迢递三巴路，羁危万里身。乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人。渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲。那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The road to the Three Ba is far and steep; my body, in peril, is ten thousand li from home. It is a night of tumbled mountains and lingering snow; a single lamp burns for a stranger in a foreign land. I have drifted so far from my own flesh and blood that I have grown closer to my servants instead. How can I bear to be still adrift, when tomorrow the year begins anew? [Technique] This is a five-character regulated verse with unusually strong parallelism: road against body, mountain-and-snow against lamp-and-stranger, kin against servants. Each couplet pairs an external circumstance with an inner condition, so that the poem's progress is from place, to scene, to relationship, to feeling. [Emotion] The poem's center is the fifth and sixth lines — 'Little by little I drift from my own flesh and blood; I turn instead to my servants for closeness.' Not homesickness, but the shame of having grown near to those one pays: that is the exile's real wound. The ending turns the festival against itself: for everyone else the year is renewed; for the wanderer, drifting continues.

【白话串讲】孟浩然写《岁除夜有怀》：“迢递三巴路，羁危万里身”——“乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人”——“渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲”——“那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新”——他在异乡度岁除——孤灯异乡人。【意象与手法】首联“迢递三巴路，羁危万里身”写三巴路远、万里身羁；颔联“乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人”写乱山残雪、孤灯异乡；颈联“渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲”写与骨肉渐远、与奴仆相亲；尾联“那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新”写正飘泊、岁华新。苍凉深挚。【情感与主旨】孟浩然写除夜羁旅的思亲与漂泊，与崔涂《除夜书怀》相近，是除夜诗的名篇。【名句点睛】常考“乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人”写除夜孤灯；“渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲”写骨肉渐远。

Background

Meng Haoran (689–740), the great landscape poet of the High Tang, spent most of his life as a recluse in his native Xiangyang, wandering widely before failing to obtain office in Chang'an and returning south. 'The Three Ba' — the three commanderies of Ba, Badong and Baxi, around modern Chongqing — lay on the route he took into Sichuan, and this poem was most likely written on a New Year's Eve spent in Shu. New Year's Eve, the one night for family reunion, is the sharpest possible occasion for a poem about being far from home; Meng Haoran's poem, alongside Gao Shi's 'Written on New Year's Eve,' founded a whole subgenre of New Year's Eve travel poems.

此诗为盛唐诗人孟浩然的《岁除夜有怀》之作，是除夜羁旅诗的名篇。岁除夜即除夕之夜，是家人团聚、辞旧迎新的佳节，而诗人羁旅在外，写此诗寄怀。「三巴」为巴郡、巴东、巴西三郡（今重庆一带），孟浩然曾入蜀游历，此诗当作于蜀中除夜。诗写除夜羁旅的思亲与漂泊：「迢递三巴路」，写迢递的三巴之路——三巴路远，迢递难行，「迢递」写路途之远；「羁危万里身」，写羁危的万里之身——身在万里之外，羁旅危困，「羁危」写羁旅之困；「乱山残雪夜」，写乱山残雪之夜——蜀中多山，乱山之中，残雪未消，正是除夜之景；「孤灯异乡人」，写孤灯之下的异乡之人——孤灯相伴，身在异乡，正是除夜之孤；「渐与骨肉远」，写渐渐与骨肉远——离家日久，与骨肉（亲人）渐渐疏远；「转于奴仆亲」，写转于奴仆亲近——在异乡日久，反而与随行的奴仆亲近，「转于」写亲疏的转变；「那堪正飘泊」，写那堪正飘泊——那堪正在漂泊之中，「那堪」写不堪；「来日岁华新」，写来日岁华更新——明日便是新年，岁华更新，正是除夜的辞旧迎新。全诗以除夜羁旅写思亲漂泊，苍凉而深挚，是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的代表作。

Art

The poem's art lies in its rigorous parallelism and its progression from circumstance to feeling. The first couplet sets the terms: 'the Three Ba road' is an external fact, 'my perilous body' an internal one — road against body, a classic pairing that frames the whole exile. The second couplet is the most famous: 'tumbled mountains and lingering snow' against 'lone lamp, a stranger in a foreign land' — landscape against person, and the three adjectives 'tumbled,' 'lingering,' 'lone' quietly describe the poet's own state as much as the night's. The third couplet is the poem's heart, and its harshest: 'little by little' and 'turn instead' are words of gradual, almost involuntary change — not that he stopped loving his family, but that distance did its work until the paid servants became the familiar faces. The ending pivots on 'how can I bear': everyone else is welcoming a new year, and the wanderer alone knows that drifting will simply continue. The whole poem compresses a winter night's worth of feeling into eight lines, with not a wasted character.

此诗艺术上以「对仗工整」与「层层递进」为特色，在除夜羁旅的描绘中写尽思亲漂泊的深衷。首联「迢递三巴路，羁危万里身」，以「迢递三巴路」写路之远，以「羁危万里身」写身之困——「三巴路」对「万里身」，一路一身，正是羁旅的写照，「迢递」「羁危」写尽路途之远与身世之困；颔联「乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人」，以「乱山残雪夜」写除夜之景，以「孤灯异乡人」写异乡之人——「乱山残雪」「孤灯异乡」，一景一人，正是除夜的孤寂，「乱」「残」「孤」三字，写尽除夜的凄凉；颈联「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」，以「渐与骨肉远」写亲之疏，以「转于奴仆亲」写仆之亲——「渐」「转」二字，写亲疏的转变，正是羁旅日久的心酸，「与骨肉远」「于奴仆亲」的对照，写尽异乡之人的孤独；尾联「那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新」，以「那堪正飘泊」写漂泊之不堪，以「来日岁华新」写新年之将临——「那堪」写不堪，「岁华新」写辞旧迎新，正是除夜之际的感慨。全诗由三巴路写起，经乱山残雪、孤灯异乡的除夜之景，而归于「那堪正飘泊」的感慨，对仗工整、层层递进，正是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的极致。

Allusions

The poem's references are more cultural than literary. 'The Three Ba' names the Ba, Badong and Baxi commanderies of Sichuan; the road there, in the popular imagination shaped by Li Bai's 'The Sichuan Road Is Hard,' was a byword for difficulty — 'as hard as climbing the blue sky.' 'Perilous' (jiwei) pairs the hardship of travel with the insecurity of a life without office or home. 'Lone lamp' belongs to a long line of travel imagery — the 'lone lamp shining coldly on rain' of earlier verse — in which a single flame marks the one point of light in an indifferent night. 'Flesh and blood' (gurou) is the classical term for one's nearest kin, the phrase Du Fu uses when a letter from home is 'worth ten thousand in gold' amid the war. 'The year renewed' (suihua xin) belongs to the New Year's Eve ritual of sending out the old and welcoming the new — the very festival that, for the gathered family, should be warmest.

此诗用典于关键处见深意。「三巴」，写巴郡、巴东、巴西三郡——三巴为蜀地（今重庆一带），孟浩然入蜀游历，正行于三巴之路，「三巴路」写蜀中之路，正是「蜀道之难，难于上青天」的艰险。「羁危」，写羁旅危困——「羁」写羁旅，「危」写危困，「羁危万里身」写身在万里之外、羁旅危困。「乱山残雪夜」，写乱山残雪之夜——蜀中多山，残雪未消，正是除夜的寒冬之景，「乱山」写山之连绵，「残雪」写雪之未消。「孤灯」，写孤灯——「孤灯」写一盏孤灯，正是异乡人的孤寂，「孤灯」与「异乡人」相连，正是「孤灯寒照雨」的羁旅意象。「骨肉」，写骨肉亲人——「骨肉」本指骨与肉，后以「骨肉」写至亲，杜甫「烽火连三月，家书抵万金」正是「骨肉」之思。「岁华」，写岁时的光华——「岁华」写一年的时光，「来日岁华新」写明日岁华更新，正是除夜的辞旧迎新。这些意象，或写三巴、或写羁危、或写乱山残雪、或写孤灯、或写骨肉、或写岁华，皆围绕除夜羁旅与思亲漂泊这一核心，织成一张苍凉的情网，正是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的特点。

Commentary

The couplet everyone remembers is 'Little by little I drift from my own flesh and blood; I turn instead to my servants for closeness.' What makes it hurt is that it states no tragedy: no death, no war, only the slow chemistry of distance, in which the familiar becomes strange and the paid become near. Critics have always read the poem as the finest of the New Year's Eve travel lyrics, worth ranking with Gao Shi's 'Written on New Year's Eve' ('In the inn a cold lamp keeps me from sleep... tonight my hometown thinks of me a thousand li away'). Where Gao Shi writes homesickness, Meng Haoran writes the exile's deeper shame — the altered shape of the heart. The ending's turn, 'how can I bear it — still drifting; tomorrow the year is renewed,' welds private grief to the universal festival: for one night in the year the whole country is warm, and the poem leaves its poet outside the light of every lamp.

读此诗，最值得注意的是「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」所写出的「羁旅日久的心酸」。那除夜之夜，诗人羁旅在三巴之路：乱山残雪，孤灯异乡。而最令人心酸的，不是旅途的艰险，不是除夜的孤寂，而是「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」——渐渐与骨肉疏远，反而与奴仆亲近。这一联，是全诗的关键：那「渐」字，写离家日久，与亲人渐渐疏远；那「转」字，写异乡日久，反而与随行的奴仆亲近。这亲疏的转变，正是羁旅之人的切肤之痛——不是不爱骨肉，而是「渐远」的无奈；不是真爱奴仆，而是「转亲」的心酸。那「与骨肉远」，写尽异乡人的孤独；那「于奴仆亲」，更写尽异乡人的辛酸——身边最亲近的人，竟成了随行的奴仆。而到了尾联，「那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新」——那堪正在漂泊之中，明日却是新年。这「那堪」，是全诗情感的爆发：漂泊之人，最怕佳节；除夜之时，正是「每逢佳节倍思亲」。那「来日岁华新」，是辞旧迎新的欢庆，也是漂泊之人「年复一年」的感慨——岁华更新，而漂泊依旧。全诗以除夜羁旅写思亲漂泊，对仗工整、层层递进，那「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」的对照，那「那堪正飘泊」的感慨，写尽了异乡游子的除夜心声，正是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的深衷。

Prosody

Form Five-character regulated verse (wulü): eight lines in four couplets, the middle two couplets in strict parallelism诗（五言律诗）

Rhyme The rhyme words are shen (body), ren (man), qin (kin) and xin (new), all level-tone words in the zhen rhyme group (shang ping 11) of the pingshui system, one rhyme throughout. The zhen rhyme's drawn-out, murmuring vowel suits the poem's low, brooding tone; the first line ends on lu (road), which does not rhyme, the common rule for a regulated verse opening.此诗为五言律诗，押平声「真」部韵，「身」「人」「亲」「新」等字皆属上平十一真韵，韵脚悠长而绵长，正合诗情「除夜羁旅」的声调。首联「迢递三巴路，羁危万里身」以「三巴路」「万里身」相对，工对而见羁旅；颔联「乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人」，以「乱山残雪」「孤灯异乡」相对，工对而见孤寂；颈联「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」，以「渐与」「转于」相对，工对而见心酸；尾联「那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新」，以「那堪」「岁华新」收束，写感慨。整体声调由首联的羁旅，到尾联的感慨，悠长而含悲，正合除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的诗情。

Tone pattern The tonal patterns follow the standard five-character lüshi scheme: 'tiao di san ba lu' runs level oblique level level oblique, answered by 'ji wei wan li shen' in level level oblique oblique level; 'luan shan can xue ye' (oblique level level oblique oblique) pairs with 'gu deng yi xiang ren' (level level oblique level level). The third couplet 'jian yu gu rou yuan' pushes five oblique syllables in a row — a famous irregularity tolerated in Meng Haoran's practice, its pile-up of hard sounds dragging like the slow drift away from family — answered by 'zhuan yu nu pu qin' (oblique level level oblique level). The close 'na kan zheng piao bo' (oblique level oblique level oblique) turns on the question, and 'lai ri sui hua xin' (level oblique oblique level level) settles into the even cadence of a new year's announcement.句式上，此诗善用对仗与虚字：「迢递三巴路，羁危万里身」，以「三巴路」对「万里身」，一路一身，对仗精工；「乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人」，以「乱山残雪」对「孤灯异乡」，一景一人，对仗整饬而见孤寂；「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」，以「渐与」「转于」写亲疏之变，对仗精工而见心酸；「那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新」，以「那堪」写不堪，「岁华新」写新年，转折而见感慨。全诗由写景入写身、由写身入写情、由写情入感慨，对仗整饬而句法多变，正是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的节奏美学。

Reading note The poem's sound is deliberately subdued: one held nasal rhyme from beginning to end, no tonal fireworks, as if the poet were speaking quietly on the one night when speech is dangerous. The strict middle parallelism gives the poem its skeleton — road against body, scene against person, kin against servant — so that each couplet turns from outer fact to inner condition. The third couplet's five-oblique opening line is a celebrated fault: the pile-up of hard consonants drags, enacting the slow drift away from family. The final couplet turns on 'how can I bear,' and the last line settles into level oblique oblique level level — a new year announced in the very cadence of everyone else's celebration, heard from outside.作为盛唐五律，《岁除夜有怀》的声律之美，在于以悠长的真韵与精工的对仗，写出除夜羁旅的思亲漂泊情思。全诗首联「迢递三巴路，羁危万里身」以三巴路、万里身写羁旅之远之困，一路一身；颔联「乱山残雪夜，孤灯异乡人」以乱山残雪、孤灯异乡写除夜的孤寂，一景一人；颈联「渐与骨肉远，转于奴仆亲」以骨肉渐远、奴仆转亲写羁旅日久的心酸，亲疏之变；尾联「那堪正飘泊，来日岁华新」以那堪飘泊、岁华更新写除夜的感慨，不堪与期许。全诗由写景入写身、由写身入写情、由写情入感慨，层层递进而声情相谐，正是除夜诗「羁旅思亲」的体现。就全诗而言，此诗以除夜羁旅写思亲漂泊，对仗工整、层层递进，是除夜诗的名篇，与高适《除夜作》同为除夜羁旅之作，而一写「故乡今夜思千里」的思乡，一写「渐与骨肉远」的思亲，可见「除夜」这一母题在盛唐的两种情调，也可见异乡游子除夜思亲的永恒心声。

Line by line

乱山残雪夜

A night of tumbled mountains and lingering snow.

乱山残雪之夜。

Wild hills, the night of the last snow,

这一句写除夜的乱山残雪之景，是此诗除夜意象的核心。「乱山」，写连绵的群山——蜀中多山，群山连绵，「乱山」写山之连绵起伏；「残雪夜」，写残雪之夜——蜀地残雪未消，正是除夜的寒冬之景。以「乱山残雪夜」写除夜之景，比直写「除夜」更见画面与凄凉——那乱山之中，残雪未消，正是除夜的孤寂背景；「乱」「残」二字，写山之乱、雪之残，正是冬夜的萧瑟。这一句，是此诗除夜意象的核心，与「孤灯异乡人」相对，一景一人，正是除夜的孤寂——那乱山残雪之夜，正是孤灯异乡之人的背景，那「乱」与「残」，正是羁旅之人的心境写照。

This line writes the New Year's Eve scene of wild hills and last snow, the core of the poem's New Year's Eve imagery. 'Wild hills' — the rolling mountains; Shu is mountainous, the range on range, 'wild' the rolling and rising of the hills; 'the night of the last snow' — the night of the last snow, Shu's last snow not yet gone, precisely the New Year's Eve's cold scene. Writing the New Year's Eve scene through 'wild hills, the night of the last snow', the picture and the desolation the more than a plain 'New Year's Eve' — amid the wild hills, the last snow not gone, precisely the lonely background of the New Year's Eve; the words 'wild' and 'last' the hills' wildness, the snow's ending, precisely the winter night's bleakness. This line is the core of the New Year's Eve imagery, set against 'a lone lamp, a man in a strange land', one scene one man, precisely the New Year's Eve's loneliness — the night of wild hills and last snow, precisely the background of the lone lamp's stranger, and the 'wild' and 'last' precisely the portrait of the traveler's mood.

孤灯异乡人

A lone lamp — a stranger in a foreign land.

孤灯之下的异乡之人。

a lone lamp, a man in a strange land.

这一句写孤灯之下的异乡之人，是此诗羁旅孤寂的核心。「孤灯」，写一盏孤灯——那异乡的夜，只有一盏孤灯相伴，「孤」写灯之孤，也写人之孤；「异乡人」，写异乡之人——身在异乡，正是诗人自己。以「孤灯异乡人」写羁旅，比直写「漂泊」更见画面与孤寂——那孤灯之下，异乡之人独坐，正是除夜的孤寂；「孤灯」与「异乡人」相连，一物一人，正是「孤灯寒照雨」的羁旅意象。这一句，是此诗羁旅孤寂的核心，与「乱山残雪夜」相对，一景一人，正是除夜的孤寂——那乱山残雪之夜，孤灯异乡之人，写尽了异乡游子的除夜孤寂。

This line writes the man in a strange land beneath the lone lamp, the core of the poem's traveler's loneliness. 'A lone lamp' — one lone lamp; the stranger's night, only one lone lamp for company, 'lone' the lamp's loneliness, and the man's loneliness; 'a man in a strange land' — the man in a strange land, in the strange land, precisely the poet himself. Writing the travel through 'a lone lamp, a man in a strange land', the picture and the loneliness the more than a plain 'drifting' — beneath the lone lamp, the stranger sitting alone, precisely the New Year's Eve's loneliness; 'a lone lamp' and 'a man in a strange land' linked, one thing one man, precisely the traveler's imagery. This line is the core of the traveler's loneliness, set against 'wild hills, the night of the last snow', one scene one man, precisely the New Year's Eve's loneliness — the night of wild hills and last snow, the lone lamp's stranger, writing to the full the stranger's New Year's Eve loneliness.

渐与骨肉远

Little by little I drift from my own flesh and blood.

渐渐与骨肉疏远。

By degrees, far from my flesh and blood.

这一句写渐渐与亲人疏远，是此诗思亲心酸的关键。「渐与」，写渐渐与——「渐」写渐渐、日积月累，那与骨肉的疏远，不是一日之变，而是日久天长的疏离；「骨肉远」，写骨肉疏远——「骨肉」写至亲，「远」写疏远，正是离家日久、与亲人渐疏的无奈。以「渐与骨肉远」写思亲，比直写「思念」更见心酸与无奈——不是不爱骨肉，而是「渐远」的无奈，正是羁旅之人的切肤之痛；「渐」字，写疏远之渐进，正是「日久」的写照。这一句，是此诗思亲心酸的关键，与「转于奴仆亲」相对，一远一近，正是亲疏的转变——那渐远的骨肉，那转亲的奴仆，写尽了异乡之人的孤独与辛酸。

This line writes the gradual distance from the kin, the key of the poem's homesickness. 'By degrees' — 'by degrees' means little by little, day by day; the distance from the flesh and blood is not a day's change, but the long days' estrangement; 'far from my flesh and blood' — 'flesh and blood' the nearest kin, 'far' the estrangement, precisely the helplessness of the long-absence and the gradual estrangement. Writing the homesickness through 'by degrees, far from my flesh and blood', the grief and helplessness the more than a plain 'longing' — not that he loves not his kin, but the helplessness of the 'gradual distance', precisely the traveler's piercing pain; the word 'by degrees' the gradualness of the estrangement, precisely the portrait of the long days. This line is the key of the homesickness, set against 'by turns, closer to the servants and slaves', one far one near, precisely the turn of the near and far — the flesh and blood gradually distant, the slaves by turns closer, writing to the full the stranger's loneliness and bitterness.

Study

Word focus

羁危 'Jiwei' joins 'to sojourn' with 'peril': the body of a man ten thousand li from home, without office or roof, on the famously hard road to the Three Ba. Where 'to drift' says rootlessness, 'peril' adds danger — the two words together compress a whole wandering life into the self of one New Year's Eve. 「羁危万里身」之「羁危」，写羁旅危困，是此诗身世意象的核心语。「羁危」即羁旅危困——「羁」写羁旅，「危」写危困，「羁危」写身在旅途的危困；「羁危万里身」，写羁危的万里之身——身在万里之外，羁旅危困。以「羁危」写身世，比直写「漂泊」更见危困与艰险——那「羁危」，写羁旅之困，正是「蜀道之难」的艰险；「万里身」三字，写身在万里之外，正是「离家万里」的写照。这一词，是此诗身世意象的核心，与「三巴路」相对，一路一身，正是羁旅的写照——那迢递的三巴路，正是羁危的万里身所行之途，那「羁危」的危困，正是除夜漂泊的深衷。

骨肉 'Gurou' (flesh and blood) is the classical term for one's nearest kin — the phrase Du Fu uses when a letter from home is worth ten thousand in gold. Used here of family from which the poet is slowly 'drifting,' it makes the separation physical, as if the ties were fibers being stretched thin by distance. 「渐与骨肉远」之「骨肉」，写至亲，是此诗思亲意象的核心语。「骨肉」本指骨与肉——后以「骨肉」写至亲，杜甫「烽火连三月，家书抵万金」正是「骨肉」之思；「渐与骨肉远」，写渐渐与骨肉疏远。以「骨肉」写亲人，比直写「亲人」更见亲密与痛切——那骨肉，是与生俱来的至亲，如今却渐渐疏远，正是羁旅之人的切肤之痛；「渐与」二字，写疏远之渐进，正是「日久」的写照。这一词，是此诗思亲意象的核心，与「奴仆亲」相对，一亲一疏，正是亲疏的转变——那渐远的骨肉，正是异乡之人的孤独之源，那「骨肉远」的痛，正是除夜思亲的深衷。

飘泊 'Piaobo' (to drift and moor) means to wander without a fixed anchorage — 'drift' for rootlessness, 'moor' for the pauses that are never rest. With 'how can I bear' before it, it voices the wanderer's particular dread of festivals: at New Year's Eve, when every household gathers, the drifting man knows his drifting will simply continue into the new year. 「那堪正飘泊」之「飘泊」，写漂泊，是此诗身世感慨的核心语。「飘泊」即漂泊不定——「飘」写飘零，「泊」写停泊，「飘泊」写行踪不定、漂泊无依；「那堪正飘泊」，写那堪正在漂泊之中。以「飘泊」写身世，比直写「羁旅」更见无依与漂泊——那「飘泊」，写漂泊无依，正是除夜之人的写照；「那堪」二字，写不堪，正是漂泊之人最怕佳节的心情——除夜之时，正是「每逢佳节倍思亲」。这一词，是此诗身世感慨的核心，与「来日岁华新」相连，一写漂泊之不堪，一写新年之将临——岁华更新，而漂泊依旧，正是除夜羁旅的深衷。